Lead capture

What gating costs

Every gate trades reach for contacts. That trade is worth making only when the contact is genuinely worth more than the reader — which is true far less often than it is assumed.

Gate: things with immediate practical utility that a buyer would use during evaluation — templates, calculators, assessments, data. Do not gate: thought leadership, anything you want cited or shared, or anything a competitor publishes openly.

Lead magnets

The test is whether someone would pay a small amount for it. If not, it will not earn an email address that gets used.

The best ones are things people use rather than read: a template that saves an afternoon, a calculator that answers a specific question, a checklist for a process they are mid-way through. An ebook that restates blog posts is not one.

Match the magnet to a stage. Someone downloading a beginner's guide is not ready for a sales call, and treating them as if they are burns the list.

Free tools

The strongest form: durable, earns links, and qualifies by use rather than by claim.

Build one only if it does something genuinely useful standalone, and keep the gate light — let people use it, and ask for the email to save or export the result. Gating before value is delivered converts a fraction as well.

Popups and overlays

Popups work and are widely hated; both facts matter.

• Trigger on behavior, not time — exit intent, scroll depth, or a second visit. A popup at three seconds interrupts someone who has not yet decided whether to care.
• Once per visitor, remembered. Repeated interruption is what generates the hatred.
• Never on mobile mid-content. Beyond the user cost, it is penalized.
• Offer something specific. "Subscribe to our newsletter" is not an offer. "The pricing calculator" is.
• One clear dismissal. Hidden or tiny close buttons cost more in reputation than they gain in conversions.

Forms

Every field costs conversion. Ask for what you need to do the next step and nothing for a later one — enrichment can fill the rest. Explain any field whose purpose is not obvious, since unexplained fields are where people abandon.

Sources

references/sources.md in this skill lists the outside authorities that settle the questions here — what each one is authoritative for, and what you may do with it. Check them before answering on anything they cover, and cite what you used. Most are free to read and not free to reproduce; the use note on each is binding.

Never

• Gate something the buyer can get ungated elsewhere in one click.
• Ask for a field nobody downstream uses. Every additional field costs conversion and the sales team is not reading it.
• Trigger a popup before the visitor has seen anything worth staying for.
• Treat a form fill as intent. Most of them are people who wanted the asset.