The term content is familiar to virtually all of you reading this. This here that you are reading is content. In a way, you can say that content now makes the world go round. Have you ever heard about the term gated content, though? Chances are you have seen and interacted with it, but you never knew. In this article, this will be our discussion. We shall look at gated content and how you can use it. Especially as an entrepreneur or business person, you need to know this.

What Is Gated Content?

Gated content is any online material which requires one to provide personal details in order to access. Online material can be anything spanning from articles to other audio-visual content. The personal details one must avail will depend on the context. The most basic scenario you will encounter is being asked to provide your name and email address.

Why Gated Content?

In content creation, you are always presented with two broad options. You can make it accessible for free without even requesting something in return. Then there is the option to make the exchange transactional in some form or fashion. The major thrust of gated content is to cultivate and generate leads. Imagine a random person gets in contact with your content and goes. How do you make it possible to keep interacting with them? No wonder finding a way to get their personal and contact details becomes necessary.

That way, you can continue cultivating them until they graduate from prospects, lead, and, ultimately, conversions. In simple terms, gated content seeks to incentivise availing one’s details. Relevant, engaging content in exchange for one’s information is the transaction. Gated content also makes it possible to collect valuable data from which you can draw insights. For instance, supposing location is one of the pieces of information; you can know leads you have in specific locations.

NB: You must also appreciate how widespread gated content is. Remember, earlier this year, we discussed achieving the best content marketing results in 2023. Digital marketing, in whatever form, is now anchored on content. It is important to know the latest trends. Right now, in the world of content marketing, gated content rules. When you come across content online, there is a more than 80 percent chance it is gated. In essence, it is now an industry standard.

Thus you must follow suit because it has upsides if it is that popular. A caveat is that you must roll out gated content correctly since it is not always the best approach. Gated content is a valuable content marketing approach in this day and age. Some top uses of gated content are lead generation, brand awareness, engagement, cultivating leads, sales generation, customer retention, and promoting word of mouth.

Potential Pitfalls Of Using Gated Content

People have generally been subjected to all sorts of malice online. Most of it stems from the manipulation of people’s data. There have even been countless issues surrounding the unlawful collection and use of people’s data. This has all culminated in many people being averse to providing their data online. As much as you may not mean any harm, many people may be offended if you ask for their details.

Drawing people in by content marketing may prove futile if you use gated content. It is for this reason that using non-gated content would be ideal. However, non-gated content poses the hurdle of the inability to capture personal details effectively. This implies lead generation is exponentially harder, yet traffic may be substantial. Do you see why there is a need to strike a balance between the gated and non–gated fronts? Let us delve into how to use gated content rightly.

How To Use Gated Content: Winning Approaches

Content Type Should Be Alluring Enough

I know this is subjective and highly contextual. This is usually something you will have to research on. What type of content would appeal to your targets regardless of it being gated? This is content good enough to make your content being gated a non-issue. Is it reports? Are they whitepapers? Is it videos? Is it case studies? Is it ebooks? Is it audio? You have to figure this out and establish the accurate type of content for the gate. If you get this wrong, your gated content will not thrive.

Where Should You Avail The Gated Content?

Remember what your overall goal is – lead generation. This implies that it matters where you will avail your gated content. To better understand this, you must know what the marketing funnel is. It comprises the awareness stage, consideration stage, and decision stage. Specific goals for gated content will vary from context to context. You have to properly strategize on where it is best to put your gated content. Those 3 stages should guide you in determining that.

Importance Of A Proper Landing Page

We cannot talk of gated content without a proper landing page. This is essentially where you make your pitch to the prospects. As in, this is where you say this is what you can get, provided you provide the following details. This calls on you to write a striking copy to draw people in. It is also important to properly design your landing page. A minimalistic approach is best – there is power in using the least amount of information to get the point across.

That is what you need to know about gated content. Now you know what it is. We have also covered the basics of how to roll out gated content rightly. Applying it to your content marketing practices is next for you. Iterative testing is essential in using gated content; try various variations.