All you need to know about Content Funnel

A Content Marketing Study conducted by CMI found that 40% of marketers have a documented content marketing strategy using the marketing funnel, 33% have a strategy that needs to be documented, and 27% still need to draft content using funnel content. What is the optimal strategy for your organization’s content creation and its marketing efforts? This blog will explore the content marketing funnel strategies with content examples and templates that will fit your organization, helping you strategically position your content to drive conversions and more customers.

What is a content funnel?

Before crafting content, marketing professionals or content creators should understand the buyer's or target audience's journey before a purchasing decision. Any probable customer or prospect undergoes the three stages before making a final purchase that TOFU, MOFU,BOFU stages By better understanding this journey, organizations can devise a framework for full-funnel marketing strategies that assist their target audience at every stage of buying process.

The content marketing funnel is a strategic framework for organizations to attract and engage their target audience. By creating and distributing valuable content, organizations can guide potential customers through the three stages of the funnel: attracting attention, evaluating options, and making a choice. Using this approach, content creators and marketers can tailor their content to address potential customers' needs and interests at each stage, building trust and establishing themselves as the experts in their domain.

According to the Semrush survey stats, 95% of marketers create top-of-the-funnel (TOFU) content, 86% create middle-of-the-funnel (MOFU) content, and 76% create bottom-of-the-funnel (BOFU) content. 87% of marketers rely on content throughout the customer journey to drive conversions, nurture leads, and to build relationships and brand loyalty.

Let's look at the different funnel stages: TOFU,MOFU and BOFU

Top of the funnel (ToFu): Content that builds awareness of the problem you can solve. Blog posts, podcasts, and infographics are helpful in drawing attention to and awareness of your potential costumes.

Middle of the funnel (MoFu): Content that generates interest in your products or services. Your target audience is actively searching for solutions to their pain points. Content posts like how-to guides, detailed product overviews, past customer feedback, and case studies can assist your target audience and drive them toward the conversion phase.

Bottom of the funnel (BoFu): Content that persuades prospects to become customers. This can include free trials, product demos, competitive analysis of your company and competitors, and landing pages that assist prospects in making the final purchase.

Stage 1: Awareness Phase

At this stage, the goal is to attract a broad audience by providing valuable and informative content that addresses their pain points. This content should focus on building brand awareness and establishing credibility in the industry. Engaging and educational content that resonates with the target audience can effectively capture the attention of potential customers and begin guiding them through key points in the marketing funnel toward conversion.

What is at the Top of the funnel?

Let's discuss a few examples of TOFU content that might be beneficial for building brand awareness and credibility.

Once you have identified your buyer’s persona and figured out your target audience at the start of their customer journey, developing engaging content that raises awareness is essential at this point in buyer's journey. These individuals or organisations might have recently identified a challenge or requirement and sought further insights to address it.

Blog Posts to position yourself as the brand authority

To launch an awareness campaign, craft a series of introductory blog posts or how to articles, or social media posts focusing on essential topics within your industry.

Beginners should readily understand and optimize these posts based on your various buyer personas and SEO keywords. Remember that these individuals will discover your content while searching for solutions to their problems or needs, so tailor your topics and keywords accordingly.

These blog posts should have a clear path that visitors should follow: Include a call-to-action (CTA) on a landing page for them to download a guide and learn more about repeat business. Include an option for visitors to subscribe to your newsletter on your blog page so that users can sign up for related content. Prepare a welcome email and an email nurturing cycle for new leads at the beginning of their journey. A single blog post has the potential to unlock a multitude of opportunities for advancing your business growth.

Nobody likes only text content!

Infographics and video tutorials break down complex information into easily digestible pieces. They are also easy to save and share, as buyers frequently refer to them for repeated use. An infographic designed as a checklist can also be handy for prospects, aiding them in making informed decisions efficiently.

Infrasity recognizes that visual appeal is crucial in enhancing communication in content delivery. This is why we include eye-catching infographics in addition to our written content. Our combined approach informs and visually engages your audience, ensuring that your content makes a lasting impression.

According to the research gate net, your audience will remember 65% of the information they see in a visual. They remember only 10% of information from plain text. Using infographics increases reading engagement by 80%, making them essential for valuable content in the awareness phase of your funnel.

Incorporating infographics into your content strategy can also help improve your website's SEO. Visual content is more likely to be shared on social media platforms, increasing your brand's visibility and attracting more traffic to your site. This can ultimately elevate your digital presence.

Vocalize your Brand

Podcasts are easy to consume, allowing listeners to engage with the content while multitasking. Research shows that podcasts have higher shareability and engagement rates than other types of content intended for the top of the funnel (ToFu). 54% of podcast consumers are more likely to consider buying from a brand, showcasing the effectiveness of podcast content in influencing consumer behavior.

Additionally, podcasts cater to people who learn best through listening and offer information conveniently for on-the-go consumption. Thus, they are a valuable tool for introducing audiences to a brand or topic at the top of the marketing funnel.

Okay, so what’s Next?

Stage 2: Consideration Phase

Don’t skip the middle!

Many marketers neglect MOFU content and focus on TOFU or BOFU content. That’s a mistake. While it may seem insignificant, MOFU is the most essential content funnel part.

After strategically placing your developed content at the top of the funnel to create brand awareness, the next step is to nurture your leads toward the consideration stage. But how do you do that using a content funneling strategy?

In this section, we will learn how to direct your prospects once they have acquired brand awareness.

The initial connection you establish with your customer through your introductory content will pave the way for more detailed information about your product. At this stage of the content funnel, the content should explain problems, handle objections, and highlight the advantages of each solution.

Let’s look at the examples of MOFU content.

1. Tell your prospects how you add value!

Case studies are considered middle-of-the-funnel (MOFU) content because they are crucial in nurturing leads who are already aware of a brand and considering their options before making a purchase decision.

Case studies provide in-depth insights into how a product or service has successfully addressed a customer's specific challenge or issue. This educational aspect helps potential customers at the consideration stage understand the offering's practical application and benefits.

Engaging storytelling is a powerful method for maintaining readers' interest in your case study. It personalizes the customer's success story, creates a compelling narrative, and plays an excellent prospect-nurturing method for your MOFU stage.

Share what users think: ADD your product’s reviews

Product reviews offer detailed information about a specific item, aiding potential customers in understanding its features and benefits. Informative content is essential for decision-making. This social proof provides real experiences and opinions from users or experts, building trust and confidence in the brand's offerings

2. Be your prospect’s Quora!

FAQs are a great example of MOFU content because they give your prospects the exact answers they need to move on to the decision phase. Having an FAQ page will benefit both your prospects and yourself.

By creating a page on your website or a separate landing page with the answers to the frequently asked questions, you’ll provide your customers with the information they need without them having to ask for it. This will help you shorten the conversion process and position yourself as a reliable and transparent source of information.

The Final Stage: Conversion

After undergoing the awareness and consideration phase, prospects have gathered enough Information about your product or service and are now actively comparing your organisation's USPs with your competitors'. BOFU content is all about making this comparison and analysis more accessible to finally convert them into customers.

What is at the bottom of the funnel?

Content at the decision-making stage (BoFU) is the final step in the buyer’s journey, where prospects actively engage with information to finalize a purchase. Like content at other funnel stages, BoFU content drives sales and provides valuable information. By offering potential leads the information required to purchase, this content is vital for turning potential leads into customers. By strategically using BoFU content, brands can lead consumers to make purchases while fostering trust and loyalty

Let's Explore the content that falls under the conversion funnel stage.

1. Give them an easter egg of your product: Free Trial

When customers are considering a purchase, they typically compare various options. By offering a free trial, you can let customers test your product and see its benefits without cost.

After users sign up for the trial, you can guide them through the onboarding process to address their concerns, answer their questions, and help them truly understand your product. The first step in building a relationship with prospective customers is creating a landing page for the free trial.

The landing page should clearly outline your product's features and benefits and provide easy access to sign up for the trial. Additionally, including customer testimonials or case studies can help build credibility and showcase customers' positive experiences with your product.

2. It’s you versus your competitors.

A thorough analysis of your competitors sets you apart and helps your audience understand your product's unique aspects.

When you study your competitors' products and services, you can showcase your unique selling points and clearly present your product's benefits.

With this knowledge, your audience can confidently decide if your product meets their needs. Being transparent and detailed can establish trust with potential customers and demonstrate your dedication to offering valuable solutions. In the end, a comprehensive competitor analysis can significantly aid in turning potential leads into loyal customers.

B. Lastly, let them know how much it costs

When brainstorming BOFU content, content marketers often overlook pricing pages. However, they can be powerful tools for increasing conversions. Tailoring your pricing page to different audience segments and helping customers overcome analysis paralysis can transform it into a highly effective tool.

Your website's pricing page is crucial in persuading prospects to make a purchase. Ensure your pricing page is visually appealing and trustworthy to boost conversion rates.

By ensuring transparency and simplicity, you equip prospects with essential pre-purchase information, enhancing their buying experience. This reduces their chances of unanswered questions and improves their chances of becoming customers.

How does Infrasity help

Looking to improve your content marketing strategy? Infrasity is your strategic partner for technical content marketing. Our in-house engineers are experts in creating technical write-ups, recipe libraries, and engaging infographics that deeply connect with developers.

Our curated write-ups maintain a good SEO score. They are strategically placed across developer platforms like Reddit and Hackernews, which helps your organization with awareness and brand positioning. Within a month, one of your blogs on Terraform pricing crafted for Env0 ranked in the top 3 searches.

Our recipe libraries delivered to Devzero helped them onboard the developers for seamless cloud deployment. These libraries guide your audience through the content marketing funnel, from awareness to joining you.

Starting from the TOFU stage till the BOFU stage, our organization can assist you in curating and positioning content, driving increased engagement and user signups by 12%

Contact contact@infrasity.com Infrasity today to get your first free write-up unlocked!

FAQS

Q1) What content does fit into which stage of the funnel?

The content you curated can fit into the funnel stage depending upon the intent of the content curation. If your content is simply an informative piece of content like blogs, how-to guides, or podcasts, it will go under the TOFU stage; if your content contains the solution to a particular user's problem amongst your target audience, it would belong to the MOFU stage, and if it is mainly created for sales conversions like competitive analysis or free trials landing pages it will be sectioned under BOFU content.

Q2) Which three funnel stages are most important for content creation?

The most important funnel stage is the MOFU stage because it converts a wide range of prospects into marketing-qualified leads and drives them toward conversion.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, the content marketing funnel is more than just a theoretical concept—it's a roadmap for strategically driving more customers.

With Infrasity, you can successfully leverage our funnel tactics. We assist you in crafting compelling technical content and positioning it effectively on developer platforms to make your brand stand out at every stage of the funnel. Our in-house lab-crafted content has been proven effective in leading potential customers from learning about your brand to making a purchase.

So why wait? Discover the potential of the content marketing funnel with Infrasity today.