A significant strategic error that many B2B and B2C businesses make these days is that they offer valuable content to non-gated customers. We’ll explain why this is a mistake and how to fix it in a moment. First, let’s quickly explain what gated content means in the context of inbound marketing.
What is Gated Content?
Gated content is any valuable content – such as eBook and Infographics – that is offered to customers who fill out a brief form. Why is the term “gated” used? Simply because these customers are separate from your other, as-yet-unidentified customers. They have come onto your property, and you’ve closed a metaphorical gate behind them.
With this being said, this gate is NOT “locked,” and there’s no guarantee that gated customers will make a purchase. This is an important consideration, and helps remind businesses that they should pay more – not less – attention to their gated customers.
Why it’s Important to Gate Content
It’s important to gate content because it may be the only opportunity for a business to identify a customer. In this sense, the business is saying: “we’ll give you something valuable in exchange for some basic information about who you are, how we can contact you, etc.”
The most critical word in the paragraph above is VALUABLE, because customers are more reluctant than ever to part with their personally-identifying information. If they don’t perceive the eBook, Infographic or other content as valuable, they simply won’t “trade” their contact information for it. As such, it’s vital for businesses to ensure they offer something relevant, meaningful and accessible. Basically, it should be something that customers would consider paying for; even if it’s only a few dollars.
Furthermore, while it’s good strategy to brand the content (i.e. put a business name on the cover, place contact information at the end, etc.), it cannot be a thinly-veiled advertisement. The content must deliver real value to customers that they can use -- even if they choose not to make a purchase.
What Not to Gate
At the same time, gating the wrong content is also a mistake. For example, though it doesn’t happen as much now as it did a few years ago, some businesses gate their blog by obliging customers to create an account. Even though the account is usually free and only takes a minute or so to set-up, this kind of gating is almost always a mistake. Customers generally expect blog content to be accessible on-demand, and they don’t see the rationale for spending even 10 seconds of their time filling out a form; let alone, revealing who they are and how they can be contacted.
Fixing a Broken or Missing Gate
If your business is offering valuable content but isn’t gating it, then solving this is quite easy. You simply need an automated system that will allow you to exchange the content for your customers’ contact information.
The specific information you should ask for depends on a few factors, such as the content that you’re offering, the standards and expectations in your marketplace, and how far along the “customer journey” your gate is placed. In other words: the closer your customers are to making a purchase from you, then all else being equal, the more information you can ask for. Alternatively, the further they are from making a purchase from you (i.e. the closer to the beginning of the journey), the less information you can ask for.
Contact Us for More Information
Understanding why you ALWAYS want to gate valuable content isn’t difficult. However, it can be tricky and challenging to determine: what content to gate, how to gate different types of content (based on what they are and where they are in the customer journey), and how to leverage the data you receive through gating.
You don’t want to take a trial-and-error approach to this, since the errors will be very costly.
To get the insight and direction you need, contact us today for your free consultation. We’ll analyze your inbound marketing landscape – or re-create it – to ensure that gating works FOR your business!
Topics: Inbound Marketing
