Should You Rely on a Gated Landing Page? Everything You Need to Know

hushly ungated conversions

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).

Think with Google

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.

4 B2B Landing Page Best Practices to Convert Mobile Users

B2B landing page best practices

Every B2B company should be utilizing a number of different landing pages.

Despite the fact that they’re arguably one of the simplest marketing assets available, landing pages are also among the most powerful.

However, that’s only true when you understand B2B landing page best practices.

4 B2B Landing Page Best Practices to Implement Right Now

Given how simple they are, it shouldn’t be too surprising that there are only four B2B landing page best practices that you have to understand to turn them into one of your most reliable marketing assets.

1. Start with a Clear and Concise Header

B2B buyers tend to be a lot savvier than their B2C counterparts. If nothing else, this is because B2C buying involves individuals, whereas B2B buying involves teams.

That’s why B2B content sometimes has a reputation for being boring copy. Witticisms and clever expressions don’t work as well when you’re targeting B2B buyers who have so much more on the line.

Of course, that doesn’t mean your writing can’t have a personality. However, it doesmean that the header on your landing page shouldn’t rely on a funny quip or play-on-words to get prospects down the page.

Instead, make yours as benefits-focused as possible. Make it clear in your header what your CTA has to offer in terms of benefits. If you can make it clever, great, but be sure it’s clear.

2. Let a Video Do the Talking

Similarly, B2B buyers have a lot less time to wade through a landing page full of copy. They generally aren’t searching on the weekends or during their personal time. Instead, they’re at the office, up against deadlines, and juggling one-too-many priorities.

If your landing page greets them with big, bulky copy, you’re going to see a gigantic bounce rate.

However, if your landing page is utilized as a simple lead magnet – like a free eBook – keep the copy concise.

If the landing page is for an actual product you sell – even if the page is advertising a free trial – go with a video. Offering the important information this way has increased conversions for some companies by as much as 86%.

3. Leverage Trustmark’s for Proof Your Offer Works

Another way to make the most of the time you have with a B2B prospect is by placing trustmarks above-the-fold of your landing page. Trustmarks are just the logos of companies you’ve successfully helped in the past. They’re called trustmarks because they build immediate trust.

Check out our homepage, for example. Without having to scroll down, you can see that our list of satisfied clients includes well-known names like Intel, Symantec, and Unisys. We know that those trustmarks aren’t enough to win over leads immediately, but it does spark their interest.

“If those companies trust Hushly, it’s worth learning more.”

Always put trustmarks on your landing page. Even if your current list of clients doesn’t include huge, impressive names – yet – they’re still a subtle reminder that your company isn’t new to success. Then, as time goes on and your landing page starts bringing in more and more business, keep updating those trustmarks to show off how great you are.

4. Always Test Different Versions of Your Landing Pages

We’re big fans of A/B testing your marketing funnel.

It’s extremely simple these days to go in and switch out one image for another, or try a new header, or even create a new video in many cases.

Yet, the upside could be a double-digit increase to your conversions.

You should really never stop testing your landing pages, even long after they’ve surpassed your original expectations. Making one simple change could give you a whole new perspective on how your market likes to be engaged and transform your whole approach.

Also, unlike your website or other marketing assets, it’s easy to change a landing page and then update it right back if you’re not seeing better results.

Turning Your B2B Landing Page Best Practices into Immediate Conversions

Once you have the above B2B landing page best practices in place, you’ll enjoy much greater results from this powerful marketing asset.

Still, you can do even better.

At Hushly, we’ve created a platform solely to help B2B companies convert more of the leads who visit their websites.

It’s by no small amount, either. Our platform will increase your conversions by 51% – guaranteed.

Would you like to see for yourself? Contact us today and we’d be more than happy to offer you a free demo to show you why so many B2B companies from across numerous industries rely on us.

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