The End of Gated Whitepapers: Giving Value Away for Free to Build B2B Trust

Introduction: Trust Is Built Before the Form Fill

For a long time, gated whitepapers have been an integral part of any B2B marketing strategy. Businesses gated their research reports, ebooks, and guides using lead forms to gather contacts and MQLs. That approach paid off because marketers thought valuable content could be exchanged for valuable data.

In today's reality, buyer behavior has changed. People expect to get useful information quickly without filling out lengthy forms or having sales conversations they are not ready for yet. Meanwhile, Dark Social has changed how information moves between people. Now people tend to share valuable content on their LinkedIn messages, Slack channels, WhatsApp groups, emails, and other places that are inaccessible to any marketing tool.

That means marketers need to reconsider how to offer value to the buyers. Offering valuable knowledge for free is not a way to miss the chance to get leads anymore. It creates an environment of trust that encourages people to provide valuable information.

Why Gated Whitepapers Used to Work in Traditional B2B Marketing

It used to be common to use gated whitepapers in B2B marketing campaigns. Marketers used these resources to get new leads, build email databases, analyze the success of the campaigns, and find out which topics were interesting for certain prospects. The completion of the form meant that the potential buyer was ready to exchange contact information for valuable content, making it possible for marketing and sales teams to act accordingly.

This strategy perfectly suited the marketing concept where generating leads was the main task. Downloads, conversion rate, and MQLs could be easily measured and reported.

Nevertheless, the buyer journey has changed now. People gather most of the necessary information about products independently before contacting sales specialists. They evaluate different companies, read opinions of experts, watch tutorials, and ask for recommendations from other people. It means that gathering contact information is less important than gaining trust at this stage of the buyer journey.

Why Today's Buyers Avoid Gated Content

The modern buyer seeks efficiency and ease. If they need information, they expect an instant answer without further ado.  Long lead forms create friction by adding extra barriers to the user journey.

Moreover, many professionals do not want to give out their contacts as they expect to get emails or phone calls even though they are not interested in communicating yet. They prefer finding another resource where they could get the needed information.

There is plenty of educational content accessible today as well. The customer can find information about any topic in articles, videos, podcasts, and even from experts on LinkedIn, YouTube, industry blogs, and other professional communities. If valuable information is already available somewhere else, gated resources will lose their appeal.

This does not mean that the modern customer values content less. This means that it values access to the content more.

How Free Content Creates More Demand Than Gated Content

By providing helpful content without any barriers, businesses are able to target a far wider audience than would be possible otherwise. Rather than limiting their content to those who will fill out forms, they open up their knowledge base to all of those in search of answers.

Free content is not just about lead generation; it is about driving demand. With educational content, videos, and frameworks, buyers can learn about the problem they have and different solutions while at the same time learning about the company's expertise.

The provision of free content creates credibility. Businesses that keep on helping people without expecting anything in return start to be seen by them as trusted advisors, rather than just lead-generating businesses.

Over time, this helps build familiarity. When buyers eventually need a solution to their problem, they are likely to think of the company that has helped them earlier in their buyer journey. At times, creating awareness has more business value than lead generation.

The Importance of Zero-Click Content to Establish B2B Trust

Nowadays, zero-click content is one of the most effective strategies to establish trust in B2B marketing. It means the delivery of valuable content directly on the platform where the buyer spends their time instead of driving them to the landing page.

There are many types of such content. It can be a LinkedIn post with educational value, a video, a podcast, a framework, or an insight from the market. The buyer gets full value from it right away without the need to download any documents or leave personal information.

Such an approach fits very well into the new buyer expectations. Professionals need only helpful and relevant content without wasting their time. In addition, it promotes repeated visits since people realize that there is always something useful for them to learn without any obstacles.

Zero-click content means the change of the focus from trying to get information from the buyers to giving it to them first.

Why Free Content Travels Further in Dark Social

Dark Social has changed the dynamics of sharing valuable information among business professionals. Business buyers tend to suggest valuable content via LinkedIn messages, Slack channels, WhatsApp groups, internal company messenger applications, and email communications.

Free content can easily make its way through these private channels since there is nothing stopping others from accessing it. A buyer can quickly send an article, video, or model to their colleagues who are dealing with the same problem.

On the other hand, gated content introduces friction. When the recipient sees the registration form, they tend to stop accessing it, which significantly decreases the chance of the content being further spread within the buying committee.

Free educational content makes discussions and collaboration easy. Teams become better at collaborating and evaluating solutions.

In today's Dark Social world, the content that goes farthest is usually the one asking nothing and providing value immediately.

When Gating Still Makes Sense

Despite the rising importance of freely available content, there is still room for gated whitepapers within today's marketing campaign. Everything boils down to timing the use of gated content properly.

The educational materials that are aimed at increasing brand awareness shouldn't be gated, since their main purpose is to reach as many prospective buyers as possible. But if the target audience is more engaged and ready to purchase, then a gated form can be used.

Such content can include personalized assessments, ROI calculators, workshops on how to implement the product, product demos, and consultations. And the reason is simple – such buyers are closer to a purchase decision and are more likely to exchange their contact details.

Thus, the marketers shouldn't use only one strategy for all pieces of content.

Shifting Success Metrics From Form Fills to Buyer Influence

Content success measures should not only be based on downloads and form fills. Of course, this measure will always be relevant, but it gives a very incomplete picture of the buyer's journey.

It is necessary to take into account the influence of the content on the level of buyer awareness and trust. Important metrics for this purpose are content share, discussion in professional communities, attribution, buyer feedback, and information obtained during discovery calls with sales.

For instance, buyers can state that they first found out about the organization's vision due to a certain LinkedIn post, a podcast, or resources that a co-worker shared with them. All this information does not typically make its way into the regular attribution report, yet it influences decisions made.

This approach helps to create a complete picture of how the company's content generates demand in the Dark Social world.

Conclusion: The Most Valuable Content Is the Content Buyers Can Access Immediately

The importance of gated whitepapers for the current B2B marketing strategy is changing with the changes in modern buyer behavior. Even though gated content is still capable of producing conversions, it does not play the best role in creating initial trust.

In today's environment, the modern buyer wants access to relevant content right away. They appreciate when companies provide education, low-friction opportunities, and an easy-to-learn experience. Free content has a much better chance to spread on Dark Social and deliver valuable information to the buying committee through recommendations and private discussions.

It is not the companies that keep all their information under wraps that will win the market today. Those companies that will freely give out their information, gain credibility, and become resources to trust even before they talk with Sales will prevail.

In the Dark Social era, sharing your value does not mean losing anything.