Over the past several years, the world has woken up to the power of content marketing. A decade ago, using content to draw in prospects was something only those with big marketing budgets could afford. Now, content is seen as one of THE BEST go-to-market strategies. But what types of content should be gated for lead generation, and which are better left ungated for brand awareness? The answer – think of your buyer and it will be clear.
Gated Content Test
When you gate a content asset you are putting up a barrier for the person who wants to consume it. If the asset is valuable enough, they will fill out the form (ie: the gate) in order to get it. If the perceived value is inadequate, then the person will leave your landing page and go elsewhere.
I use two simple tests to gauge whether a content asset is worth gating or not:
- Put yourself in the shoes of your typical buyer and objectively ask…would you give your email address and other information to get access to that content? If yes, then proceed to test 2.
- Do a search online for anything like the asset you want to gate. If you find less than two ungated then your asset is worth gating.
For example, if you do a search in Google for “patient communications success story” or “patient engagement case study”, you’ll find dozens of ungated assets from numerous companies. If you had a case study and are a patient communications/engagement company, I would not recommend gating it. It will simply be ignored, after all, why should I give you my contact details when your competitor is giving that information away for free?
Good Gated Content
Based on the test above and based on what I’ve experienced deploying hundreds of content assets, here are five content assets that perform well for lead generation (ie: gated):
- eBooks
- Whitepapers (that aren’t just glorified brochures)
- Survey Results
- Studies/Analysis
- On-Demand webinars featuring industry titans (ie: the head of the ONC, the President of an Association)
These have performed consistently well.
Content That Should Be Free
In contrast, these are the five content assets I have found perform poorly if they are gated and should be freely available instead:
- Case studies
- Videos of any type
- Blog Articles
- Product information
- On-demand webinars that feature customers or company execs (6 months after the original webinar date)
Case studies are a fantastic asset, but they should not be gated. We covered why that’s the case in this article: “Are Case Studies Good for Lead Generation?”
Webinars are a great for lead-generation when they initially air, but that same webinar as an on-demand video loses it’s draw after 6 months – especially if it does not feature a marquee healthcare guest. If you think about it, webinars that feature customers or company executives are really just case studies so it should be surprising that the number of new leads generated drops significantly over time.
Bottom line: gate the right type of content and you will have a continual stream of leads. Gate the wrong type and you’ll likely be struggling to meet your monthly lead goals.
What other content assets have you gated successfully?
Photo by Christina Morillo: https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-sitting-near-table-using-macbook-1181449/
Add Comment