Using Content to Expand Your Knowledge of Prospects

One of the great debates for marketers over the past few years is the extent to which companies should go to protect their content. The digitalization of content, such as white papers, calculators, blog posts, images, videos and numerous other medium, has made it simple for other parties to pilfer proprietary information for their own purposes. Content creates value. Fresh, original content is always at a premium. Thus, the challenge for website managers is to protect your content, while not impeding your customers and prospects from finding and utilizing it.

At the heart of this debate is how to manage promotional offers that send users to a webpage to view a video, download a white paper or brochure. Do you require the user to register or fill out a form to gain access? Is the perceived value of the offer (i.e. white paper or brochure) enough to make a person provide information about themselves? The answers are never cut and dried, here are a few ideas that can help guide your decision.

If you’re working from an in-house list, you have a distinct advantage and many more options. Technology such as e-mail, web page and direct mail tracking solutions can help you easily identify the individual respondent without requiring them to register or login. In these instances, you may choose to eliminate the form altogether or ask fewer questions related to profiling that are less personal in nature.

If on the other hand, you are building awareness and want to identify new prospects, that registration information is critical. Requiring users to provide basic data is common, but caution should be taken so as not to ask for too much on the first visit. Create a plan for multiple touch points with your first task being to gain their permission to communicate with them in the future. Once you’ve done this, over time continue expanding your knowledge of the individual in manageable bites with different incentives.

This process can take weeks, if not longer, but it is proven to work. Along the way, you’re able to adjust your offers to meet the needs of the individual. This is critical for encouraging initial non-responders to take action based on new information or offers made at a later date. It also allows you to protect your content and increase your perceived value as a market or solution expert.