{"id":113175,"date":"2016-01-22T16:20:00","date_gmt":"2016-01-22T21:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dacgroup.com\/on-the-fence-the-great-content-gate-debate\/"},"modified":"2024-12-21T05:54:38","modified_gmt":"2024-12-21T10:54:38","slug":"on-the-fence-the-great-content-gate-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dacgroup.com\/en-gb\/insights\/blog\/creative\/on-the-fence-the-great-content-gate-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"On the fence: The great content gate debate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently a client of ours told me that they were planning to ungate the whitepaper resources on their website.<\/p>\n

My content marketing mind freaked out!<\/p>\n

Surely valuable content is worth at least an email address? Isn\u2019t everyone used to gated content by now? What was the point of the content if not to generate leads?<\/p>\n

But the more I thought about it, the less sure I was. Does it make more sense to ungate some content?<\/p>\n

After my initial freak out, I started to think that it all comes down to the purpose of the content. Our client\u2019s whitepapers were long-form, keyword rich content \u2013 the kind of stuff that Google loves to crawl. And you can\u2019t get those SEO benefits with a content gate in place; at the end of the day, Google can\u2019t index a gated pdf.<\/p>\n

But think of the leads they\u2019re missing out on!<\/p>\n

Yet, for this company, they found the majority of leads from gated content to be junk. Users download whitepapers for all kinds of reasons, only one of which is because they\u2019re interested in making a purchase.<\/p>\n

Considering the SEO benefits of the content and the number of junk leads, it actually might not make a lot of sense to gate their whitepapers. But does that hold true for all content across all clients?<\/p>\n

\"Gated-content\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The argument for ungated content<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Increase views<\/em><\/p>\n

Back in 2013, renowned content marketer, David Meerman Scott, revealed research that showed ungated content got 20 times more views than gated content. That\u2019s a 95% reduction in views when you gate content.<\/p>\n

If the primary purpose of your content is to inform, educate or simply raise brand awareness, then views are one of your most important metrics. Sticking content behind a gate will severely limit your views, undermining the primary purpose of the content.<\/p>\n

Whitepaper content also provides ample opportunity to make the business case for your solution. Case studies, research, and customer success stats \u2013 all combine to create an argument for making a purchase that works on both a logical and emotional level.<\/p>\n

And remember: the longer they listen, the sweeter the pitch.<\/p>\n

Search Engine Optimisation <\/em><\/p>\n

As well as receiving more views once visitors are on your site, ungated whitepapers also get more people onto your site in the first place. Research consistently shows that long form content received more traffic than short form content.<\/p>\n

\"content<\/a><\/p>\n

Source: Hubspot<\/a><\/p>\n

By gating a long, authoritative piece of content you restrict search engines\u2019 ability to index, gaining you no love from the likes of Google. Slap the same content on your blog and you create something search engines can really get their teeth into.<\/p>\n

Build trust with your audience<\/em><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s face it, when we drop our email address in to a gated content form, we know we\u2019re signing ourselves up to receive email marketing from the company for as long as we both shall live. But who wants that sort of commitment?<\/p>\n

The majority of businesses aren\u2019t widely renowned for dispensing incredibly valuable, useful information for free through their blog, so they are less likely to get away with gating whitepapers.<\/p>\n

You can, however, build up trust fast by offering useful, long-form content on your site for free. More people see it, read it, share it, and trust it\u2026and by inference trust you!<\/p>\n

Once this trust is built up over a year or two, then <\/em>you can gate your content, confident that people will still trust you enough to hand over their email address.<\/p>\n

The law of reciprocity<\/em><\/p>\n

A founding tenant of content marketing, the psychological concept of reciprocity states that people are more likely to give you something if you give them something. It\u2019s an urge \u2013 we feel almost guilty if we don\u2019t <\/em>offer something back when people give us something.<\/p>\n

This can go either way when it comes to gating content. On one side of the fence, you could use the law of reciprocity to gather email leads in exchange for the gated content. On the other, providing this content for free would encourage other kinds of reciprocity\u2026like making a purchase.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"gated<\/p>\n

The argument for gated content<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Creating an inbound engine<\/em><\/p>\n

Not many businesses have the time or manpower to manually nurture every lead that comes through a website form. Some are junk, some aren\u2019t ready to buy, and only a small few have any intent of making a purchase. Following up on all of these leads is not only a waste of time, it could actively harm your brand reputation with premature sales contact.<\/p>\n

This is, essentially, the main reason our client wanted to ungate their content. But what if you could build a lead nurturing engine that does all of this work for you, qualifying leads while shuffling them down the sales funnel?<\/p>\n

Automation is looked on with suspicion (and rightly so when it comes to channels like social media). But if you are smart about it, inbound automation can effectively operate with minimal manual intervention to both qualify and nurture leads.<\/p>\n

The key word here is relevancy. <\/em>If the user downloads a report on the state of SEO they are unlikely to be interested in a whitepaper on event marketing. They might,<\/em> but your chances are pretty slim.<\/p>\n

If you followed up their SEO report download with a blog about the best keyword research tools, you\u2019ll likely see a much higher click-through rate. These clicks can then be recorded against their prospect profile, helping to build a picture of exactly where they are in the funnel, what they are interested in, and how engaged they are with your brand.<\/p>\n

Combine this with a bit of lead forensics and social media research and you\u2019ll have a good idea of who is looking at what content and why. Are they researching for their own blog or are they actually interested in your product?<\/em> See what other pages they viewed on your website. How far down the funnel are they? <\/em>Find out whether they are reading high-level content or the intricate details. Are they a key decision maker or do they need to convince someone else? <\/em>Look them up on LinkedIn to find out.<\/p>\n

Content is the oil that keeps the inbound engine running, but without an email address to tie all this information back to, you won\u2019t be able to generate much insight.<\/p>\n

Gating helps qualify leads<\/em><\/p>\n

If people are really interested in you and your whitepaper they will give you their email address. If not then they\u2019re probably not worth developing a relationship with anyway.<\/p>\n

Views are great, emails are better<\/em><\/p>\n

What\u2019s better: having 2,000 people read your content or getting 200 email addresses? Even if 75% of those emails are junk, that still leaves you with 50 engaged and qualified leads.<\/p>\n

Again, this depends on the primary purpose of your content. If the aim is to generate leads then gating seems an obvious solution. If it\u2019s awareness then ungating will get more eyes on your branded content.<\/p>\n

Ultimately you probably want your content to drive revenue, so gating at least some content is the most sensible option. It all comes down to the purpose of the content.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"optimising<\/p>\n

\n \n
\n
\n

\n Stay Forward <\/h2>\n

\n Get exclusive insights into digital
media's top-trending topics delivered
directly to your inbox. <\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n

\n
\n
\n
\n \n