Q: When should you ungate content in a B2B SaaS business?

One of the ways that successful SaaS companies keep their pipeline full is by using inbound marketing to their advantage.

As the name suggests, inbound marketing allows leads to come to you as a natural part of their search for the answers to their problem. Once they come through your door (or your website) or discover you on social media, your job is to develop a relationship that nurtures them through the purchasing process, supplying helpful information that guides them along the way. This methodology is the direct opposite of outbound sales, which is a more interruptive way to get people's attention.

It makes sense, then, that content is a critical component of inbound marketing strategy. People searching for answers and solutions on the internet bare their souls to Google, and one of the best ways to get them onto your website is to create content that answers their questions.

It’s there that the potential for a relationship begins: they’ve noticed you. But at what point do you take the relationship a step further by asking for their email address so you can provide them with more information that builds trust and (hopefully) leads to a conversion to your product?

Here’s where the question of gated content comes in.

The (Supposed) Benefits of Content Gating

When you trade information for information, allowing users to access content like a webinar, ebook, guide, or white paper in exchange for their email address, you're gating your content.

On the surface, there are some significant benefits to doing this, primarily when it comes to lead generation. The more leads you acquire, the more potential you have for increasing conversions and revenue.  

The logic goes that once you create a lead magnet, you then have some gated content of value to “trade” for an email address. And once you obtain the email address, it gives you the opportunity to enroll your new contact into a marketing workflow that sends them sales emails for your product over time.

In marketing, we call this a nurture campaign (you might also have heard it called a “drip” campaign, which is accurately descriptive but also objectively gross) because it nurtures the relationship between lead and company. Nurture often continues through the first sale and beyond, continuing to provide value to customers and, where appropriate, encouraging them to keep purchasing products, leave positive reviews, and refer new customers.

This all sounds great! Then why are we talking about ungating content?

As someone who has written a lot of nurture emails that have converted a lot of customers, I can say that generating leads is an incredibly valuable activity, and every company should do it.

But content gating isn’t the best strategy to get there, even for B2B SaaS businesses. Here’s why.

Gating your content makes it unsearchable  

Investing in SEO best practices pays off. In fact, for any given search term, the top 5 results on Google yield two-thirds of all the clicks (exactly what happened for me and the page where I sourced that statistic).

Companies spend thousands of dollars for complete SEO audits, trying to identify opportunities where they can capitalize on search terms with low competition and move their content higher up on the list.

But when you choose to gate your content and not make it openly searchable, you’re missing out on that opportunity. Google won’t be able to find it. And that means that the questions that your content is trying to answer might then be answered by your content competitors, your product competitors, or both.

And truly, most content you create should be searchable; an in-depth buyer’s guide about choosing the right CMS or email platform is information that is helpful and could introduce new customers to your brand through organic search. Keeping these guides tucked away from people’s eyes and from organic search reduces the chance that anyone will know it exists, let alone hand over their email in order to get it.

Gated content introduces a lot of friction

I’m going to make a bold statement here, and if you disagree and want to let me have it, please be my guest. Ready?

People don’t like getting spammed.

It’s 2021, and they see through it. They know that putting in their email address will likely open them up to a nonstop onslaught of sales emails, which isn’t totally worth it when they don’t know how much value the lead magnet you’ve created will offer them. Will it be a little? Will it be a lot? Will it be a poorly veiled sales pitch?

As gated content has become more common, people have caught on to the fact that when they sign up for an ebook, they’re turning on a faucet that takes effort to shut off. If it’s not an offer they can’t resist, it becomes easier just not to sign up at all. 

Sentiments around gating content for B2B SaaS have changed.

It used to be that gated content made sense for B2B SaaS products with longer sales cycles. Customers need more time when they’re purchasing high-ticket products, especially on behalf of a business where the buying decision requires several stages of approval and multiple stakeholders.

There is a lot that these purchasers need to gain trust in the company, and lead magnets in these cases were created to help nurture and educate early-stage leads about the potential solutions available to them.

But it really doesn’t work that way anymore. In B2B SaaS marketing in 2021, customer expectations are evolving, and they expect information to be easily open and accessible. Customers might take more time, but when they want information they want it immediately—and they don’t necessarily want to talk to a sales rep to get it.

Attention is at a premium, and businesses can capture more of it by providing as many answers to questions as they can upfront—for all the world and Google to see. If your competitors aren’t gating content but your company still is, you’re behind. They’re likely ranking better, answering customer questions faster, acknowledging pain points more completely, and making sure that the leads they do get are qualified.

It turns out this works a lot better than chasing customers who fill out a form to get a guide but have no intention of converting on the product.

When content gating makes sense

While “lead magnets” might thankfully be shuffling off this mortal coil sometime soon, that’s not to say that gated content is always a bad idea. But B2B SaaS companies should be very open about exactly what the lead is signing up for, what kinds of communications they should expect to receive, and how those communications will help their business.

The higher the value of the product, the higher the value of the content—buyers want to be as educated and clear as possible before they make a purchase, and when viewed in this context, trading an email for that clarity seems like a good exchange.

Instead of relying on a one-time lead magnet, other types of value-adding lead generation mechanisms might be a better fit:

• Inviting your audience to join your email list for personalized help or recommendations, or offering a value-packed newsletter at regular intervals

• Asking them to RSVP for a virtual or in-person event

• Leveraging referral reward campaigns to incentivize organic recommendations

Great gated content succeeds by addressing and answering questions and/or making something easier for the target audience in their daily lives, not by cloaking more sales content.

As a wise man once said, in order to do this well you have to put your back into it.

It is an act of giving, and it should be clear both in the actual content itself and on the landing page for that content that you are giving something of great value. After all, content gating isn’t just a simple transaction, and it isn’t the end of the relationship between the two parties. It’s just the beginning.

The content your contacts have signed up for isn’t free; they’ve paid for it in information and in privacy by allowing you into their inbox. You both have agreed to this, but like any new relationship, it’s delicate. Your content should leave them feeling convinced that they received much more than they gave up.

If the old mechanisms are no longer working as well and you’re wondering when you should ungate your content, the answer is probably yesterday. But don’t despair.

In the end, content gating is just one way to reach your leads. You can experiment to find the alternatives that work for you by communicating your value and building your reputation, but the golden rule to remember for lead generation is that it’s far better (even for you, in the long run) to give than to receive.

As a content marketing strategy consultant, I help B2B SaaS businesses use empathy to build lasting customer relationships. I provide content opportunity audits and assessments, consulting with marketing leaders on content strategy, and offering training workshops in content creation and copywriting.

Interested in working with me? Book a discovery call today.