Is gated content a good lead generation strategy

Most brands gate their downloadable guides, whitepapers (i.e. people need to fill up their contact details to view the content) as a result of which it’s getting harder and harder to get people to convert. That’s because most lead gen content isn’t very good, and people are wary of falling into the marketing funnel.

Typically brands create content & hide it behind a landing page. 80% of people who visit such page immediately leave it without downloading the content asset as they are aware they will subsequently be bombarded with sales pitches in their inbox. Marketing teams then hand over the balance 20% as leads to sales team and the sales team then starts following up aggressively with these leads. This leads a bad flavor with the prospect as they may have been just early in their evaluation cycle without any immediate idea of buying the product or solution.

Brands should gate content only when it is really necessary. The main use cases being: webinars (because you need to send invites/reminders), educational courses (because you need to send the next series), and exclusive subscriber content. The key here is exclusive content needs to be looked into from the customer point of view & not what you deem is exclusive. Lead generation content should focus on originality and impact it can make to customer’s business.

Brands need to ask themselves the following questions when they set out to develop exclusive lead generation content:

  • Does this type of content exist yet?
  • Can this content be found easily elsewhere with just a google search?
  • Is this content just interesting but not actionable?
  • Will this content add real value to the way your customer carries out their business?

Once you have answers to these questions and you have brainstormed it with all the concerned stakeholders, should you proceed with creating that content & gating that content. This will ensure that you improve your ROI on your lead generation efforts.

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