Content funnel: what to post at each stage?
Posted: Tue Dec 03, 2024 6:52 am
Have you ever stopped to think that our purchasing decision is guided by a series of information that reaches us or that we actively seek out?
Therefore, if you want to be successful in selling a product or service, it is essential that you know how to guide your potential customers throughout the entire journey by offering content that will help them move forward until they make a purchase .
In this sense, the content funnel is a tool that helps you organize the information that will be passed on to your potential customers at the most appropriate moments in their purchasing journey, from attraction, through recognition of the problem and consideration of the solution, to closing and purchasing the product or service.
If you want to better understand how this works, we invite you to continue reading and check out the next lines of this guide:
Sales Funnel: What are the stages of the customer journey?
What is a content funnel?
What is the marketing funnel for?
How to make a content funnel?
What to post at each stage of the content funnel?
Top of the funnel content
Middle of the funnel content
Bottom of the funnel content
Sales Funnel: What are the stages of the customer journey?
Before we talk about the content marketing funnel, it is important that you understand the basic steps that make up the customer journey in the sales funnel. In other words, what is the path that customers take until they make their purchasing decision .
Well. The sales funnel is divided into three phases: Top of the Funnel (TOFU ) , Middle of the Funnel (MOFU ) and Bottom of the Funnel (BOFU ).
Top of the Sales Funnel: Learning and Discovery and Problem Recognition
The Top of the funnel is the widest part and concentrates the Learning and Discovery and Problem Recognition stages.
This is the moment when potential customers discover and recognize that they have a certain problem and seek to learn more about it .
For the initial stages of the journey, it is very important that the company is able to attract more visitors, spark their interest and educate them.
Middle of the Sales Funnel: Solution Consideration
This is the stage of the customer journey where they already have a clearer understanding of the problem they are facing and are now looking for possible solutions.
Upon reaching this stage, the potential customer begins to investigate the characteristics of products and services that are capable of solving their problems and meeting their needs .
Bottom of the Funnel: Purchase Decision
When the lead (a contact who is interested in your solution in some way) moves to the bottom of the funnel, they are ready to make their purchasing decision and just need that “little push”.
This means that the focus should be on explaining the advantages of your solution and convincing them that you are the best choice they can make at the moment.
Is it clear to you what a lead is and how it flows through the funnel? Check out this video:
See more: Lead types: what do MQL and SQL mean to sell more?
What is a content funnel?
Now that we’ve recapped the customer journey, we can focus on content marketing strategy.
Basically, content marketing is a branch of Inbound Marketing and its objective is to offer relevant content to potential customers at specific moments in their purchasing journey , whether to attract, nurture, educate or convert.
The content funnel is one of the inbound marketing strategies, being very useful for attracting and converting sales opportunities and strengthening the company's authority.
The content funnel is a tool that helps organize this strategy considering the steps that customers usually go through before making a purchase.
The information that will guide customers' decisions is strategically designed to help them move more quickly through the funnel and receive the right content at the most appropriate moments in their journey.
Read more: Sales funnel for online courses: Improve your sales process now!
What is the marketing funnel for?
The content marketing funnel serves to better organize the process of attracting, nurturing, converting and retaining customers through relevant and valuable information.
The funnel allows you to identify which stage of their journey the customer is at and define which content makes the most sense to them at this moment and can help them move on to the next stage.
This way, you can generate more scalability for new zealand business fax list your business, solidify the sales process, increase the chances of closing a deal, generate greater engagement with your target audience and increase your brand authority and business reputation .
AIDA was one of the first sales funnels created, learn more about it: AIDA Method: discover how this methodology can help you convert more customers
How to make a content funnel?
If you want to adopt this strategy and organize a content funnel to sell more, check out some essential practices below:
1 – Be clear about who your personas are
Before you start producing content to attract and convert leads for your business, it is essential to have your personas well defined. In other words, the ideal customer profile for your product or service and the problems you can solve.
2 – Map the purchasing journey
Another important tip for creating a content funnel is to map out your customers’ entire purchasing journey . Using this map, you can determine which content is best suited for each stage of the journey.
3 – Use SEO techniques
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) techniques are used to optimize searches for your content and make it appear better positioned in the results of the main online search engines.
So, when potential customers search for keywords related to your solution, your content will appear to them as a suggestion .
Also read: YouTube SEO: The best way to get your videos to the top!
4 – Create a content plan
Finally, it is extremely important that you have a well-structured plan for your content. Establish your goals, define metrics to monitor your performance, and organize the topics that will be covered at each stage of the content funnel.
Also set up a schedule for your publications.
This post may help you: What are the main types of digital content and how to use them to your advantage?
What to post at each stage of the funnel?
As you can see, the content funnel is divided into three phases: Top, Middle and Bottom.
But what content should you post in each of these phases?
Well, there are pieces of information and approaches that work better at one stage of the customer journey than at others.
This infographic from Full-Stack Marketer provides a summary, but we’ll go into more detail below:
Content Funnel
Top of the funnel content
The Top of the Funnel is the moment when your biggest concern should be attracting potential customers who fit the personas you defined for your business model.
With this in mind, top-of-funnel content should address more general topics related to the problems your online course aims to solve.
If your course is about financial education, you can create blog posts talking about the importance of saving and investing. For social media, you can create a carousel on Instagram with 7 basic tips to start investing.
Remember that this is the widest part of the funnel where potential customers are discovering and learning more about the problem they are facing. Therefore, you need to be very didactic in your approach .
Try to clarify your audience's most common doubts and convince them that their problems need to be solved soon.
Use objective and accessible language. List-type content tends to attract more attention at this initial stage of the funnel.
Middle of the funnel content
When a potential customer reaches the middle of the funnel, it is because they have already been converted from a visitor to a lead and have reached a level of maturity where they feel ready to start considering possible solutions to the problems they face.
Therefore, the middle of the funnel content should show how your online course can solve your leads' pain points . In other words, the approach of your content stops being more generalist and becomes more specific, focusing on your information product.
You should focus on showing the advantages and unique features of your product. Talk about how your course has helped other people. Explain how your course works in practice, how the classes are organized, and what content the customer will learn.
Therefore, if you want to be successful in selling a product or service, it is essential that you know how to guide your potential customers throughout the entire journey by offering content that will help them move forward until they make a purchase .
In this sense, the content funnel is a tool that helps you organize the information that will be passed on to your potential customers at the most appropriate moments in their purchasing journey, from attraction, through recognition of the problem and consideration of the solution, to closing and purchasing the product or service.
If you want to better understand how this works, we invite you to continue reading and check out the next lines of this guide:
Sales Funnel: What are the stages of the customer journey?
What is a content funnel?
What is the marketing funnel for?
How to make a content funnel?
What to post at each stage of the content funnel?
Top of the funnel content
Middle of the funnel content
Bottom of the funnel content
Sales Funnel: What are the stages of the customer journey?
Before we talk about the content marketing funnel, it is important that you understand the basic steps that make up the customer journey in the sales funnel. In other words, what is the path that customers take until they make their purchasing decision .
Well. The sales funnel is divided into three phases: Top of the Funnel (TOFU ) , Middle of the Funnel (MOFU ) and Bottom of the Funnel (BOFU ).
Top of the Sales Funnel: Learning and Discovery and Problem Recognition
The Top of the funnel is the widest part and concentrates the Learning and Discovery and Problem Recognition stages.
This is the moment when potential customers discover and recognize that they have a certain problem and seek to learn more about it .
For the initial stages of the journey, it is very important that the company is able to attract more visitors, spark their interest and educate them.
Middle of the Sales Funnel: Solution Consideration
This is the stage of the customer journey where they already have a clearer understanding of the problem they are facing and are now looking for possible solutions.
Upon reaching this stage, the potential customer begins to investigate the characteristics of products and services that are capable of solving their problems and meeting their needs .
Bottom of the Funnel: Purchase Decision
When the lead (a contact who is interested in your solution in some way) moves to the bottom of the funnel, they are ready to make their purchasing decision and just need that “little push”.
This means that the focus should be on explaining the advantages of your solution and convincing them that you are the best choice they can make at the moment.
Is it clear to you what a lead is and how it flows through the funnel? Check out this video:
See more: Lead types: what do MQL and SQL mean to sell more?
What is a content funnel?
Now that we’ve recapped the customer journey, we can focus on content marketing strategy.
Basically, content marketing is a branch of Inbound Marketing and its objective is to offer relevant content to potential customers at specific moments in their purchasing journey , whether to attract, nurture, educate or convert.
The content funnel is one of the inbound marketing strategies, being very useful for attracting and converting sales opportunities and strengthening the company's authority.
The content funnel is a tool that helps organize this strategy considering the steps that customers usually go through before making a purchase.
The information that will guide customers' decisions is strategically designed to help them move more quickly through the funnel and receive the right content at the most appropriate moments in their journey.
Read more: Sales funnel for online courses: Improve your sales process now!
What is the marketing funnel for?
The content marketing funnel serves to better organize the process of attracting, nurturing, converting and retaining customers through relevant and valuable information.
The funnel allows you to identify which stage of their journey the customer is at and define which content makes the most sense to them at this moment and can help them move on to the next stage.
This way, you can generate more scalability for new zealand business fax list your business, solidify the sales process, increase the chances of closing a deal, generate greater engagement with your target audience and increase your brand authority and business reputation .
AIDA was one of the first sales funnels created, learn more about it: AIDA Method: discover how this methodology can help you convert more customers
How to make a content funnel?
If you want to adopt this strategy and organize a content funnel to sell more, check out some essential practices below:
1 – Be clear about who your personas are
Before you start producing content to attract and convert leads for your business, it is essential to have your personas well defined. In other words, the ideal customer profile for your product or service and the problems you can solve.
2 – Map the purchasing journey
Another important tip for creating a content funnel is to map out your customers’ entire purchasing journey . Using this map, you can determine which content is best suited for each stage of the journey.
3 – Use SEO techniques
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) techniques are used to optimize searches for your content and make it appear better positioned in the results of the main online search engines.
So, when potential customers search for keywords related to your solution, your content will appear to them as a suggestion .
Also read: YouTube SEO: The best way to get your videos to the top!
4 – Create a content plan
Finally, it is extremely important that you have a well-structured plan for your content. Establish your goals, define metrics to monitor your performance, and organize the topics that will be covered at each stage of the content funnel.
Also set up a schedule for your publications.
This post may help you: What are the main types of digital content and how to use them to your advantage?
What to post at each stage of the funnel?
As you can see, the content funnel is divided into three phases: Top, Middle and Bottom.
But what content should you post in each of these phases?
Well, there are pieces of information and approaches that work better at one stage of the customer journey than at others.
This infographic from Full-Stack Marketer provides a summary, but we’ll go into more detail below:
Content Funnel
Top of the funnel content
The Top of the Funnel is the moment when your biggest concern should be attracting potential customers who fit the personas you defined for your business model.
With this in mind, top-of-funnel content should address more general topics related to the problems your online course aims to solve.
If your course is about financial education, you can create blog posts talking about the importance of saving and investing. For social media, you can create a carousel on Instagram with 7 basic tips to start investing.
Remember that this is the widest part of the funnel where potential customers are discovering and learning more about the problem they are facing. Therefore, you need to be very didactic in your approach .
Try to clarify your audience's most common doubts and convince them that their problems need to be solved soon.
Use objective and accessible language. List-type content tends to attract more attention at this initial stage of the funnel.
Middle of the funnel content
When a potential customer reaches the middle of the funnel, it is because they have already been converted from a visitor to a lead and have reached a level of maturity where they feel ready to start considering possible solutions to the problems they face.
Therefore, the middle of the funnel content should show how your online course can solve your leads' pain points . In other words, the approach of your content stops being more generalist and becomes more specific, focusing on your information product.
You should focus on showing the advantages and unique features of your product. Talk about how your course has helped other people. Explain how your course works in practice, how the classes are organized, and what content the customer will learn.