Gate Content or Build Trust - Your Choice

Are you sending the wrong message when you gate your content?

Marketers gate content primarily to generate leads, get them in the pipeline and move them down the pipeline resulting, hopefully, in a conversion, so they can prove to the c-suite, yes, our content strategy is working.

Marketers, for the most part, are gating ebooks, white papers, third-party reports and studies and webinars. However, lately, I have been seeing gating of blog posts, infographics, videos and SlideShare presentations (and that includes blocking download at the SlideShare website).

I conducted an informal survey with a variety of marketers about gating content and the following is what I heard most of the time:

-“we ungate content that is used for awareness but gate for lead generation or where in the funnel it [the content] is”
-“we gate premium content that is perceived to be of high-value”
-"we gate high value content that generally outweighs giving up your email for”
-"we gate content that offers advanced info on topics that have performed well historically"
-"we gate content to identify the folks who are visiting us most frequently and support our lead gen efforts”
-"we gate content based on analytics or trends that Sales notes in the marketplace"
-"we gate content we wish to tie back to customers”

Respondents noted that content gating was typically used for lead generation and lead nurturing activities.

Here's the rub. Gating content, for the most part, especially at the top of the funnel, is setting up false positives. Just because someone downloads your content does not make them a lead. And, typically, this creates a big gap between a marketing qualified lead (MQL) and a sales lead.

What typically happens next is this, you download a white paper and you either receive an email or worse, a phony (and annoying) LinkedIn sales message, that goes something like this: “thanks for downloading our white paper, do you have 10 minutes for a quick call?”

This signals to me that either (1) sales and marketing are not aligned or (2) the company only cares about my email so someone can make their quota for the day, week or month. Sometimes both apply. I still ask how does my request to view your content make me a lead, and, what happened to building a relationship with me and earning my trust before you start pitching me?

These questions lead to the ultimate question — has a marketer’s need to generate a lead trumped building trust?

Build Relationships and Better Experiences to Generate Better Leads

If marketers are gating content to generate and nurture leads, wouldn’t it make better sense to build a relationship with prospective buyers, earn their trust and provide the content they want? And then, as you get to know them and create an enjoyable experience for them, offer them the premium content they find of value, which they would gladly provide contact info to receive? Because you are taking the time with them, they want to take the time with you and most importantly want to develop a relationship with you.

Andrew Davis, author of Brandscaping: Unleashing the Power of Partnerships, agrees. He says “If you want to fill your database with low-quality leads, then yes – content gating is great!” Davis talks about building trust and creating subscriptions of value instead of gating content - “content builds trust. Trust takes time. Trust builds relationships. Relationships drive revenue. Instead of gating content that you’re not sure I want, invite me to build a subscriber-based relationship with you. When are you sending out the next piece of valuable content? How can I get it? That’s much more valuable than a one night stand.”

David Meerman Scott, noted sales and marketing strategist, speaker and best-selling author of several books, including The New Rules of Marketing & PR, concurs. He has said that marketers who force prospects to turn over contact information in exchange for free content could be hurting their businesses. He notes this analogy – “I liken it to a singles bar where some guy comes up to you and says, ‘What’s your phone number?’ without even introducing himself. It sets up an adversarial relationship.” He suggests collecting information after buyers get a taste of your expertise and the value you provide.

Scott has found that ungated content gets between 20 and 50 times more downloads than gated content does. Chew on that for a moment.

If you want to build trust, be purposeful and methodical, then think twice before hastily gating your content.

Best Practices For Gating Content

Consider putting the following practices into place to enhance the experience that your buyers have with you and your content.

1. Before considering gating content right out of the “gate”, consider other options. For example, offer a specified number of free downloads prior to asking for contact info. Or set up your lead generation trees to offer free content through the earlier stages first and only offer gated content after certain events have occurred. Or, bypass gating content altogether and offer a call-to-action at the end of your content – you’re doing that already, right? – and either offer additional articles of interest, an opportunity to sign-up for blog updates or a newsletter, or both. Or, offer a premium community like MarketingProfs PRO or Spin Sucks Pro. These options help you build trust so buyers see the value you provide and are more willing to provide info to receive content.

2. If you want to gate content, think long and hard on your reasons for doing so. Include any content gating in your overall content strategy. Which content will be gated? Why will it be gated? What support do you have that gating the content will meet your objectives? How will it be gated? Davis says “Aggressive content gating is a normal reaction to a poorly laid out strategy. Instead of thinking about individual content elements think about a longer term subscriber-based relationship.”

3. If you want to gate content, determine whether your content is gate-worthy. Do you run analytics on your content? What KPI’s are you using to ensure that it is performing well? Before you gate any content, determine if people are reading and sharing your existing content. That will usually help you determine whether gating content makes sense for you.

4. If you gate content, don’t gate your content at the top of the funnel. The top of the funnel is important for generating awareness and building trust. Save content gating at a point where your buyer has converted into a lead and you are moving them along their buyer journey. This should be mid-funnel, at least. In other words, any introductory white papers or ebooks should not be gated. As such, it is important to map your content to each phase of the buyer journey and utilize your analytics to determine which content performs well, when visitors are converting to leads and when leads are converting to customers.

5. If you have decided to gate your content, only ask for the bare minimum such as name, email and title in your contact forms. You can obtain other details later. Davis coins this as “progressive registration” and notes “it invites me to give you small pieces of information over a longer period of time in low-barrier ways”. By the way, did you know that having three contact fields vs. five or six contact fields can increase registration submissions by up to 20%?

Also, please don’t hide a checked box in your contact form to subscribe to blog posts or a newsletter, or require a newsletter/blog post signup to receive gated content. When someone is signing up to read your gated content, it is for that piece of content, not a blanket agreement to receive all of your content. You must still obtain blog post/newsletter opt-in permissions separately. Otherwise, you will be perceived as untrustworthy.

6. Once you have obtained contact details, do not ask for it again. You should have processes in please to determine repeat visitors and have contact forms pre-populated.

When considering whether to gate or not gate content, know that building trust, providing resources that your audience wants and creating a good experience are the keys to developing a strong lead generation and lead nurturing program. This will result in your ability to drive more revenue with far less effort.

Do you gate content? How do you gate content? What content gating best practices do you use?