Gated content on WordPress websites is an excellent tool for attracting and converting leads. By offering valuable resources in exchange for visitor information, you can engage your audience and turn visitors into leads and, eventually, into customers.
Learn in this article how to create gated content pages in WordPress.
- Use gated content to win more leads: Gather contact information by requiring users to fill out a form before accessing your premium content.
- Provide value to your target audience: It is key to offer high-quality content that addresses your audience’s needs and pain points to justify asking for contact information.
Implement gated content on WordPress
Luckily, implementing gated content on WordPress is very straightforward. Investing time upfront in creating high-quality gated content ensures you provide real value to your audience, which helps maximize conversions.
1. Create a landing page
The first step is to create a landing page in WordPress. Depending on your page builder, you might have to do slightly different things. In principle, all steps should stay the same.
- Create a new page: Navigate to your WordPress dashboard, go to “Pages,” and click “Add New.”
- Build a well-designed landing page to maximize conversion rate: Use engaging headlines, compelling copy, and clear CTAs (Calls to Action).
- Design images and illustrations: Visualize your content and provide a preview of the gated content to build trust with your visitors.
2. Upload the gated content to WordPress
Once your landing page is ready, upload your gated content.
- Open the media manager: Go to “Media” in the WordPress dashboard and click “Add New Media File.”
- Upload the PDF to WordPress: Drag and drop your PDF file into the media library. The recommended size is 5 MB for a typical gated content document.
- Copy the media URL for the form redirect: After uploading, hover over the PDF in the media library and click “Copy URL” to get the URL of the uploaded document.
3. Create a form
Create a lead capture form to collect the visitors information before giving access to the PDF.
- Create a lead form: Use a form builder like Lead Booster Pro or Contact Form 7 to collect lead information and send the submission to your CRM.
- Break down long forms into multiple steps to improve completion rate: Multi-step forms are less intimidating and can lead to higher completion rates. Typically, you want to ask for personal data, the company name, and lead qualification questions.
4. Open the gated content on form submission
Redirect the visitor to your gated content PDf after submitting the form successfully.
- On form submission: After successful completion, open the uploaded document URL in a new browser tab. In Lead Booster Pro, for example, it’s called “Open URL.” In Contact Form 7, it’s called “Redirecting to another URL after submissions.”
5. Optimize gated content on WordPress for conversions
Optimize your landing page and form continuously to ensure you’re converting the most leads.
- Track conversion rates for your landing page: Use tools like Google Analytics to monitor landing page performance.
- Track completion rates for your forms: Analyze form and form step abandonment rates to identify and fix any issues.
10 best practices for gated content on WordPress
Implementing gated content on your WordPress site can significantly boost lead generation and conversion rates. Here are some best practices to ensure your gated content strategy is effective and user-friendly:
- Create valuable content: The content behind a gate should be highly valuable and relevant to your audience. This could include high-quality whitepapers, in-depth guides, detailed case studies, and exclusive webinars.
- Design compelling landing pages: Craft landing pages that clearly communicate the benefits of your gated content. Use persuasive copy, engaging visuals, and strong calls-to-action (CTAs) to encourage users to fill out the form.
- Streamline your forms: Simplify your forms by asking only for essential information. Long forms can deter users, so keep it short and consider using multi-step forms to make the process feel less daunting.
- Tailor content to different audiences: Customize your gated content to specific audience segments. Personalize messaging and form fields to address the unique needs and pain points of different groups, increasing the likelihood of form completions.
- Test forms and landing pages: Continuously test various elements of your forms and landing pages using A/B testing. This helps identify the most effective combinations for higher conversion rates.
- Provide a transparent privacy policy: Link to a transparent privacy policy on your forms to reassure users about how their data will be used and protected.
- Implement a thank you page: Redirect users to a thank you page after form submission. This page should provide immediate access to the gated content and offer additional resources or related content to keep users engaged.
- Utilize marketing automation: Use marketing automation tools to nurture the leads collected through your gated content. Set up automated workflows to send follow-up emails and personalized content recommendations based on user behavior.
- Leverage social proof: Incorporate testimonials, case studies, and user reviews on your landing pages to build trust and credibility, encouraging more users to fill out your forms.
- Integrate with your CRM: Ensure that form submissions are automatically integrated with your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to facilitate seamless lead management and follow-up processes.
Analyze performance and refine your strategy
Consistent monitoring and analyzing your gated content’s performance are crucial for continuous improvement.
- Track and review multiple gated contents over time: Regularly assess the performance of each piece of gated content.
- When creating multiple landing pages, it’s easy to lose track. Stay organized by using a spreadsheet, project management, or campaign management tool.
- Learn from your data to improve and decide on the following campaigns: Use the insights gained from your analysis to enhance future content and strategies.
Conclusion
Gated content on WordPress is a powerful tool for lead generation. By providing valuable resources to your visitors and leveraging WordPress’s ease of use, you can create effective gated content that drives conversions and supports your business growth.
Additional resources
Here are some resources worth checking out for improving your gated content results:
- Elementor: A great page builder for creating high-converting landing pages.
- Lead Booster Pro: The ideal form builder for gated content, offering easy-to-use features, maximum conversion rates, and advanced analytics.
