With consumers tuning out traditional advertising, many
companies are redoubling their content marketing efforts to lure customers.
This has fueled a seemingly exponential increase in the volume of free reports
and white papers available. Google, for example, listed 163,000 results for healthcare
accountable care organization (ACO) white papers. That’s a lot of competition
for just one focused term.
Given the flood of thought leadership, when does it make
sense to create another barrier to readership by adding online registration
forms, and when should your content be available without any strings attached? While
lead generation from gated content is critical, your decision depends on who
you’re trying to reach and where they are in the sales cycle.
Example of a Two-Tiered Approach
Let’s say that your company wants to position itself as an
authority on electronic health records (EHR) solutions for ACOs. First, consider
your sales targets and their priorities. Busy healthcare CEOs may be primarily
interested in the business impact of their EHR decisions, leaving the details
of compliance, IT integration and other issues to department heads.
Given this dynamic, one approach is to offer select,
high-level EHR content without requiring online registration. This strategy can
increase the likelihood that time-strapped executives will read your piece rather
than leaving your registration page to find a competitor’s white paper. And in
addition to helping to raise brand awareness, quality content can entice readers
to register for additional company information.
For example, if you create a survey on ACO IT integration
challenges, you could develop a high-level report and infographic that promotes
your findings – and make it available without registration requirements. Also use
public relations and social media to help promote your new report. Online
registration, however, is ideal for a webinar that provides added insights
based on your research, as well as related reports with deeper levels of
content. This could include separate ACO-themed reports designed to reach
distinct decision makers, such as:
- Compliance executives: “Spotlighting EHR compliance mandates for ACOs”
- IT executives: “How to ensure that your hospital’s IT strategy has the flexibility to support emerging care models”
Registration is also suited for prospects further along in the buying process who are looking for product and pricing information. And many companies gate their older reports to capture new prospects.
Key Takeaway
While it can be tempting to gate your content to help
quantify sales leads, consider making at least some of your content as widely
available as possible, especially if you are a growing company that needs to
build its market visibility. Marketing isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach, and
prospects need to be targeted based on their purchasing authority and their
timeframe for selecting new products or solutions.
(Image courtesy of twobee / FreeDigitalPhotos.net)
