Gated vs ungated content: pros and cons
Feb 13, 2023
When it comes to lead generation things are changing rapidly, what worked last year doesn't work as well this year and it's only going to get worse.
The relentless move towards online information means the balance of power is changing. Social media, powerful search engines and savvy users are conspiring to put customers in charge of the sales process. The result is increasingly lower ROI on traditional lead generation activity.Specifically this affects most outbound marketing efforts. When you read outbound think:
Any good business will opt for sales activities that provide the best results and so there has been a shift in marketing spend from traditional promotion and advertising to inbound marketing.
The problem is that "Inbound" is still in its relative infancy and so some business are slow to change. But those who embrace this radical change will steal a march on their competitors.
Most people, if they have a need, will look online to satisfy it rather than wait for a sales person to ring or discover it in a magazine.
If your product or service can't be found online then a potential buyer will be lost. Inbound marketing aims to promote your organisation, its product and its expertise in a variety of ways so that your target market can find you, ultimately helping you to get more leads.
What they think when they do find you is all down to the quality of the content produced; whether they become a lead and eventually a customer depends on having a clear strategy to:
Developing quality leads is all about identifying those most likely to buy your product or service while discarding those who clearly wont. Here's how to get started:
A persona is a representation of a customer type. It will include their likely job title, the issues they face, and what's important to them. All this information will help in the creation of content throughout a lead generation campaign. A potential customer is much more likely to respond to information that is pertinent to them. Having a persona to refer to helps keep the important things in mind.
You will need 4 or 5 pieces of meaty content with enough value that folks would be prepared to leave some personal information in exchange for downloading it. Don't forget that this content should be created to actually help your chosen persona.
In addition there should be several blogs relating to the subject of your more heavyweight pieces. These will help drive awareness online and should also contain links to your valuable content.
Each piece of valuable content should be downloaded from a landing page. The landing page should contain a form where the visitor leaves their details before downloading. If a visitor leaves their details then you have the first indication that they may be interested in what you have to say and, ultimately, what you have to sell.
Template emails should be prepared so that they automatically send once someone has downloaded content. They are an opportunity for you to introduce yourself and engage more fully. They can also be used to promote other content that may be of interest. The process of email sending can be automated with more sophisticated marketing automation platforms - more of that later.
New leads will sit at the top of your sales funnel. The aim is to maintain contact by allowing each lead to consume more valuable information until they agree to some form of direct interaction or contact you directly. This requires campaign planning including what happens after each piece of content is downloaded.
As your valuable content requires contact details to be left it becomes possible to evaluate how much content each person has consumed. This gives your sales team invaluable insight into what issues a prospect faces. Once there's enough insight a lead can be considered marketing qualified and these leads passed to a sales person together with the history of contact. A much warmer call is assured and the potential to do business with them much increased. That's the beauty of b2b inbound lead generation; measurable, trackable and actionable!
Sales people will benefit from better qualified leads and the added information that comes from your b2b inbound marketing campaigns.
Your expensive sales team will spend more time selling and less time prospecting. Plus there the additional benefit of the lower cost of lead acquisition, better reporting and insight into what works and what doesn't. It means that the inbound strategy can be refined to produce better results month-on-month.
There are specialist agencies that provide strategic marketing services that have good knowledge of marketing automation platforms. Just Google inbound marketing and take your pick. Or get in touch with me at Blend for more information.
