I’d like to point out a handful of specific benefits:

• It’s one of the best ways to nurture leads. According to Marketing Sherpa, “73% of all B2B leads are not sales ready.”
• You can position your brand as an authority. “45% of a brand’s image can be attributed to what it says and how it says it.”
• It enables you to tell your brand’s story and convey your philosophy and values.
• It reduces skepticism. “In 1997, consumers indicated that they had a high level of confidence in 52% of brands. By 2008 that percentage dropped to 22%.” This is a great way to slash through any doubts your prospects may have.
• It’s an excellent way to educate consumers on your product’s features and the way it differs from the products of competitors.
• You can address any objections that may arise.

Which types of content most influence buying decisions?:

• White papers – 82%
• Webinars – 78%
• Case studies – 73%
• E-books – 67%
• Blog posts – 66%
• Infographics – 66%
• Third-party/analyst reports – 62%
• Video/motion graphics – 47%
• Interactive presentations – 36%

In this blog post, we go through the pros and cons of gating content or leaving it un-gated and freely accessible. A decision tree shows the best way decide on gating a content marketing experience.

Merits of Free Content

• more inbound links
• builds brand awareness
• promotes social shares across platforms
• higher quality score for landing pages from page ads (which can lead to better ad placement)
• higher page rankings from in-depth and informative content

Merits of Gated Content

• increases inbound leads
• self-qualifying customers for sales teams