For a long time, gating content was considered best practice. You created something of value and asked for contact details in return. It helped measure ROI, gave sales teams something to nurture, and proved that marketing was doing its job.
But the truth is, gating can also act as a barrier. Not just to your content, but to trust, credibility and long-term engagement.
Your content isn’t just a lead magnet; it’s your first impression. The role of content today is broader than ever. It educates, influences and is a real opportunity to showcase your expertise. It expresses who you are before anyone’s spoken to you.
Which raises a simple question, are we helping people engage with us, or putting obstacles in their way?
Focus on connection
The temptation with gating content is that it promises something measurable. But lead numbers don’t indicate value. People will often exchange their details and then ignore the follow-up and many will simply leave the journey altogether.
It’s not that the content isn’t good; it’s that they weren’t ready to give something in return. Usually because of their position in the customer journey. And that’s the challenge. Gating often asks for trust too soon. Before your audience knows who you are, what you stand for, or whether your expertise is credible or relevant.
People don’t want to be forced into a conversation. They want to feel informed and respected in order to start to build a connection
Buyers are reading more before they’re ready to talk
The typical B2B buyer now consumes significantly more content than just a few years ago. It’s also now known that they consume an average of 13 pieces of content before making a purchase decision, a rise from around seven pre-2020.
People are researching in their own time, across multiple sources, and forming a view of your business well before getting in touch. If your marketing efforts lead your ideal client to your content, you want to ensure a frictionless journey to ensure they consume that content, perceive its value and form a connection with your brand.
Ultimately if we know that content is central to trust-building, then gating too much of it could be getting in the way of the very thing you’re trying to create.
Visibility matters
It’s also worth considering the practical impact. Gated content isn’t visible to search engines. So, if you’ve invested time and budget into a thought leadership article that could genuinely influence the right audience, why hide it?
As we explored in our recent blog AI, SEO and why thought leadership matters more than ever, the quality of your expertise and how easily it can be found are increasingly linked. Search engines can’t index what they can’t see, and they can’t see content through a data or paywall, meaning your most valuable content may never reach the people who need it – and the people you need.
When to gate, and when not to
None of this is to say that forms and data capture don’t have their place. There’s certainly a valid exchange for deeper value assets, or where there is real intent, such as event registration or product trials.
Gating can also make more sense further down the funnel, where someone has already engaged with your brand and is looking for something specific. At that stage, the ask feels more appropriate, it’s less of a barrier, more of a next step.
A better measure of impact
We often talk to clients about building credibility over time. That means showing up consistently, offering something useful and creating space for your audience to engage.
Ungating key pieces of content supports that. It reflects confidence in your proposition, and respect for the people you’re trying to reach.
Because in the end, it’s not about how many people you can funnel into a pipeline. It’s about how many meaningful relationships you can build.