Are you looking to attract more high-quality leads who are ready to engage and are likely to convert? Gated content is one of the most powerful tools in your arsenal, if done right.
So, what is gated content? Gated content refers to any material such as ebooks, webinars, or advanced guides, that viewers can only access by first completing a specific action. The action is most commonly something like providing their contact information.
In this blog, Danny Conlon, Ignite Visibility’s SVP of Product and Marketing, shares insider insights on why gated content is a game-changer for lead generation. You’ll discover how to craft compelling gated assets that capture attention, build trust, and turn prospects into loyal customers. Keep reading to unlock proven strategies and examples that will elevate your content marketing to the next level.
What You’ll Learn:
- Benefits of Gated Content
- Types of Gated Content
- Best Practices for Creating Gated Content
- How to Use Your Marketing to Distribute Gated Content
- Balancing Gated and Ungated Content
- Measuring the Success of Gated Content
- Industries Where Gated Content Works Great
- Case Studies and Real-Life Examples
- FAQs About Gated Content
My Expert Opinion on Gated Content
Gated content might seem straightforward on the surface, but executing it effectively requires a sophisticated strategy. First, the content itself has to be exceptional. The topic must resonate deeply, and the insights need to deliver real, tangible value. If the asset falls short, you risk frustrating your audience and losing trust before you even start.
Next comes the “gate,” which is typically a landing page designed to collect contact information. This page isn’t just a form; it must be expertly crafted with seamless UX, precise tracking, and full integration with your CRM and marketing automation tools to ensure every lead is captured and nurtured properly.
Finally, without a robust multi-channel promotional plan, even the best gated content will go unnoticed. Your ads, social media, email campaigns, and SEO efforts need to work in harmony to drive qualified traffic and maximize conversions.
Because of these complexities, a gated content strategy is truly advanced marketing. But when done right, it doesn’t just generate high-quality leads, it positions your brand as an authoritative thought leader, building trust that fuels long-term growth.
Benefits of Gated Content
Wondering when it’s best to use gated vs. ungated content? Here are some of the biggest advantages of using gated content:
- Streamlined Lead Generation: By requiring a form completion, you can gather specific lead details, gain valuable insights, optimize marketing strategies, and enhance tracking through first-party data collection.
- Detailed Audience Insights: Rich data from forms provide understanding and help segment target audiences, allowing you to pinpoint which leads are most likely to convert and refine your overall marketing strategy.
- Established Authority: By selectively gating content and creating an exclusive experience, you’ll establish yourself as an authority within the industry.
Also, keep in mind gated content’s overall popularity. According to a recent NetLine study, there has been a 14.3% YOY increase in requests for gated content, showing how valuable this content is for both consumers and marketers.
Types of Gated Content
Step one in any successful gated content strategy is choosing the right type of content for your business and audience. What works best depends on who you’re targeting and what they truly value.
Is your audience looking for a clear, visual explanation of a complex topic through a video? Maybe a product demo that lets them experience your solution firsthand? Or perhaps a detailed guide or whitepaper packed with insights and visuals they can return to again and again?
Understanding this helps you create resources that resonate deeply and drive conversions. Let’s explore some powerful examples to inspire your next gated asset.
Ebooks and Whitepapers
If you want to deliver a large amount of information to your audiences, consider offering downloadable ebooks and whitepapers. Ebooks are particularly popular for gated content, as the aforementioned NetLine study found that these materials comprise 39.5% of all gated content requests among B2B professionals.
This content can explore certain topics in greater depth and truly establish your brand as an industry authority.
These content pieces could also complement blog posts or articles discussing the topic at a surface level, connecting with people who have already expressed interest in the subject.
Webinars and Online Courses
To boost engagement even more and get your audiences more directly involved, consider using webinars and online courses.
Webinars can deliver a lot of information in a format that’s potentially more engaging through interactive live Q&A sessions. Reach out to respected industry figures and see if you can feature them in your webinars.
Meanwhile, online courses can educate audiences on certain topics and further establish you as a knowledgeable authority in your industry.
Templates and Tools
For people seeking something they can use, you might offer various templates or tools. For example, a company selling design software might offer certain design templates that are compatible with the tool, helping people get the most from their platform and enticing more people to sign up.
A marketing company could also offer certain templates for marketing content, the way HubSpot often does.
Case Studies and Reports
If your main goal is to convince people to trust you over competitors, you could also offer gated case studies or industry reports.
Case studies can show what previous clients or customers have to say about your brand. For instance, potential franchise owners could share detailed franchisee growth stories. NetLine also determined that case studies are 78.5% more likely than webinars to lead to a buying decision within 12 months of review.
Reports, on the other hand, could relay research your team conducted, whether through surveys or other forms of data collection, showcasing your industry expertise.
Best Practices for Creating Gated Content
Want to get the best results from your gated assets? The following are some steps you can take to develop top-quality content that really works for you:
- Understand Your Audience: Take some time to research your target market and segment audiences based on key demographics, psychographics, and behaviors, which will help you reach the right people at the right time.
- Align With the Buyer’s Journey: Ensure content reaches people at certain key touchpoints to keep them moving down the sales funnel. For instance, educational content should be toward the start of the journey, while content aimed at driving sales should be toward the end.
- Offer High-Value Content: All of the content you offer should provide plenty of value to justify the exchange of data. People want to know that the content they’re submitting their information for, if it’s worth this kind of investment, and they’ll likely continue engaging if you show that your content is uniquely authoritative.
- Optimize Landing Pages: The content should organically promote the content with a single, clear call-to-action (CTA), and your pages should be mobile-responsive to appeal to desktop and mobile users alike.
- Keep Forms Simple: To generate more leads, only request the information you need from your audiences with your forms, asking for basic details like name and email. If they enjoy your content, they’ll likely be more inclined to submit more information at a later time as they come to trust your brand.
- Promote Strategically: Get your content out there using various marketing channels, including social media posts and ads, Google Ads, blogs, emails, and more.
How to Use Your Marketing to Distribute Gated Content
Once you’ve created your gated assets, it’s time to promote them with multiple marketing channels and get your content in front of your target audiences.
Here are some of the main strategies to implement when distributing your gated content:
Email Marketing
Develop targeted email campaigns that push your content to specific audience segments. Emails can engage new leads and nurture them over time, leading to more conversions.
Be sure to incorporate clear CTAs that boost conversions and keep people moving along the buyer’s journey.
Paid Social Media
Social media ads can expand your reach on various platforms, with Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other sites making it easy to set up and target ads to your audiences.
Using these ads, you can also retarget people who visited your website and remind them to return and check out your content.
Organic Social Media
In addition to social media ads, you can promote content with posts on your profiles. In these posts, you can list some of the key points covered in the content piece, summarizing it and concluding with a link to your landing page.
To boost your post’s visibility, include hashtags and tag relevant influencers that can help you appear in searches or organically in your audience’s feeds based on their interests.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Google Ads and display ads on other platforms can harness the power of SEM to market your content. In doing so, target the most relevant keywords and implement various display networks to maximize your reach.
Influencer and Partnership Marketing
You can also partner with influencers and other brands to promote content, whether it’s through shared promotions, joint events, or co-branded campaigns.
When seeking influencers, you don’t need to go for the big names, either. In fact, micro-influencers in a specific niche tend to have more loyal followings who are likely to engage with your content.
Content Marketing
Promote your gated content by writing blog posts and guest articles.
These pieces can either solely focus on driving traffic to your gated assets or include a call to action, offering the gated content as a deeper dive for interested readers.
Webinars and Events
At the end of or even throughout your events, push your content to attendees. Highlight the value of exclusivity, making them feel like they are receiving a special resource not available to the general public.
Landing Pages and CTAs
Landing pages promoting your content can help with SEO and advertising efforts. Optimize these pages with relevant keywords and concise and compelling CTAs that drive conversions.
Balancing Gated and Ungated Content
Knowing when to use gated content vs. ungated content can help you get the best results from your overall strategy.
Generally, it’s best to use gated content if:
- Your main goal is to generate leads and collect user information with your content
- You have premium content like ebooks, whitepapers, case studies, and industry reports
- You want to target specific audiences seeking high-quality resources, such as B2B customers
- The overarching content strategy has several touchpoints along the journey where gated content could move people along the buyer funnel
Meanwhile, you should use ungated content to boost your SEO efforts and supplement its gated counterparts. Blog posts, web pages, and other ungated content can help you bring in high-quality website traffic, while gated pieces keep your audience engaged.
Measuring the Success of Gated Content
To determine whether your gated assets are performing the way they should, you must measure your efforts.
Track the Right Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Identify the metrics that are relevant to your goals. If your primary goal is lead conversion, you might want to measure KPIs like:
- Engagement metrics: click-through rate (CTR) and form abandonment rate
- Follow-up metrics: lead quality score and marketing-qualified leads (MQLs)
Conduct A/B Testing
With your gated content, ads, CTAs, landing pages, and other promotional content, figure out what really works by running A/B tests.
Through A/B testing, you can run two variations of the same content piece and see which drives the most engagement. Based on which format works best, you can determine which to officially use.
Industries Where Gated Content Works Great
There are plenty of industries that can benefit from gated content.
Business-to-Business (B2B)
B2B industries often use gated content to connect with customers and gain their trust. This content is especially critical for SaaS companies, professional services, and financial services that come with a big investment and, subsequently, a lot of consideration among customers.
Use: whitepapers, case studies, and industry reports.
Healthcare
People also want to know that healthcare services and sources for medical advice are reliable and trustworthy, which is where gated assets can come in handy. Healthcare professionals should establish themselves as knowledgeable authorities with exclusive, in-depth medical knowledge.
Use: Medical guides, reports, and patient success stories.
Finance
In helping people make a critical financial decision, you can push all types of content to move people along. Offer different resources to target various stages of their decision process, such as introductory guides for beginners and in-depth analyses for more experienced investors.
Use: Investment guides, financial planning tools, and industry reports.
Tech and Software
To effectively convert qualified leads, tech companies can deploy a variety of content formats to engage potential customers at different points in their understanding.
Use: Product demo videos, case studies and technical whitepapers.
Franchises
Consumer franchises and franchise development efforts also benefit from the use of exclusive content.
Examples of gated content for consumer franchises can include:
- Home Services: Maintenance guides, cleaning checklists, and other content can showcase expertise among consumers.
- Fitness Franchises: Fitness challenges, workout plans, and nutrition guides are popular content pieces in this industry.
Meanwhile, franchise development strategies seeking investors and potential franchisees can offer:
- Franchise Opportunity Guides: In-depth guides to a brand’s franchising opportunities, with details about investment costs, expected returns, and franchisee testimonials.
- Franchise Financial Models: Breakdowns and ROI projections can help potential investors better understand the offered opportunity.
- Success Stories of Existing Franchisees: Case studies and franchisee success stories can go a long way in convincing prospective investors.
- Franchise Development Webinars: Exclusive webinars can educate prospects about growth potential and other aspects of the opportunity, detailing how to get started.
Case Studies and Real-Life Examples
Let’s take a look at some case studies showing the effectiveness of good gated content strategies.
HubSpot
One great example is HubSpot, which offers business customers all types of downloadable content, from marketing guides and templates to tools and other resources.
HubSpot Gated Content Landing Page Example
Visme
Another brand using this content the right way is Visme, which is an interactive design platform that encourages people to use it by offering plenty of free resources that work within the platform.
The website offers plenty of design templates to make things easier than ever for its users while requiring people to sign up to access them.
Hootsuite
To get more people to implement its social media management software, Hootsuite also offers a host of exclusive content.
Note how simple Hootsuite’s form is while requesting some key information, encouraging more people to convert.
FAQs About Gated Content
1. What is gated content?
Gated content is any type of content that people must complete a particular action before accessing, such as eBooks, whitepapers, case studies, reports, and other exclusive content pieces.
2. Does gated content still work?
Yes, absolutely! This content is great for building trust among high-quality leads and showcasing your brand’s expertise and authoritativeness.
3. Is gated content bad for SEO?
No, to put it plainly. While this content may not directly help with SEO, it can supplement your SEO strategy. For instance, landing pages promoting your gated eBooks and other content can boost visibility in search engines.
4. Is there a gated content plugin available?
There are plenty of gated content plugins on WordPress you can use to get the most from your efforts. For example, you can use the Formidable Forms plugin to optimize your lead capture forms, while OptinMonster makes it easy to grow and manage your email lists and monetize content.
Develop Gated Content That Converts With Ignite Visibility
If you want to succeed with this kind of content, consider working with professionals like the team at Ignite Visibility.
Our experts can assist with:
- Developing and curating high-value gated assets
- Identifying and gearing content toward your target audience
- Integrating your exclusive content into a holistic content strategy
- Promoting your content across all relevant channels
- Measuring your efforts to gauge success
- And more!
Connect with us today to learn how we can help you develop a content strategy that resonates with prospects and maximizes conversions.
