To Gate or Not to Gate: That is the question

In this episode of Gloves Off, we discuss the decision of when to gate an asset and provide key prompts to solve your problem.

As a B2B marketer, my success is often viewed and measured by the number of leads I generate for my clients.

No wonder I’m always thinking about how, when, and where to collect lead information—like you, I want success for my clients, my company, and myself (you know I’m gunning for that end-of-year bonus!).

In my client services role at Sudden Impact Marketing, one of my most active job functions is that of advisor. And providing advice/consultation on whether to gate assets is one of the most recurring subjects.

Sometimes, the answer is simple, though immediately obvious. Other times, there’s a rabbit hole of factors that go into consideration.

In any case, if you’re considering whether you should be gating a certain asset, new piece of creative, or sales enablement material, here are several prompts you can use to solve the gate conundrum. Starters below.

• May seem obvious, but is your content helpful, insightful, or valuable enough that your targets will exchange their contact info? If yes, nice work, consider gating.
• Where is this prospect in your sales funnel? While maybe the content or form factor is meant for the mid- or bottom of the funnel, if your target isn’t there, consider ungating—or start by warming them up first.
• What type of experience are you promoting? Does the hurdle of a form-fill degrade that experience? If so, consider ungating.
• Alternatively, who is your target audience? Do they typically frown at the idea of a form, or are they ready form-fillers just trying to get some helpful info (jot me down for the second, please)? Gate or ungate accordingly.
• Do expectations align with reality? Are you expecting to call this lead to convert them to a sales prospect, or are you simply trying to beef up your mailing list? Your gate usage decision should align with that expectation.
• Lastly, do you have other marketing vehicles in place to help you continue engaging the prospect, even though they haven’t given you their info? For instance, pixeling for retargeting and lead scoring.