Should You Rely on a Gated Landing Page? Everything You Need to Know…
From a B2B marketing perspective, gating a landing page is the only choice that makes sense, right?
You don’t want website visitors to slip through the cracks and get lost forever in the massive internet void like an interesting Facebook post after your newsfeed refreshes.
You want to collect email addresses and follow up with leads.
The truth is, however, if all your content sits behind a form, there’s a good chance that you also struggle with massive data problems (both massive problems and problems with massive amounts of data).
60% of businesses say that their data is unreliable and 40% of their leads have bad data.
That’s what happens when you require an email address from everyone that steps foot into your website.
So, what’s a B2B marketer to do? Is a gated landing page the answer? It’s not that simple. Let’s weigh the pros and cons.
Pros of Choosing a Gated Landing Page
Keep in mind that gated content doesn’t exist in a void. It’s a part of your general strategy.
Here are the top benefits of choosing a gated landing page to connect with leads.
It Increases the Value of Your Content
When you put content behind a form, people tend to assume that the information must be valuable and thus, your brand value increases.
In our society, everything has a price including necessities like water and food. As a result, when you give something away for free, the perceived value drops.
It Helps You Collect Vital Information About Your Audience for Segmentation
Once a visitor converts into a lead, you want to offer them highly personalized content.
By gating your content, you can figure out which lead magnet sparked their interest enough to hand over their email address.
You can also learn more information about them through your form. Data like this is important for creating segmented email campaigns which can deliver 760% more revenue than generic campaigns.
It’s Easier to Track Your Marketing Strategy Performance
Gating your content can help you nail down your target audience and KPIs and track the success of your lead magnets and overall marketing strategy.
If people aren’t filling out the form to access your content, you know the problem isn’t the content copy itself.
You can also use a gated landing page to run vital A/B tests on specific elements.
Cons of Choosing a Gated Landing Page
A gated landing page isn’t without its own massive drawbacks.
You Risk Giving Your Leads “Form Rage” from an Unfriendly Mobile Experience
Do you like filling out forms on your phone? Well, your B2Bs don’t either.
According to Google, 70% of all business searches will come from mobile devices by 2020 with buyers spending an average of three hours each day on their phone.
You’ll Suffer from Bogus Data or Data Overload
Not only do 40% of leads supply poor data, but 65% of job titles and functions change every year.
Gating all your content puts you at risk for collecting fake email addresses, collecting more data than you can effectively use, and wasting resources on “leads” who aren’t even part of your target audience.
It Interferes with Your Sales Funnel
Adding a form – no matter how optimized for user experience – creates room for problems to arise.
Anything that interferes with your sales funnel is no good and forms are at the top of the list (especially for mobile users).
Source: Think with Google
Pros of Choosing Ungated Content
If the downsides to choosing a fully gated landing page strategy have turned you off on the idea, you may be wondering if completely unhindered content is the answer. Let’s weigh the benefits and cons.
Completely ungated content is the right choice for many industries, but what about B2Bs in your industry?
It Helps You Create a Seamless User Experience:
Google says that mobile searches influence 40% of all B2B revenue. Even if you’re not in the e-commerce biz, decision-makers are conducting research from their smartphone.
Dropping forms from that gated landing page is the best thing to do if you want to create a mobile-friendly experience and start the relationship with a good first impression.
Ungated Content is Useful for Brand Awareness and Engagement
Do you like sharing gated content on your social media accounts?
For many people, it can feel kind of dirty – like sharing clickbait or blatant promotional material.
Keeping your content barrier-free means that more people will share it, and you’ll get more website traffic.
Your Leads Can Nurture Themselves (and Speed Up the Buying Cycle)
When potential leads have unlimited access to your content, they can educate themselves at their own pace in a process called self-nurturing.
By the time they decide to contact you or supply their email address, they’re further along in the sales funnel.
Cons of Choosing Ungated Content
Completely ungated content is a scary thought for many B2Bs – and for good reason.
Barrier-Free Content Makes It Difficult to Track and Test Your Strategy
Is your marketing strategy working or are you missing out on valuable leads? Hard to tell. Your options for A/B testing are also limited because you won’t have much information to compare with your results.
You’ll Lack Information About Your Leads
Without any form, you’re at the mercy of Google Analytics or third-party software to tell you who’s visiting your website.
When a lead gives you their email address, you won’t know which topic sparked their interest enough to want more content.
Ungated Content Leads are Often Lower Quality
If anyone can access your content, you won’t know which leads and visitors are serious buyers so your retargeting campaigns on social media will suffer.
On the other hand, you may also fail to collect vital information from the most qualified leads.
So, What’s the Right Choice for Generating High Quality Leads?
Hushly can help you strike the perfect balance between an ungated and gated landing page. With features like content bingeing, self-nurturing landing pages, and lead verification systems, you can skyrocket leads by 51% almost instantly and ensure that you’re only collecting the highest quality leads.
Want to learn more about the halfway point between gated and ungated content? Check out the Hushly eBook here.
