Do forms inhibit contacts from viewing resources?

We are working on Progressive Profiling and would like to 'gate' multiple resources, like demos, that we currently 'give away' - no questions asked. We are concerned that putting even a simple request for an email address will inhibit them form viewing a short demo video before they even know what the product does - they don't perceive its value yet. I know the best practices always say 'Ask only 2 to 3 questions to reduce abandonment' but does anyone have actual research on that and what we might expect? Also, any perspective on how valuable that Lead is if they won't give any information in exchange for the resource? Again, it seems to come down to what value the person places on the resource whether they will give up information about themselves.

My concern is that we don't gate those prominent resources, it will take too long to a gather complete profile.

Thoughts?
Thanks

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Chris Bjorklund
EMarketing Coordinator, Don Johnston Incorporated
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Comments

2 comments

  • Comment author
    Sion Stedman
    Hi Chris, interesting topic.

    The following blog post at the DMA does not feature statistics, but provides a useful checklist of things to consider: Contentgate: Should You Gate Your Content or Give it Away?

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    Sion Stedman
    Idox Software Ltd
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    Original Message:
    Sent: 02-13-2018 13:02
    From: Chris Bjorklund
    Subject: Do forms inhibit contacts from viewing resources?

    We are working on Progressive Profiling and would like to 'gate' multiple resources, like demos, that we currently 'give away' - no questions asked. We are concerned that putting even a simple request for an email address will inhibit them form viewing a short demo video before they even know what the product does - they don't perceive its value yet. I know the best practices always say 'Ask only 2 to 3 questions to reduce abandonment' but does anyone have actual research on that and what we might expect? Also, any perspective on how valuable that Lead is if they won't give any information in exchange for the resource? Again, it seems to come down to what value the person places on the resource whether they will give up information about themselves.

    My concern is that we don't gate those prominent resources, it will take too long to a gather complete profile.

    Thoughts?
    Thanks

    ------------------------------
    Chris Bjorklund
    EMarketing Coordinator, Don Johnston Incorporated
    ------------------------------
    0
  • Comment author
    Esra Blohberger
    ​Hi Chris,

    this question feels like being between a rock and a hard place, right?

    I'm sorry I don't  really have a thorough market research to offer (or to gate..), but we have this discussion in our organisation and I'm more of a pro-gated content person. I think it's ultimately comes down to how valuable your content is perceived by your customer. You mentioned it already, the product may not yet perceived as valuable, but what are we as marketers are going to do that the customer feels s/he has no other choice than jumping over the form-hurdle to get to the content? The content that leads to the gated content needs to be so compelling that the visitor feels the urgency to provide some information about himself/herself. Maybe A/B testing helps to get your own statistics and experience about gating content.
    For more regular visitors of your content, progressive profiling may help.

    On a more practical level, an act-on specialist recommanded to use 'pre-filled' form urls. This means, your known customer/visitor does not need to fill in any information, as he or she had been previously cookied due to ealier visits of web pages or clicks on the access links in your emails.

    All the best.

    ESRA


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    Esra Blohberger
    AB SKF
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    Original Message:
    Sent: 02-13-2018 13:02
    From: Chris Bjorklund
    Subject: Do forms inhibit contacts from viewing resources?

    We are working on Progressive Profiling and would like to 'gate' multiple resources, like demos, that we currently 'give away' - no questions asked. We are concerned that putting even a simple request for an email address will inhibit them form viewing a short demo video before they even know what the product does - they don't perceive its value yet. I know the best practices always say 'Ask only 2 to 3 questions to reduce abandonment' but does anyone have actual research on that and what we might expect? Also, any perspective on how valuable that Lead is if they won't give any information in exchange for the resource? Again, it seems to come down to what value the person places on the resource whether they will give up information about themselves.

    My concern is that we don't gate those prominent resources, it will take too long to a gather complete profile.

    Thoughts?
    Thanks

    ------------------------------
    Chris Bjorklund
    EMarketing Coordinator, Don Johnston Incorporated
    ------------------------------
    0

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