[QUFB]

Sorry for the non-technical comment here, but why do I have to provide my email address to read the full report PDF? I suppose the marketing department at Cockroach Labs proscribed this workflow.

Is this a viable strategy? Might it be better to provide the report without the annoying engineers with the email requirement? How many readers of the report are interested in Cockroach Labs, rather than the benchmarks?

[jasode]

>, but why do I have to provide my email address to read the full report PDF?

... because the people who made the PDF content want to make a trade: your email address for their PDF whitepaper.

The industry jargon for this technique is "inbound marketing".[1]

>Is this a viable strategy?

Yes, it often is. But I do get that it annoys a lot of people. That's why 99.9% of the time, I also don't bother giving my email address just to read pdf whitepapers.

It's a voluntary trade -- and like you, I usually choose not to do it.

[1] https://www.google.com/search?q=%22inbound+marketing%22

[adambyrtek]

You can always use a disposable email address like 10 Minute Mail: https://10minutemail.com/

[universenz]

Notice how the responses are honest ones, where people would rather skip the report than supply their real email address? The target demographic are tech savvy, so 90% of the leads are going to be 10MM email addresses.

The popularity of this thread illustrate that there is a need/use for this content - so Cockroach nailed the bait, but have massively overshot the type of trap required to convert these savvy mice.

[tick_tock_tick]

Nah be realistic 99% of people will give their work email to read it and not care.

[chirau]

That 10minutemail workaround is easy to block, just require a business domain and a use a verification link.

[johannes1234321]

It's even simpler to not care - somebody using 10minutemail wouldn't react anyways, thus they send out some automated mail after a while and if there's no reaction kick the address of their active leads ... tracking down invalid mail domains is effort, sending out a few mails more is no effort.

[Supermancho]

you can get email/verifications from many temp email services.

[adambyrtek]

Like many similar problems, it's a cat and mouse game. For example, it's equally easy to detect adblockers, but they are still really effective.

[chirau]

Cockroach is a DB company. Customer acquisition cost is in the thousands if not tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands.

The steps I mentioned above are what, maybe a few hundred dollars. Trust me, their lead generation pipeline most likely already subscribes to this and utilizes it with minimal concern.

There are plenty of CRM tools that can flag out BS domains and/or low value not worth it domains.

If you are a person who gets by using 10minuteemail, you are not their target market. So will their target demographic.

The extra hop is very necessary for prevalidation. And they will be just fine with it.

You on the other hand, being the cheapskate that you are, have to commit an extra 5 minutes every time you generate these BS emails. Obviously you don't value your time as much. And that is why, again, you are not the target market because you extract no business value from accessing the knowledge they spent time and money aggregating for you. Your getting the PDF is inconsequential to both them and yourself.

So go ahead, no one really cares.

EDIT: Lol, you was not referring to you specifically, just the folks who think they are being smart or outsmarting corps by using these services like 10minutemail or whatever it's called

[maest]

Your comment is particularly vitriolic.

I am squarely in their target demographic and yet refuse to provide my email. I like keeping noise low in my work inbox - if I will decide I'd like to buy something from cockroachDB, I'll approach them. It's purely negative value to have them approach me - I have never received any useful messages by being on a marketing list.

It takes way less than 5 minutes to generate a temporary email address.

Also, I fail to see how refusing to provide your email address correlates with frugality. If anything, people who are cheapskates would be happy to pay with anything but money.

[adambyrtek]

Ad budgets are much bigger portion of acquisition cost than content marketing. Do you have an equally emotional reaction to people who decide to use ad blockers?

[edoceo]

Right! 10mm and many others are on our blacklist when we collect email (2-opt-in newsletter and sign-up)

[jessaustin]

I guess maybe they only care to deal with people who want this report badly enough to jump through some hoops?