Are you confused about what kind of content to create to increase audience engagement with it?
As you already know, there are no shortcuts to success, and a lot of investment is involved when crafting your perfect content marketing strategy that performs.
Not only do you need to understand how to enhance your content productivity and quality, but you also need to know which type of content to invest in to get desirable results.
To help you with that, we will today talk about how to build an effective content marketing funnel that can help you drive more leads and conversions.
But, before that, let's first go through the fundamentals of the content marketing funnel and why you need it.
Let's start!
What Is Content Marketing Funnel?
Did you know that the majority of B2B buyers (62 %) normally consume 3-7 pieces of content before speaking with a salesperson, while 11% indicated they consume more than seven pieces of content?
The content marketing funnel is a crucial component of a content marketing strategy, which shows the process flow that potential customers take when thinking about making a purchase.
Potential buyers can go through three main stages of the content marketing funnel:
1. Top-of-the-funnel (TOFU) — Focuses on increasing website traffic and brand awareness. It aims to draw users in and inform them about your company or a subject of your expertise.
2. Middle-of-the-funnel (MOFU) — Responsible for lead generation and client relationship development. While still educational at this point, the content takes things a step further by cultivating prospects and gaining trust.
3. Bottom-of-the-funnel (BOFU) — Aims to persuade leads to buy your product or service. Here, the content is more product-focused and tailored so that your leads may easily convert to paying clients.
These three basic blocks outline the content marketing funnel with distinct steps that describe how prospects progress through the pipeline.
These stages then establish a path that leads prospects through a step-by-step content flow to give them more important information.
Why Do You Need a Content Marketing Funnel?
Did you know that content marketing investments increase every year by up to 15.8% while traditional marketing stagnates?
Every business should have a solid content marketing funnel in place because it can help you business in attracting and engaging users.
When prospects want to determine whether a service or product is worthwhile, some look for information related to that subject, while others will look for more specific solutions.
Therefore, your company must adopt a systematic approach that meets prospects' demands at various phases and helps you achieve your objectives.
The content marketing funnel enables you to plan the buyer's journey by identifying their pain points at each stage so you can address them on the road to a purchase decision.
How To Build An Effective Content Marketing Funnel
1. Top-of-the-funnel (TOFU)
Discovery Stage
The discovery stage is the widest point of the funnel you can use to introduce your business to your prospects.
Here they learn about your product or services and their use-cases by discovering content in the form of blog posts, webinars, guides, etc.
Your objective in this stage should be to promote respect, trust, and gratitude associations while providing your audience with the information they seek.
Content Types We Can Use In TOFU Funnel Stage
Best ways to maintain TOFU content is through:
TOFU Example
Windex is one of the famous American brands selling cleaning glass products.
You might not believe this, but they are on the top 10 list of the most profitable American brands with 79% positive impressions.
Let’s take a look at the Windex website TOFU example:
This is an excellent example of a content marketing discovery stage in which products they sell offer its users the ability to familiarize themselves with subjects relevant to the product they represent as a brand.
Additionally, they found a very effective way to get closer to the people who do care about oceans:
Not only that this raises trust with people that fight against plastic pollution, but also with people who are not passionate about such a revolution.
It makes you feel safe and, at the same time, part of something so noble, right? And that is the point — to get you to discover and progress further in the funnel.
2. Middle-of-the-funnel (MOFU)
Consideration Stage
In the consideration stage, people connect with your products or services through your content.
At this point, readers should seek information that offers solutions to use-case problems, how-to manuals, and product descriptions.
One of the ways to accomplish this is direct communication with potential customers — make sure they know how you can help them.
However, remember that this is still the funnel's middle — your prospects are unsure if they will make a purchase, so avoid sales pitches in this stage.
Thus, take advantage of the opportunity to provide easy access to all vital information and build a strong relationship with trust.
Nurture Stage
The nurturing stage is closely related to the consideration stage. That is because in gaining prospects’ trust, you will win some of them to purchase, but there will be ones that are not ready to take that step.
So what should you do?
Nurture them! As long as your new lead is willing to stick around, maintaining that connection is worthwhile.
Maybe he needs more persuasion that your products or services are worth their money. Or they are not in a situation to buy at that moment.
Keep reminding them with your content about the benefits they can gain by giving your offer a chance.
The primary goal of this stage is to use complementary content to entice customers to share their contact information and consent to subsequent marketing.
Types of Content We Can Use In MOFU Funnel Stage
Use these MOFU content types to keep your prospects interested and engaged:
MOFU Example
As mentioned earlier, we use MOFU to straighten our relationship with our prospects by consistently providing values that matter to them.
Let's take an example of the REESE'S Milk Chocolate Snack Size Peanut Butter Cups product overview:
Not only that they provide nutritional value to their customers in the form of a table, but they also add ingredients, allergens, and other information.
They also allow you to reach them for additional help on the product overview page.
That is compelling enough for me.
Additionally, they keep entertaining their customers and future buyers equally using social media posts:
If you pay attention to the comments and shares section, you may notice that it provides great results — engagement in this scenario.
3. Bottom-of-the-funnel (BOFU)
Conversion Stage
The conversion stage is at the bottom portion of the funnel and indicates that the prospects are highly interested in what you have to offer.
The main goal of this stage is to encourage and persuade your potential customers to buy from you — it's your direct closing pitch to convert them into buyers.
And to achieve that, you need to provide a streamlined, trustworthy, and clear sales approach with straightforward and unique value that your business offers.
One of the examples is a thorough product description that details its clear advantages and helps it stand out from the competitors.
Always look for new and exciting ways to utilize content to assist your clients when they want to make a purchase — this will help you become aware of the reach and visibility of your brand.
Retention Stage
The retention stage is located at the very bottom of the funnel indicating that you won your prospects over.
However, this is not the end of the journey — it's time to keep them returning for more.
The retention content should promote a compelling user experience and consumer engagement by providing customer support and assistance.
You can use exclusive offers, insider information, email outreach, and follow-up, among other things, to make sure a long-lasting relationship doesn't end.
Content Types We Can Use In BOFU Funnel Stage
Here are some great BOFU content choices you can use to close the deal:
BOFU Example
If you are selling software, let’s say it is much easier to provide free trials. But how about products that are not so cheap to buy?
Unlike previous examples, here is a little bit more extreme example of what Harley Davison website offers:
Not everyone can afford to have a motorcycle because it is an expensive investment. So Harley Davison company found a tempting way to convert its prospects into customers by offering deals that can make such a real purchase thing.
Additionally, if you are not ready to buy, there are plenty of other offers that can bring you the joy of enjoying a ride that can help your prospects make a final decision, such as these:
Each move you take to win over prospects is important. If the ‘Ultimate test ride’ doesn’t do the trick, there is a rental option.
One is sure — fans will get their dream ride anyway. And that is compelling enough to make them convert and remain loyal.
How To Build An Effective Content Marketing Funnel Using TextCortex
While all these stages look extremely easy to digest, one thing we can’t disregard in the process — writing compelling content that will make the content marketing funnel successful.
Not only do you need to write them, but you also need to maintain their high-quality each time you publish them.
And let’s be realistic here — that is a lot of tasks, even if the entire team handles it. Besides, people like timing, form, quality, and consistency.
But, you don’t have to worry about that anymore because that is precisely why we created TextCortex.
TextCortex is an AI writing assistant designed to take over 80% of your writing work by generating high-quality content within seconds.
Unlike GPT-3 module-based AI tools that rely on 10% of the internet, TextCortex combines best practices from a knowledge base with 3 billion sentences worth of data.
That allows our AI writers to turn a single keyword into distinctive and natural-sounding output.
TextCortex can help you generate content such as product titles, descriptions, blog articles, social media posts, ads, emails, etc.
How to use it?
The good thing about TextCortex is that it is available as a web application and Chrome extension.
To use it, all you need to do is to:
1. Download the Chrome extension, and navigate to any textbox.
2. Navigate to your favorite textbox online, enter a few-word idea, highlight the text, and hit the option that fits you best.
Additionally, you can use our Chrome extension to paraphrase sentences and paragraphs on the spot, or wherever your cursor needs it.
Just highlight the part you want to improve, and hit "Rewrite" button.
To give it a try, you can try a free version that guarantees you 10 creations per day.
You can always increase the number of creations by validating the tool or referring it to a friend.
Sign up now and see how TextCortex consistently produces appealing, original content while increasing your conversion opportunities, making it simple to design your content marketing funnel.