When it comes to generating leads for your sales and marketing teams, one tried-and-true strategy is to create gated content. In this approach, consumers receive valuable information from you, and you capture important data about those consumers along the way.
In this article, we’re going to explore the different reasons why businesses use gated content. But first, let’s look at what it actually means.
What is Gated Content?
Gated content, also known as information gates or registration walls, is any content that requires users to fill out a form in order to gain access. White papers, reports, studies, eBooks, webinars, and videos are examples of gated content.
In exchange for access to the content, consumers must provide the business with certain types of personal information. This might include a name, email address, phone number, company name, company size, occupation, or any other data the business requires. You can request as little or as much information as you want from the user, although studies have shown you may need to test how requirements affect conversion rates.
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5 Reasons Why Businesses Use Gated Content
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Lead Generation: The main reason for putting a gate in front of any content is to generate leads. Any time a user fills out the form, sales teams receive a new lead and valuable personal information. Leads can then be used to further the sales and marketing efforts of the business.
It’s likely you’ve seen or interacted with a form asking for information in exchange for content before, but here is an example of what a business might ask of a user:
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Educational Purposes: Another reason to use gated content: learning more about your potential leads. By gathering information from users — like their website or occupation, for example — businesses can have a better understanding of who their customers are and what they’re interested in. By capturing data, businesses can analyze which types of content engages what types of leads.
With a deeper understanding of consumers and preferences, businesses can build content around those types of buyers. It taps into what consumers really care about and how to address those concerns in your gated content, so you can show your business (or its products or services) is the solution to specific pain points. - Improve Sales and Marketing Strategies: Gated content can also help you optimize strategies for both your sales and marketing teams. Since it’s typically used at a point when the prospect is ready to have a conversation about your products or services, gated content is a useful tool for moving the buyer through the consideration phase. Since the journey is typically longer for B2B prospects, you need a well-defined plan to engage people at various points.
- Sell More Products or Services: By using gated content to learn more about prospects and which content best engages them, you can ultimately leverage it to increase sales for your company’s products or services. Once the person sends you their information, you have a way (or multiple ways) to reach them for future communications. This could include emailing them with other content they might find useful, giving them a call to answer any questions, or even serving targeted ads to move them along the path to purchase. All of these efforts are a part of getting them to the sale.
- Build Website Traffic and Authority: When you promote your gated content across channels like email or social media, you’re naturally going to increase the traffic to your website where the content is hosted. Depending on the topic or your industry, you might attract potential customers or journalists or even competitors. No matter who it is, though, you’re helping to build authority for your business through this gated content that’s often in-depth and crafted through expertise.
Now that you know why businesses use gated content, give this strategy a try. Before you do, make sure you’ve defined the reasons why you want to use it, so you can measure how well it’s working and what changes you might need to make to improve performance.
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