A Guide to Downloadable Content & Measuring Its Success

Downloadable content should be measured by engagement and registrations -- here's why.

Downloadable content has a special place in marketing campaigns because prospective customers have to request the content instead of just accessing it from a company website. This extra effort can make content seems more valuable and allows companies to easily track user data, which also makes it easier to determine the return on investment (ROI)of a campaign.

What is Downloadable Content?

Downloadable content is anything a company produces that can be downloaded. However, it implies something more specialized that an ebook, or blog post. Downloadable content usually offers more detailed information. The content can be a research report on the reasons for current trends in an industry, a survey of marketing directors' best practices, or a podcast from your company's thought leaders.

What Do I Do With Downloadable Content?

Before you begin, you've got to determine what information you would like to convey. Can you provide in-depth information for a guide or for a research paper on your industry? Do you have a unique perspective that would lend to a podcast, or a built in audience eager to discover more? After you've developed your content, follow these guidelines:

Tease Your Audience. Give your site's visitors a taste of what your content offers with a catchy name, slogan, or a preview image of the download.
Keep the form brief. If a gated personal data form is too lengthy it will get skipped.
Distribute! Get your content in the inboxes of knowledgeable insiders in your industry

How to Measure ROI

It's important to gate the downloadable content with a personal information form. You can ask for the user's name, email address, job title, company name, and company URL. Once it's filled out you have a name and contact info for a new lead. You can then use the collected data to nurture and manage leads.

There are a few ways to measure ROI. These are the easiest and most efficient:

Look at analytics of the landing page for the downloadable content. This will show how many people downloaded, their geographical location, how they found it, what search keywords they used and other relevant information.
Measure the engagement of your content. How many times was the link shared through social media? How many comments did the content elicit? Consumers will offer feedback on content that made an impact.

Downloadable content is growing in popularity as one of several methods of content marketing. More and more companies are using downloadable content as a way to capture contact information while also offering valuable information to a targeted audience.