Truly loyal customers who swear by your brand don’t grow on trees or fall from the sky. It takes time, effort, and finesse to convert a consumer from being casually curious about your products and services to being fully invested in your brand. A successful content marketing strategy demands a well-developed content marketing funnel.
However, putting together marketing funnels that suitably align with your business goals and the needs of your target audience can be tough. A well-rounded content marketing strategy and a robust content marketing funnel are the keys to success here.
What Is a Content Marketing Funnel?
“Do you know what your marketing funnel looks like? If not, you’re likely losing out on leads and sales.” –says Neil Patel, content marketing guru.
In a nutshell, a content marketing funnel is a structured system that helps marketers accurately plan, create, and tailor content to suit potential buyers at every stage of their buyer’s journey.
The idea is to present consumers with the information they need at the right time, which is the best way to guide them from mere curiosity to a finalized purchase. Naturally, no two marketing funnels are exactly alike, but most have three main stages you should know.
Top of the funnel (TOFU)
This is the stage where consumers enter your funnel and potentially become leads. Top-of-funnel marketing content typically focuses on building awareness of needs, wants, and issues your brand and products can address.
Middle of the funnel (MOFU)
At this stage, your potential customers know they’re looking for a solution to a particular problem. However, they’re still evaluating their options and assessing which is the best fit for them. Middle-of-funnel content focuses on positioning your brand as the solution an audience seeks.
Bottom of the funnel (BOFU)
Leads who reach this stage are primed and ready to finalize a purchase. Content catering to bottom-of-funnel customers focuses on giving them that last little nudge they need to become paying customers.
Some versions of the classic marketing funnel also add a fourth post-funnel level geared toward customer retention, encouraging brand advocacy, etc.
Why Is the Buyer’s Journey Important in Content Marketing?
Knowing one’s audience has always been essential in marketing and advertising, but it’s especially important in digital marketing.
According to Forbes, the average consumer sees between 6,000 and 10,000 ads every day. However, the human brain cannot process this much information, so the vast majority of these ads are forgotten almost immediately.
Relevancy is the key to ensuring your carefully crafted marketing content doesn’t get lost in the shuffle, and placing the buyer’s journey at the heart of your strategy is a solid way to do this. Here’s a closer look at some of the key benefits of posting relevant content:
- Stronger relationships with existing and potential customers
- Better customer retention and higher satisfaction rates
- Higher engagement rates and better brand recognition
- Seamless delivery of fully personalized, engaging content that your audience enjoys
- Fewer gaps in your overall content strategy
- Better brand visibility
- Higher overall return on your marketing investment (ROI)
Top-of-Funnel Mastery: Creating Winning Content That Turns Heads
Your approach to top-of-funnel marketing content is hugely important for several reasons. TOFU content is frequently a consumer’s first point of contact with your brand or any of your products, so making a memorable first impression is important. Here are some suggestions for doing exactly that.
As we explore the creation of top-of-funnel content that truly captures audience attention and the use of AI tools to produce content, Daniel Alves, Data Scientist at Rock Content, emphasizes the importance of depth and expertise: “We’re talking about expert-driven content basically… people that really understand about a specific topic can enhance a text, a piece of content, somehow the AI cannot do.”
Know your audience
Stopping your customer in their tracks and inspiring them to spend their valuable time absorbing your content instead of someone else’s is all about meeting them where they live.
The better you know your audience, the better you’ll be at crafting content that caters to their wants and needs. Tools like surveys, market research, and buyer’s personas can help you zero in on what’s most important to them.
Go educational with your content
TOFU consumers are still in the discovery phase of their buyer’s journey, so educational content is especially effective. The following content types can be excellent fits:
- Landing pages for encouraging specific actions
- How-to guides to help readers solve specific problems or reach goals
- Checklists to help audiences stay organized as they find their way
- Infographics that combine user-friendly visuals with helpful copy
- Ebooks and long-form articles to help readers deep-dive into key topics
Embrace interactivity
Posting interactive content is essential, as people tend to remember experiences they are involved in better than information they read or skim. How you incorporate interactivity into your campaigns is up to you, but popular ideas include:
- Interactive calculators
- Personality quizzes
- Interactive infographics or videos
- 3D animated photos and imagery
- Image sliders
- In-depth assessments
- Polls and surveys
Use social media to gain brand exposure
Brands are just like people in that they have unique voices, points of view, and backstories. These elements are the key to helping consumers make a personal connection with your company, so use them wisely.
Creating a social media marketing funnel to complement your content marketing funnel is a reliable way to cultivate brand-customer relationships with great potential.
Middle-of-Funnel Aptitude: Helping Your Audience Make Smart Decisions
Once you’ve got a potential customer’s attention, it’s time to show them why you deserve to keep it. That’s where an airtight middle-of-funnel content marketing strategy comes in. This is also the stage where you start qualifying leads according to interest in your brand, appropriateness of your products for their needs, etc. Here are some tips.
Think like your customers
During the MOFU stage, consumers actively compare their options and search for real answers to their burning questions. Consider what those questions might be to guide your content strategy in the right direction.
- What type of product is the right fit for my needs?
- Which of my options offers the highest value for my investment?
- What are the benefits of choosing this brand over that one?
Craft content that answers questions like those and positions your brand as the correct choice without making the audience feel sold to.
Choose content types that nurture leads
Meaty, convincing information is your biggest marketing asset when creating great MOFU content, so choose content types that leverage it. Good examples to consider are the following:
- Case studies that show prospective customers exactly what your products can do for people just like them
- Webinars to help very interested leads deepen their knowledge of important topics
- Success stories and customer testimonials to provide convincing social proof
- In-depth product overviews that show what specific offerings can do
- FAQ pieces that directly answer common questions
To reinforce the credibility and effectiveness of your middle-of-funnel content, Fernanda Donnini, Product Marketing Manager at Rock Content, advises incorporating authoritative voices: “Include quotes from these experts, include data if you’re doing specific research with them; include anything from these experts in your content and that’s going to bring you better results in the SERP.”
Work on establishing trust
MOFU consumers are looking for brands that can win their trust and make them feel confident about making a purchase. Helping prospective customers make informed decisions via content pieces that are more educational and helpful than sales-oriented is a great way to do this.
Honesty is another way to gain trust. Make sure your content is frank and to the point. It should also be relevant, memorable, and reinforced by endorsements from other satisfied customers.
Bottom-of-Funnel Success: Closing the Deal with Finesse
At the bottom of your content marketing funnel, it’s all about closing the deal and driving conversions, and your BOFU content should support that goal. Here are some tips and best practices for making a shining success of yours.
Craft highly value-oriented content
Value, value, and more value—that’s the recipe for bottom-of-funnel content that drives results. This is especially true for B2B marketing funnels and content campaigns aimed at well-educated buyers. Think long-form blog content, ebooks, and other forms of highly targeted content.
Consider assembling a team of professional copywriters and marketing pros proficient in BOFU content to bring some extra sparkle to the table.
Offer appealing incentives
At the bottom of a solid marketing funnel, many leads are waiting for a good brand to give them a reason to smash that “buy now” button. That’s where incentives like coupons, discounts, and free trials come in.
In fact, around 6 out of every 10 free trials successfully transition into full-fledged subscriptions. (Those numbers are closer to 2 out of 3 for B2B trials.) Offer them to your customers and watch your numbers soar.
Create a sense of urgency
A potential buyer on the fence already knows they want your product. They just need that extra little nudge in the right direction, and urgency can create that nudge. Never lie to your customers to close a sale, but do consider strategically making them aware of factors like:
- Low stock levels
- Limited-time offers
- Seasonal deals
- Limited edition product status
Finish your content with compelling calls to action that tell buyers exactly what you’d like them to do next.
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