I’ve been trying to get a little more active in the LinkedIn community lately getting back to groups to broaden my horizons et al. I’ve been surprised by the amount of content that is still being posted behind a form to collect information on you the person. The teaser brings you in – “Hey check out this new article I just wrote (like right now)” – only to get there and realize that it’s behind a form to fill out to later receive a link to at some point download and access.
And perhaps it comes faster and with fewer steps then that but you get the gist of where I’m going with it.
Why do I need to sign-up?
Is it the formula to Coke?
Is it the Google Search Algorithm?
Is it the real key to losing weight in six days?
It might not be intended but here is the message you are sending when you do this;
- Give us some information on yourself.
- Read our work (maybe it’s really okay if you don’t because we have your info now).
- And now we are going to send you some other stuff.
Versus
The message you probably want to be sending;
- Here read this.
- If you want more, sign-up, if you don’t, you know where to find us.
What’s the difference?
Option #1 forces the reader to step back and evaluate if this material is really worth giving their information to yet another site to read an article they may or may not want. Irrespective of how good your work is, the customer has to provide their information – Translation – their opinion doesn’t matter, you locked them in.
Option #2 is dependent on you publishing work that matters with the customer wanting to sign up for more. Translation – you knocked it out of the park, they want more and they are going to let the world know.
Now it’s just a matter of what message you really want to send and how you want to get the word out.
