Gated content requires a user to enter their personal information to access or download it. But that means it has to be good stuff for someone to fork over their info. It can be things like original research, exclusive data, or guides.
When should you put up gates around content? When should you not?
Pros of Gated Content
- Ups a piece of content’s value.
- Gathers user information to then track conversions and measure analytics.
- Helps segment an audience based on interest or to serve different content.
- Helps qualify a lead.
Cons of Gated Content
- Deters some people from a site because they don’t want to enter their information.
- People can share files with others, leading to untrackable leads.
4 Questions to Help Determine Whether to Gate Content or Not
- How do you build trust with your audience? – Gated content is something that people will sign up for if they trust the source. Keep this in mind for people who are new to your brand.
- What goals are you trying to meet? – Gated content should have a purpose to your journey and lead nurturing.
- Is your content worth a gate? – As we said, people don’t give their info up for just anything. Your content has to be valuable enough for a user to want to grab it.
- Can you do both? – Try a hybrid approach by previewing the most interesting parts of it then request user information for the full thing.
Check out the full post by Springboard for more ideas on using gated content.
