The Content that Works for Each Level of the Marketing Funnel

Creating the perfect marketing funnel can be tricky, but knowing what kind of content works at each point in the funnel can make it easier. From the moment a prospect comes into contact with your brand to the time when they become a customer and beyond, certain content can nudge people along and other content can put them off or fail to move them along the customer journey. Here’s the content that works for each level of the marketing funnel.

Top of Funnel: Building Awareness

Top of funnel is where your customer first meets you. It’s where you make a first impression and establish brand awareness. You’ll want to grab your target audience’s attention and hold it with content that is eye-catching, entertaining and leaves a lasting impression. It should also answer your potential customers’ questions and help them solve their problems without trying to sell them something.

The best formats for top of funnel content are blog posts, social posts, infographics and e-books. These are all formats that will attract people to your site, and if they get value you from your offerings, keep them coming back. Once you have some content that has connected with your audience, you’ll also want to create evergreen material around it so that your audience spends even more time engaging with your content.

As for metrics, what you’re looking for top of funnel are clicks, views, shares and time spent on your site.

Mid-Funnel: Building Consideration

When your top of funnel content is good, you carve out real estate carved in your potential customers’ brains. They’ve learned from you and you’ve helped them overcome problems and challenges. And because your prospects are going directly to your site instead of doing a Google search tp get there, you’ve left at least some of your competitors in the dust.

Middle of funnel, you want to deepen the trust you’ve built and maximize the impact of your content with content like webinars, case studies and product stories. Luckily, engaging with your audience should be easier at this point since they’re already coming to you and know what to expect.

Bottom of Funnel: Driving Purchases

By this point, you have your potential customers’ email addresses from when they signed up for one of your lead magnets. You’ve offered up valuable information that’s helped relieve at least one of their pain points. And you have sales reps standing by to close the deal.

So how do you convert website visitors to customers?

This is where you transition from content marketing to straight up sales writing. For example, your sales reps need to have material to start the conversation. They need content to lean on during phone calls. And they need more content to include in follow-up emails.

To create this material, ask the folks in sales and product creation what problems and solutions they think you should focus on. You’ll use this info in everything from one-sheeters and help desk articles to website copy and pitch decks. The point of this material will be to seal the deal with prospects and entice your current customers to renew whatever services they’ve signed up for and to expand on them.

When you’re creating this content, remember that essential lesson of copywriting: don’t write about product features, but instead write about problems and solutions. This will help your customers view your offerings as solutions to a set of problems instead of a menu of items that they can order a few items from.

No matter where your customers are in the marketing funnel, the most important thing is that your content inspires your potential customers to take action, whether that’s engaging with more content at the top of the funnel or choosing to buy your services or products at the bottom. And with appropriate content, they’ll get there, almost by themselves.

For more help setting up your company’s marketing funnel and creating content that will convert prospects into customers, feel free to reach out to our team here at Mediaplanet. We’ll be happy to help your business succeed.