The Fallacy of Control for B2B Marketers

Even with all the ways in which B2B content marketing is evolving, I'm still hearing a lot about the desire to control prospect behavior. See if any of these sound familiar:

• We don't want to send prospects to any page not on our website.
• We want to have control over where our content is displayed.
• We must gate our content to make prospects give us their information.

What I want marketers who are still having these considerations to ask themselves is - Why? Why exactly do you think this attitude will help improve your marketing performance?

Here are a few reality checks:

Allowing and enabling your content to spread beyond web properties you own has many advantages. One of them is credibility by association.

Depending on where and how your prospects become aware of your company may play a role in their willingness to engage with your content. If they see an article or blog post displayed on a community portal they rely upon to provide valuable information, their willingness to pay attention will increase.

Isn't this why many companies engage 3rd party experts to participate in their webinars or choose to sponsor their eBooks and white papers? 

Another advantage is findability.

Unless you've got page 1 search result ranking for the keyword phrases your prospects use in a search engine, how confident are you that they'll find you?

Are you willing to give up prospects to competitors because their information is more accessible than yours?

B2B Marketers should be actively pursuing ways to get their content displayed across the web to gain exposure, brand awareness and increased engagement. Isn't that why we issue press releases? We need to start thinking of ourselves as media participants. Not just for press releases, but for continuous content distribution.

The more places your content is seen, the higher your reputation and the less effort prospects have to expend to engage with your company.

Gating content diminishes response and sends a message you may not intend.

No matter how much research has been done about the percentage of prospects who will leave without completing a form to access content (as high as 75% seen recently), marketers still apply this method of lead generation with determined purpose. Even to the point of blocking access to content that could predispose a prospect in your favor - like case studies. Yes, it's true.

What you're really telling prospects when you gate all of your content is - "I don't trust you." You're saying, "I don't trust that you'll return to my website on your own if you find something valuable in my content." You're telling them that they need to turn themselves over to you to tell them what to do next because you don't trust them to ask on their own.

The reality could also be that you don't trust your content to provide a compelling reason for them to return. If so, that needs to be addressed immediately.

Here's the thing. Your prospects are in control of how they want to buy. Your efforts to control them cause friction that keeps them from engaging with your company.

The idea that by controlling their access to content that you have control over their buying process is a fallacy. In fact, your prospects can find all the information they'll need to make a buying decision for a product similar to yours without access to your content at all.

The amount of information made available everyday is massive. If you want to differentiate your company and improve prospect relationships, it's time to give up control and focus on freely serving the educational and expertise needs of your potential customers.

Now, before anyone says that they have a responsibility to generate leads, I'll agree with you. It's all in the way you gate. You've got to think about what it takes to build a foundation of value that won't diminish response when you choose to control access.

The question isn't form or no form. It's have we earned enough credibility to justify the request for our prospects to share their information with us?

The funny thing is that by giving up control, it actually comes back to you in new ways that are more effective. Give it a shot. You may just be surprised by the results.

Comments

[Achinta Mitra]

Credibility and findability are two very strong reasons to use social networks to spread the word about your content beyond just adding it to your website.

Posting a synopsis on high ranking and highly regarded industry portals and forums can drive a lot of qualified traffic back to your site (I found this post from a short write-up on Junta42). These visitors tend to be more receptive to your message instead of having their guard up to any kind of a sales pitch.

#3 is the one that causes the maximum amount of friction with my clients (manufacturers and companies that sell engineering and technical services). Probably because the primary purpose of developing a white paper is lead generation and not so much to educate and position the company as a thought leader.

I have had some success in convincing my clients to at least simply their registration forms if they are not willing to set their content free.

Just the basics like name, email address, company name and may be the job title should suffice. Further qualifying should be left to the next step or create a two-step registration form.

I saw a great presentation by Brian Carroll and Dr. Flint McGlaughlin where they discussed a two-step process - http://bit.ly/coR1ZF. The two-step registration form captured 47.7% more submissions than the one-step long form.

Thanks for sharing another great post.

[Paul McKeon]

Ardath, great post. Both sales and marketing must see beyond the illusion that they are driving a controlled process. Perhaps they got this illusion from sales training, and won't let go?

In fact, it isn't a sales cycle at all anymore, it's a buying cycle with the buyer in control. The good news is that content can lead prospects down the right path. Sounds like you and I are both seeing resistance to this shift in thinking. http://bit.ly/bkVLkl

[Jeff Ogden]

Good post and so very true, Ardath. People expect to find what they are looking for today. So gating your content is counter-productive.

You need your content everywhere they may find it. You need to be very, very easy to find.

Jeff Ogden, the Fearless Competitor
Find New Customers
http://www.findnewcustomers.net
http://www.fearlesscompetitor.com

[John Bottom]

Nice post as always Ardath. And it allows me to share an analogy I use if clients want to remove all off-domain links from their site on the grounds that they shouldn't be encouraging people to leave.

Imagine your marketplace is an island, and you're looking at a map of the island, showing roads, towns etc. How would you like to see your presence in that marketplace? Would you rather be the town in the middle, with several major roads linking to it, or the port on the tip of the peninsular, at the end of a single track?

Removing all outbound links doesn't make people stay longer, it makes you more likely to be considered a dead-end. If you want to be in the thick of things, you need to encourage inbound and outbound links.

A simple enough metaphor, but I think it helps.

[Ardath Albee]

Achinta - Thanks for your comment. I agree that the two-step registration process that Brian Carroll and Flint McLaughlin present is interesting. I would also like to present the idea that a white paper for lead generation does not need to lack thought leadership. Why can't it generate leads and position the company as a thought leader at the same time?

Paul - Great series of blog posts - thanks for sharing them here. I also like your "Call to Knowledge." It does sound like we're both seeing a certain resistance. Hopefully that will change soon.

John - Thanks for your analogy. What struck me was your "considered a dead end" point. Great way to describe the way companies are limiting themselves!

[Fame Foundry]

Great post! It's not easy for organizations to let go of control and build trust in today's more indirect methods. This article is an advocate for building trust and credibility in today's marketplace.

[Sarah Mitchell]

Hi Ardath,

I've long been a proponent of ungated content but you're post has provided clarity on the subject I'm not sure I had before. It had never occurred to me the reason some people want to gate is they don't trust their content. This will certainly inform how I approach my own content in the future and, more importantly, on how I advise my clients.

Thanks for an insightful post. I always learns something when I drop by.