Comments on: Why ‘Forced Registration’ Can Backfire for Case Studies and White Papers

By: samuraiwriter

samuraiwriter — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 11:09:17 +0000

I listened to a Bob Bly mp3 chat with Michael where Bob described the 'free-on-free' approach used by some software company marketers. Namely, give the white paper as a freebie thank you for signing up to attend a free webinar demo of the s/w app.
Nice one!

Split testing or multivariate testing seems a wise approach to take because the factors influencing optin versus giveaway sign up rates are likely to vary a lot between different markets, locations and even age groups. And even between b2b and b2c marketing.

By: samuraiwriter

samuraiwriter — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 10:09:17 +0000

By: watch friends

watch friends — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 04:07:23 +0000

I will bookmark and continue reading your blog in the future! Thanks alot for the informative post!

regards
jenny martin
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By: Forex Automatic Trading

Forex Automatic Trading — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 09:31:49 +0000

I often read your blog and always find it very interesting. Thought it was about time i let you know�Keep up the great work

Have a nice day
david swin
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By: Writing A Will

Writing A Will — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:04:41 +0000

I think people are changing and now expect to get access without the compulsory registration. I have no problem with this and I have found that it has been very worthwhile to allow access to material quite freely.

By: robertdrew

robertdrew — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:41:53 +0000

We've found that this depends on the type of offer. Case studies, for example, detailing successful use of our lead gen services, are best left to voluntary registration, or open. Topical white papers, addressing issues that our target market finds critical and adding to the general knowledge base in that space, often justify 'forced registration'.

By: rachelkarl

rachelkarl — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:40:19 +0000

Wow! Thanks to everyone for the RTs and the terrific comments.

Ryan, you are absolutely correct that too many questions in the form field can be burdensome. Finding a middle ground and a way to offer information while still increasing subscribers is definitely the way to go. I say do what works while keeping both the company and the customer happy!

Karyn, I'm so excited to hear that the hits to your site went up 30%. Although it was learned the hard way, it was a good example of testing both methods to find one that worked for you. Best of luck on converting those leads into sales!

By: Karyn Barnes

Karyn Barnes — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:30:51 +0000

Completely agree with this. I learned the hard way. In Nov 07, I launched a website that required registration to download PDFs, press releases or watch videos. By Sept 08, I was re-designing the same site to allow free downloads and direct access to videos & presentations. Now voluntary registrations are for email news or event updates. And guess what? Registrations have increased & hits to the site are up 30% compared to the previous year. I think the info 'sharing' that is the foundation of social media impacts on all our online activity and we can't ignore that.

By: Ryan Malone

Ryan Malone — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:26:45 +0000

Hi Rachel,

Thanks for the nice article. My belief is that there are different types of registrations. Many companies don't want to take the time to make registrations easy for prospects, so they do one of two things. They make you register for every white paper individually, or they force you to create an account. Both of these are very painful, especially the "create an account" option. It kind of makes me laugh that some folks think I really want an account.

However, I do think asking for a minimal amount of information from readers is acceptable and almost without exception, I recommend clients always put up a lead form that is required. My experience shows me that with optional lead forms, you just get the people who register for anything anyway.

Companies get leads from all over and the smart ones have a qualification process and a lead nurturing process to both weed out bad leads and ensure good leads have the opportunity to continue the conversation.

I do urge folks to minimize the number of questions they ask on the form. Many companies feel they need to ask an burdensome amount of questions to get to a paper, and that it is a huge mistake. Most companies can asked 1-2 qualifying questions, which is more than enough to start the selling process.

Registrations for a case study is a huge no-no.

By: Clement Robert Yeung

Clement Robert Yeung — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:19:04 +0000

Totally agree Mike. Even having viewed some MarketingExperiments.com and MarketingSherpa.com materials on the matter myself, intuitively I feel that higher quality leads can only come from people that actively seek the access.

Thanks for the article.