B2B marketing is a game of strategy beyond all else, and that means making plays that will benefit you but might be considered controversial to anyone not in the marketing know. One of these strategies is known as “gated content”; the act of keeping content inaccessible to a user until they provide you with their information (usually by way of a painless form). This can be any kind of content, from courses, demos, webinars, and even specific email lists. What are some best practices for employing such a strategy? What are the pros and cons? Let's take a look, shall we…
It’s Not For Everyone
Gated content is not without a little bit of controversy. There are marketers out there that believe in making all your resources open and available to all who seek them.
We understand that point of view, and there is nobility in that. However, we tend to think that a little bit of pushback doesn’t hurt. It gives them the impression of exclusivity, which is always a good way to capture the interest of a prospect. If you don’t feel comfortable putting your content behind a gate, it’s by no means a requirement. However, we’re not saying you should put all your content out of sight, mind you. Just some of it. Give them enough to wet their whistle, and they’ll happily put in their info for the rest. They just need to know you’ve got the goods!
What Is It Good For?
So many things! If gated content wasn’t going to be of value to you, we wouldn’t have brought it up! Tell us, how do you feel about…
Generating Leads
Kinda goes without saying. You get people to input their information and boom! They’re in the funnel.
You’ve got a lead! You have prospects that are interested in what you have to offer, and because you have Salesforce and access to the Marketing Cloud (formerly Pardot), then you already have entire drips ready to go, providing the custom engagement necessary to convert. You add in a little bit of dynamic content, and you’ve got yourself an incredibly strong marketing environment!
Give ‘Em The Good Stuff
Premium content! In your journey as an organization, there are going to be things that you learn that can benefit others in your market as well as your knowledge-seeking
prospects. There’s nothing wrong with getting a little bit of commitment from potential customers before leveraging all that you know. Having good content on the other side of the gate is going to be much more justifiable than having the same ol’ same ol’, and the more people fill out the form and access that knowledge, the more likely they'll be to get others to sign up as well. As stated, you can also give them access to things like webinars and workshops to really bump up the value.
Creating Better Engagement Through Data
This is where your Salesforce subscription really pays for itself.
The data you gather from those form submissions can be used to create a nurturing campaign like no other. With a landing page for your gated content, a well-designed email campaign, and pop-ups with dynamic content, you can envelop your prospects, and convert them. Check your data to see what links on your pages your prospects are interacting with. Look and see how far down the page they made it, and how long they stayed on the page. With proper testing, you can take the elements that are the most appealing, and move them front and center. The Marketing Cloud knows all and sees all, and under its watchful eye, you’re going to be able to boost your ROI. All this is made possible by not giving up your content right away… Just tucking it aside in exchange for a little information.
