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Should You Put Your Content Behind A Registration Wall?

Castle gate

photo courtesy of TravelPod.com

Personally, I am in the David Meerman Scott camp on this, and would prefer that you not put any content behind a registration wall. Studies show that your content will be downloaded 50x more times if you don’t require info from the downloader. 50x more downloads equals more thought leadership. The message spreads farther and wider.

In a no-reg-wall scenario, prospective customers will download your content, and “tire kickers” will too. We must answer a few questions:

1. What harm, if any, is there in providing your content to mere tire kickers?
2. What harm, if any, is there in reducing the number of content downloads by requiring registration?
3. In a reg wall scenario, what do you do with the intel you receive from the downloader?
4. What protection, if any, do you provide yourself by putting valuable info behind a reg wall?

My answers to these questions:

1. I do not believe there is any harm. I believe that having more people consume your content is better than having less people consume it. More consumption leads to enhanced thought leadership.

2. There could be some harm. You need to be as easy as possible to work with in every facet of your business. Genuine prospects arriving at your site might balk at providing you info (even if they really think they want to work with you). Think of it this way. The most highly qualified prospect (the purchasing manager closest to pulling the trigger on working with you) arrives at your website. Perhaps he or she will download and consume your content either way (reg wall or no reg wall). However, there is a chance that they won’t download and consume it if you require info from them. In my book, that is a huge problem. Why depress your numbers like that? The only logical answer could be contained in the answer to question #3…….

3. If you take their contact info and do someone with it, then that is a reason for requiring registration. I’m still not nuts about it and would like to find another way to provide your content to everyone while still capturing qualified leads (for example, requiring registration for the second download, or putting the best of the best content behind a wall). But if your salespeople are individually contacting the people registering on your site, that could be an argument for erecting a registration wall. I would still be leery of using this info for “cold call” purposes, and just because someone provided you their email address in exchange for valuable information does not make that sales call any less cold. One of the important reasons you want a blog with great content and a social media strategy is to create a strong inbound marketing program, built around thought leadership and relationships. Help, help, help everyone you can, and then prospects contact you right at the moment of their greatest need. That’s the best kind of lead.

4. My opinion is that the mere act of someone giving you their email address (registering) will not make them a more likely buyer. You have captured some info from them in exchange for your valuable content. On your end, what happens next? As discussed in #3, if a salesperson follows up individually with each new registered person/company, then a reg wall could make sense. But to think that free, easily spreadable no-reg-wall content might land in your competitor’s hands…. I mean, it will anyway. I’ve provided a fake email address to a website before just to plow through the reg process. I just wanted to get to the info, and all of the registration stuff only aggravated me. So a registration wall provides you no protection whatsoever.

Restricting access to content behind a reg wall is only a good idea if you have a very successful system in place for doing something with the registration intel you collect from the downloader. And you may have that already. Ultimately, my opinion may not matter. Testing these theories may be your best option. As discussed near the bottom of this article, some companies have split test this and found that better leads were generated on reg wall (“gated”) days. For thought leadership purposes, I still prefer no reg wall, but perhaps you should test it.

Of course, I’d like to know what you guys think.

Rizzo Tees Featured In New David Meerman Scott Book “Real-Time Marketing & PR”

It all started with a HARO request. I’d heard of David Meerman Scott, having read his book The New Rules of Marketing and PR (Amazon affiliate link). So I was quite excited to see him asking for sources on marketing in “real-time.” I’ve been doing my best to do just that since Rizzo Tees went live in October 2008.

I responded to the request, did a phone interview with David, and the rest is history. Rizzo Tees has a page in David’s new book Real-Time Marketing and PR! (Amazon affiliate link)

Real-Time Marketing And PR book

Big thanks to David for including me in his latest masterpiece. Make sure you read this book – you’ll take a ton away from it. I sure did.

Real-Time Marketing & PR – David Meerman Scott – Book Review

A few years ago, I had the good fortune to stumble across David Meerman Scott‘s book “The New Rules of Marketing & PR.” I don’t even remember how I first heard of the book. I checked it out from the library and read it on vacation. I took so much from the book that, earlier this year, I ordered the second edition and read it too. I’ve learned and applied so much from this book, and its lessons are still very valid today.

However, since David first advocated for generating inbound leads by writing a blog, and using press releases to communicate directly with your audience, things have sped up even further. Now, your customers are online, talking to you and about you in real-time. If you’re not listening and interacting, the silence is deafening. Do you want consumers to define your product on Twitter, Facebook, and the blogosphere, or do you as a company want to play a role by interacting with them? Further, do you want that engagement to result in more sales?

Enter David’s new book Real-Time Marketing and PR (Amazon affiliate link). In it, he lays out how companies are winning by engaging their customers directly online in real-time. He talks about:

  • developing a business culture that encourages speed over sloth
  • reading buying signals as people interact with you online
  • crowdsourcing product development
  • charging more for your product by delivering it faster

I’ve been a big fan of David’s for years, and I’m proud to say that my little t-shirt company, Rizzo Tees, is actually featured in the book! Flip to page 118 and read about how I like to interact with folks on Twitter, and how I crowdsource some of my t-shirt designs (especially when I’m stumped).  Thanks to David for hearing my story and incorporating it into this amazing book.

Real-Time Marketing And PR book

I highly recommend that companies of all shapes and sizes grab this book and give the principles of real-time online interaction and engagement a chance. Fear not, Corporate America. We consumers have a great deal to offer you besides our money.

Get the hardcover version here (Amazon affiliate link)

Get the Kindle version here (Amazon affiliate link)

Redonkulously shameless: get that Foursquare t-shirt I’m wearing in the video here

Use Video As Part Of Your Communication Plan

Author David Meerman Scott talks (in a video, ironically) about using video to enhance your communication plan.  See video below.

The eternal cons to video are “Well, I don’t know how to edit video, and I’m not very good looking, and I don’t have the right clothes to wear, and I can’t afford a camera, and no one will want to hear what I have to say, and who will operate the camera, and….. ” Stop it. That is all wrong!

  • Gary Vaynerchuk has proved with Wine Library TV that you don’t need to edit.  Just shoot start to finish.  Silly mistakes or impromptu interruptions actually make the video better.
  • Yes, Gary uses a nice camera, but my $160 Flip HD shoots incredible video.  This or a Kodak zi8 are all you need.
  • Get a cheap tripod – you will operate the camera.
  • None of us are that good looking, so who cares.
  • And if you have a well-thought-out position on a topic, we want to hear from you.

David Meerman Scott Talks The New Rules of Marketing and PR

Last year I read David Meerman Scott’s best-seller “The New Rules of Marketing and PR,” and I’ve recently purchased the second edition and plan on giving the book a second reading in the next few weeks.  The reason?  As I continue to operate the small business learning laboratory known as Rizzo Tees, I am finding more and more that Scott’s advice is dead-on. I’m not even executing on all of this advice yet, so a pox on me.

However, this blog was borne of his advice. In the video below, you’ll hear him talk of a dentist that started a blog and wrote an eBook, and she was able to generate a ton of online attention for herself…. and all for free.  No Yellow Page Ads anymore – it’s you, all you, writing your thoughts, spreading your word for free online, getting others to spread the word for you.  It’s losing control of your marketing, as Scott calls it.  It’s bloody brilliant.