HubSpot is a well known marketing software company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts and they know a lot about creating great content to attract web visitors. In their blog today, they ask a question every marketing and sales team contemplates. Should your content be behind forms?
HubSpot’s Marketing VP Mike Volpe and marketing writer David Meerman Scott go toe-to-toe with opposing viewpoints in a very informative video . Meerman Scott seems to believe almost everything should be freely available without the need for a user to fill out a form. Volpe believes some content should be freely available but some content should be protected by forms to create a database of leads for sales people. I agree with Volpe. If the content is good enough and the form is short enough, people will gladly fork over basic info. Once the sales department has a tiny amount of information about the prospect they can start doing their job but until then they cannot.
In this case, HubSpot does a wonderful job of creating a really compelling trailer video to create interest. They do not ask for any contact info to view the trailer video but they do ask for minimal information to view the full video. It makes sense that a person willing to invest 25 minutes of their time to watch a video would also be ok with providing some basic information. By contrast, a person just looking to glance at a blog post or short (uninformative) video probably is not willing to divulge their contact details.
HubSpot has been producing videos for years and their video production quality keeps improving. Years ago the HubSpot seemed to have the philosophy that any video was good video if the content was good. Now, I’m sure Volpe understands that a poorly produced video locked behind a form will lead to disappointed viewers less likely to buy HubSpot’s marketing software. In this case, the video and video trailer scored well on both content and video production quality.
THE VIDEO ABOVE IS AVAILABLE WITHOUT THE NEED TO DIVULGE YOUR CONTACT INFO WHICH IS OK WITH HUBSPOT. YOU WILL FIND OUT WHY IF YOU WATCH THE ENTIRE VIDEO.
Rewatchable – Video Production Massachusetts
It was fun to “debate” Mike. There is no real right or wrong. I hope everyone can make a decision based on listening to both sides. Thanks for sharing.