What is a content locker and why your website needs it?

When your website is up and running it is time to take care of the traffic, your visitors, subscribers, social media channels etc. It is important to keep users roaming through your website and jumping from one page to another. 

One way to do that is customized popups, messages and banners that are triggered at the right moment of a user’s journey. Catchfull can be your partner in keeping your visitors on your website! Subscribe today and you will obtain a 3-month free trial version of our product. If at any time you have questions about the different plugins you can contact us and we will provide you with the best plugin support.

A very important kind of popup is the content locker. The name explains its main feature – it locks certain content for some or all users in exchange for a specific action. Below you will find more information about content lockers and their importance for your website and the amplifying of your fanbase.

What is a content locker?

Content locking is the action of hiding specific content on your website (i.e. a blog post, or a specific part of the post, a song, a video, an e-book etc.). The content can be unlocked if the user performs a certain task: sharing or liking your content on social networks or providing their e-mail address. 

This feature can also be used to inform users that your website is for subscribers-only and suggest a suitable subscription plan.

Specifics of content lockers

You can not just close a content locker

As you probably already understood, content lockers are not your everyday popups. The main difference is that they can not be closed easily. The only way the popup will disappear is if the user completes successfully the given task. 

The two most used tasks are sharing or liking on social media and providing an e-mail address. They can be used multiple times on your website for different content and with a different aim. 

You can choose what and how to lock

The content lockers can hide specific parts of your content. You can choose if the user can read only the title of your blog post or you will give them the opportunity to read the first one or two paragraphs and then ask them for something.

Content lockers can hide your blog post mainly in three ways:

1. Hiding it completely – the popup occupies the entire screen making it impossible for the user to see anything else.
2. It can blur the page making it tempting for the user to try and read the blurred lines increasing their interest.
3. You can have a dark overlay on the content but you can adjust the opacity on the whole text or on certain parts. Thus you can actually give a small preview of the locked content for the most curious visitors.

You can choose from different content locker designs in accordance with your goals.

Be mindful about what you lock

It is important to give enough information to users about what you are trying to hide from them so they will be stimulated to perform the action needed. Even more important is to deliver what you promised – do not disappoint your visitors. If you managed to convince them to perform the action wanted, make sure your locked content is worth it. We recommend locking mostly your premium content.

Content locking is SEO friendly

Even though users can not read your content, Google can. The search engine will rank your page in the search results depending on your optimization. It is important to implement your SEO strategy in your locked content in order for your blog post to climb the search result ladder and tempt users to click on it and to perform the simple task.

Why you should use a content locker on your website?

The two main reasons to hide some of your content is to grow your email list or to become more popular on Facebook, Twitter or any other social media.

We will begin with the first one.

Collecting email addresses

If you have decided that the price that the users will have to pay to access your content is their email, be sure it is worth it. A person’s email address is a piece of contact information that they don’t give easily. No matter if their email is strictly for work or personal business they do not want useless emails piling up in their inbox.

If you want to acquire more email subscribers or use the addresses for your next email marketing campaign be sure to share your intentions in advance. If this is a part of the condition in your content locker, say it in the title.

Amplifying your social media presence

The social media profiles of users are a sacred place. Most of them use them to express their opinion, feelings or to share content they like. It is challenging for brands and businesses to make their way there. It should be done in a proper and non-invasive way. 

If you decide to lock your content with a condition that the user shares your content on their profile, make sure it is sharable. Because once it appears on a personal social media profile this can drive traffic from the user’s friends to your page. 

In today’s digital world there is nothing stronger than the love or the hate of the online community.

A simpler step is to ask visitors just to like your social media profile. That way more users will be willing to perform the action needed. And you will have more and more users for your next lead generation campaign. 

In conclusion

Content locker is a powerful popup that can drive many visitors and generate leads if it is used wisely. It is important to choose the right content to hide, preferably your premium content. Do not overdo the locking because you can drive prospective clients away.

Currently, Catchfull is working on a content locker feature. In the meantime, you can discover our other popups that can be even more suitable for your website. Subscribe for a 3-month free trial of our product.

To date, there are some plugins for WordPress that you can use – opt-in content locker, content locker pro, thrive leads etc.