You can find gated content in many different forms. It can be worksheets or webinars to ebooks or videos. Some other forms are checklists, audio recordings and case studies. Gated content exchanges information for content. This is a quick and easy way to generate leads for your business. This is because you are now offering your customer something that they want instead of just asking for their information in a direct manner. In this article you will learn about gated content, some strategies and their benefits.

What is Gated Content?

Any sort of content or material that only an audience can access by giving information is called gated content. A visitor can only access your content after they exchange certain information. For the most part, businesses hide these behind forms. You can also supply your email address, name, title, industry, or phone number. Some companies may experiment with likes and followers on social media. This strategy may be viable but it is not a common practice.

Also, many businesses utilise gated content to create leads as well as sales. Companies can use this kind of content for various marketing strategies as well. In addition, it is important for you to understand the things that aren’t gated content. First, it isn’t any content that you ask your audience to pay for. You can choose to restrict certain content on social media or your website for follows, shares or likes. 

Benefits and Importance

There are so many advantages to high-quality gated content. Many companies benefit from understanding the importance of this form of content.

• It helps you understand your target audience better. When you collect data about potential customers, you can also understand them. You can use this data to target them since they have made the choice to access your content. This also helps you generate leads.

• It helps you build a relationship of trust with your audience. Most customers don’t just give out their information unless they really need that content. So, if they have given you their data it must mean they value your content. This also creates a trustworthy bond with them.

• It helps make the process of sales quicker. If you’re looking to streamline your sales, gated content is the way to go. It is more effective to reach an audience if you know them.

How it Works

Gated content works by rewarding the generation of leads. This works when a prior brand like a blog convinces your website visitors of your knowledge of a particular topic. Since you know enough about what you’re speaking about, you deserve to be heard. You have also made something that is valuable and extensive.

Besides that, gated content is a step further than subscribing to or following your blog. But, this is not because they show more interest in your business. This is because they gave you good information for leads. This allows you to nudge them into making a purchase or a sale. You can also get them on board through strategies like remarketing and email.

The Best Gated Content Strategy

It is time to check out some gated content strategies:

• Upgraded content: A popular strategy for gated content in the last few years is content upgrades. This is because they are among the best and most efficient strategies. They help to convince a reader to join your mailing list. This is done in a subtle manner. A content upgrade is leading your reader to an upgraded version of the content that they are viewing. This strategy is found in many blog posts.

• White papers and eBooks: Another great strategy is digital assets like white papers and eBooks. They are popular in inbound marketing like B2B as they are most relevant there. These assets help to give your visitors more value. They also establish your brand as an authority figure in your field. White paper or eBooks are a great way to make your email list grow over time. You can promote them at the side of blog posts with related topics. A lot of companies even make resource pages of their own. These include many whitepapers that a customer can access. This can also help convert leads into customers.

• Webinars: This is also a common strategy for gated content. Broadcasting and recording videos live have become common because the tech for these actions is accessible. Webinars also have a higher rate of conversion since their perceived value is also higher. A webinar can have a landing page of its own to collect lead data. You can then put webinars that are pre-recorded on a page of resources.

Pros and Cons

Here are some pros of gated content:

• It creates leads. Gated content is an efficient method of generating leads. If you keep your form short, then users are likely to give you their information. In addition, creating gated content helps leading websites in your industry to notice you. You could also become a resource that they backlink in their posts. Though it requires work, it is a great source for email marketing.

• It improves the loyalty of your customers. When you receive information from gated content, you get a clear picture of the user. This helps you to create marketing strategies that are specific to these users. Because of this, you increase your chances of changing a prospect into a customer. They will also be more loyal to your company as they are now invested.

Here are some cons to gated content:

• It creates a barrier that can drive some leads away. This is the biggest con of gated content. If a person is in a hurry, they will be turned off by the gated content and find their answers elsewhere. This can create the wrong effect that can ruin your chances of lead generation.

• It hides content that may create conversions. Many people refuse to sign up for gated content. This ruins your chances of them finding your good content. This is why you should give your viewers a sneak peek into what your content offers.

Tips

If you’re looking for some great tips for gated content, check out these ones:

• It is important to provide your visitors with incentives. Inbound marketing holds great importance to value and incentives. Make sure that your gated content provides valuable and actionable content. In addition, it should also hold some relevance to your audience. The visitor is more likely to fill out a form or give out their data if they have an incentive. This incentive should also give them value.

• It is important to create a good landing page. User is led to your landing page when they click on a CTAA CTA is a phrase or word designed to get an immediate response from the reader. As the name suggests, it's usually something that involves a precise action performed by... for your content. This means that you need to have a strong landing page for gated content. You require an interesting copy, a compelling headline and a form. In the end, your landing page should gain the full attention of the visitor. There should be no excess distractions.

• It is important to divide your target audience. After your gated content is downloaded by your audience, you will receive their email address. Now, you can begin to segment or divide your email lists. This can help you to create marketing campaigns via email. These campaigns are effective as they have a target. In addition, dividing your audience also means that you may send them nurturing emails. Thus converting them from leads into prospects.

• It is important to measure your analytics. You can track and record your conversions after creating gated content. You may also measure the analytics. The data you collect will help you know how your audience engages with your content. This allows you to make changes and improvements to your content strategy. 

Best Practices

Check out these best practices:

• Send out content through email courses. EmailAn email (or electronic mail) is a method of exchanging communications through the internet. It is one of the most used features on the web and the number one mean... courses and series are great practices for gated content. Since the majority of people use email, it makes for a wide casting net. A good way to get gated email content is to send it as a course or class. You can also send one email a day or a week to divide the content into different parts. This makes your subject matter easier to digest.

• Give visitors a demo of your content. A great gated content practice is by supplying your visitors with demos. This helps to show them how your software works and what problems it solves. It also allows them to become familiar with it. This is a great way to convert visitors from a simple leads into actual customers.

• Develop content for every stage of a buyer’s journey. A typical buyer will go through 3 stages: the awareness stage, the consideration stage, and the decision stage. At each stage, you should supply your audience with content to help them in their journey. For instance, if a visitor is in the stage of awareness, then they may be interested in viewing an eBook. But, if they are making a decision, they may prefer to attend a webinar or a product demo. This is why you should design your content according to each stage in the buyer’s journey. 

• Do an analysis of your competitors. After brainstorming content ideas for every stage of your buyer’s journey, you should do a competitive analysis. This analysis helps you understand what your competitors may be up to. For this, you will have to look at what kind of content they create. This will help you make a decision on how you can manage your gated and ungated content.

Top Gated Content Examples

If you’re looking for some great examples of gated content, then here are a few.

• Appboy: This company is an app where visitors need to finish a form of 5 fields in order to access their marketing ebook on a mobile. This type of gated content gives you a lot of information, but it creates a long barrier to accessing the content.

• Pardot: Another good example is Pardot. This brand has a great landing page that is designed to convince a user to download the white paper. This landing page states all the big brands that make use of Pardot. This helps a user to convert from a prospect to a customer. Besides that, it also gives you what exactly the white paper will cover.

• Infusionsoft: This brand gives users a product demo if they fill out the form. This form is kept short which makes users more likely to fill it out. Thus increasing lead generation.

• Oracle: Here is a brand that also has a great landing page. When you first reach the page it appears to have a small form. Here, only an email address is needed. But, when they fill this out, then a larger form of level fields opens up. Since Oracle is offering something valuable like a live demo, users are more likely to fill out the whole form.

In Conclusion

Gated content is effective because it encourages the generation of leads. Users may find their way to your site via a blog. They could also reach your page through social media or search engines. Your first blog should convince them that you are a reliable source of data. This is because your first post can help intrigue them into learning more about your company. This also helps to increase your lead generation.

An advantage to gated content is that you can collect good-quality leads. This is when a user leaves more than just an email address. This allows you to send personalised emails to these leads. Gated content also works as a filter for viewers.

Try not to clog people’s inboxes or ruin their consumer experience with the information you receive. Many customers are wary of their data and how companies use it. Even if a customer shares their information with you, they expect you to use the information in a responsible manner. There are also regulations for using this data and how you store it. 

Did you find this article helpful? How do you deal with gated content? Let us know in the comments below.