“I am Vinz, Vinz Clortho, Keymaster of Gozer.Volguus Zildrohar, Lord of the Sebouillia. Are you the Gatekeeper?”
-Ghostbusters
What is gated content? It is any type of content that viewers can access only after they have given their information, such as email address. This is a way for brands to collect emails for lead generation. It can lead to more sales, and email list growth, and provide insights into your customers. Here are some examples of gated content that your brand can use to generate new leads.
1. eBooks: these are a quick and easy way to educate your audience without face-to-face contact. Some people prefer information that they can read and ingest on their own time. Typically, these are short and highly specialized.
2. White papers: these are usually longer than eBooks. Again, it shows your expertise in a topic area and is very in-depth and informative.
3. Webinars: this is an educational opportunity for your audience. Not only will you get their information, you will be able to build trust, show your expertise, and inspire.
4. Templates: we know we’ve downloaded HubSpot’s social media content calendar tracker templates and use them every day. We gave them our email information to receive their daily blogs. We honestly both benefited from that scenario. We love their blogs and we found the scheduler very useful.
5. Product/service demonstrations: as it sounds, this is a demo of what your brand has to offer. It should show the benefits of the brand’s services/products. This could provide proof that a potential customer will need to pull the trigger on going with your brand over another.
People will assume, and rightfully so, that gated content is more valuable than ungated because they must perform extra steps to obtain it. That said, it’s important to make sure that it does provide value to them. Gated content can help you weed out those who won’t become real customers because they will not want to take the extra steps and give their information. The gated content your brand creates should be well thought out to be valuable and informative. Use your creative juices to appeal to your audience!
