All marketers have been here, you’ve made a piece of content/collateral, and obviously it’s the next best thing to sliced bread. It’s your baby, you worked hard on it, and this piece belongs behind a landing page. Or, there are the times where you make a great piece of content, but you don’t want to put it behind a landing page fearing that people won’t download it. So, now you’re left with the age-old question, to gate or not to gate? Some things you really want to think about here are:
- How valuable is this content really? (Try not to be biased here)
- What stage in the buyer cycle is the targeted persona? If it is for potential leads in the awareness stage, are they really ready to give up their information.
- Is it actual content or strictly a promotional piece?
A great tool to help you determine whether or not a form should go in front of your content is this “Should I Gate This Content?” flowchart. It will help you answer that age-old question “To Gate or Not to Gate.”
Click Here for Full Size Flowchart (Source: Hubspot)
Has your content been deemed gateable? Great, time to collect some leads! Time to make the perfect landing page.
Has your content been deemed ungateble? Have no fear; you did not waste your time. It could still be a great resource for users who are not ready to share their contact information. Also, you will want to make sure your content is optimized for both the reader and Google to get some SEO value from it.
