Is Gating Your Content The Right Move?

The issue of gated content often creates a highly contentious debate between between marketers and content people. Marketers want those names and email addresses. Content people want their content seen. So who’s right? The answer, as with a lot of things in life, is it depends.

Is There Authority Behind the Content?

If your content is gated, you need to be offering something valuable to your audience. One good way to create perceived value is to utilize a third-part consultancy for content creation, and to have their name on it. And when you sink that kind of money into creating a whitepaper, you’ll want to see some RoI, but it’s up to you to decide on the most appropriate way to measure and maximize RoI. Awareness, brand-building, and SEO all might be more useful in the long-run to your brand than a list of names and contact details, or it might not be. It's up to you.

Is There Authority Behind You?

Is your brand a market leader? Does what you say matter in the discourse of your industry? Is your opinion respected? If the answer is no to these questions, don’t even think about gating your content, no matter how much you paid for it. Getting that prestigious piece of content in front of as many eyeballs as possible is the sort of thing that can drive a shift in the perception of your brand from follower to leader, and that’s far more valuable than adding a touch of personalization to your spam efforts.

Will Gating Hurt Your Reach?

Assuming your business has the clout, the best candidates for gating are whitepapers and e-books specific to a particular industry or vertical. The reason why is because the exposure penalty for gating is limited, since the target audience is pretty narrow to begin with (especially if you put a keyword-laden executive summary on the gate page). When you pay a consultancy, the temptation is to go broad, and you certainly can, but you just shouldn’t gate it. Big-time awareness can do what needs to be done.

Could You Sell This Content?

If the previous questions haven't resolved the issue of gating for you, think about it this way. When you gate content, you ask your audience to hand over something valuable (their privacy) in exchange for it. In other words, you're selling it. So think about whether or not anyone would actually pay money for this piece of content. Does it have objective value? If the answer is no for money, the answer is no for gating. If you can't sell it, don't gate it.