Sure Fire Way to Lose Potential Customers
Using HubSpot's software I help companies set up lead tracking on their websites so they can see their entire sales funnel -- who is coming to their website, where are they coming from, and tracking the conversion rates to leads and customers. When reviewing their web forms to track leads, many ask if they can filter out all of their competitors and non-corporate email accounts like Gmail, Yahoo, Mac, and Hotmail from accessing the content.
My concern is that setting up all this special filtering and restricting so many users from receiving certain offers (a whitepaper download, access to attend a webinar, or launch a free trial of software) is preventing qualified leads from moving forward in the funnel.
The best case scenario is that you've made it harder for your competitors to access your content. But, the reality is, if they really want it they'll just go sign up for an email address you didn't block or ask their friend to download it from their account.
Worst case scenario is that you've now lost a potential customer because they didn't want to use their corporate email.
My advice, spend more time creating remarkable content and a world wide rave rather than trying to keep everyone away from it.
