How much do you want this information?

Are you willing to give me your personal information to get it? Even though you know that means I could start nagging you endlessly?

These are the questions we are asking our website visitors every time we ask them to fill in a form to get a piece of content. This is “gated” content. There is a gate in front of it, and their contact information is the key.

Ungated content is not guarded by a form. Anyone can see it and download it anytime.

In this post I give you my thoughts on the arguments FOR and AGAINST gated content. And the bold decision we made for our Dynamics GP website.

I love to cross items off my to-do list. Sometimes I will write something down after it is done, just so that I can have the satisfaction of crossing it off. When I started marketing Microsoft Dynamics back in 2000 the emphasis was on direct mail, telemarketing campaigns and other types of outbound marketing activities. Kids these days don’t realize the time we spent printing labels, stuffing envelopes and walking to the post office....uphill both ways.

In almost every way I much prefer this new age of inbound marketing focused on content creation and social media. However there is one thing I miss about the good old days of outbound marketing: at least I knew when it was finished!