Your customers go through what’s called a purchase journey before they decide to buy your product or do business with you. The path they travel is often called a sales ‘funnel’ – so-named because their choices narrow down the further into the funnel they go.
This means, as they get closer to the bottom, they are very close to making up their mind and have whittled down the numerous options available at the top to the very few they want to go with – and you need to make sure one of those choices is you.
The 3 parts of a Sales Funnel
You can break the sales funnel down into multiple parts, and there are several different models for that. Today, however, we are keeping things simple. We will only divide it into the Top, Middle and Bottom parts.
These are usually abbreviated as:
- TOFU – Top of the Funnel
- MOFU – Middle of the Funnel
- BOFU – Bottom of the Funnel
What to write for each stage of the sales funnel
At each stage, what you write – in blogs, social media, in interviews, or even on various parts of your website – is what will help convince the customer. This also goes for video content, because, after all, every video needs a script. Which is content.
But you can’t write the same way for each part. It’s extremely important to understand what type of content you need for the different stages of the sales funnel, to help and quicken your customers’ journey. This is a core aspect of creating an effective content strategy.
In fact, nearly 70% of companies measure their sales funnel in some for or there. But at the same time, 80% of leads don’t convert into sales.1 That’s because there is no strategy to effectively guide customers through your funnel properly so they end up doing business with you!
1. Top of the Funnel Content
This is the widest stage. Everything is open here: your audience knows nothing about your business. They’re exploring – and all your competitors are right there, jostling for attention against you at this stage.
Your strategy should be to increase your customers’ awareness about your products and services. Get your SEO game face on and combine it with analysis on which media platform to target and ways in which to get your prospects’ attention.
The best types of content to use at this stage:
Generic blogs
These are a great way to educate and gain trust. Your blogs need to be conversational, informative and SEO-friendly. Mainly, they need to be a general description of your industry aimed to educate people who don’t know what you do.
Establishing your expertise in your own field ensures that your audience comes to you when they have questions about your industry – not once, but again and again. They need to trust you as a key expert.
Social and video content
The preferred choice for a lot of people, social and video content can help you gain a substantial audience and bring them back to your website through links in descriptions, captions and bios. Videos are also known to help improve your SEO scores.
2. Middle of the Funnel Content
This stage consists of people who know about your services and products but are considering whether to buy from you or your competitors.
They are aware that they need your products/services but they’re thinking about things like the quality, price and customer service at this point. So this is what you need to convince them about.
The best types of content to use at this stage:
Solution-oriented blogs
These blogs should provide comprehensive (preferably data-driven) content that addresses and solves problems that your target audience is facing. Such blogs should always be backed by keyword research and audience demographic analysis.
How-to articles
These go-to guides are detailed, step-by-step instructional manuals of sorts. While they showcase your expertise in your industry, they also help solve problems.
Newsletters
These are a great way to redistribute content like your blogs, company/industry news and updates, convincing your customers that you know best about your industry – and you’re willing to share it with others. Newsletters can also be used to reward your audience with offers, discounts and coupons.
FAQs
Creating and listing out all the possible questions any new or existing customer could have in an easy-to-understand format on your website and in certain blogs or articles will help you move people effectively into the next stage of the sales funnel.
3. Bottom of the Funnel Content
The narrowest stage in the sales funnel, this is where your leads know a lot about your business and are ready to buy a product or service but just need a gentle push to convince them to go ahead.
Pricing could be just about the only thing holding them back, or they could be wondering if anyone else has used you and what their feedback could be.
The best types of content to use at this stage:
User Generated Content (UGC)
As the name suggests, this is content created by your existing users: this could be their social posts about you, testimonials, video reviews, Google reviews, and so on.
This content reinforces people’s opinions about you in a positive way and can be of great value in helping your leads make the decision to buy.
Newsletter promos or in-app offers
Position giveaways and discounts via your newsletter or an in-app notification to help motivate your leads to try your product or service.
That might be that gentle nudge they’re waiting for.
And there you have it! That’s how you can convince and convert your customers by writing content for each stage of the sales funnel. Got questions? Don’t hesitate to drop us a line – we’re always happy to arrange a call or meeting to discuss further.
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References
1. Salesforce, What is a Sales Funnel
