Whether or not you choose to put a gate between a piece of your content and a site visitor, make sure you go into the decision with open eyes.
September 10, 2025
On an internet so saturated with content, it can be heartening to know that many are still willing to pay, in some form or another, for content. Why are they? Because some insights are so consistently ____ [fill in the blank: interesting? helpful? prescient? funny?] that readers are willing to part with information or even money to gain entry.
Gated content, says Foundry, “refers to any resource (e.g., ebooks, webinars, whitepapers) that requires users to submit personal information, usually via a form, in exchange for access.” FluentCRM adds the term “high-value material,” though we’ve probably all seen at least some gated material that doesn’t quite live up to that description.
There’s something very human about wanting to receive something in exchange for content. “You spend hours crafting a beautifully designed ebook or whitepaper…” says Kaitlyn Petro on iMPACT. That’s not the full sentence, though. The full sentence is actually this: “You spend hours crafting a beautifully designed ebook or whitepaper, attach it to a landing page, and gate it behind a form. You wait for the leads to roll in. But fewer people are filling out forms. And when they do, they might never open the email or answer the phone.”
One question worth asking yourself when deciding whether or not to gate a piece of content is what purpose you are hoping it serves. Another question you should ask is whether it’s the only purpose it serves. You might be writing an article that teases apart a new piece of legislation and how it affects your clients or colleagues. That article may present an opportunity to start a dialogue with thought leaders in the field, promote a related product line, or announce an upcoming event. On the other hand, that same article might be the perfect opportunity to add some names to your outbound address book— something that a gate can facilitate. Consider not only how valuable Opportunity A and Opportunity B are, but also how likely each outcome is. Formulayt offers some other considerations to make, including, “Will gating the content align with your overall marketing goals…?” and, “Is the content highly valuable or exclusive, providing information that is not readily available elsewhere?”
If you’re lucky, your content is so appealing that it convinces tons of people to take that dreaded step and type their name and email address into a prompt. But, Knotch cautions, you might “generate leads with low intent to purchase,” which obviously doesn’t help you a whole lot. “Depending on where your gated content fits into your funnel, it’s highly unlikely that your lead is ready to buy…And chances are, you’re not getting a clean list. Many content consumers type in bogus email addresses (asdfasdfasd@asdfdas.com, anyone?) or use browser tools/extensions that are designed to input temporary email addresses so that their actual contact information isn’t shared. They’re tired of being sold to when they’re simply not ready to buy.” Petro puts it this way: “Buyers no longer want to be captured. They want to be helped.”
This doesn’t mean that all gate-produced lists should be ignored. Dynamic Yield set up an experiment (two, actually) to compare the results of gated versus ungated content. Ungated case studies yielded 62% more downloads than gated case studies. Ungated guides yielded 15% more downloads than gated guides. Tough to ignore. “However,” writes Yaniv Navot about the experiment, “13% more demo requests came through for people who download gated case studies using forms. Interestingly, with >99% probability, people who had already submitted a lead gen form to download a case study were more inclined to submit a demo [request] at a later stage. A clear indication that individuals who are motivated to proceed in the face of a form are serious about connecting with us—an excellent qualifier in the lead-nurturing process.” This supports another one of Formulayt’s recommendations, which is to ask yourself whether a piece of gated content applies to a part of the funnel “where capturing user information is appropriate and beneficial?”
Over- or mis-gating content carries another risk with it: “locking your best content behind gates will significantly diminish your search rankings,” says Hoa Loranger. “It’s no good to have great content if no one discovers it.” A club so exclusive that no one knows where it is probably won’t gather a much more robust membership than your no-girls-allowed treehouse society. (Bear with me, I grew up in a city and am indulging clichéd visions of suburban childhood.) There’s also the matter of which particular content you are considering gating or opening up: “content that is meant to increase awareness or answer fundamental product questions should remain ungated as well,” says Loranger. “Early in the buying cycle, people need to understand what the thing does and how it benefits them.”
This ties in with a trend in the sales funnel over the past few years that we at Maestro have been paying close attention to: the long sales cycle. If you want more on that, check out this blog we posted in February, but in the meantime, here’s some tl;dr: According to a 6sense study, by the time an average buyer reaches out to a seller, they’ve completed 69% of their sales cycle. Not just that, in 2023, Zippia reported that “insightful content” was the top selling point for B2B buyers. They also found “51% relying on content for pre-purchase research.” What this means is that ungated content can have a powerful impact.
Don’t take this to mean that you have no way of directing site visitors toward useful outcomes. There are always good old-fashioned CTAs, says Petro. “Rather than forcing form fills, invite readers to subscribe, download, or speak with a team member on their own terms.” Navot found success with an account based-marketing widget. Knotch suggests considering freemiums. Also, they say, “If you have to gate content and are putting money behind it on social channels, explore the ad options available. Some, like LinkedIn, offer lead gen forms that pre-populate personal data in the native interface and sync to your CRM, so the process is as smooth as possible for your audience.”
Ungating doesn’t mean getting careless about data. Petro says, “Don’t forget to monitor how people interact with your content. Tracking page views, engagement, and returning visits often reveals more about buyer intent than a single form submission ever could. By removing friction, you’re making it easier for the right people to take the next step.” But even Petro feels there are times when it’s perfectly appropriate to use gated content, for example, when someone has already opted in to content of yours, such as a workbook they can download after a webinar they attended.
But whether or not you choose to put a gate between a piece of your content and a site visitor, make sure you go into the decision with open eyes, as it can affect more than just that single guide, blog, or case study—whether positively or negatively. And please believe me when I say that asdfasdfasd@asdfdas.com is where I direct all my most important mail.
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