Evaluating b2b marketing content gating vs. not gating is important if you want to serve the needs of your prospective customers and generate b2b sales leads.
The Internet has made accessing business information easy. Previously, if someone wanted to learn about a topic, they would have to subscribe to an industry journal or magazine or go to a library and find a book on the subject. Now, all they need to do is type a few keywords into a search engine and they can find everything there is to know.
Borrowing from B2C marketing many B2B businesses began gating their content to generate sales leads. Gated content is material that can only be accessed by filling out a form with contact information or a paywall to purchase the content. The idea is that by requiring people to give up their email addresses or other contact information as a form of payment, businesses can generate leads. Well not really leads email addresses for sure.
Nevertheless, gated content also has its drawbacks. First of all, it can be frustrating for users who just want to find answers to their business problems and don’t want to have to jump through hoops including giving up their personal information and sacrificing their privacy. Secondly, gated content can dissuade people from taking the desired action. Studies have shown that when people are required to fill out a form before they can access something, they are less likely to do so than if they were given free access.
Before tackling the issue of gating or not gating your content you need to decide what is the purpose of your content in the first place. And, how it fits into your overall marketing plan. After all, gating content is a tactic, not a goal.
Two questions to ask in gating vs. not gating b2b marketing content.
1. What is the Perspective of Your Sales Prospects?
2. What’s your Marketing Goal?
Answering these two questions first you will be able to judge the pros and cons of deciding to gate your content more intelligently.
Should You Ask Lead Generation Companies?
Lead companies will tell you to gate your content but they have a vested interest in promoting this method.
They are in the lead generation business, and this is the basis of how you will pay them. More leads result in more money for them. Lead quality is often the first casualty of this approach.
If you are buying leads from content that is not yours then lead cost increases because this content is often purchased from third parties and then the lead company adds their lead cost on top of the content cost.
Lead companies will say their leads are verified but the truth is they only verify if the email address that is given is a working email and if the company name can be found in their data files.
Automated lead verification is fast and inexpensive for lead companies but not always accurate if other data points on the contact form cannot be verified like names, titles, and phone numbers.
Beyond contact data, there is more to a qualified sales lead. Capturing the business problem your sales prospect is trying to solve, and what questions or concerns they might have regarding your company and solution is the decisive information that can turn an unqualified lead into a qualified one but not captured by lead firms.
Finally, the type of content being used to entice and engage a sales prospect to interact with your content is the most important part of having qualified sales prospects raise their hands to be contacted. Lead companies will tell you that White papers, thought leadership blogs, and even press releases are great content to generate leads. Maybe unqualified leads but not qualified leads. So, what is the best type of content that will generate qualified leads, problem/solution content, product/service application stories, case studies, and product specifications?
Having answered the two questions about what your sales prospects want and what your marketing goal is you can then proceed to focus on the reason to and not to gate your content.
Reasons Why You Should Not Fall in Love with Gating Marketing Content
When it comes to gated marketing content, there are a few things you should keep in mind. While gating your content can have some benefits, there are also a few drawbacks that you should be aware of before making your decision. Here are seven reasons why you should not fall in love with gated marketing content:
Gated content can limit the reach of your message.
If you gate your content, you are essentially putting up a paywall and requiring people to pay to access your content. This can limit the reach of your message because not everyone is willing or able to pay for access. In addition, gated content can also make it more difficult for people to share your content with others.
Gated content can reduce the quality of your leads.
If you require people to provide their contact information to access your gated content, you may end up with a lower-quality list of leads. This is because people who are willing to give up their contact information are usually more interested and engaged than those who aren’t. As a result, gated content can end up reducing the quality of your leads.
Gated content can be a turn-off for some prospects.
Some prospects may be turned off by the fact that they have to provide their contact information to access your gated content. In addition, gating your content can make it appear as though you’re trying to hide something or that you’re only interested in getting people’s contact information. As a result, gated content can be a turn-off for some prospects.
Gated content can make it difficult to track your results.
If you gather your content, it can be more difficult to track your results because you won’t have as much data to work with. In addition, gating your content can also make it more difficult to see how well your content is performing because you won’t have as many people viewing it. As a result, gating your content can make it difficult to track your results.
Gated content can take longer to create.
If you want to create gated content, it can take longer to produce because you have to put together the actual content as well as the contact form and other elements. In addition, gated content can also be more time-consuming to promote because you have to drive traffic to the page where the content is located. As a result, gated content can take longer to create.
Gated content can be expensive.
If you want to gate your content, you may have to pay for a subscription service or some other type of fee. In addition, gated content can also be more expensive to promote because you have to pay to drive traffic to the page where the content is located. As a result, gating your content can be expensive.
Gated content can increase your bounce rate.
If people have to fill out a form to access your gated content, there’s a good chance they will leave the page before they even get started. In addition, gating your content can make it more difficult for people to find what they’re looking for and can increase the chances that they’ll leave. As a result, gating your content can increase your bounce rate.
If you use a paid service to gate your content, it can end up being quite expensive. In addition, if you use gated content to generate leads, you may have to pay for ads to drive traffic to the page where the gated content is located. As a result, gating your content can be expensive.
The case for gating content to meet your marketing goal.
Let’s examine the pros, cons, & implications of gating content.
Here is what the experts say.
Neil Patel, an Internet marketing expert, says, “If You Give Away Your Best Content, Your Business Will Grow by 290%.”
Internationally acclaimed marketing and sales strategist David Meerman Scott says that; “…a white paper or eBook will be downloaded 20 times and up to 50 times more without a gate in front of it.”
Joe Pulizzi, the founder of the Content Marketing Institute and one of the most respected names in content marketing says.
“Let’s say you received 1,000 leads via your white paper download. From David’s numbers, let’s even take a more conservative 10x more downloads if we remove the gate.
This would give us 10,000 downloads with no lead data. Of all those people, let’s say that 1 percent would share this with their audiences (with a VERY conservative audience of 100 people, although most blogs get much more).
With those numbers, the total possible content reach for gated content would be 2,000 people. Non-gated content would be 20,000 people.”
Bottom Line:
The decision to gate or not to gate marketing content begins and ends with your marketing goal. If your marketing goal is solely to generate unqualified email leads then gating your content might be appropriate for your firm. However, if your marketing goal is to engage your sales prospects at just the right time in their buying cycle and convert them into qualified leads with the problem/ solution content they are seeking to find in solving their business problem then not gating your content is the better choice.
