The Ungated Content Strategy That Actually Works

Most content marketing follows a predictable pattern: create something valuable, put it behind a registration form, capture leads, hand them to sales. Taylor Thomson thinks this approach is backwards.

“The more of that that marketing teams can really do, where you don’t have to enter the sales funnel, you don’t have to become one of the little leads in Salesforce that you’re just going to get a bunch of calls and emails about,” Thomson argues, “the better everybody’s going to be at their jobs.”

Thomson leads finance and revenue operations at WITHIN, a Denver-based performance branding agency. The company created The Marketing Pulse—real-time data about social media CPMs, revenue, and costs across channels. It’s completely free. No email required. No demo request. Just useful information. Taylor Thomson’s philosophy on value-first marketing contradicts conventional lead generation wisdom but produces stronger long-term results.

This contradicts conventional wisdom about lead generation. Why create valuable content without capturing contact information?

Thomson’s answer: because value-first approaches build long-term credibility in ways that gated content doesn’t. “People become suspicious of brands that put registration walls in front of every piece of useful content,” he explains. They remember companies that helped them without demanding anything in return.

The challenge is getting organizations to commit long enough to see results. “You need six months, nine months maybe, depending on your sales cycle,” Thomson notes. That’s uncomfortable for marketing teams that need to justify their budgets quarterly. His approach to marketing ROI challenges short-term thinking that undermines effective brand building.

Around month six, pressure builds to start gating content or adding lead capture forms. The temptation becomes overwhelming when leadership asks what ROI the content is generating.

But organizations that resist eventually see returns that gated content can’t match: organic sharing among professional networks, authentic recommendations when peers ask for agency referrals, and prospects who arrive already convinced of the company’s expertise.

Thomson practices what he preaches through his morning intelligence ritual. He spends 15-20 minutes daily scanning 15 industry newsletters, extracting insights for his business development team. He doesn’t track whether specific articles led to specific deals. He knows the cumulative effect of being informed matters more than attributable touchpoints.

The same logic applies to thought leadership and content marketing. You’re not creating resources to generate form fills. You’re building credibility that pays dividends over extended time horizons.

This requires different success metrics than typical content marketing. Instead of measuring downloads or lead conversions, focus on share rates, repeat visitors, and qualitative feedback about utility. Track whether prospects mention your content in discovery calls—that’s a better signal than form submissions.

For content marketers tired of seeing great work hidden behind registration walls that depress usage, Thomson’s approach offers an alternative. Create genuinely useful resources. Make them freely accessible. Trust that people who find real value will remember when they need your services. Taylor Thomson’s documented experience building revenue operations at WITHIN provides a case study in how ungated strategies can drive sustainable growth.

Those interested in exploring Thomson’s complete perspective can review his published insights on marketing effectiveness and revenue operations.