Before the advent of the internet, marketing was almost exclusively based on outbound methodologies. Whether you were ready to buy or not, TV commercials would interrupt your favorite shows. Newspaper and magazine ads would pepper themselves throughout the articles you wanted to read. Junk mail would be full of coupons for all sorts of goods and services (regardless of whether they were relevant to you). Perhaps most annoying of all, you might get phone calls or unexpected (and uninvited) guests at your front door pushing "special deals" that weren't really all that special. But the age of digital media — and the advent of inbound marketing — has changed everything. We can now capture data about our website visitors and customers that would have been difficult, if not impossible, to collect before. Marketers can create detailed buyer personas based on an amalgamation of characteristics of our best customers — and use that to create more effective marketing materials that specifically target a company's ideal customers.
You could even go into depth to specifically define different kinds of customers at different points in their maturity as consumers of your product or service.
For example, say you're part of a company that sells running shoes. A beginner runner who’s just becoming aware that they need a new pair of running shoes would not be convinced by the same kind of marketing content that an experienced marathoner needs as they train for their next World Major.
This is where the marketing funnel comes in. If you can tailor your content to where in the funnel they are on their buyer’s journey, you’ll have a higher likelihood of turning them into customers.
But what, exactly, is the marketing funnel? And how do you write content for each of its stages?
Think about the shape of a funnel. The top end is wide, while the middle portion narrows significantly, all the way to the bottom, where both sides almost meet, like an upside-down triangle.
Source: Single Grain
The marketing funnel is shaped the same way:
Since each stage entails a different moment in the buyer’s journey, they each require different types of content to move the prospect along and turn them to leads, then to customers.
You can map out content touchpoints throughout each stage of the buyer's journey by creating content specific to each stage. The three main "phases" of content marketing for a buyer's journey are:
Let's dive deeper into each type of content.
The goal of top-of-the-funnel (TOFU) content is to attract and educate prospects — both on what you have to offer and on related topics.
You’re not pushing them to buy something from you. You’re looking for ways to answer their questions. They’re starting to do research, and you want to show them that you have all the answers they’re looking for.
You can help your target audience find answers with any of the following formats:
A blog (a portmanteau of the terms "web" and "log") is a part of your website that is updated regularly with helpful information. This article that you're reading right now is an example of blog content!
For example, let’s say you own a gym. You want people to become members. However, your blogs should not be exclusively designed to get them to sign up. A majority of your blogs should be tailored to provide related, helpful content, such as:
You get the drift. Bill the Amateur Bodybuilder searches Google, and one of your blogs pops up on the search engine results page (SERP). Help him. Give him info.
At this point, it’s not about you. It’s about helping them. The more you pop up on SERPs, the more you establish yourself as an authority in a given subject. And when you become an authority in a field, people start to trust you.
An eBook is a great way to answer your lead’s burning questions and demonstrate expertise in a relatable way. Despite the profusion of mobile technology, text communication isn’t dead – but it has to be truly informative and engaging to get attention from prospects who are hard-pressed for reading time.
To be effective, an eBook needs a few things in its favor:
A hook that's based on a lead’s most important questions, pain points, or business concerns.
A layout with professional elements, including a good cover, design, and typography.
A clear call to action (CTA) to move leads forward to the next stage in the process.
When planning an eBook, take it as seriously as you would if your work was going to find its way to library shelves. Deliver real value by attacking an in-depth topic with a substantial number of pages – but not so much that you stray from the point or the reader loses interest.
As an alternative to text-based information, you could answer your prospect's burning questions with a well-designed visualization of the data you want to share. Such infographics are a great way to communicate information quickly in an easy-to-digest format.
Infographics can be subdivided into different styles, but one of the best is the simple flowchart. It relies heavily on text but organizes that text into a format that helps readers follow a simple logical progression. Other examples of infographics include Venn diagrams, timelines, and maps.
When choosing a specific type of infographic to use, it's important to consider the data you wish to communicate and what kind of graphic would make it easy for your audience to digest.
For example, if you're communicating the history of a topic, then a timeline infographic is an obvious choice. Alternatively, if you're trying to demonstrate the overlap between multiple subjects,
What’s the difference between a “guide” and an eBook?
You can develop guides in a variety of formats — and not all of them text-focused. The purpose of a guide is to deliver background information your prospect needs to start them on the road to choosing your solution.
And, depending on your industry and offering, it can take a variety of forms.
For example, you could have a research report that brings together several infographics. You could communicate with a handful of short videos that help prospects address a key business problem.
Whatever you choose, remember – the medium is the message.
You should select a format that helps you get your point across quickly and efficiently. Although blog posts can make for great guides, many decision-makers are visual learners. Think about your customer persona, how your content will be used, and where it will be consumed.
“How-to” content is less broad than an ebook or general topic guide. It provides your readers with step-by-step instructions. By the end, they should achieve something with a minimum amount of fuss and effort. A good how-to gives the prospect a sense of accomplishment and a better understanding of how to finish something successfully.
If how-to content is accurate and easy to follow, then the format might not seem to matter. Still, users want to feel like they’ve gotten something substantial in return for their email address ... and you are collecting email addresses, aren’t you?
With that in mind, a how-to usually makes a bigger splash in one of two formats:
Short videos in which each step takes less than two minutes to accomplish.
A long-form infographic supported by a blog post for the deeper details.
People generally have an easier time following instructions that are visually interesting. Additionally, information supported by an image is more likely to be remembered.
If you go for a how-to video, be especially careful to make sure your presenter moves through the points at the right rate – not too fast and not too slow – and avoids going into too much detail. You don’t want to confuse your reader and make them pause and play repeatedly.
Email sequences are popular for onboarding new prospects because they provide a seamless connection between consuming your content and taking action on it. Each email in a sequence should build trust, inspire interest in what’s to come, and encourage prospects to take some kind of "next step" in your sales funnel.
Email sequences can be stretched out over any time frame, and your strategy will depend on what audience you wish to reach. A short sequence unfolding over five or seven days provides closure and a sense of reward, but a longer one can foster trust if the user keeps up.
You should also consider how many emails your sequence should contain. It usually takes about six emails to get some sort of response from a prospect – whether positive or negative – so pre-plan what messages you will send at what time to create the best flow.
While top-of-the-funnel content lets prospects know that you know what you’re talking about and using it to help them, the goal of middle-of-the-funnel (MOFU) content is meant to help individuals engage and evaluate the benefits of what you have to offer over your competitors.
But it’s not just a matter of saying “Our product is better than theirs.” Almost everyone in the history of sales and marketing makes this claim sooner or later. This is where you nurture your leads. The goal is to earn their business when they’re ready. You read that right. They’re interested, but they’re not ready quite yet.
This is where the courtship begins. And how can you win their hearts? With free, more in-depth content, such as:
A whitepaper consists of detailed research and information on a topic. This is your chance to establish just what a best-in-class solution looks like and why prospects should stick with yours.
B2B decision-makers, in particular, appreciate lengthy, well-designed whitepapers with strong citations and plenty of quotes from industry thought leaders.
To create an effective whitepaper, follow these few tips:
Write in a professional yet conversational tone.
Use a catchy title to grab the reader’s attention.
Include the most relevant facts to support your claims.
Always proofread before publishing.
The key is to be persuasive and authoritative when providing solutions to their pain points. It’s a lot easier to convince people to buy a product when you back up your claims with data instead of just your subjective opinion on why the product is so good.
A case study is a special kind of research report that focuses on how your solution provided provable results — whether it was for a single customer or a swath of consumers. It brings readers on a journey from the initial problem through the implementation of a solution and the results.
Case studies show why and how your solution is better, integrating testimonials from the customers who have seen a positive impact from it.
It’s important to note the length of your case study. While it’s great you included detail after detail to prove your success story, leave that in a whitepaper.
A case study should touch on the main points – the problem, the solution, and the results – to showcase how you were able to help a client. Some of the best case studies can fit onto a single page.
A webinar is a (generally) live event where subscribers sign up to get specific training or information, usually in a 30- to 90-minute presentation of sorts.
The best way to make a webinar compelling enough for people to show up for the live event is to make sure there is plenty of time at the end of the session for a Q&A with a real expert – someone your subscribers will be interested in talking with.
For example, if you sell solar panels and you’ve noticed several interested people hesitate over the price, conduct a webinar explaining how panels save them money in the long run after they take into account monthly energy savings.
You can also include additional benefits, such as sustainability or independence from traditional power sources. They’re a good way to overcome prospects’ hesitations or to give them additional information to guide them through their decision-making process.
Closely related to the webinar, but distinct enough to warrant its own entry is the "on-demand video." On-demand videos are prerecorded video content that can be watched at the viewer's own leisure. This helps open up video content to a larger audience than what might be achieved through webinars alone since your audience doesn't have to sync their schedule with your webinar time slot.
However, video content can take a great many forms, some of them filling in as video versions of other content types listed in this very article. Some examples of on-demand video content include:
The challenge with some video content is the amount of effort required to make it. Creating an animation of a chart or going on location to film a video (or paying an expert to capture that footage for you) can be prohibitively expensive. This is a major hurdle to video content.
Some forms of video content might be easier to create with simpler resources than others. For example, podcast recordings are popular since the participants just need to have a basic webcam, microphone, and recording equipment to get started. Webinar recordings are also popular since they can be done using already-existing webinar content.
Social media offers a goldmine of opportunities to nurture your leads. It’s an excellent way to engage directly with people who are commenting, asking questions, and sharing your posts. It’s also pleasantly surprising for them to see that you take them seriously enough to address all of their concerns.
However, make sure to choose your social media platforms according to who’s your target audience. Baby boomers tend to prefer Facebook, while millennials flock to Instagram, and Gen Z is more enamored with TikTok and Snapchat.
Bottom-of-the-funnel content means the lead is close to the finish line. From this point forward, you’re communicating with the intent to close that deal or make that sale.
To help influence their decision to choose you, it's important to share and provide valuable BOFU content.
Some of the best types of bottom-of-the-funnel content are:
The purpose of BOFU content is to turn a one-way relationship into a conversation — one that ultimately ends in a sale. You can call it many different things, but all kinds of consultations have the same goal: To get more details on the prospect’s problems and figure out if you have the best solution.
Incorporating assessments and consultations into your marketing strategy can help better position you as an industry expert and showcase how your company provides viable solutions to help solve a prospect’s challenges.
Make sure you share enough valuable feedback with your prospects during a consultation, highlighting both strong points and weak areas for improvement. By addressing their needs, you’ll be able to share how your business could be a right fit for them, encouraging them to choose you.
If you have a software product or a piece of specialized equipment, nothing beats an on-site visit. Prospects get to see what you do, and how you do it. Then, they can imagine your solution in their own space.
Plus, they will have an opportunity to physically meet the team they’d be working with and get to know the company culture a little better. A strong company culture could heavily impact their final decision, so always put your best foot forward when introducing prospects to your business
A prospect may be almost convinced to buy your product or service, but still need an extra push to help them make a decision. Offering live or video-recorded tutorials helps them understand every feature.
This can be how to assemble a product, the correct form for using gym equipment, or how to migrate an existing website to HubSpot. Showing them that you are ready, willing, and able to do some hand-holding to make them feel comfortable with what you’re selling will increase confidence to make the purchase.
Some software programs allow you to display different types of content depending on the viewer category. This means that what the reader sees will depend on where in the lifecycle stage they’re in.
You can also automate marketing based on certain criteria. This enables your team to create a robust content library, and then automatically send helpful content assets for specific segments of your database at various stages of their journey. Delivering helpful content at each stage nurtures people toward becoming your next happy customer.
Odds are that when shopping around for a solution to their problem, your prospects would like to see a side-by-side comparison of their best options. Creating a piece of content that directly compares your solution to a competitor is an old marketing strategy, but it can be a highly effective one.
Being able to showcase the areas where your solution is directly superior to your top competitors can have a strong impact on a prospect's purchase decision when they've narrowed their choices down to just a couple of competitors.
While the different content examples above are broadly separated into where their content types would most comfortably fit in the buyer's journey, these categorizations aren't absolute.
For example, it's perfectly possible to write a blog that is geared more towards the middle-of-the-funnel portion of the buyer's journey, a whitepaper that's aimed at the top-of-the-funnel, or an infographic that hones in on BOFU prospects to help them close.
Email campaigns can be sent to any customer with messaging that aligns with any phase of the buyer's journey. Experimenting with your content and knowing when to break the proverbial mold can help your content stand out in an ever-crowded marketplace to help you earn more recognition (and consequently, business).
An inbound marketing strategy includes a full-scale embrace of funnel-focused content. With a full deck of TOFU, MOFU, and BOFU content, you'll attract more leads — and convert more paying customers as a result!