Are you familiar with inbound marketing practices? In this digital revolution, the benefits of content marketing are impossible to ignore. Marketers create high-value content – blogs, images, videos, and podcasts, enticing users to take action.
Some people like reading about products, while others prefer looking at services through videos and pictures. Therefore, determine what sort of content your target audience prefers and start generating it.
Within the inbound community, there is an ongoing debate about hiding content behind a subscription wall. Usually, eBooks and template downloads require sign-ups – a leading example of gated content. Instead of giving information for free, businesses ask for email or contact information in return. However, gating content is not straightforward, as marketers should know where to draw the line.
Do you know what content requires a subscription? If you go through some blogs, all the old content is given away for free while the latest information demands a subscription. Likewise, most articles and blogs don’t ask for sign-ups, but when it comes to eBooks and webinars – every business wants something in return. Thus, there is no accurate answer to how much and what kind of content you put behind the wall.
If the aim is to make leads and boost conversions, gated content can come in handy. In this article below, here is what you need to know about gated content and how to use it for lead generation.
Why Do Marketers Use Gated Content?
These days, every business is chasing after customer data to expand its reach. As a result, marketers use gated content to generate leads. They provide prospects with credible information in exchange for their email, contact, name, and other details. All this information helps businesses understand their audience, letting them devise appropriate strategies.
At the same time, gated content incentivizes lead generation. Users arrive at your post by clicking the links that appear on the search engine, leaving the impression that your site is an excellent source of information.
Hence, they don’t mind dropping their email address or contact information to download the file. After all, an irresistible gated content offer is hard to ignore. If you wish to improve lead generation, here is how you can use gated content in your marketing strategy.
- Awareness Stage: If the customers don’t know much about your business, lure them with infographics, eBooks, and whitepapers.
- Consideration Stage: In this stage, the audience sees your brand as an authority. Utilize this opportunity and offer solutions to users. You can create case studies, webinars, etc.
- Decision Stage: Here, your gated content should offer powerful offers to boost conversions. It can be free consultations, software downloads, or case studies.
As prospects move down the marketing funnel, their interest in your business also increases. It means they would be willing to fill out a form to access valuable content.
Effective Gated Content Strategies for Lead Generation
After understanding the importance of gated content, it is time to take action. Learn about effective gated content strategies and incorporate them into your upcoming marketing campaign.
1. Ebooks & White Papers
Believe it or not, but eBooks are nothing less than digital assets in today’s era, making them a staple of inbound marketing. It delivers more value to customers while establishing your company as an authority in the industry. Alongside this, eBooks and whitepapers are an excellent way to explain challenging topics since there is no word limit.
Unsurprisingly, it can also grow your email list over time. Hence, feel free to create your resource pages and include a variety of whitepapers for customers. Whenever a user clicks on these pages, it directs them to a page that asks for information to gain access. These are pretty straightforward to use while helping you generate leads.
2. Templates
If your business is on the creative side, how about you attract people with templates? It is a tactical and actional piece of content with high perceived value. Understand your target audience and determine their interests.
If you have a high millennial following, attract them with aesthetic planner templates or study schedules. Otherwise, you can create some resume templates since who doesn’t want to build a good CV? The quality and relevance of your templates will persuade the audience to exchange their personal information.
3. Webinars
With the staggering popularity of videos, webinars have become an incredible gated content strategy. It gives you the unique opportunity to deliver content in a ‘live’ online setting while taking questions from your audience simultaneously.
You can go live on social media – Facebook, but these platforms don’t provide gated access. Therefore, get webinar-focused software and create a landing page to capture lead information.
People will have to pinch in their details before streaming the webinar. Also, break down the key topics by putting up a webinar description to give an insight into the learning experience. Moreover, webinars have higher conversion rates due to their surpassing value than other content types.
4. Free Demos
Usually, software companies schedule demos to entice the audience. You can show the power of your software and allow users to get familiar with it. Offer a free trial for seven or fifteen days and let people experience your innovation on their own.
Alongside generating leads, it turns them into prospective customers. If there is a risk of hacking, consider offering an online demo. It lets the user explore key features without downloading them. Since every demo is behind a subscription list, you can substantially increase your reach.
5. Content Upgrades
In recent years, the ‘content upgrading’ gated content strategy has become quite popular. These are upgrades to the content that people are currently viewing. For instance, if you are writing about five ways to achieve physical fitness, the content upgrade can include a nutritional diet plan.
All those people reading about fitness will be eager to know the diet plan, resulting in lead generation. After all, the purpose of content upgrades is to expand the user’s knowledge.
Moreover, content upgrades are contextual since you continue with the same topic, allowing the opt-in forms to appear anywhere in the blog. You can also offer the promotion in exchange for a subscription several times as they don’t create screen interruptions.
Wrapping Up
In today’s tech-savvy world, inbound marketing is dependent on gated content. It lets marketers trade high-quality information in exchange for a subscription – an ideal way to generate leads. However, gating content unnecessarily won’t boost leads or conversions.
It should be worthwhile – something that is not readily available online because only then will users exchange information. Therefore, consider setting some regulations for gated content and use them to make your business succeed.
