Good article and agree largely, but I find it ironic that your post is about encouraging B2B companies to distribute useful information freely and not requiring a sign-up, yet when I went to look at the survey you referred to and linked to, I had to sign up to read it.
Perhaps you should practice what you preach.
All the best,
Mark

Good points and well argued.
We suffer this issue every time we or our clients publish a piece of content.
Reg forms will definitely decrease downloads but they do give that precious asset: data.

We usually say, 'Make everything free to download except your highest value content pieces.' The pieces you put the most effort into and that give the most (free) value have earned the data asked for.

We do use a form for our Content Marketing Workbook. On balance, I'm glad we did (nearly doubled our database). But it always nags away at me...

We should have A/B tested.

Thanks Mark and Doug for your comments, I appreciate your feedback.

Mark, I agree that the survey I linked to should not have a registration form in front of it and I tried to state that by saying in the post (And yes, I do find it ironic that they are making people register for survey results report). Since I referenced the survey I wanted to give readers the option the view it for themselves but did warn you that it required registration. I'll reconsider linking to content that has registration in the future so I can practice what I preach as you say.

Doug, I completely agree that it's a struggle every time a client has a new piece of content to convince them to not have a lead capture form. And I argue with myself every time I have a new piece of content. As a big believer in analytics and data to track results, not having the form nags at me a lot. I recognize that Marketing VPs, CMOs, etc. have lead generation goals they must meet and lead capture forms are a way to do that. It's very scary for them to have to trust their content to generate leads.

I completely agree with your statement "Make everything free to download except your highest value content pieces.The pieces you put the most effort into and that give the most (free) value have earned the data asked for." That is one way I got a client to switch to not having forms on 90% of content and just having forms on 2 very high-value pieces. Once they saw the results they have continued with that strategy and it's been very successful. By the way, love your Content Marketing Workbook, it's fantastic.

Interesting article and I've seen similar stats. I both agree and disagree as this evergreen topic is never that cut and dried.

Basic collateral (sell sheets, videos, case studies) should not be gated. You want people to interact and share that content based on where they are in the buy cycle.

But if you have taken the time and money to create something like a true white paper, something with original thinking that educates the prospect about his or her industry, then data capture (at least an email address opt-in) is more than warranted to justify ROI.

Furthermore, if you have created a piece of proprietary late buy cycle content (such as a pricing tool), I think it is more than fair to ask for registration - if nothing else to assure internal folks that competitors are not using it.

The problem with that 75% stat is that is generated based on what prospects SAY they won't do, not what they actually do. And that approach is a no-no in direct response. We try things and we test and we base our assumptions on actions.

In practice, I expect a Web form completion rate for high quality content to targeted audiences to exceed 50%. I've seen it go much higher. So if you are willing to create great content, you will get great response rates. If you turn try to disguise a sell sheet in a white paper's clothing, you will not.

As an aside, the IT industry, as a rule, does not seem to understand what a white paper is and that, IMHO, is where that 75% stat is coming from - they are saying they won't register for collateral. A proper white paper is not collateral. If you'd like, I've written a great deal on educational offer strategy on my blog: B2BMarketingMadeToMeasure.com

Regards,

Marc Blumer

I think you also should discuss WHAT information you're asking for. I don't think this is black and white. I think the more you ask for, the more people will leave before completing the form. I never read the report (maybe this is already covered there) as I don't want to complete their form :o), so maybe this is also covered

My experience is that the biggest fallout comes if you ask for a phone number

I think the rule is "The less you have to ask for, the better" and the decider of what you need to ask for, lies within your social media activities and technology behind the mailing/website

/jan

Thanks Kim. Just summarised our thoughts on this and referred to your post on our blog: http://www.velocitypartners.co.uk/2010/01/18/should-free-b2b-content-hide-behind-a-form/

Food for thought indeed.

I'm just not sure I agree with you. As a B2B software marketer and B2B software buyer, i think the forms work. If anyone wants our content anonymously, they can just put dummy data. I find some of the best content (like your blog) rummaging through sites and randomly come upon good stuff. In my experience if i download a piece of content without putting my contact info in i get the piece, i read it, then i file it away. I remember nuggets either consciously or sub-consciously, but often i don't remember where i learned them because the company and piece of content i downloaded is on my file server somewhere. But since i didn't enter my info, i never get another email telling me about future pieces of content or reminding me about the company and services they offer. Then we both lose. You don't know i'm interested because you don't know me, and i don't remember you and what you have to offer me because you don't re-engage.

I'm suspect you'll blow me up combating my point like most bloggers do when i contradict them, but it's a valid point and true for me, so it's probably true for others.

Or perhaps the form serves as a filter... If you are really interested and really want the information then you will fill out the form... If you are simply flirting with ideas then you won't?

Great post and discussion. I wanted to point out that earlier this week we removed the registration requirement from our State of SMB IT survey and if fact posted it all on our site: http://www.spiceworks.com/it-research/state-of-smb/

The timing is coincidental as we planned to do that this week. Note that this report does not contain the 75% information as that was an internal study we did with our lead gen clients. Over time we'll be making more and more information from our Voice of IT Market Research Program available freely, without registration.

We're also working on a number of changes with the vendors who advertise in Spiceworks on improving the process for both parties. We think that leadgen in communities can be done in very different ways from standard 1.0 websites. I'd be happy to keep you posted as we figure this out... and welcome any ideas!

I fully agree with you. I find the registration forms very annoying. In fact, I find the term "white paper" itself to be a meaningless bullshity corporate phrase. If you really want to share something valuable, then you should just write a blog article about it. No pdfs, no registration forms, just a simple blog which others can link to or share with friends.

I recently wrote about this same problem in one of my blog articles. 4 reasons why white papers suck. I'll link to this page from my article.

Many people I know maintain a separate email address just to use in these sign up forms. They don't even read the emails that are sent to that address. So even if you force me to give you my email id, that is of no use to you because you can't really reach me via that email id anyway.

This post caused me to examine our own metrics regarding the number of people we "lose" by requiring them to register to download our content. For causing this review, I thank you - it was indeed a useful exercise.
On our site, aimed at C-Level executives looking for ways to grow their B2B revenues, our stats tell a completely different story. But before I give you the numbers, a little background will help you to interpret them. Gossamar (www.inbound-marketing-automation.ca) is in the business of Sales and Marketing Automation, or SAMA. We turn websites into Prospect Magnets, so those "pesky" forms your post talks about are provided by the software solutions we sell. I state this boldly upfront as a Caveat Emptor: I'm a SAMA bigot, so read the following with that in mind.
But here's the first stat. Our "dropoff" rate, if we can call the people who would have downloaded a white paper if they were not required to register, is precisely 4%. Now this was not an exhaustive investigation - I merely tracked the last 100 visitors to our site, and checked their digital footprints to see at which point they left the site. The 4 above left after arriving on the Registration page and before filling it out. In other words, these 4 people clicked on the "Download Now" button but then refused to part with their Name, Email Address, Company Name and Job Title - the 4 questions we ask the first time they want to download content. I don't know how many people the survey you cited polled, but my number is probably accurate for our site because its supported by the overall stats (see below) and my instincts. Maybe the survey's IT managers are not as easily seduced by good content, or maybe the content on the site surveyed wasn't that appealing or maybe… whatever.
And here are the rest of our stats which I believe support that 4%:
We convert a tick under 3% of all visitors to our site (people convert by registering to download our content).. Of these, 34% go on to become "hot" prospects, and more than 75% of these we close and turn into clients. I think these numbers are pretty good and lead me to say that the abysmal 75% the survey cites is not a good indicator, perhaps for the reasons I stated, perhaps for others.
And before I leave this space, let me ask what seems to me to be an obvious question. Assuming for the moment that this 75% number is being accurately measured (it's not easy to calculate even when your site is equipped with Google Analytics and - in our case - a Pardot Prospect Insight (Demand Generator); why are you measuring this as opposed to how many people convert to clients? You are urging people, based on this statistic, to "Free-up Your Content & Remove the Registration" but really, how do you know that having a bunch more of the papers downloaded by people who are unsure enough of their interest to leave their name and email address will result in more sales? Paraphrasing one of the comments above, "We download these papers, maybe read them, maybe not, and then file them somewhere on our computer and forget about them, more often than not." Surely one of the best measures of sincerity, leading to a sale, is one's willingness to give one's name? The number of downloads is almost meaningless when you no longer have any measure of the quality of the lead who downloaded the material - all that matters is the number of sales and this experiment does not track this - it's like those estimate for how much money is lost by the music industry to illegal downloads - they assume people who steal things would pay for them if they could not steal them. Ditto for the software industry's claims regarding piracy.
And to your comments regarding people's reluctantance to give their "business card" to someone until they are sure they want to buy from them, I say that our own website, and every system we install on behalf of a client, is automatically set up to:
1) Reveal the company's Privacy Policy, leading off with how emails are sacred to us and will never be given to anyone else.
2) On the bottom of every email ever sent to anyone by the system, is an "unsubscribe" link which cannot be removed. A single click on this removes the person from the list permanently.
3) We almost never call people who visit our site and register to begin downloading our content, until they ask us to call or until they reach a Grade and Score (parts of our Demand Generation Nurturing programs) which indicates that they are now ready to buy. And our first sales calls begin with, "Sorry to call you out of the blue like this, but you have been exploring our website and we're wondering if you need some help."
I did say almost never in (3) above: the only time we'll call someone who has not reached the Grade and Score levels which suggest the call, is when someone who appeared to be racking up a great score and who has a great profile (Grade), is when they opt out by unsubscribing. Under these extremely rare conditions (it's happened so far to less than half a percent of our prospects), we may risk a call to ask why they appear to have changed their minds? In both cases, we were extremely polite, suggested that we understood we were intruding and said we just wanted to ask them about their experience in using our site but if this was not a good time we would wish them well and say goodbye. And in both cases, the person not only took the call but provided us with some valuable feedback.

I'd be interested to have the author's (and others') comments on how he would track the contribution to lead generation, and ultimately Sales, of content on the WebSite if there is no form to capture, say, an email address? If people are educating themselves is there not a value to them in 'Thought Leadership' material, like White Papers which justifies some form of return? I agree that if the material is purely about the products and what they do - datasheets, demos, case studies etc - then this should not be gated (why should anyone 'pay') but if the market is in early education mode and the content helps in this process (as well as helping the individual to assess the competition) then some form of registration is essential for tracking purposes to show a return on the investment in that material. I know that, as a Merketer with a need to show ROI, I would rather have 160 contacts to nurture than 1600 downloads with which I can do nothing.

In general, specifics always matter, we advise clients:
- Time and attention are the things you must continuously get from your markets
- Remove any source of "friction/inefficiency" in the market's proliferating ways of learning about the solutions offer. You have to make individuals "paying" you time and attention as low cost to them as possible.
- Never share publicly proprietary IP or even your best ideas and processes. It will be copied by your competitors and commoditized immediately.
- Rejection is Protection - if someone learns about your solution and walks away or doesn't take time to - they are doing you a favor.
- B2B marketing and sales is not about convincing anyone, but finding the individuals and firms already searching for what you offer and making it easy to get it.

Another caution, which is contrarian - B2B social media is never about "you" - it's about your solutions made personal.

non woven bag

This is a great debate and I agree -- up to a point. Give away 80% of your content, but on high value content, such as white papers and recorded webinars, you have every right to ask for a bit. Too many times companies try to collect a dozen or more fields.

In my mind, less is more. Email is enough, but it's okay to get a name. But stop there. Good software from companies like Marketo http://www.marketo.com, support progressive profiling. This means on return visits we can gently ask for more information, like Company, Title, etc.

The problem with zero registration is you never build your marketing database. I think the key is to engage with them, and over time, build a relationship.

Jeff Ogden, President
Find New Customers
http://www.findnewcustomers.net

Ardath Albee (@ardath421), Craig Rosenberg (@funnelholic), and I (@smersy) talked about this issue today in our webinar 7 Rules for the Connected Marketer.

In many cases, marketers are building locked-in landing pages because they feel they don't have alternatives. Most marketing software does a good job tracking the landing page conversion process, but not tracking back to the marketing campaign source. The way marketers use Landing Pages essentially tracks the offer (whitepaper, webinar, etc) and not the marketing campaign (media buy or social media activity) that is driving the prospect. Marketers then get in the bad habit of believing they can't track their marketing efforts without a whole bunch of silo-ed landing pages that take a hard sell approach and often turn the prospect off. It doesn't need to be this way!

With all of the work marketers are doing to become publishers, to make their website content relevant, wouldn’t it be nice to be able to track & measure all campaigns (and campaign spend) to lead conversion using the entire website? With the right marketing automation software, we can begin to end the tyranny of the "locked" landing page and begin to "land leads" wherever it makes most sense.

This is clearly a win-win, as prospects aren't forced into a landing page with a registration form prematurely. Instead, the marketer presents them their most authentic content as a way to entice and then engage the prospect. The website content (including blogs) should have relevant links off to forms so that the prospect can respond when they're ready, and the marketing software should be able to tell the marketer which campaign(s) drove the prospect to become a lead.

We've found it effective to dedicate a page to a download (whitepaper, PDF, etc.) and include a call to action with a web form or visually prominent contact link next to the download.

By doing this, you let people download the content for free while giving them an easy way to contact you. Also, as the link is shared with others, it helps to generate additional leads.

Exactly! Many firms are not putting their whitepapers behind registration forms, and we've begun to index them here www.whitepaprs.com . If you know of any we should add, please pass them along!

Great post, thank you. I've used locked content extremely successfully in the past, but I agree that it has become too commonplace such that it can become infuriating to do any desk research these days. It is particularly ineffective when you go to the trouble of registering to find that the content isn't up to much. I think that the happy medium is to ensure that you have enough useful and interesting content above the registration line to allow people to get a sense for your material, so that they can actively choose to read more. So, for a whitepaper of 2000 words, I'd have a 500 word article available to all, and registration required to access the full piece. This also has SEO benefits by putting your key content on your site. Registration can act as an excellent filter against students, competitors, etc.

I do also think there's another side to this, where marketers seem to think that because they have content they can inflict it on people. Permission is an act of engagement, it is yours to give. Asking people to register (for the deeper content once they've assessed its relevance) is a positive move on their part, pull rather than push. I've talked a little more about this is a recent Blog: http://www.clear-thought.co.uk/in_thought/art/29/