The most counterintuitive way to grow a paid membership site is to give some of it away.

That sounds backwards. Why would anyone pay for what they can get for free? In practice, the opposite happens. When you offer free content in exchange for an email address, you create a low-friction first step into your world. People join your list, get to know your voice, and a portion of them eventually upgrade.

This is the foundation of lead generation content, and one of the most reliable ways to grow recurring revenue on a membership site. This post covers what free content is, the formats that work best for membership businesses, and how to set it up in Paid Memberships Pro (PMPro) so every free signup feeds your paid funnel.

What Is Lead Generation Content?

Lead generation content (sometimes called “lead gen content”) is anything you give away for free in exchange for a way to keep in touch… usually an email address.

The unspoken deal is simple. You offer something genuinely useful. The visitor gives you permission to contact them. Over time, you build trust through more content, occasional offers, and a clear sense of what you sell. Some of those subscribers eventually upgrade to a paid plan.

This is a different idea than just publishing blog posts. A blog post is open to anyone, and most readers leave without you ever knowing they were there. Lead gen content is gated… not behind a paywall, but behind a free signup.

That small step turns anonymous traffic into named contacts you can market to.

For membership sites, this matters. Your business model already runs on email, retention, and trust. A free signup is a tiny commitment that warms a prospect up for the bigger one.

Why Free Content Works for Membership Sites

Membership site owners often resist this idea at first. The instinct is to keep everything premium, charge for every piece of value, and protect the catalog. That instinct usually leaves money on the table.

Here is what free content actually does for your funnel:

• It captures interest at the top of the funnel. Most visitors are not ready to buy on the first visit. A free download or sample lets them say yes to something small.
• It builds your owned audience. An email list belongs to you. Social followers do not. A free membership feeds your owned audience month after month.
• It demonstrates value before the ask. People pay for things that have already helped them. Free content is your proof.
• It segments your audience. Once people are on your list and tagged by level, you can send targeted offers instead of generic blasts.
• It generates feedback. Free members tell you which topics resonate. That information shapes what you build next on the paid side.

HubSpot’s 2025 State of Marketing report found that for B2B brands, the top ROI-driving marketing channels were websites, blogs, and SEO, followed by paid social media content and social commerce tools. That reinforces the long-term value of publishing free educational content to attract and nurture potential members.

Types of Free Content That Convert

The right kind of free content depends on your audience and the type of membership you sell. A few formats work especially well for WordPress membership sites:

• Lead magnets. Short, downloadable resources like checklists, cheat sheets, templates, and starter kits. These are quick wins… easy to produce, easy to consume.
• Email courses. A multi-day sequence delivered over a week or two. Good for teaching a small skill or walking through a process. Demonstrates your teaching style without giving away the whole library.
• Free video lessons. A single tutorial or a short sample from a larger course. Great for course creators who want to show production quality and personality.
• Free tier of your library. Feature-limited or time-limited access to your paid catalog. Use this when the value is obvious only after someone is inside.
• Members-only newsletter. A free version of your newsletter that goes deeper than your public blog. Easy to maintain alongside your paid content.
• Tools and calculators. Interactive resources gated behind a signup, such as pricing calculators, planners, and quizzes.
• Community access. A free forum or chat space where members can ask questions. Builds engagement and surfaces topics for your paid content.

You do not need all of these. Pick one or two that fit the membership you are selling, and treat them as the front door to your funnel.

How to Set Up a Free Membership Level in PMPro

PMPro treats free membership the same way it treats paid… as a membership level. That means you get the same content restriction, member fields, and reporting features for your free signups that you use for your paid customers.

Here is the basic setup.

Create the Free Level

1. From your WordPress admin, go to Memberships > Settings > Levels.
2. Click Add New Level.
3. Give the level a descriptive name like “Free” or “Beginner”.
4. Leave the Initial Payment, Billing Amount, and Cycle fields at $0.
5. Set the Confirmation Message to a short welcome that tells new members what to do next.
6. Save the level.

That is it. Your free level is live and ready to accept signups. For a deeper walkthrough of all the level options, see our documentation on setting up membership levels.

Restrict Your Lead Magnet to the Free Level

Once the level exists, restrict the page or post that delivers the lead magnet to free members only. Open that page in the WordPress editor, find the Require Membership box in the sidebar, check your free level, and update.

Anyone who is not logged in or who does not hold the free level will be redirected to your levels page. That redirect is the moment a visitor turns into a known lead.

Simplify Checkout for Free Signups

The default PMPro checkout form is built for full scale membership signups, so it may include more fields and options than a free signup really needs. Two Add Ons make the experience cleaner:

• The Signup Shortcode Add On lets you drop a simplified signup form anywhere on your site. You can show only the fields you need, like email and first name, and redirect new members straight to the lead magnet.
• The Custom Level Cost Text Add On hides the default “The price for membership is $0.00 for now” message. Replace it with the word “Free” or remove it entirely.

For more on the free-only setup pattern, see our guide on how to set up a membership site for free members only.

Connect Free Members to Your Email Marketing Tool

A free signup that does not feed your email marketing platform is a missed opportunity. PMPro integrates with most major email tools, so you can sync new members to a list, tag them by level, and trigger automation from there.

The example in this post uses the Kit Integration (formerly ConvertKit), which subscribes and tags new members in Kit and passes their membership purchase data through. If you use a different platform, see our roundup of email marketing integrations for Paid Memberships Pro to pick the right Add On for your tool.

If your free signup includes any kind of marketing email, set up a double opt-in flow. Most email platforms support this. It protects your list from spam complaints and keeps you on the right side of regulations like GDPR.

Nurture Free Members Into Paying Members

Capturing the lead is only the start. The real work of a lead gen funnel happens in the days and weeks after signup.

A simple sequence that works for most membership sites has three steps:

1. Welcome email. Sent immediately. Delivers the lead magnet, sets expectations for what comes next, and points to one or two other free resources.
2. Value sequence. Three to five emails over the next week or two. Each one delivers a useful tip, story, or resource. No selling.
3. Soft pitch. Around email four or five, introduce the paid membership. Explain what is inside and who it is for. Link to your levels page.

After the sequence ends, free members stay on your regular newsletter list, where you continue to share useful content with occasional offers to upgrade.

Inside your site, give free members reasons to come back. A few options:

• Use the Nav Menus Add On to show free members links to their gated content right in the main menu.
• Use the Protected Downloads Add On to deliver gated PDFs, templates, and checklists to logged-in free members. Files sit in a secure directory that is not reachable by direct URL, so only members of the right level can open them.
• Show paid-only previews or teasers, so free members can see what is behind the next tier.

The goal is not to trick anyone into upgrading. The goal is to let your work do the convincing, so that by the time you ask, the free member already wants it.

Start Giving Something Away

Free content is the front door to a paid membership business. It is also the part most site owners put off, because it feels like a contradiction. It is not. The membership sites that grow the fastest are the ones that figured out which piece of their value to give away, gated it behind a free signup, and let email and trust do the rest.

If you are running Paid Memberships Pro, the building blocks are already in place. Create a free level, gate your lead magnet, connect your email tool, and start a simple nurture sequence. The first free member is the easiest one to capture. After that, the funnel runs on what you have already built.

Ready to set this up? Open your WordPress admin, go to Memberships > Settings > Levels, and create your first free tier today.

Once it is live, connect your email tool and start gating your lead magnet. New to PMPro? Download the free plugin to get started.