To gate or not to gate? This has been a much debated marketing question, subject to oscillating public and professional opinions over the last decade. Most businesses might have already given in to the practice of putting high-value content behind opt-in forms that require users to provide some information about themselves. Still, there is no denying the fact that making your content freely accessible to the users results in a greater number of downloads and better brand recognition.
One of the main reasons why the debate on gated content remains unresolved is because it’s tough to compare gated content campaigns with campaigns where the content is not gated. Content marketing campaigns that are structured differently have different performance indicators and comparing the two will only lengthen the argument further. Before you pick sides and decide which content marketing strategy is better, here’s something you should know.
Content gating – a necessary evil?
Generating leads is probably one the most important tasks assigned tothe sales team in a firm. Gating your content by putting resources behind an opt-in form is a great way to generate leads . By earning these leads through gated content, you can avoid the productivity and budget costs that plague your marketing programs.
Benefits of gated content
- Generation of superior business leads: Generating high quality leads for your business is one of the most beneficial aspects of using gated content. Once people have crossed the metaphoric bridge to reach your content, you know that most of them will qualify as genuine leads. Unlike the case of ungated content, where a visitor simply views your content and leaves the site, gated content helps you accumulate precious user data. This leaves you with one question. Which of the two is more precious to your business, a view or a contact?
- More control: You can prevent undesired users or competitors from accessing your content. In many cases, it also allows you to set progressive profiling where you have the chance to ask your users for more information about themselves as they continue to browse through your content.
Ungated content – readily available, always free!
While gating does imply that the content is valuable, there still are chances that users may enter wrong information on the lead form. Ungated or public content translates to more visitors and more opportunities to share your work. Since you have no hidden content on your website, search engines will be able to rank your site better and the more engaging content you post, the more traffic you will fetch.
Benefits of keeping your content public/ungated
- More traffic and opportunities to share your work: Rather than sharing a form, your leads are more likely to share a direct link to your content. Public content always promises to bring more traffic to your site and gives you a better chance at getting noticed.
- Increased readership of published content: People often hesitate before entering personal details in such opt-in forms. Making your content public will make it more likely to be read by your visitors.
- Improves user experience: Ungated content saves your users from the irritation caused by incessant opt-in forms, as a result improves their experience on you site. In a way, ungated content makes your site more user friendly.
Yet the debate around gated and ungated content continues, as supporters of both the strategies see promising results from them. Ideally, hosting a marketing campaign with a combination of gated and ungated content should work well for your firm. Depending on the value of your content, you can choose whether or not to gate it to generate business leads. A good thumb rule would be to gate the content that you think is most valuable, and let the rest of it remain free.