How to drive traffic to your gated content

Marketers today use gated content to drive lead generation. It’s a common practice to offer a white paper, downloadable asset or special content feature (IBM’s Xforce newsletter that we designed is a great example) to capture contact information from potential clients. But once you create this special gated content—and it needs to be of high value to pay off the adventure of accessing it—how do you drive traffic to the landing page where it lives? This is an important step in generating leads.

Here are seven tips to help increase traffic to your gated content:

1. Write several teaser blog posts that pique interest and link to your landing page. These could each highlight one portion or benefit from the featured content. It’s a great way to break up your high-value content into smaller, digestible portions and increase interest.

2. Use the power of social media. Post regularly on Twitter, Google+, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram using images and powerful highlights from your gated content that encourage click throughs to your landing page.

3. Send enticing emails. Engage readers on your topic using imagery or other highlights from your featured content, and then link them directly to your landing page. Also include links to your blog posts that in turn link to your landing page. Don’t miss an opportunity to capture interest. Everyone approaches the journey a little differently.

4. Optimize your email signature. Include links to your landing page, blog and all of your social media pages. Use short, intriguing language to encourage clickthroughs.

5. If you’ve used an infographic in your gated content, use it in your email, blog post and social media messaging. Of course, include a link to your landing page in the infographic.

6. Currently running a traditional print campaign or banner ad? Be sure to use these tactics to encourage readers to visit your landing page for the big “prize” content reveal.

7. Create one simple video — or a few — that highlights a benefit or offering from your gated content. You could interview a subject matter expert or a customer with a success story. This streamlined approach is a smart and successful tool for driving traffic to the featured content. Post it on your YouTube channel, embed it in your blog (great SEO builder), or send it out via email and social media.

Digital strategies are an important part of B2C and B2B marketing and should be optimized. We are here to help you with just that.

by Debbi Smith Rourke