The gated asset has been a staple of B2B marketing for years. By putting a ‘gate’ up in front of an asset, it requires the reader to hand over some details, typically an email, in order to access the full content. Gated assets can be great in a marketing campaign for lead generation, thought leadership, sales enablement, increased conversion rates, and more, as organizations use these emails to segment and understand their audience, nurture leads, and increase brand awareness.
But you don’t get to reap these rewards if no one actually downloads it.
And with so much content out there more easily accessible than ever, it’s harder to get people to choose your asset to download. People today understand the value of their personal information. Gone are the days when you’d hand over your email to anyone and everyone who asked, only to find your inbox clogged with promotions and scams. Over 70% of medium and large businesses in the UK have experienced some form of cyber security breach or attack in the last 12 months, and with high-profile data leaks consistently making the news, it’s not shocking that prospects aren’t as free with their personal details anymore. Consumers are smarter, and if you want their email, then they want to know that it’s worth their time.
Have you published your gated asset, and sat waiting for the leads to roll in, only to see nothing? Like me, you might have seen various blogs and posts recently from B2B marketers asking the question, ‘Is the gated asset dead?’. But there’s no need to panic just yet. As times change, so should strategies, including how you approach gating your content. Let’s explore some of the reasons why your gated asset might still be sitting lonely in your content bank.
Is the content worth gating?
It can be exciting to gate your content with the promise of gaining precious leads, but not all content is worthy of gating. And if prospects can see that the content isn’t worth handing over their info for, they won’t do it.
People now value their information more than ever and aren’t going to hand it over for nothing. It’s important to strategically choose which assets you choose to gate. Longer form content that offers value to a prospect is ideal. Exciting reports, handy guides, and groundbreaking insights are all great ways of enticing people.
Your gated content should include more in-depth and thought-provoking ideas, rather than introductory-level content that prospects can find elsewhere in a quick Google search.
Here’s some quick questions you could ask yourself when deciding whether or not to gate an asset:
- Is this a trending/hot topic that people want to hear about?
- Does this asset provide a fresh perspective or opinion?
- What value can a prospect derive from this asset?
- Does this asset target a specific place in the funnel?
Does it look like it’s worth my email?
Even if your content is worth gating, if it doesn’t look like it is, people still won’t download it. When you’re hiding the good stuff behind a gate, its crucial to make sure the snippets you do share are enough to get people to hand over their info.
Showcasing some tasty stats, key quotes, or shocking revelations demonstrates the quality of your content and tells a prospect that more of the same awaits them in the full asset. It’s important not to give away everything, but just enough to leave them wanting more. This includes making sure your page is SEO-optimised, making it easy for people to find your asset and search for the full answer to their query behind the content gate.
Check out this guide from Hubspot on using Instagram for business. On their landing page, they showcase some of the key values that readers will take away from this asset, as well as some snapshots of the content. It’s clear to see what you’ll get from downloading this guide, and does a great job of showing just enough to pique your interest.
Promo, promo, promo
If you create the best-gated asset around, but people don’t read it, did it ever really exist?
It’s important to support your gated asset by getting out there with promotion. Paid promotion is the ideal route, as this can get your gated asset right in the path of your target market, increasing your reach and engagement with your asset.
In the ad below, Forrester takes advantage of LinkedIn’s document feature to showcase the first few pages of their guide, a popular tactic used to show prospects the kind of content they’ll receive if they download.
Not in your budget? No worries! Using more cost-effective methods, such as email and organic social posts, you can still spread the word and raise visibility of your gated asset.
Like with your landing page, it’s crucial to utilise some of the highlights from your asset to tempt prospects and illustrate how unmissable your content is.
Supporting content FTW
If someone is just discovering your brand, they’ll be more hesitant to hand over their email. And they don’t know yet that they can trust the quality of the content behind the gated page. Whilst your landing page and promotion can demonstrate this, creating supporting content such as blogs can give a prospect that confidence to hand over their email.
But no one’s going to buy the cow if they can get the milk for free. Don’t just rewrite your content in shorter form, take one learning or insight from your asset, and create content out of this. Here, you give people a taster of what they can expect from the full asset, without completely giving everything away.
With gating assets, comes great responsibility
The gated asset lives on, but just as the way people consume information has changed, so should your tactics for creating content. Original, thought-provoking, and value-driven content is key to creating the kind of asset that’ll get you the valuable leads you desire. So go forth, gate your assets with confidence, and rake in those sweet, sweet emails.
Want a hand creating content that’ll reach your target audience? Reach out at hello@isolinecomms.com.
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