Lead magnets with the best conversion rates.
A Content Upgrade is a lead magnet that is paired with a specific blog post.
In this webinar we teach you how to make your own content upgrades so you can maximize conversion rates.
00:00
oK we've got more and more people
00:02
joining so we're just were slightly
00:05
after the time so I think I'm conscious
00:08
of your guys time everyone that's here
00:10
already I don't want to waste too much
00:13
of your time so I'm just gonna get
00:14
started actually and so we've confirmed
00:18
that you guys can see in the screen so
00:20
I'm just gonna jump in so today I'm
00:24
gonna be talking about how to implement
00:25
a Content upgrade strategy I'm also
00:28
going to throw in some advanced beacon
00:30
tips and tricks along the way but
00:33
generally the purpose of today's webinar
00:35
is to help you guys to generate more
00:38
leads for your business with a content
00:40
upgrade strategy so it's gonna take is
00:44
round about in a heart today so I've
00:46
scheduled out an hour some of that time
00:50
will be spent on the more theoretical
00:51
side of content upgrades but most of the
00:55
session today will be more practical
00:56
tips and tricks to help you guys to
00:59
implement the strategy more effectively
01:02
I'm gonna leave some time for questions
01:04
at the end of the session but that being
01:07
said if you do have any questions as we
01:09
progress through the webinar feel free
01:12
to just ping me in the chat
01:13
I'll stop what I'm doing if I see the
01:15
questions and answer them right away if
01:18
I don't see them at the time don't worry
01:19
I will definitely circle back on all of
01:22
them at the end of the session and I'm
01:25
speaking at the end of the session we
01:26
have some exclusive bonuses that we've
01:29
prepared for you guys and my big fear of
01:32
putting on these webinars is that nobody
01:34
will turn up so the fact that you guys
01:36
are here you're participating and we're
01:39
already off to a good start so thank you
01:42
for participating I've put together some
01:44
exclusive bonuses that are only
01:46
available to you guys and that are
01:47
attending the webinar and I'll give you
01:49
some details about those at the end of
01:51
the session and if you can't stick
01:54
around for the entirety of this session
01:56
and don't worry the webinar is being
01:58
recorded so if you've registered from
02:00
the webinar I will be sending out a link
02:02
to the recording and probably tomorrow
02:04
and but of course if you have any
02:06
questions is probably best to
02:08
participate in the live session so I can
02:11
interact with you and
02:12
life rather than fighting email but yeah
02:15
enough of the host keep and stuff I
02:16
should probably actually give you a
02:18
little bit of background about me my
02:20
name is Kevin McGraw I'm not sure if I
02:22
mentioned that and I'm one of the
02:24
co-founders here at beacon and I'm also
02:26
the CEO so my background is it's in
02:30
design I studied design at university
02:33
and I ran web design and web development
02:37
agency for about six years and so we ran
02:40
that we had a lot of fun and then we
02:42
decided to focus more of our attention
02:43
on beacon so after we launched speaking
02:47
much more of my role has become focused
02:49
on marketing and growing the business so
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I know most of you guys are either
02:54
marketers or you're working at a small
02:57
business where marketing is part of your
03:00
responsibility probably amongst many
03:03
other things and so I know if you're
03:05
anything like me and we all share the
03:08
same goal when it comes to marketing and
03:10
that goal is lead generation we want to
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generate more leads for our business
03:15
that's you know the main purpose of
03:18
marketing sort of to boil at the end its
03:20
simplest it we want to generate more
03:22
leads for our business and the reason
03:24
that we want to do that is because most
03:26
people don't buy from a business on
03:28
their first interaction with them
03:30
especially these days and the internet
03:33
aids that we're living in people like to
03:35
do research before they make a purchase
03:37
now this is true for small consumer
03:40
purchases like a pair of shoes people do
03:43
the research and they might could have
03:45
lots of different websites to compare
03:46
prices to compared and shipping rates
03:49
things like that if they're buying a
03:50
pair of shoes but this is even more true
03:53
if you're buying making big purchases
03:55
for your business so if you're spending
03:58
thousands or tens of thousands of
03:59
dollars on a purchase for your business
04:02
you want to make sure that you get it
04:03
right so that's why you do your research
04:05
and when you're doing your research
04:07
you're trying to find out things like
04:08
has this company worked with another
04:10
business like mine can this company
04:13
offer a solution to the problem that I'm
04:15
facing these are all the questions that
04:17
you're trying to answer as you go about
04:19
doing your research but from a
04:22
marketer's point of view from our point
04:23
of view what we really want to do is we
04:26
want to help
04:26
with that research but we also want to
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be able to stay in touch with you
04:29
through the course of that research
04:31
because of course that research isn't
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going to take place in a single day it's
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probably going to take place over weeks
04:36
or months depending on the size of the
04:38
purchase so from a marketers point of
04:41
view we want your email address so that
04:43
we can stay in touch with you throughout
04:45
that buying journey and so we want lots
04:49
of email addresses right we want lots of
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leads we want more and more leads but at
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the same time we want good leads we want
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leads and email addresses of people who
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are likely to buy from us in the future
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so there's no point in saying that I
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have an email list with twenty or thirty
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thousand people on it if those people
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are never gonna buy from you then
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they're not good leads it's a waste of
05:12
your time and energy to market to these
05:14
people
05:14
so yes we want more leads but of course
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we want better leads at the same time so
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in order to get email addresses
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marketers have been doing this for
05:26
decades if you give somebody something
05:29
of value in exchange for their email
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address they're more likely to give it
05:33
to you so if you think about it if you
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walk up to a stranger and say hey can I
05:38
have your email address they're gonna
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say no get away from me absolute weirdo
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and because that's generally because
05:45
people that when you're given ID or your
05:48
email address is precious to you you're
05:50
not just gonna give it away if there's
05:51
nothing in it for you
05:52
so what marketers have been doing and
05:55
because we're smart phones is we give
05:57
them something like an e-book in
06:00
exchange for their email address now
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this this is a landing page of like any
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other landing page on you see on the
06:10
internet the landing page offers an
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e-book you can see in the center of the
06:14
screen and then it asks for the readers
06:17
contact information to the right and the
06:21
theory here is good and this ebook
06:24
probably contains lots of good
06:25
information and it's 92 pages long it's
06:28
gonna take you an hour to read it so it
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better include good information and so
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if you want this information give us
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your name give us your email address now
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that's that's pretty good in theory that
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you know that
06:40
absolute sense and this is a strategy
06:42
that does work and so when people offer
06:45
ebooks they typically do it on a landing
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page so they have a dedicated landing
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page and they're offering the prospect a
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lead magnet I'm not sure if everyone's
06:56
familiar with the phrase lead magnet but
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it essentially means a downloadable
07:01
piece of content like an e-book or a
07:03
white paper and something that's
07:07
basically information based that you're
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giving your prospects to help nurture
07:11
their journey to becoming a customer now
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there's two parts of this strategy the
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landing page and the lead magnet itself
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now I have a bit of a problem with this
07:23
strategy and I want to tell you why the
07:26
lead magnet strategy is flawed I'm not
07:29
saying that it's it's a disaster and it
07:31
will never work but I do believe that
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the lead magnet strategy at the moment
07:35
is flawed basically if you're putting a
07:39
lead magnet up on a landing page you're
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going to have to spend a lot of time
07:43
preparing the content for that lead
07:45
magnet if you're putting together a
07:47
dedicated landing page the lead magnet
07:49
is gonna have to be pretty impressive so
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if you think in terms of ebooks or white
07:54
papers it's gonna have to be quite long
07:56
we saw in the previous example the
07:58
e-book was a hundred pages so you're
08:00
gonna have to put together an e-book
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it's a hundred pages long can you just
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think of it the time spent creating that
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content editing that content packaging
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the content up into the eBook format
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that's a lot of work for you to do on
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top of that if you're presenting this
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lead magnet on a dedicated landing page
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that's a new pedes on your website but
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you're going to have to start driving
08:23
traffic towards so you're not having the
08:26
benefit of say like a blog post which is
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already getting organic traffic you're
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gonna have to come up with a new traffic
08:32
acquisition strategy in order to drive
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customers to the page once you get them
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to the page you're gonna have to start
08:40
warming them up to this idea of an ebook
08:42
why should they download an e-book
08:44
what's the benefit of it to them so once
08:47
they the prospect comes to your page
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you're essentially starting from scratch
08:52
another problem that we find with these
08:54
large lead magnets is that you try to
08:56
appeal to everyone I'm sure you guys are
08:59
all familiar with various different
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customer personas in various different
09:05
stages of the buying lifecycle so say if
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you have three or four different
09:09
customer personas all with their own
09:11
individual needs and problems that they
09:13
want you to solve and each one of these
09:16
prospects and personas might be at a
09:19
different stage in the bang's process
09:21
some may have never heard of your
09:23
company others may be very familiar with
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what you do just need a general gentle
09:27
nudge so how can you possibly put
09:30
together a single lead magnet that
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appeals to everybody that you could
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potentially sail to I think it's
09:38
impossible to be almost it can't be done
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on top of that and ebooks aren't the new
09:44
kid on the block anymore
09:45
they've been around for a while now and
09:47
as we do as marketers we tend to overdo
09:51
these strategies once we see a bit of
09:53
success for them a little bit that I can
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go sort of to different web pages
09:57
without seeing another free ebook that's
10:00
being downloaded and to be honest people
10:02
have become jaded by the whole ebook
10:05
strategy whenever I see any book my
10:07
general reaction is another ebook that
10:11
I'm gonna download I'm probably not
10:13
gonna read it because you know it's 92
10:16
pages long it's gonna take me an artery
10:18
and it's ultimately just gonna sit
10:20
gathering dust and another folder on my
10:22
computer I actually have a folder it was
10:25
just a books that I haven't read every
10:27
time I brought his past that folder in
10:29
my computer finder I just feel really
10:31
guilty I feel guilty that I haven't
10:33
liked taking the time to read these
10:36
ebooks and it's not that I don't want to
10:38
read them it's just that I just don't
10:41
have the time I know I work hard during
10:43
the day I spend time with my family in
10:46
the evening I don't want to spend my
10:47
evenings reading and ebooks from other
10:50
marketers it's it's just the way it is
10:52
and I think a lot of people feel like
10:54
that as well at the minute but don't
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worry there is a solution to the jaded
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lead magnet strategy and that's
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basically what I want to go over with
11:04
you guys today
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so the solution that we've seen around
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the internet and that's been having
11:08
really great results it's the content
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upgrade strategy now content upgrade up
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if I could even say it the content
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upgrade is a targeted resource for
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individual blog posts so instead of
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having a dedicated landing page for a
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big ebook type resource it's just a
11:27
bonus offered as part of a blog post so
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let's see that in action let's take a
11:34
quick drink of water so this is a
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website called backlinko
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if you're not familiar with the site
11:44
it's run by a guy called brian dean my
11:46
brian is a super smart search engine
11:49
optimization expert he writes about
11:51
everything to do with SEO and he's built
11:55
this blog up over the years you can see
11:56
this article itself is twelve thousand
11:59
shares um you know this guy knows how to
12:01
produce good content but you see if you
12:04
scrolled I'm about halfway down the page
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and there's this yellow box so this
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yellow box is embedded just in the
12:12
center of the blog post well actually
12:15
it's just after the introduction so it's
12:16
near the start of the blog post and if
12:19
you can't read that text it says free
12:21
bonus click here to get access to a free
12:24
PDF checklist which usually hard to
12:26
execute all of the 17 techniques from
12:29
this post and the checklist also
12:31
includes two bonus strategies now if you
12:36
were to click on that box you would get
12:38
a pop-up like this that's asking for
12:40
your email address and if you enter your
12:43
email address you could send a PDF that
12:46
looks like this and if essentially am a
12:49
short checklist
12:50
I think this checklist is about two or
12:52
three pages long and it contains these
12:54
17 SEO copywriting copywriting secrets
12:58
now when Brian added this little yellow
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box so it's just this small yellow box
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when he added that to his this blog post
13:07
he saw eight times more leads than when
13:10
before he implemented this strategy so
13:14
if you think about it the article was
13:16
already there was already performing
13:18
well
13:19
he added this one technique and it
13:21
generated him eight times more leads and
13:23
if he had done nothing at all
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so like when you see results like that
13:28
it just makes me think like what other
13:30
opportunities are we missing out on by
13:32
not implementing something small so
13:36
that's what a Content upgrade is really
13:38
a Content upgrade is a short actionable
13:41
download so it's not your hundred page
13:44
ebook it's a one-page checklist or a two
13:46
page resource guide more than that a
13:49
Content upgrade builds on the subject of
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a blog post so if we go back to Brian's
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blog post you can see that the title of
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the blog post is SEO copywriting 17
14:00
powerful secrets and the free bonus that
14:03
is given away it's a checklist that
14:05
shows you how to execute all the
14:07
techniques from the post so the blog
14:09
post is the theory and the free bonus is
14:12
the practical application of that theory
14:15
so it's like a 2 + 1 prospect nurturing
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dream you're educating people with your
14:22
blog posts they're already interested in
14:24
the blog post they're reading it then
14:25
you're helping them to implement the
14:27
advice from the blog post with your
14:28
download it's it's such a simple
14:31
strategy and that's why it's so
14:32
effective um so as we saw in Brian's
14:36
example his blog is already getting
14:37
traffic what he's doing is he's just
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capitalizing on that existing traffic
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also because he knows that a certain
14:45
type of people will read that blog post
14:47
that he wrote know after all the blog
14:49
post is typically targeted towards a
14:52
specific persona at a specific stage in
14:55
the buying cycle so he can be very
14:57
targeted about anyone who downloaded
14:59
that content upgrade he knows right
15:02
I can segment them as a copywriter
15:05
that's interested in SEO so when he has
15:07
that extra information he's more likely
15:10
to sale and market to them more
15:12
appropriately in the future so they're
15:14
more likely to purchase his premium
15:15
products from him and most importantly I
15:19
think this content upgrade strategy
15:21
results in a high conversion rates so
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your conversion rate is essentially the
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percentage of people that come to your
15:29
blog post give you their email address
15:32
so if you have a hundred people come to
15:34
your blog post and can of them give you
15:36
their email address your conversion rate
15:38
is 10 percent the higher your conversion
15:42
rate the more efficiently you're using
15:44
your traffic and the more efficiently
15:46
you use your traffic it means that the
15:48
less resources time and money you have
15:51
to spend on driving more traffic to your
15:54
blog posts so optimizing for conversion
15:56
rates is the simplest thing that you can
15:59
do to generate more leads without
16:01
spending more money so that's how Brian
16:04
did it but I want to show you a few
16:05
other examples too this example is from
16:09
a software company called wish bond and
16:12
wisp on did something really similar to
16:15
Brian
16:15
they wrote a blog post with great
16:17
educational content in it and then about
16:20
half way down the page they included
16:22
this call to action the yellow box says
16:25
free checklist download a free five step
16:28
checklist to optimize your sales funnel
16:31
using conversion psychology plus two
16:33
bonus factors not included in this post
16:36
it's the same thing that Brian did
16:38
you're taking a post that was performing
16:41
well and giving their readers a reason
16:44
to download an actionable piece of
16:48
content that can help them implement the
16:50
strategy so the readers happy they're
16:52
getting something that helps them and
16:54
the wishbone guys are happy because
16:56
they're getting an email address they're
16:57
getting more leads
16:58
when wishpond did made this change they
17:01
generated sixteen times more leads than
17:05
before they added a content upgrade to
17:07
this article now I just want to stop a
17:10
wee minute
17:10
and let that sink in they had a blog
17:13
post they made one simple change and it
17:16
resulted in sixteen times more leads for
17:19
their business and these are leads that
17:21
will keep common because a blog post
17:23
keeps generating traffic and people will
17:29
keep reading the content and people
17:31
people will keep being attracted to the
17:34
free bonus that people are offering
17:35
people will keep opting into it it's a
17:38
lifelong evergreen strategy and so
17:41
here's another example this one is from
17:44
another software a company called
17:46
groove groove may help desk software
17:49
this article has got some content
17:52
marketing email scripts so they're
17:54
telling people how to write emails that
17:57
help them with their content marketing
17:58
and you'll see instead of the yellow box
18:01
the groove guys did this blue box at the
18:04
bottom of the screen and it says join
18:06
our newsletter and get all 17 scripts
18:09
free in PDF format so it's the exact
18:12
same strategy educate people with the
18:14
article help them to execute on the
18:17
education with the free download so this
18:22
strategy as well I know for groove that
18:24
resulted in I think a five times
18:26
increase in leads when they when they
18:30
use the content upgrade strategy so
18:32
again a simple change and five times
18:35
more leads so why are these guys seeing
18:38
such big results from what's effectively
18:41
a very simple strategy like why is this
18:43
working and we thought about it a lot
18:46
and we've done in some research and
18:47
basically it comes down to three things
18:49
they're offering something that's really
18:51
short to people and I'm sure I'm not the
18:55
only one here today that has a short
18:58
attention span and I know I definitely
19:00
have a short attention span so if I can
19:02
download something it's short I'm more
19:04
likely to do it then another 100 page
19:06
ebook that I'm just gonna ignore
19:09
guiltily let gather dust on my hard
19:11
drive the other reason why this works is
19:14
that it's useful you know these aren't
19:16
just some generic downloads that people
19:18
are offering they're directly related to
19:20
the blog post and it's helping them to
19:23
implement tactical practical advice so
19:26
you're helping me to get a little bit
19:27
further in the goals that I'm trying to
19:29
achieve and because the content upgrades
19:32
are being offered as part of a blog post
19:35
the readers are already engaged you know
19:37
if someone's reading your blog posts
19:39
they're engaged that's half the battle
19:41
is wrong the next part of the battle is
19:43
just convincing them that you can help
19:45
them further and thrown out with a
19:47
content upgrade and really does work
19:50
people are more likely to opt in when
19:52
they're already engaged
19:55
and so before we go to the next session
19:57
I just want to check in on the questions
20:01
okay so with a question from Fred our
20:04
results better with a box like that
20:06
versus an opt-in form from an
20:07
autoresponder you use convertkit okay so
20:12
a box like this I presume you're
20:15
referring to our results better with a
20:18
box like that versus an opt-in form
20:20
yeah auto auto responders are good and
20:29
you know that's I'm trying to think of
20:32
the yellow box that Brian used yes
20:35
definitely the results from a box like
20:39
this is much better if you'll notice
20:41
that the box and sits within the main
20:44
flow of the blog post it's um you're not
20:48
asking people to divert their attention
20:49
from the post
20:50
you think it's part of the actual post
20:53
so they're more likely to just continue
20:55
reading whereas if you have a pop-up
20:57
down in the bottom right hand corner
20:59
people have almost trained themselves to
21:01
ignore anything that sort of pops up as
21:04
they scroll and so if you can include
21:06
your call to action within the main flow
21:09
of the blog post you're gonna see better
21:11
results so yeah that that's a good
21:13
question and definitely I would say to
21:16
use the inline forms so just a quick
21:23
clarification from Fred on the question
21:25
he says that his forms are inline in the
21:27
content like this just not a linked box
21:30
okay so what Fred is saying is that the
21:33
opt-in form with asking for the email
21:35
address appears right here um where is
21:39
in Brian's strategy you need to click to
21:41
see the opt-in form so actually
21:44
leadpages did some research into this
21:46
and they say that the two-stage up to
21:49
the two-stage call-to-action is more
21:51
effective than the single stage one so
21:54
Fred you're offering a single stage
21:56
opt-in box
21:58
um and what you'll find is that people
22:00
if people see that you're asking for
22:03
their details and that'll be signaled
22:05
with an email box like an imp
22:08
form people will ignore it they'll just
22:10
go over it so I'll try and dig out the
22:14
research but leadpages did a lot of
22:15
research into this and they were very
22:17
conclusive in saying a two-stage opt-in
22:20
forms convert better so that helps
22:25
all right so let's jump back down and so
22:30
be on before we move on to the next
22:32
stage um I just want to recap so what's
22:36
the difference between a content upgrade
22:38
and a lead magnet so basically a content
22:42
upgrade is embedded within a blog post
22:44
where as a lead magnet has a dedicated
22:47
landing page a Content upgrade builds on
22:50
the content of a blog post a lead magnet
22:53
and relies on standalone content content
22:57
upgrades are short lead magnets are
22:59
usually much longer content upgrades
23:03
contain actionable content lead magnets
23:05
are generally more educational
23:07
especially if you think of things like
23:09
ebooks and white papers it's educational
23:11
content there's not much that the reader
23:13
can actually do with it and so content
23:17
upgrades use existing traffic lead
23:19
magnets require you to drive new traffic
23:22
to the page with content upgrades your
23:25
prospect is nurtured by a blog post but
23:27
with a lead magnet your prospect
23:29
effectively needs convinced by the
23:31
landing page on the land there so
23:34
content upgrades have high conversion
23:36
rates typically lead magnets have lower
23:39
conversion rates and that's basically
23:41
because of all these different factors
23:43
and the prospect being nurtured by the
23:45
blog post fact that you're getting more
23:47
traffic more qualified traffic that all
23:49
leads to high conversion rates so with
23:54
all that in mind what I am saying to you
23:57
is that content upgrades should become
23:59
part of your blogging routine so every
24:03
time that you create a content upgrade
24:05
or every time that you write a blog post
24:07
you should be creating a content upgrade
24:10
to go along with it
24:12
so your blogging strategy probably looks
24:16
something like this when you're putting
24:18
together a blog post you do some
24:19
research you write the blog post you
24:22
probably optimize the post for search
24:24
engines and then you hit the publish
24:26
button what I'm proposing is that you
24:28
add an extra step into that process so
24:32
you'll still do your research you'll
24:34
obviously still write the blog post
24:35
optimize it for search
24:37
but before you click publish you should
24:40
create a Content upgrade and offer it in
24:42
line with the blog post no I know what
24:46
you're thinking
24:49
you've got me onto this webinar just the
24:52
townie that I need to do more work here
24:56
yeah but bear with me it is slightly
24:59
more work but the results I think speak
25:02
for themselves were seeing 16 times more
25:04
leads it times more leads five times
25:05
more leads it's slightly more work but
25:08
the whole purpose of this webinar is I
25:11
want to show you how we can create these
25:14
content upgrades without having to spend
25:19
a lot of your time and Michael says that
25:22
he loves the coffee mug I know I just
25:23
googled this image and I got it I have
25:25
to get this coffee mug though I get this
25:27
it sums up my mood in the morning before
25:29
I get the coffee um but yes sorry so big
25:32
and can help to speed up the content
25:34
upgrade strategy for you and that's what
25:36
I want to show you today I want to show
25:38
you these time-saving tips so that you
25:41
can implement content upgrades into your
25:43
blog posts quickly so you can start
25:46
seeing 16 X mornings it X more leads
25:49
without having to spend lots of time and
25:53
lots of money to do that so I've got a
25:56
few tricks that I'm going to show you
25:57
the first one is I'm going to show you
25:58
how to set up brand colors I think this
26:01
is the quickest probably the most
26:03
overlooked feature within beacon that I
26:05
think people can really benefit from I
26:07
also want to show you how you can create
26:09
a reusable content library so that you
26:12
can drop in pieces of content into any
26:14
content upgrade that you create in the
26:16
future and I also want to show you how
26:19
we can create a reusable template so
26:21
that people can are so that you guys can
26:24
create your branding and just keep
26:28
reusing it instead of having to work
26:30
from scratch every time alright so let
26:34
me see I'm just gonna switch into my
26:38
browser bear with me
26:41
so okay can everyone see that we're in
26:46
Beacon trying to locate my mice okay yes
26:54
can you see that we are in Beacon now if
26:58
you could just confirm in the chat that
26:59
you're seeing what I'm seeing that would
27:01
be great and actually while I'm working
27:05
through this feel free to have your own
27:09
Beacon account open and so you can
27:11
follow along with me all right so we've
27:14
got confirmation people can see the
27:15
screen perfect all right so this is the
27:18
normal beacon interface and what I've
27:22
done is I've created a workbook from one
27:24
of our standard templates so this
27:26
probably looks familiar to you and so
27:29
this is the laptop template if we go
27:31
through it we have a cover page we have
27:33
a short introduction and we have a
27:36
worksheet with some questions that
27:39
people can answer and if you're not
27:41
familiar with workbooks they're a really
27:43
great content upgrade because they are
27:46
really actionable content if you can
27:48
create a workbook that asks your users
27:50
questions and then prompts them to
27:52
answer the questions in their own time
27:54
it's almost like a like a school
27:56
exercise you're helping people to think
27:59
about strategic things and by working
28:01
through the process on their own so
28:03
worksheets and workbooks are great so
28:05
that's one worksheet page another
28:07
worksheet page a third worksheet and a
28:11
fourth worksheet and then the content
28:14
upgrade finishes with a call to action
28:18
so as you can see this whole workbook
28:22
kimmy contains sort of generic content
28:24
generic imagery and it's a generic color
28:27
scheme it's just sort of purple
28:29
throughout and so if you choose this
28:32
template for your content upgrade you go
28:34
through each page and you look at each
28:36
page and decide what you need to
28:38
customize for your business so the first
28:40
thing right you're gonna have to change
28:42
that logo and this the color of this
28:45
font isn't our brand color and so bacon
28:49
uses a green brand color so we'd have to
28:51
change that on the introduction page
28:54
again
28:55
I'm gonna have to change this purple
28:57
title this purple text again there's
29:02
what the titles in purple all these
29:04
boxes are in purple you know as you go
29:06
through the document there's 20 or 30
29:09
things that I'm gonna have to change in
29:11
here just to get the color scheme in
29:13
line with my brand so already that
29:17
that's probably like 120 minutes work
29:19
just to get the colors set up and the
29:21
way that you need to for your company
29:23
and so obviously that's that's not ideal
29:26
so 20 minutes is too long for basic
29:28
setup so I want to show you this trick
29:30
and it's buried a little bit under the
29:33
document settings so if you can see in
29:35
the fourth icon down in the left hand
29:37
side is document settings and once you
29:41
open that up you'll see this default
29:42
Styles panel
29:43
so if I click default Styles you'll
29:47
notice that every template within beacon
29:50
all of our standard templates have these
29:52
document template colors set up for you
29:55
and basically what that means is that if
29:58
you set up your template colors you can
30:00
then reuse them throughout the document
30:03
so for example if we go let's go back to
30:07
the cover page open up the default
30:11
styles so I know that this purple title
30:15
is a is one of our template colors that
30:19
were set up here so if I make the change
30:22
to our beacon green and I'll do that
30:25
here you'll notice that the color of the
30:30
text has been changed on the cover page
30:32
but not only that it's been changed on
30:36
every page throughout the document so
30:39
see that title text has changed every
30:42
time so previously I know what a lot of
30:44
people do is they go through and they
30:46
want to manually change the colors of
30:48
every piece of content within the
30:51
content up grid and but that's just
30:54
gonna take forever so if you do it once
30:55
with the default styles it'll update
30:58
throughout the whole document and I've
31:01
probably also noticed that the this
31:02
background didn't change
31:04
that's because the background there is
31:06
using template color too so again I'm
31:09
just going to change that to be our
31:14
brand green color I'm going to take the
31:16
opacity down so that we can we can see
31:21
the image behind it and the background
31:24
color of this button hasn't changed yet
31:26
and that's because that's using template
31:29
color one and so we can see template
31:32
color one is still purple so in order to
31:35
change that we're gonna have to go back
31:36
into our default Styles change template
31:40
color one and I'm gonna put in the
31:42
beacon brand color and that's it updated
31:45
nine so you can see that instead of sort
31:49
of taking 20 minutes to change all the
31:50
colors in the books in the workbook
31:53
we've pretty much just spent about 30
31:57
seconds a minute
31:58
and already we're off to a good start
32:00
our content upgrade is already starting
32:02
to look more and more like our own brand
32:06
so that is my first time saving trick
32:09
and that is how to set up template
32:11
colors in your own publications we've
32:19
got a
32:20
from Raquel Raquel says is there a color
32:24
that should be avoided when branding
32:26
typically not like it's really hard to
32:29
give a definitive answer on this and
32:31
should you avoid a specific color when
32:34
branding honestly no like I don't think
32:37
so like you've seen some gray plant
32:39
friends that are just black and white
32:41
and like apples brand is essentially
32:43
just gray and white um I guess I
32:46
generally try not to go for anything
32:48
that's too garish like so I don't really
32:51
like like really hot pinks and just
32:55
because I think they contrast with other
32:57
pieces of marketing information so I try
32:59
to go for something more subtle and so
33:02
like I didn't go for like a bright green
33:04
here we go for like a more sort of
33:05
subtle version of the green and see I
33:08
don't worry too much about about
33:10
avoiding specific colors when branding
33:12
and does anybody have any other
33:14
questions about the template colors and
33:17
before we move on okay no more questions
33:27
about the template colors so the next
33:29
time saving tip that I want to show you
33:31
guys is how to set up your own reusable
33:34
content library now what you'll probably
33:38
find when you start creating lots of
33:40
content upgrades is that you're going to
33:44
be reusing certain types of content in
33:46
every single content upgrade that you
33:48
make a one example of that would be an
33:51
about the author page I would generally
33:54
recommend whenever you create an upgrade
33:56
a content upgrade includes some
33:59
information about the author to give the
34:02
reader context about who prepared the
34:05
content upgrade you know why should they
34:07
trust you at the end of the day content
34:10
upgrades are designed to nurture
34:11
prospects into becoming qualified reads
34:14
qualified leads as you'd say so the more
34:18
that you can nurture them the more you
34:19
trust them but the more they trust you
34:20
and the more likely they will be to buy
34:22
from you so let's let's create and about
34:26
the author page for this book so I'm
34:28
going to do that yeah underneath the
34:30
pages tab the first tab I'm gonna click
34:32
the yellow and
34:34
you pH button and as you can see there's
34:37
absolutely dozens of types of pH here
34:39
but I'm specifically looking for a one
34:41
that's text focused so I'm just gonna
34:43
filter that and I'm gonna choose this
34:46
two column layout for our about the
34:51
author page so you can see that as soon
34:54
as I added that am page it took on the
34:59
brand color remember the green colors
35:01
that we already set up so I don't have
35:03
to redo that that's already done for
35:05
every new page that I add so again let's
35:07
see if it more time let's start to
35:09
customize this page 9 so that we can
35:13
include some information about the
35:16
author so let's change this text just
35:29
some generic information I also want to
35:32
include just an image it's always good
35:35
to show an image of the person who's
35:39
writing the content so we'll drag that
35:41
over I'm gonna change that image
35:45
I'm gonna upload it from my computer ok
35:53
so we have about the author I've got a
35:56
quick introduction there and then
35:59
typically you would use this space to
36:06
convince the reader but you know what
36:11
you're talking about
36:13
so obviously this should be much longer
36:16
than it is but I don't want to bore you
36:17
with me tonight so we're just gonna add
36:19
some dummy paragraphs and I think I also
36:23
want to add and some information about
36:26
like my social media like my I am
36:29
Twitter Facebook things like that so I'm
36:32
gonna drag on this strip
36:35
and within that strip I'm gonna add to
36:39
some text I'm gonna pull in a headline
36:42
as well so just move that headline above
36:46
it so in order to see that strip I'm
36:49
just going to hover over it you can see
36:51
this pink dotted line for the strip I'm
36:53
gonna click it and I'm going to change
36:55
the background color and you'll see
36:58
whenever I go to change the color of an
37:00
element my brand colors all appear at
37:02
the bottom so don't need to worry about
37:04
adding in the color code just gonna
37:07
select my default brand color now tweak
37:10
this slightly and then customize the
37:14
content of this I'm going quite fast
37:15
here because I don't want to I want to
37:18
show you the actual and the tricks here
37:20
rather than the sort of bare minimum so
37:22
put in Twitter link this book link I
37:28
don't know Instagram link so this is a
37:34
it's a fairly rough and ready example of
37:38
a typical about the author page so every
37:41
time I make a content upgrade I want to
37:43
include and about the author pH like
37:45
this but I don't want to have to go
37:46
through all those steps of you know
37:48
customizing the pH so instead what I'm
37:51
gonna do is I'm going to go to the pages
37:54
tab down on the left hand side so it's
37:56
the third button dine page settings
37:59
you'll see this option where it says
38:01
convert this page into a template I'm
38:04
just gonna click this button to convert
38:07
and I'm gonna call it am new you offer
38:10
with Kevin and I'm gonna see if that
38:14
template so you can see the template has
38:17
now been created
38:18
I'm gonna close this I just want to save
38:21
my progress and I'm gonna refresh the
38:26
page
38:32
and you'll see that when I next go to
38:35
add a new page from the pages tab if I
38:40
scroll right down to the very bottom
38:41
you'll see I have the option to insert
38:44
the peds the template that I just
38:46
created
38:47
now this template will be available on
38:49
every publication that I created from
38:52
now on so I can choose to add this
38:54
author page about me in every single one
38:58
so it's it's a really quick way of
39:02
including content that that needs to be
39:06
included on more than one content
39:07
upgrade so if you have say I can about
39:11
the company page about the author I
39:13
would strongly encourage you to create
39:15
page templates for these so that you can
39:18
build up a Content library that you can
39:20
reuse across multiple different content
39:23
upgrades so that is my second and
39:27
time-saving tip does anyone have any
39:30
questions about converting content into
39:33
converting pages into templates
39:40
all right no questions that's good to
39:44
know I'm not going through fast then
39:45
you're all able to keep up um so the
39:48
next actually yeah so the next piece
39:51
that I want to show you is how we can
39:52
convert an entire publication into a
39:56
reusable template so I showed you how
39:59
you can convert a appears into a
40:03
template and now I want to show you how
40:04
you can convert a document into a
40:06
template so if you look at this document
40:09
you know it has the cover page at the
40:11
start the call to action towards the end
40:15
and the abite the author actually I'll
40:18
just rename this so we can say believe
40:23
that extra one so yea this content
40:27
upgrade includes you know a cover page
40:30
like every lead magnet is gonna have a
40:32
cover page every lead magnet is gonna
40:33
have an introduction and every lead
40:36
magnet is gonna have an appoint the
40:37
author and it's going to finish up with
40:40
a Content upgrade so this is essentially
40:42
it's the foundation of every content
40:44
upgrade that we're gonna make from now
40:46
on so instead of having to go through
40:48
the process of setting up or brand
40:50
colors and things like that
40:51
every time let's just create a reusable
40:54
template that we can use as a starting
40:56
point um so we're not gonna have a
40:59
worksheet in Africa content upgrade so
41:02
let's just delete them and relax
41:11
the bones of a Content upgrade and I
41:15
like she'll just swap like this little
41:17
go with our actual logo I want to make
41:23
that just a little bit bigger so it's
41:26
already it's looking a lot more like our
41:27
own content upgrade now I'll do the same
41:30
here just change this image or our own
41:37
totally that one okay so that's the
41:42
bones of our content upgrade that we're
41:45
going to be using from now on and
41:48
actually before we jump on to that I've
41:50
just got a question in from Maureen
41:51
Maureen is asking in addition to the
41:53
content content library is it possible
41:56
to see images in an image library
41:58
Maureen I have some good news that is a
42:00
feature that we're going to get ready to
42:02
release next week so it's a minute it's
42:04
not possible to store images in an image
42:07
library but from next week onwards yes
42:10
you will be able to do that so I'm glad
42:12
you asked that question it's almost like
42:14
a plan that you'd ask that question but
42:16
that's that's perfect timing
42:17
so yes from next week onwards you will
42:19
be able to add an image library and so
42:23
sorry just to jump back in and so this
42:26
is the shell of our future content
42:29
upgrades so if I want to convert that
42:31
into your reusable template I'm going to
42:34
click on the document settings tab on
42:36
the left hand side and we're going to
42:38
see this link here to convert this
42:39
document into a template so I'm going to
42:42
click convert again I'm going to have to
42:47
give this um template a name so we're
42:51
just gonna call it like custom content
42:57
upgrade template I'm gonna hit see if
43:02
there I'm gonna close this screen I'm
43:05
just gonna see if that as well just so
43:07
we don't lose it and I'm gonna go right
43:09
back to the start I'm going to leave the
43:11
editor go back to the dashboard
43:14
and once that loads you'll see that when
43:18
we go to create a new content upgrade
43:23
once we get to the choose template
43:26
screen so let's say if we're creating a
43:28
checklist I don't want to import content
43:31
you'll see that once we get to the
43:33
bottom we have all the standard baking
43:36
templates but we also have our custom
43:38
content upgrade template so if I choose
43:41
that we can see that our content upgrade
43:46
template is sitting waiting ready for me
43:48
to drop in some more content and whether
43:51
if that's a checklist for example say
43:53
this content upgrades a checklist let's
43:55
just go to add new page I'm gonna filter
43:58
by checklists and I'm gonna add this guy
44:02
so we added a checklist in their
44:05
existing template it's already using the
44:08
brand colors that we set up ages ago
44:10
it's using them in a title it's using
44:12
them on the checklist box all I have to
44:14
do is to customize the content 9 so
44:17
that's my final and time-saving tip for
44:20
creating content of grids quickly
44:22
creating content upgrades efficiently
44:25
all really with the goal of helping you
44:27
guys to can convert more of your blog
44:30
readers into leads we want to convince
44:33
more people who read our blog posts to
44:36
download our resources so that we can
44:38
collect their email addresses and send
44:40
them better information as they go
44:42
through the buying lifecycle so that's
44:45
pretty much the end of the demonstration
44:47
section and if anybody has any questions
44:51
before I jump back into the slides now's
44:53
a good time so let's take a quick pause
45:05
all right I don't think we've got any
45:07
more questions on the practical side of
45:09
things and so I'm gonna jump back into
45:13
my slides okay we're back okay so just
45:29
to recap the time-saving tips where we
45:32
set up the brand colors at the start we
45:35
created a reusable content library with
45:38
pages like about the author you could
45:41
also do it for calls to action or about
45:43
the company your copyright pages
45:45
whatever it might be and we also showed
45:48
you how to create a reusable template so
45:50
once you create one of your own
45:52
templates you don't have to keep using
45:54
and beacon standard templates you can
45:56
start just working from your own and
45:59
customizing it and some of those
46:03
features that I did show you are premium
46:05
features so the part where I showed you
46:08
how to convert appears into a template
46:11
and you need a paid account to use that
46:14
feature and the same for the other
46:16
feature of converting documents into
46:19
templates again that's a paid feature as
46:22
well and so the brand brand colors
46:25
template colors that's available on all
46:27
free accounts but these two features are
46:29
only available on our paid accounts so
46:34
if just got a question in from Sarah
46:36
Sarah is wondering if your color choices
46:38
are specific Pantone numbers were just
46:41
general colors and yes when you're
46:45
setting up your brand colors definitely
46:47
put in your company specific colors so
46:51
let me I'll just actually go back in
46:54
when you're setting up your brand colors
46:56
here like this is your opportunity to be
46:58
really specific like I'm sure your
47:01
company has like like really stringent
47:03
brand guidelines you have to use certain
47:05
colors you know this is your opportunity
47:07
to make sure it's precise and the
47:10
benefit of this is you set this up one
47:13
you converted into a template and then
47:15
you can be sure that your content
47:18
upgrades will always be using your brand
47:20
colors so this is great obviously for
47:23
saving your time like you're not gonna
47:24
have to remember you know brand colors
47:26
every time you do it they're
47:28
automatically saved in the template but
47:30
also if you have different team members
47:32
that are perhaps using beacon that
47:33
aren't is the sidious with using the
47:36
correct brand colors and and if you set
47:39
up the template then you can guarantee
47:41
that they will they'll only be using and
47:43
the brand colors that you've pre
47:45
approved so you have it that's that's a
47:47
great point Sarah definitely add your
47:50
specific brand colors here and that'll
47:52
keep you on point for all future lead
47:54
magnets so just to go back into the
47:58
slides and yes so as I was saying some
48:02
of those features are only available on
48:05
our paid accounts they're not available
48:06
on our free accounts um but what one of
48:11
the things that actually if you find
48:13
that you need those features and you
48:15
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