Gate or ungate case studies?

This week, i have a topic that has been long under debate in the B2B marketing world - whether to gate or ungate marketing collaterals.

Firstly, the topic is a little tricky, and the call has to be made by considering numerous factors - primarily the content type.

Today, we are focusing our discussion on CASE STUDIES.

While the traditional practice has been to host case studies gated behind a form, many modern marketers believe that they have to be ungated.

The latter put forward the argument that if the readers are convinced of the value you can offer after going through the case study, they will reach out to you on their own (without you forcing them to fill out a form).

However, I believe that this method is not as effective as it may sound. This is because it limits you from doing any form of remarketing to those who read your case study.

Given that buyers too need reminders and nudges to show interest in your solutions (otherwise SDRs would never have to follow up with their prospects), you need to have a way to nurture them. Getting their email IDs and other details is the best way to do it.

So, finding a balance between the two approaches is how you should go about it.

There are two steps to doing it:

1. Host the case study as a PDF where you go in-depth into the solution you built for the customer and the outcomes they were able to achieve. Don’t go by the ‘content has to be crisp’ notion here. The idea is to showcase your capabilities and not save time for the reader.
2. Have a landing page where you don’t just have a short description of the case study but briefly mention the project information.

For both of the above, you can follow the below structure:

1. About the customer
2. The challenge/problem
3. The solution
4. Business outcomes

In the PDF, you talk about the four elements in detail while in the landing page, you only briefly mention the key highlights under each.

This way, you give out the necessary info about the case study on the landing page itself. Those who are really keen on knowing about how you added value to the customer can go ahead and download the PDF by filling out the form.

I am calling this out as a best practice since most companies that gate case studies don’t give out the right details on the landing page. This method takes the best of the two approaches in a way that the reader as well as the business get what they want.

That's all for the week. I hope you found the content useful.

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