Let's backtrack. Digital marketing was born about 3 decades ago when computers had become smart enough to store customer data and give out ungated content. Fast-forward into the present day and take a look into your inbox.
We all share the same inbox and social media story, apathetic, unapologetic with same old brand awareness content. Frankly, there is nothing out-of-the-box out there that we could stop and check out. Our inboxes are running out of space and we are (well!) running out of time to clear the clutter.
Marketing as you see has evolved from the traditional door-to-door, direct, and indirect guerrilla warfare to the more contemporary and sophisticated digital media combat. For any enterprise, high-quality leads which are marketing or sales qualified, are generated through digital marketing. And what exactly do you market digitally? CONTENT!
Content is the pivot, the single most entity that is spinning the dynamic marketing wheel to create demand. A study by Content Marketing Institute found that the number one content marketing challenge faced by B2B marketers is producing valuable content (60%), followed by producing content consistently (57%), and measuring the effectiveness of content (57%).
In simpler terms, premium content is the means through which enterprises are increasing their conversion rate. Several B2B marketers employ a mix of content to promote across different channels. These include email marketing, blog post, articles, whitepapers, reports, guides, e-books, videos, GIFs, webinars, podcasts, etc.
Writing content that attracts your potential customer is no rocket science provided you get the right things in place to get started and going. By executing the most accurate marketing strategy you increase your chances of attracting an audience that you wish to target.
Here is Deck 7's 5-point scale which at best, is a checklist for creating great gated content that will help you create, monitor, measure, and control your gated piece to generate demand. But before we get on to the 5-point scale, it is assumed that you have identified your buyer persona clearly and have a robust content marketing arm in place to achieve the desired results from your gated content marketing strategy.
1. Does It Address the Pain Points?
A marketer should talk about the audience's most pressing problems, pain points, and critical challenges in the context of the title. The introduction of your gated content is like initiating a discussion with your customer where you are reiterating their problem and telling them that you can guide them through an optimal solution. The content gate in the information that you provide could be in the form of infographics, landing page or any other form of content gating.
2. Are There Enough Statistics, Links and Facts?
Quote experts in the field, tell what the research says about it, give relevant statistics, and mention facts from trusted sources to indicate that they are not alone and that the problem is common. Add good links that will help them run through the reports or blogs for better understanding. Factor this, you are telling your audience how huge the problem is and what could be its side effects. You are validating your points with some real facts and statistics that will hold their attention. Doing this is one of the best way for turning potential customers in to qualified leads.
3. Did You Introduce a Use Case to Demonstrate What Others Are Doing?
Here you will tell them how a certain content marketer sorted out the same problem and how a few others with similar challenges overcame it. Use real use cases to explain your B2B content. This not only adds credibility to your content but also signifies you as an expert in the field. When your target audience has a live example to look up to they start to value your information. Gated content works in such cases as the audience is ready to trade for their details for the information that you provide.
4. Have You given the Solution?
Now is the time for you to give them the solution and explain how your service, app, product, platform, or tool will help the customer meet their specific requirements and overcome their challenges. Introduce the key features, benefits, unique selling points, and achievements of your content offer. This step acts like a lead magnet if you give out the content the audience is looking for.
5. Is There a Touchpoint?
Give a brief description of your company and provide a touchpoint like your contact info, website, email id, or address. Provide a content asset to refer back to.
Follow this 5-point scale to put your gated content strategy in the trusted league for finding takers to create the much-needed demand and kick-start the lead generation process.