Was ist Gated Content? Beispiele, Strategien, Tutorial & mehr

Gated content is content that users can access only after providing their information (such as log in credentials, email address, filling out a form). It's a powerful strategy used for lead generation.  The goal is to exchange valuable content for user information or payment, allowing businesses to nurture relationships with potential customers or monetize their content.  Let's learn more about Gated Content in this blog!

What is Gated Content?

Gated content is any part of the website that users can access only after providing their credentials. A user must provide personal information in order to gain access to the content. Usually, this refers to an email address or some kind of log-in information reflecting previously having signed up.

Why is Gated content so useful? The answer is that it incentivizes lead generation. Lead generation refers to the gaining of interest of potential consumers to increase future sales.

Typically, with Gated content, users arrive at a website via a blog post, a search engine or a social media site that directs these users to your site.

The first blog post, or landing page in general, is crucial in convincing users that you are a reliable source of information. If the blog is influential, users may show interest in learning more about what you have to offer or say.  It never hurts if your SEO gets you ranked fairly high on the search as well.  Well-created Gated content is a sure fire way to generate valuable leads.

Gated vs Ungated Content

Gated and Ungated content are two major types of content in digital marketing today. As previously discussed, Gated content is accessible if a viewer exchanges information for it. What does the word "gate" mean? It usually refers to a form that a user fills out with personal details like email address, name, phone number etc to gain access. Basic information, but it allows the owner of the site to contact you later.  This type of content is helpful for sales teams whose aim is the generation of leads. Gated content is usually very valuable to the target audience, and is much more than a traditional blog post.

Ungated content, simply speaking, is anything free for users to browse. It is content that users scan at their leisure, as per their wishes and desires. What is the aim of Ungated content? It is the generation of awareness among prospects and consequently building trust in them. Think about the beginning of a customer's journey where prospects start learning about your brand's products and services. This is the best time to use Ungated content to build trust.

In order to better understand the difference between Gated and Ungated content, let's take a look at their examples.

Gated content examples:

• White papers
• Ebooks
• Schablonen
• Newsletters
• Guides
• Industry related research
• Premium Articles
• Online Classes
• Software Demos/Free Trials

Ungated content examples:

• Blogs
• News Posts
• YouTube Videos
• Tip sheets
• Infographics
• Educational videos/podcasts
• Just about anything can be ungated content

How to Decide if You Should Gate Your Content?

The decision of whether or not you should gate your content depends on the following factors:

Objective: This is the most crucial factor in deciding on gating content. Usually, the objectives can be either lead generation or building brand awareness. You should go for Gated content if your objective is lead generation, as users must provide their information for accessing your offer. Ungated content is appropriate for building brand awareness.

‍Consider competitors: Pay attention to what your competitors are up to. Are they already offering content without a gate? If they offer similar content without a gate, going for a gate would be a bad marketing move, and you may lose competitiveness.

‍Value generation: Is your content providing sufficient value for it to be gated? This means that prospects must find your content to be beneficial/interesting/informative for them. Only ask prospects for their contact information when you know that your content is helpful for them and offers value.

Assess your resources:  Can you create enough high-quality gated content consistently?  Do you have systems in place to manage and follow up with leads?

‍Minimum information requirement: Producing a quality lead is essential; see what information will be required to achieve that. Always go with minimum information requirements that can ensure a quality lead. While a long-form helps gather meaningful data, it can also turn away many prospects.

Post Gate Strategy: Plan how you'll nurture leads after they've accessed the gated content and consider the overall customer journey and experience.  Always think about the end goal, before you even start, when planning a major project.  

Pros and Cons of Gated Content

Just like any other marketing technique, Gated content has its own benefits and drawbacks. With Gated content, leads are generated. You can then use these leads to enhance your marketing efforts. However, there are certain downsides of Gated content that need to be kept in mind. The biggest disadvantage is that users cannot see the content once it is positioned behind a form. An Ungated blog post has a much higher probability of going viral than a gated ebook. Moreover, Ungated content increases the visibility of a brand even though it may not generate sufficient leads.

Pros of Gated content:

• Increase in lead generation
• Increase in sales
• Facilitates arrangement of the email list
• Makes insight into customers possible
• Audience segmentation

Cons of Gated content:

• Page views and traffic do not exist
• Lack of brand visibility
• No enhancement of search engine optimization
• The form may act as a discouragement for people to download content
• Increased pressure on content quality

Examples of Gated Content

Here are some of the most popular Gated content examples:

White paper

A white paper is perhaps the most obvious example of Gated content. It is a report on a particular topic that is highly detailed and authoritative. Usually, this type of content consists of long-form pieces that the audience finds attractive. White papers are an example of top-notch Gated content due to the value they provide. Moreover, it helps you become an expert on a topic. Consequently, people are more likely to be interested in what you have to say, your content and you as a professional if you become a reliable expert. Ultimately, this would lead people to access your content.

Ebook

A popular type of Gated content is an ebook. In contrast to a white paper, an ebook is like a shorter guide on a particular topic. If you want to build trust with your audience, go for ebooks. Use them to make a good reputation in the mind of a potential consumer.  A well-written ebook can remain relevant and valuable for an extended period, providing ongoing lead generation and an excellent value for time and money spent producing it.

Schablonen

A template is a piece of content that is actionable and tactical and reusable. It offers a significantly higher perceived value than both the white paper and ebook. What does higher perceived value mean? It means that there is a higher probability of your audience seeking information by inputting their contact information.  It will, theoretically, provide something they can instantaneously turn around and put to use themselves somehow.  

Gated Content Strategies for Lead Generation

The most crucial benefit of Gated content is to generate leads. Let's discuss the various strategies for achieving it:

Content upgrades

The strategy of content upgrades has become immensely popular since the 2010s. Content upgrades refer to the upgrading of content that users are already viewing. These upgrades can be both additions to content of updates of previous content.  They're a more targeted and contextual approach compared to broader gated content strategies.  A content upgrade is a very effective method of wooing readers to subscribe to your mailing list. According to some experts, this is the best strategy to follow.

Webinars

Webinars are a powerful tool for lead generation, offering a unique blend of educational content and interactive engagement. Webinars have gained a lot of popularity recently as a Gated content strategy. This can be attributed to the higher accessibility of the technology for recording and live broadcasting/streaming. A webinar is a chance for you to deliver content in a live online setting. In this setting, your audience may ask you questions for which you are required to provide reliable answers. Webinars enjoy a higher perceived value in comparison to other types of Gated content. When going live on social media platforms without an email requirement, you won't get the same tools that a webinar may provide. In order to capture lead information, webinars have their own landing pages. Afterwards, pre-recorded webinars can be uploaded on a resource repository page.

Email series

An email series, often referred to as a drip campaign or nurture sequence, can be an effective form of gated content for lead generation. We know that almost everyone today uses an email service. This makes the email service an excellent medium for having a vast influence. But how can you put email content behind a gate? A good way to do this is to deliver it in a series of an 'ongoing' nature. In an email series, deliver an email on a weekly or daily basis, something scheduled and guaranteed that can be stuck to in all but the most dire of circumstances. This way, you can simplify complex subjects and make them easy for people to understand. As such, the email series is a highly efficient strategy.

Demos

A product demo is a presentation of a product's value to consumers.In a demo the essential features of a product or service are demonstrated to a current or potential consumer providing tangible value, allowing customers to visualize how your product or service can solve or assist with their specific problems. They also serve as a powerful qualification tool, helping to identify serious prospects based on their level of engagement and interest in specific features.. Scheduling demos is also a great strategy for certain types of companies. Product demos can be on a smaller, more individual or group scale or significantly larger like at a convention, trade show, or other similar gathering.  This is one of the best strategies to adopt to build trust with a prospect. With demos, you are basically showing prospects your soft power and effectiveness. Consequently, prospects are likely to be future customers.

Gated Content Best Practices

Create content for buyer's journey

Gated content is like a buyer’s journey, and in this journey, there are three stages: awareness, consideration, and decision. During each stage, your audience needs to deal with content suitable for them presented in an interesting and informational manner. The content should help them along the way. While someone in the awareness or beginning stage would prefer to read an ebook, a visitor in the decision stage may go for a webinar. So make sure that you design your content for each stage in the journey of a buyer. This way, you are more likely to convert them in the future and keep them as a customer for your company or product.

Complete a competitive analysis

In a competitive analysis, you will have to research what your competitors are up to. Here, you should take a look at the type of content the competitors are creating. Find out about the Gated vs Ungated balance of competitors and to what extent and how they are using it.  Then, you need to compare it against your own and make sure that you strive to offer customers the “better deal”.  

Provide value

Providing value in digital marketing is a matter of paramount importance. A long blog post should not be the only content offer you put forward. Instead, ensure variety in your content offering. Aim for content that is valuable as well as actionable. Moreover, relevance is vital when creating content. An irrelevant content offer is a terrible marketing move that harms you. Reliable, regular, varied and useful content is an incentive for prospects to fill out the form and give you their contact information.

Measure the analytics

Make sure that you track conversions after the plan is in motion. This is what we call analytics. Analytics means the measurement of digital marketing success. This will give you an idea about the performance of your content strategy and what you can do to improve it.  It will also show you what is most and least effective with your content and your intended audience, allowing you to plan and mold what you do to your intended base.  

Building Your own Gated Content with Memberstack

Memberstack is a membership integration platform. With Memberstack, you can create subscription-based revenue by using Gated Content. This refers to the member-only content at Memberstack. The process of building your own Gated content on Memberstack is quite simple. Aside from the list below, you can also check out our online how-to for how to build Gated Content in Memberstack here!  Below we have chosen to outline the steps of how to go about building your own Gated Content with Memberstack through Webflow as your chosen design tool:

Setting Up Gated Content with Memberstack 2.0 using Webflow 

1. Set up Memberstack 2.0

• Sign up for a Memberstack account (if you haven't already)
• Create a new project in Memberstack
• Familiarize yourself with Memberstack's dashboard and features
• Review Memberstack's pricing plans and choose the appropriate one for your needs

2. Connect Memberstack to Webflow

• In Memberstack, go to "Settings" > "Sites"
• Add your Webflow site URL
• Copy the Memberstack script
• In Webflow, go to "Project Settings" > "Custom Code"
• Paste the Memberstack script into the "Head Code" section
• Ensure the script is properly loaded by checking your site's source code

3. Configure Memberstack components in Webflow

• Add Memberstack components to your Webflow site:some text
  • Login form
  • Signup form
  • User profile
• Customize these components as needed
• Style the components to match your site's design
• Add password reset functionality
• Implement social login options if desired

4. Set up membership plans in Memberstack

• In Memberstack, go to "Plans"
• Create the membership plans you want to offer
• Configure pricing, trial periods, and other details
• Set up recurring billing if offering subscription-based memberships
• Create coupon codes for promotions or special offers

5. Protect your gated content

• In Webflow, add the Memberstack "Protected Content" component to the pages you want to gate
• Configure the component to show content only to members with specific plans
• Set up content restrictions based on membership levels
• Create fallback content or messages for non-members who attempt to access gated areas

6. Set up authentication redirects

• In Memberstack, configure login and signup success redirects
• Set up logout redirects
• Create custom welcome pages for new members
• Implement email verification if required

7. Test your gated content

• Preview your Webflow site
• Try signing up, logging in, and accessing gated content
• Test with different membership levels
• Verify that non-members can't access protected content
• Test password reset and account recovery processes

8. Publish and launch

• Once everything is working correctly, publish your Webflow site
• Monitor signups and member activity through Memberstack dashboard
• Set up analytics to track member engagement with gated content
• Create a launch plan to promote your new membership site

9. Maintain and optimize

• Regularly update your gated content to keep it fresh and valuable
• Monitor member feedback and adjust your offering accordingly
• Analyze user behavior to improve the member experience
• Continuously test and optimize your signup and login processes

Remember to keep your content updated and valuable to retain members. Regularly review your setup to ensure everything is functioning as expected. Also, consider implementing a customer support system to address member inquiries and issues promptly.

Checkout this article for more details.

Join Memberstack today and enhance your Gated content efforts like never before!