Most marketers create content for different stages of the customer journey. Understanding which format and content works best at each stage is a huge asset for any business in terms of delivering value to your audience and creating a strong content marketing strategy. The fact that the seller knows how to attract the audience and convert them into customers at each stage is one of the advantages of developing a content marketing funnel. Considering that most of the content that is provided to customers online has a specific purpose, that’s why having a marketing funnel can help your business grow? In this article, we will first take a detailed look at the content marketing funnel, then we will explain how to compile it at different stages of the customer journey.
Table of Contents
What is a content marketing funnel?
A content marketing funnel is a system that helps a brand attract potential customers and guide them through their journey from the first interaction to the conversion of an audience into a regular customer. Content marketing experts have defined the three main stages of the funnel as follows:
- Top of the funnel: the top of the funnel or TOFU, is mostly used to attract users. SEO, e-books, ads, videos, and emails are among the main stages of the content marketing funnel.
- Middle of the funnel: The middle of the funnel or MOFU is the set of tasks that lead to production. Webinars, case studies, social media, and… It is one of the things that will lead to the production and creation of more audiences.
- Bottom of the funnel: The bottom of the funnel or BOFU is related to payments. Considering that the user’s intention is different at each stage, your content should have different goals at each stage.
One of the important questions you need to answer in this section is what content will meet the informational needs of your customers at a particular stage.
The importance of developing a content marketing funnel for businesses
The content marketing funnel helps different organizations to be more effective in different campaigns and advertisements by specifying the path and ultimately saving time and money. The content marketing funnel helps you find your target audience in the shortest possible time and produce content according to their needs. By developing a content marketing funnel, you can identify your strengths and weaknesses.
How to create an effective content marketing funnel?
According to the surveys, most marketers will produce content tailored to their needs at each stage of the customer’s purchase. About 95% produce TOFU content, 86% MOFU content and 76% produce BOFU content. This strategy makes perfect sense because the main goal of a content marketing strategy is to attract specific audiences to engage them and eventually convert them into regular customers.
Key tips for creating a content marketing funnel
Now it’s time to see what actions marketers take to produce content at each stage of the marketing funnel; For this reason, it is better to state different points for creating a content marketing funnel:
Creating content at every stage of the marketing funnel
Single-step approaches have given way to full-funnel content marketing. Most marketers will attract customers at every stage of the buying process by producing effective content. To help your audience, it’s best to guide them through each stage of the buyer’s journey using content. Brand awareness in purchase decisions is one of the things that should be done at every stage of the customer journey.
Create landing pages to guide customers
According to 72% of marketers, creating pages to guide users is one of the best motivators for customers. By paying attention to the user experience and creating pages that focus on the problems of potential customers, you can attract their attention to your brand. Landing pages are pages where you can provide an overview of your products or services. Using different formats such as infographics is one of the easy ways to attract audiences.
Product reviews and case studies to generate leads
Creating pages about how to use different services or products is one of the things that can help you generate leads. By adding these contents to your program, you can be successful in every stage of TOFU and BOFU. These pages help you to examine the product you want from different perspectives.
Telling success stories and customer comments
One of the things you can do to increase customer purchases is to post your brand’s success story or customer reviews. 51% of marketers believe that product overviews at the end of the marketing funnel, along with customer reviews and success stories, can be one of the best things to do in content marketing funnel development. This is where user-generated content can help you attract more customers.
Encourage customers to move through the marketing funnel
Encouraging customers to move through the funnel and convert them into loyal customers is one of the most challenging tasks when building a funnel, according to 50% of marketers. Sending emails or creating related content is one of the things that should be done in this section.
Contact your audience to increase purchases
Organic search or paid advertising is one of the things that can help attract more customers; Besides these, email marketing is one of the actions that can help you attract more customers. At this stage, you can use all channels to convince your customers. Answering questions, highlighting your strengths, and sending a personal message are some of the triads that can help you get more customers.
Creating new content based on keywords and competitor analysis
Many people do keyword research to decide what content to create; Along with this, competitor analysis and analysis of what they are doing can help you create user-friendly content.
Different parts of the content marketing funnel
Digital marketing experts have considered different sections for the content marketing funnel or the sales funnel, which generally includes the following three main sections:
Top of the Funnel or TOFU: Creating interest and engaging the audience
This section is one of the most important steps to start the buyer’s journey, which is one of the most crowded steps in the content marketing funnel. In this part of the content marketing funnel, most customers are not ready to buy and most likely they have not heard of your company; For this reason, most of your focus at this stage should be on attracting their trust and providing the best answers to their questions so that they slowly get to know your brand. According to surveys, most marketers answer their users’ questions by creating guides that are titled How to. By offering customers a solution to a problem, you can establish yourself as an expert and make them hungry for more information.
Infographics, checklists, and e-books are among the most effective content that can help you create new customers and increase your site traffic. Focusing on giving value to customers can be effective in attracting their trust and eventually using your services or products. Social media management and email marketing are also very effective at this stage and can be a point of contact with your potential customers.
Middle of Funnel or MOFU: Training and Guidance
At this stage of the sales funnel or the content marketing funnel, users’ interaction with you decreases, but if you encourage them, they will be more inclined to interact with you. At this stage, your goal is to accompany the potential client from the initial idea to the complete understanding of your goal. Based on our research, we found that customer referrals can be the best solution for generating leads for you, which is recognized as one of the best tools in both the TOFU and BOFU stages.
Bottom of Funnel or BOFU: Converting customers
The BOFU stage, at the bottom of the funnel, is where you can use content to stand out among your competitors and help build trust with them. At this stage, the content you produce must answer specialized questions about your products or services; Also, as we said, user-generated content, known as UGC, is one of the best ways to build trust in your audience. At this stage, most users have claimed that email marketing is one of the most effective things that can be effective in creating a sense of trust in the audience.
Types of customers in the sales funnel
Understanding content marketing requires that you be familiar with the types of customers in content marketing; For this reason, in the following, we will get to know the types of customers in the content marketing funnel:
- Leads: These customers are people who are willing to buy from your company, known as leads.
- Potential customers: Prospects are those potential customers who are likely to buy the product, but they will not necessarily buy it.
- Real customers: Customers are people who have passed the previous two stages and are now at the exit of the sales funnel. The important thing is to keep these customers because your products are bought by these people.