You have identified your potential target customers, created your content and used different types of content to promote your product or service. Your content strategy looks pretty solid, doesn't it?
The truth is, your content marketing efforts can and should always be evolving.
As marketing strategies change and adapt to current trends in consumer behavior, so must content marketing.
Your sales team has probably already designed a sales funnel to better understand what your target audience is thinking and doing at each stage of their buying journey.
You can create a content marketing funnel to take your ideal customers from the awareness stage to the conversion stage where they become actual customers.
In this article, we explore what exactly a content marketing funnel is, how to create a successful content marketing funnel that converts, and what types of content should be included at each stage of the funnel.
What is a content marketing funnel?
The content marketing funnel allows content marketers to visualize how they can use existing content to engage prospects and guide them on the path to their ultimate goal.
This end goal may include a sale, impression, download or other type of conversion.
The goal of each stage of the funnel is to capture attention, generate quality leads, and close conversions.
The marketing funnel can give brands a better understanding of where content gaps may exist in the customer journey.
For example, if a brand has a significant amount of content targeting buyers at the awareness stage, but not enough content at the decision stage, they can focus their efforts on creating more content further down the funnel.
How to start mapping your content funnel
You should first review your current content list, including any content you've produced, whether it's blog content, long-form content (like ebooks or white papers), etc.
As you review each piece of content, you need to determine which stage of the buyer's journey the content is appropriate for. This stage includes:
- Top of Funnel (TOFU) : Awareness stage. At this stage, potential customers are looking for information.
- Middle of Funnel (MOFU) : Interest and Reflection Stage. At this stage, potential customers view your product or service and read customer reviews. You can also make this information available to key stakeholders.
- Bottom of Funnel (BOFU). Intention, evaluation and conversion stages. Buyers are ready to make their purchasing decisions.
You can test each stage separately, as your visitors need different content depending on their location.
Your funnel content may not follow a consistent approach or effectively reach potential buyers. Relevant content should be provided at each stage of the funnel.
Let's examine the most effective types of content for each stage of the funnel.
Best funnel content
At the top of the funnel, customers gather information that guides them through the buyer's journey.
At this point, the customer gets to know your company and what you have to offer.
Here, you want to create a positive customer experience to show the buyer that going the extra mile is worth it.
You want to answer their questions, educate them about their questions, and turn those links into warm links.
A study conducted by Semrush found that the following types of TOFU content work best for driving traffic.
- How to lead (72%).
- Landing page (35%).
- Infographics (28%).
- Checklist (27%).
- E-Books/White Papers (26%).
- Video tutorials (23%).
Obviously, most of such content is educational material designed to provide more information during the learning phase.
At this point, the main purpose of your content is to offer help, and it shouldn't be overly promotional.
Average funnel content
When your ideal customers reach the middle of the funnel, they stop looking for overly introductory content.
Instead, you should create content that moves further down the funnel. Are you looking for customer stories, product reviews or videos?
Looking at the results of the same Semrush study, the following MOFU content types perform best in driving traffic.
- How to lead (44%).
- Product overview (40%).
- Case studies (34%).
- Landing pages (31%).
- Webinars (31%).
- Success Stories (30%)
Remember, these prospects likely learned about your brand during the discovery phase, so no discovery phase content should be provided. An effective content strategy involves personalizing content for your audience.
In fact, research shows that 71% of consumers expect companies to create personal interactions, and 76% are disappointed when they don't.
If you don't adapt your content planning and content marketing formats to customers at every stage, you risk creating a bad customer experience with your business.
The content of the bottom funnel
When a potential customer reaches the bottom of the funnel, they are looking for content that will help them finalize their purchase decision.
They want to know how your product or service adds value to their return on investment and why you're a better choice than your competition.
Since these customers have passed the awareness stage and can convert, the type of content you present to them is critical to building trust and ultimately closing a purchase.
The content you provide during the review phase can mean the difference between a conversion and a lost sale. The best performing content types on the BOFU stage include:
- Product Brief Description:
- Customer rating.
- Success stories.
Consider sharing success stories from current customers who are similar to your prospects at this stage of the funnel.
Other examples of content included in this phase are positive customer reviews and product recommendation email campaigns. Add special offers, free trials or live demos.
What to do after content evaluation?
Once you have a high-level view of the content you already have at each stage of your journey, it's time to identify the gaps.
You can also decide what type of content object to create. For example, you may notice that you don't have any educational content for buyers in the training phase. Or maybe you don't have enough customer success stories.
Once you've identified your content gaps, it's time to create an editorial calendar to prioritize what needs to be addressed first and when.
You should monitor your editorial calendar daily to track what's in your queue, what's coming, the intended content audience for the article, and where the article falls in the content marketing funnel.
It can also be valuable to conduct a competitive analysis of your competitor's content marketing strategy to identify opportunities for new additional content and how you can improve your content.
You want content that is both relevant and useful to meet Google's Useful Content Framework criteria and create an optimal user experience.
result
A comprehensive and coherent content strategy is essential to creating a valuable shopping experience. Think about your audience with any content you create.
You also want to thoroughly understand your target customer, how they think, what they are looking for and how you can solve their problems.
Perfecting an effective content marketing funnel takes time, experimentation and patience, but staying ahead of the competition and outdoing yourself is absolutely essential.
More resources.
Featured image: Vitaly Vodolazsky/Shutterstock
