As discussed earlier content walls have a way of popping up at the most inconvenient times. Like when you are almost finished reading an intriguing article and a content wall comes up asking for your email address and date of birth. Or worse yet when you are at the most thrilling part of a movie and a content wall pops up saying pay this amount to continue watching. You sigh a breath of annoyance and surrender, filling in the information. Content walls come in other forms as well, for example tweet or like our Facebook page to continue or take this survey.
Content walls might be bothersome to users, but looking at them from a positive approach they do retrieve valuable information for content creators.
Why a Content Wall?
There are risks in using content walls as discussed in one of our early blogs, but there are also positives to employing one.
First is monetization. In the example above, the timing of when a content wall pops up is pertinent in convincing people to pay to keep consuming the content. It is more difficult for people to deny entering their credit card info when they are three quarters into a film and anxious to see the end . This also brings up the fact that the content being offered has to be meaty and valuable in order to increase the likelihood of people complying with the content wall’s request.
Second, they help to accurately target consumers. By asking them to take a survey the company becomes aware of their user’s likes and dislikes. Knowing this information allows the company to more effectively market to their users. In other words, decreasing the chance of being deleted and increasing the likelihood of grabbing their attention with content. Asking consumers for their email address helps the company to build a relationship and be able to contact them.
Third is building a community. Asking to tweet something specific or “like” the company’s facebook page results in building a community , awareness, as well as attaining contact information. The company gets publicity when someone tweets about them. The company gains exposure when someone views and “likes” their Facebook page. Lastly, it easy to see who is talking about you. When someone tweets about you or likes your page it is easy to see their name, follow or even contact them in the future.
The use of a content gate may defer some users, but the benefit of the information received may outweigh the loss of some. These three reasons may alter your feelings about using a content wall for content.