What Marketers Need to Know

As William Shakespeare once wrote, “To be or not to be, that is the question.”

Marketers have a similar classic debate and that means: gated versus ungated content.

While 80% of the assets for B2B content marketing are gated and Lead generation is one of the main goals for marketersIt is not an open and closed case.

For this reason, we have put together everything you need to know about gated content in this post.

Let’s check what gated content is and how it is compared to ungated content below. Then we’ll look at best practices for gated content and look at some examples.

How does gated content work?

Typically, users come to your website and see a CTA or popup that they can use to access content in exchange for their information.

Your CTA or popup can lead to a landing page where the visitor can get more information Content offer.

It is important to note that gated content is free for inbound marketing and is not hidden behind a paywall. Users only need to provide contact information to access the content.

Now you may be wondering “Why should I hide my content from my audience?”

As a rule, the goal of gated content is lead generation. Marketers create targeted content for their target audience and use it to attract leads. Gated content is not used for brand awareness or visibility campaigns because hidden content does not allow high traffic.

Let’s discuss the pros and cons of gated and ungated content below.

As you can probably see, both closed and ungated content serve different purposes. But you may be wondering what the pros and cons are. Now let’s go into that.

Benefits of gated content

• Increases lead generation
• Leads to more sales
• Offers analyzes and insights into your customers
• Allows segmentation of email lists

Disadvantages of gated content

• Lack of pageviews and traffic
• No SEO advantage or boost
• The form prevents people from downloading content
• No brand visibility

Ultimately, gated content is designed to generate leads that you can gain for potential customers through your marketing efforts, while ungated content should increase traffic and improve trust in your audience.

Both types of content are valuable and should be included in yours Content marketing strategy.

After reading this list, you may be wondering: “How do I know if I should embed my content?”

Well, it all depends on your goals – brand visibility / SEO or lead generation.

Also consider the type of content. Longer form content such as an e-book is suitable for closed content, while shorter form content such as blog posts are more suitable than non-linked content.

Once you’ve decided to create some of the gated content, you’re probably curious about how to start. Let’s look at some best practices below.

1. Create content for each stage of the buyer’s journey.

When a prospect goes through it Buyer tripYou will go through three phases: awareness, consideration and decision.

In fact, here is a brief graphic that explains each phase:

In every phase, it is important that your audience has content to support them on their way.

For example, visitors in the awareness phase are likely to be interested in reading an e-book. On the other hand, a visitor might prefer a product demo or webinar during the decision-making phase.

For this reason, it is important that your content offers are designed for every phase of the buyer’s journey. If your gated content is geared towards their journey, your audience is more likely to convert.

2. Perform a competitive analysis.

Once you’ve worked out some substantive ideas for each phase of the buyer’s journey, it’s time to get one Competitive analysis.

In a competitive analysis, you examine what your competitors are doing. This means looking up what type of content they are creating. Take a look at what content is gated or not.

This gives you a good idea of ​​what content should be gated by you.

3. Offer incentive.

As an inbound marketer, you know that delivering value is paramount.

Your content offerings shouldn’t just be a long blog post. Instead, your gated content should provide actionable, valuable content.

In addition, your gated content should be relevant to your audience.

If your content offers real added value, it will encourage your audience to fill out this form and give you the contact information.

4. Create a strong landing page.

When a user clicks on a content offering CTA, they are usually taken to a landing page. That means one of the best methods for gated content is to create a strong landing page.

This means that you want to create a strong headline, write a convincing copy, and create a form.

Eventually, a landing page eliminates distractions and draws your visitor’s undivided attention.

5. Segment your audience.

Once your target audience has downloaded your gated content and received their email address, it’s time to segment their email lists.

This way, you can develop targeted and effective email marketing campaigns.

By segmenting your target group, you can also send neat emails to forward these leads to potential customers.

6. Measure the analysis.

Once you’ve chosen a piece of content, you can track conversions and measure your analytics.

As with any marketing strategy, it is extremely important to measure your success. This data will help you better understand your target group and improve your content strategy.

After knowing some best practices for creating gated content, let’s look at the content types and examples of how this will look in action.

Examples of closed content

1. White paper.

A good example of gated content is a White paper. A white paper is an authoritative, detailed report on a specific topic.

As a rule, this is elongated content that is interesting and valuable for your audience.

White papers offer excellent content because of their value. In addition, your brand becomes an industry expert on a topic. If you’re a trustworthy expert, people want to know what to say.

This means that you get more people to download your offer.

2. Ebook.

An e-book is another popular type of gated content. Unlike a white paper, an e-book is usually a short guide to a specific topic.

E-books can also give your brand authority and build trust among your audience. As a rule, e-books are used in the awareness and consideration phase of the buyer’s trip.

3. Templates.

One of my favorite forms of gated content is the template. Providing a template is tactical, actionable content.

The perceived value of a template is much higher than that of an e-book and a white paper. This means that your target audience is more likely to enter their contact information to get it.

Templates are a great closed content offering for people in the consideration and decision phase of the buyer’s journey.

4th webinar.

With a webinar, you train your audience to learn more about a topic. They develop trust, build relationships and hopefully inspire.

For those who are in the decision-making phase of the buyer’s trip, webinars are an excellent offer for closed content.

Here, too, webinars have a high perceived value, which makes your audience more likely to fill out this form.

With gated content, it is important to consider what types of content you offer and to ensure that it is suitable for your audience. Ultimately, gated content should be targeted and help you generate leads.