How much is your content worth?
Content gating is a great way to get information like names and email addresses from consumers.
But it can also be a barrier for potential consumers who don’t want to share their information.
Is gating the answer to generating good leads?
In the new episode of “It Depends,” Shiva and Paul talk through the pros and cons of content gating.
They believe that if you want to gate your content, you have to make a fair trade: information for assets.
Here are three things to know about content gating:
- People will avoid gating if they can
- Gating improves conversion rates
- Make your content worthwhile
Tip #1. People will avoid gating if they can
“I think a lot of people don't factor in the value that people are used to having their own data, their own information. And the worries of, do I care enough to give you my email address, my job title, the company I work for in order to get this white paper resource that's maybe given away for free from another vendor? Say like a Gartner Magic Quadrant, for example. There will be some businesses and they will give it away for free, and there will be others and it's gated. And if I'm doing my research, I've probably been to the other vendors and I've probably downloaded it. I'm not going to go to the person who's gating it,” Paul said.
In the age of information, privacy is invaluable. People aren’t willing to give up their personal information unless they have to, so if there’s an ungated option, people are most likely to use that one before they go to the gated content.
Tip #2. Gating improves conversion rates
“From our side on the testing side, the tests I've run, to gate technically improves conversion rates. My experience has shown that gating content and adding email capture or whatever works, because it generates leads, and high quality leads at that. It might even be artificially weeding out that lower quality traffic, because if you want to request a demo and you want to see it, you're jumping through the hurdle that's so high that your intent, your interest level is so high. So it's almost self-serving,” Shiva said.
Gating content does tend to generate higher quality leads. But that may be because the gating simply weeds out lower-quality traffic. So while content gating can increase your good lead ratio, it may also thwart casual consumers.
Tip #3. Make your content worthwhile
“Sometimes adding the gate increases the perceived value. So if you have this new white paper that's so bad-ass, and you're like, ‘We absolutely require your first and last name, email, and phone number because it's so powerful.’ And that's in the messaging, that's how you position it. Then sometimes people will be like, ‘Oh, damn. It’s that good? Okay. Yeah. What else do you need?’ And I think that's a power. It's a little psychology trick. It can be powerful in that way,” Shiva said.
The quality of your content matters, but you have to position it well. If the messaging for your content is that it’s cutting-edge and worth the payout, people won’t mind giving up their personal information.
Content gating can be useful, but you have to be mindful when and how you use it.
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