In the ever-evolving digital world, where content is king, businesses continually seek innovative ways to maximize their outreach, engage their audience, and achieve their marketing objectives. A popular strategy many adopt is ‘Gated Content,’ a method that puts valuable content behind a virtual gate, typically requiring users to fill out a form with their details to gain access.
Gating content is straightforward, yet its application can significantly impact an organization’s lead generation, customer engagement, and overall digital marketing effectiveness. While advantageous in many respects, this strategy also invites a slew of complexities and potential downsides.
This article aims to demystify the concept of gated content, examining its evolution, benefits, drawbacks, best practices, and real-world applications. It further provides insight into the delicate balance between gated and ungated content and how businesses can navigate this balance for optimum results.
Understanding Gated Content
Gated content is any online material requiring users to complete an action—typically providing contact information—before accessing it. This type of content is usually of high value, offering in-depth information, unique insights, or comprehensive knowledge that you won’t find in a typical blog post or website copy. As a result, businesses use it to provide substantial value to their potential customers while aiding their marketing efforts.
Gating content has existed since the early days of the Internet but has gained substantial popularity with the rise of digital marketing and inbound strategies. In 2005, only 20% of businesses used gated content in their marketing strategy. By 2010, that number had increased to 50%, and recent surveys showed that nearly 80% of B2B companies use gated content as a critical part of their lead generation strategy.
The most common types of gated content for B2B websites include:
- White Papers
- Webinars
- Ebooks
- Checklists
- Product Demos
- Quiz Results
- Courses
- Annual Reports
The Pros of Gated Content
Gated content brings several benefits to the table:
- Lead Generation: Businesses can capture detailed information about potential customers through the form they fill out to access the gated content. This approach contributes significantly to lead generation efforts. Studies have shown that nearly 60% of marketers consider lead generation the benefit of gated content.
- Data Collection: Gated content helps collect vital customer data, enabling businesses to understand their audience better. This data can aid in creating more personalized marketing strategies.
- Value Perception: Consumers often see Gated content as more valuable due to the “exclusivity factor.”
- Revenue Generation: Some businesses successfully use gated content to generate revenue directly, either by charging for access or offering it as part of a subscription model.
- Customer Segmentation: The data collected from gated content can help businesses segment their audience, resulting in more targeted and effective marketing campaigns.
The Cons of Gated Content
Despite its benefits, gated content isn’t without its drawbacks:
- Limited Reach: Putting content behind a gate can limit its reach. Not every visitor is willing to exchange their contact details for content, which could result in fewer views and shares.
- User Frustration: Internet users often expect content to be freely accessible. Running into a gate can cause frustration and damage a brand’s reputation.
- Quality Pressure: Gated content must deliver substantial value if you ask for a user’s personal information. This pressure can place a heavy burden on content creators to produce high-quality, in-depth material.
- Data Accuracy: Not every user who fills out the form to access your gated content will provide accurate information. This false data can skew your marketing analytics and lead to ineffective marketing strategies.
- SEO Challenges: Search engines can’t crawl gated content, which means it won’t contribute to your website’s search engine ranking.
Best Practices for Gating Content
Implementing gated content requires a strategic approach. Here are some best practices:
- Identify Your Goals: Are you aiming to generate leads, gather data, increase revenue, or a mix of these? Understanding your objectives will guide your decisions on what content to gate and what to offer freely.
- Understand Your Audience: Knowing your audience’s preferences and needs is crucial. Survey data suggests that 90% of B2B buyers are willing to share their email addresses for whitepapers, but only 65% are willing to do so for eBooks.
- Content Value: The content you gate should be of high value. According to surveys, users are likelier to fill out forms for exclusive research reports and webinars.
- Transparent Communication: Be clear on what the user will gain in exchange for their information. Transparency can increase trust and reduce bounce rates.
- Optimal Form Length: A study found that conversion rates drop by almost 50% when forms have more than five fields. Hence, keep your forms as short as possible.
- Privacy and Trust: Ensure you have a clear privacy policy and reassure users that their data is safe. This can improve conversions by up to 20%.
- Testing and Optimization: A/B testing can be used to optimize every aspect of your gated content strategy. It allows you to see what works and doesn’t and adjust accordingly.
Striking the right balance between gated and ungated content is crucial. Too much gated content can deter potential leads, while too little can lead to missed opportunities for data collection and lead generation. As a general guideline, basic educational content can be ungated to attract a broad audience, while more in-depth, specialized content can be gated to attract qualified leads.
Looking to the Future
The landscape of digital marketing, and consequently, gated content, is ever-changing. As marketers and content creators, we must continually adapt and anticipate what’s to come. Here are a few trends and predictions that may shape the future of gated content:
- Data Privacy: With privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA already in effect and others potentially on the horizon, businesses must be increasingly mindful of how they collect and handle user data. This could result in more stringent requirements for gating content, which may lead to more businesses opting for “soft gates” that allow users to access some content without providing personal data.
- Value-First Approach: Given the widespread availability of free online content, users will likely become increasingly discerning about what they’re willing to exchange their data for. As such, businesses might have to adopt a value-first approach, offering high-quality ungated content to build trust and demonstrate value before introducing gated content.
- AI and Personalization: As technology evolves, creating and gating content will likely become more sophisticated. AI could personalize the type of gated content a user sees based on their browsing history or previous interactions with the brand. This could significantly increase conversion rates by presenting users with gated content that matches their interests.
- Micro-gating: Instead of gating a whole eBook or whitepaper, we might see a rise in “micro-gating.” This would involve offering the initial part of the content for free and then requiring users to fill out a form to continue reading. This tactic could be effective as it allows users to assess the quality of the content before deciding whether to share their information.
- Dynamic Gating: Another possibility is dynamic gating, where the decision to gate content is based on the user’s behavior or characteristics. For example, new visitors might see ungated content, while repeat visitors are presented with gated content.
- Content Experiences: We may see more businesses focusing on creating comprehensive “content experiences,” where multiple pieces of content (both gated and ungated) are bundled together in a cohesive, interactive package. This could increase the perceived value of the gated content and make users more willing to share their information.
While these trends offer exciting opportunities, they pose new challenges that marketers must navigate. The most successful businesses will stay ahead of these trends, adapt their strategies accordingly, and continue to put their audience’s needs at the forefront.
Conclusion
Navigating the world of gated content involves a delicate balance. The strategy brings undeniable benefits, such as enriched lead generation, targeted customer segmentation, and potential revenue opportunities. Yet, its implementation is not without drawbacks. Limited reach, user frustration, data accuracy issues, and SEO challenges pose significant hurdles that organizations must address effectively. As per recent studies, businesses using a well-balanced mix of gated and ungated content have seen an average increase in lead quality by about 40%, indicating the importance of a strategic approach.