Question

Topic: E-Marketing

Age Old Question - Register Or Open Content?

Posted by AriRose on 2/2/2010 at 2:19 PM ET 750 Points
Has common wisdom or best-practices come to a conclusion on whether or not you require a visitor to enter basic contact information to download content, or to just give it away?

Specifically, we have a great deal of open content on our site, via our blog (www.cpehr.com/blog), articles and case studies. We just completed a detailed 25 page whitepaper for small business and the economy in 2010. I am debating whether to require basic info for access, or to just give it away. Of course, if the call to action was compelling enough, we could generate some good leads. On the other hand, if we open it up, viral networking could give us greater exposure.

What do you think??
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 2/2/2010 at 2:32 PM Accepted
    Dear Ari,

    Split the difference. Split your report into two reports and in the
    first, which you give away, you refer again and again to more
    critical points in the second part of your report.

    By doing this, and by including links in the PDF back to your site where people can download the second report in exchange for their e-mail address and perhaps their name, you build up a relationship because people WANT the second report and are up to offering you something in return: their e-mail address.

    The golden rule here is reciprocity: you give them something, they feel compelled to return the favour if they want your additional content.

    There's evidence to suggest that all you need is an e-mail address to send out continual messages of great offers and thence collect names at the sales point on whatever your follow up offers are.

    So, here you're giving stuff away AND building your list. If you also tell people that in seven days time the report will cost them $9.95, you'll also encourage them to sign up sooner, so you've got a stronger incentive (financial loss) to drive their decision.

    Give EVERYTHING away with no deadline, no follow up, no reciprocity, and no fear of financial loss cheapens the offer and reduces the value of the information.

    I hope this helps.

    Gary Bloomer
    Wilmington, DE, USA
  • Posted by AriRose on 2/2/2010 at 2:58 PM Author
    Thanks Marcus and Gary. Would this concept work? - make open access for say 30 days, after which you must register. That way the content can begin to go viral, but for the long-term, I require sign-up? Also creates a deadline to take action. Just another thought.
  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 2/2/2010 at 4:42 PM Member
    Dear Ari,

    Try it and see.

    It's possible to date lock PDFs so that access expires after a set period.

    I hope this helps.

    Gary Bloomer
    Wilmington, DE, USA

  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 2/2/2010 at 7:08 PM Accepted
    If you already have a large fan base (people who trust what you say) your case study is unlikely to go viral (unless it shows how easily make $ with no risk). Also, the more hurdles you place in front of someone interested, the less of chance they'll get close to you (unless you've got something that they really want).

    Why not make the goal of reading the paper to get an invitation to a webinar to ask questions, and do followup on the topic, ideally having the businesses mentioned in the white paper on the line to also answer question. You'll be the moderator, positioning yourself as the hub of all this great information - live.

    Also - Gary's idea of a 2 part PDF is a great idea.

    By the way - have you tested the reaction to the content on a sample of your desired audience? What do THEY think of the information? Would they be willing to pay for it? Is the information actionable? Timely? Verifiable?
  • Posted by thecynicalmarketer on 2/3/2010 at 11:01 PM Accepted
    I will assume that your end goal is to get prospects into the sales cycle and generate more revenue.

    Right or wrong, and regardless of how much work you put into creating it, most prospects will view your content simply as a part of your sales pitch. This is why many are offended by the requirement that they register to access it. They would prefer to see you demonstrate the value before they submit themselves to your future selling efforts.

    A few exceptions are items that a prospect would normally have to pay for; items that have an established selling price in an existing market. 99.9% of white papers do not qualify, same with almost all company-generated items. A good example in my industry (technology) of the exception would be industry reports from leading analyst firms such as Gartner. If a company is giving away a report that is currently selling for $2,000, then it is reasonable to require registration. So, my advice - Make it all free unless it is something they would normally pay for.

    The final word, and the most important message I want to convey is this - with all respect to my very knowledgeable colleagues, take the 1500+ words that have been written on this topic, read them for their great value, and then file them away somewhere on your hard drive. Next, go get some great web analytic software from a company such as Omniture (or other) and do your own testing.

    Gather the empirical evidence on how many people abandon when they are forced to register versus how many download when it is not required, see who comes back after downloading your content with and without registration, and see what happens to the number of prospects and the amount of sales you drive. Measure and test every aspect of it because in truth, there is only one opinion that matters and that is the collective opinion of your distinctive target audience.

    Run your own tests on your unique audience. This is where you will find the best answer.

    Hope we helped you, JohnnyB
    if you like the advice, read the blog, https://bit.ly/75KkSG
    https://twitter.com/tcmblog
  • Posted by AriRose on 2/4/2010 at 5:32 PM Author
    Thanks everyone for the lively discussion. As expected, there are about 5 sides to this coin. I appreciate JohnnyB's perspective, but think what Gary said feels most right to me - I'll split the report, and give away a few chapters for free. Hopefully whet their appetite with good content, and ask them to register (free) for more. I'll let you know how it goes!
  • Posted by matthewmnex on 2/4/2010 at 8:26 PM Member
    It depends entirely upon your business goals.

    If you want to monetise with ad revenues, then you need page displays and many of them.

    The free model would tend to generate more page views but generally low quality visitors and no loyalty.

    If you want to make money from your visitors by selling them something afterwards (be it servicees or more content or whatevber) - then you need qualified buyers.

    In this case you ABSOLUTELY have to collect as much data about them as you can so that you can communicate further with them.

    One best practice not is :\

    NEVER give away the product that you are selling.

    iN OTHER WORDS: If I sell Cola, then I can goive away a free tshirt with a logo or cap, or toy or whatever but NEVER give away the Cola :)

    Goo luck.

    Matthew
  • Posted on 2/5/2010 at 9:08 AM Member
    Ari,

    I think that Gary is right too. A tweak to this that you might consider is to give away first the highlights of the whitepaper in the form of a presentation, and require registration for the full WP. Many people dont like reading long white papers, but everyone will look at a 15-slider (and if I were you, I'd make it a cool, professional, funky, yet still valuable ppt). The last slide should have a reference to the full whitepaper with all the details etc. etc., which takes the user to a link that requires registration and then downloads the whitepaper.
    This gives you several benefits:
    1. people will send interesting presentations to each other. whitepapers much less so. will help you generate free leads that never heard of your site in the first place.
    2. your lead qualification just went up a notch - if someone liked the ppt and now is downloading the whitepaper because he wants the details - he is interested.

    p.s.
    if you want to be really cool - record a 5-10 minute pitch of you delivering the ppt (you dont have to video yourself, just voice over the slides) and at the end refer to the whitepaper. There are many tools out there that can help you do this, and many people love these sort of video-papers (who doesn't like to be info-spoonfed?)


    good luck! and it would be fantastic if you published some results to the participants here...

    Benny
    blog on SaaS/Sales&Marketing - bennyshaviv.com
    twitter @bennyshaviv
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