A Content Marketing Funnel Explained A funnel for marketing content helps potential customers discover more about your company help them solve their problems and feel comfortable buying from you. Content is better suited to each stage of the funnel. Checklists, videos, and infographics are effective in drawing attention, generating leads and keeping readers involved. Content that is gated, such as guides and templates, also is effective at this point. Awareness At this point, customers are aware of the existence of your brand. They are also aware of the solutions you provide. This is where the content is created to educate and inform potential customers about the problems that your solution solves as well as its differences from competitors. To determine the gaps in your content at this stage, you must consider the kinds of keywords that your customers use to browse on the internet. You can conduct keyword research to determine what terms your target audience is using when searching online. This will assist you in determining whether your product or service is required. This data can then be used to develop an editorial calendar and figure out the content pieces that will be targeted at those specific terms. Additionally, creating content for this phase of the funnel helps you build your brand affinity with customers. The more people learn about your brand, the more trust they'll have in your capability to solve their problems. This leads to higher conversion rates for newsletter signups and purchases as well as clickthroughs on your website. A well-executed strategy for content can also help you close this conversion gap. If, for instance you discover that the majority of your content is aimed at raising awareness, but nothing is influencing buyers to make a purchase decision, then you can increase the spending on marketing campaigns that target middle-funnel keywords. Another way to increase the bottom-of-the-funnel sales conversion is by using social media. Social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook allow you to interact with your customers directly, giving you the opportunity to showcase your commitment to customer service. This can range from retweeting positive reviews to promoting special offers. You can also use existing content to draw customers to the bottom of the funnel like blog posts or case studies. For example, if you write a post about how your product is superior than a competitor's then you can share it on social media and ask readers to subscribe to your mailing list to receive more information. You can also encourage conversions at this stage by asking users to tag you on their social media posts once they have used your product. This will inspire others to do the same and help spread the word about your company. Inquiry A well-planned content strategy should comprise a variety of content types that attract customers at each stage of the funnel. Brand awareness campaigns, for instance could include ad copy, but also blog posts and infographics to address the most common issues and objections. These pieces of content can be shared via email and social media to boost organic traffic. As buyers move through the process of considering, they start looking for specific characteristics of products that will assist them to make a purchasing decision. This is the perfect time to use FAQ pages. Use tools for keyword research such as Ubersuggest, or search popular hashtags within your industry to discover questions that your readers ask. Create answers to these questions and place them in your content funnel map. During this stage, it's crucial to provide a clear proposition of value that demonstrates the way your product or service can solve their problems and earn them more money. The content should also emphasize the distinctiveness of your brand in comparison to the brands of your competition. This is a simple step to evaluate because the customer is making a purchase. To see whether you're getting the job accomplished, look for indicators like conversion rates as well as the number of transactions and click-through rates. As consumers reach the advocacy stage your brand becomes increasingly important to them. They will share your content with their friends because they are so enthusiastic about it. This is a good way to increase your audience. But you'll need to concentrate on creating content that encourages people to share, instead of focusing solely on engagement metrics. Utilize Sprout Social, for example to track the number of shares on social media that result from your content marketing efforts. This will give you a much more precise picture of your influence. Decision At the decision stage consumers are seeking content that confirms their purchase and provides instructions on how to use the product. At this point, they want to be confident that the solution will resolve their problem and make the investment worth it. Quality content is essential at this stage, including product guides video, case studies, and customer success stories. Your customers would like to ask questions and get answers from your support staff. It's a great method to impress your customers and inspire them to by sharing their experiences. It is your hope that by this point, the customer will be an advocate for your brand and promote it to their friends and co-workers. To turn these advocates into rave customers, you'll need to provide them valuable content that helps them make the most of your product or service. You can accomplish this by creating customized newsletters, tutorial videos as well as free trial offers and loyalty programs. It's time to start focusing on the retention of your audience after it has transformed from leads to paying customers. The conventional content marketing funnel models tend to see revenue as the conclusion of the process, however it is important to remember that consumers will continue to interact with brands after they have completed a purchase. For this reason, it's essential to redefine the funnel as a loop model, rather than an unchanging structure that ends with revenue. While traditional funnels for marketing content can help you develop your strategy however, they do not take into account the complexity of the buyer journey. Reimagining the content marketing funnel as a circular model will assist you in creating an integrated strategy. You can create content that engages your audience and drives conversions by planning for each stage of the journey. You can then use the information from conversions to enhance and test your strategy. Are you ready to discover how this strategy will benefit your company? Contact us today and request a free content marketing guidebook. Retention A funnel for content marketing can be a useful tool for helping brands plan and implement their strategy. It can also provide visibility into the gaps in their content strategy that need to be filled. For instance the case where a brand has a significant amount of content geared toward the public's attention and interest, but a small amount targeted towards the middle of the funnel, they should focus on creating content geared towards this stage. Use tools like Ahrefs, which analyze the average time spent on a page and bounce rates of each piece to determine how targeted your content is. The more high these numbers are, the better your content is performing. After you've put together content for the top of your funnel for marketing content, it's important to keep it up-to-date and relevant. This will keep your audience interested in your brand and its products and services. This can be accomplished by creating content that is focused on key words, addresses questions that your audience is likely to look for, and provides the most current information about your product or industry. As content marketing on social media onto the MOFU stage, they'll be looking for more detailed information about your product or service, as well as ways to solve their issues. In this stage, it's important to build trust by providing authentic reviews and demonstrating value. In the final stage of your content marketing funnel your audience will decide whether they want to purchase. This is typically accomplished through restricted content that requires an email address or other form of registration in order to access. This content is meant to convert the awareness and engagement that you've cultivated at the top of your content marketing funnel into leads that are qualified for your sales team to follow up on. You can still influence the customer journeys through your brand, even if the sales and support teams are the primary ones responsible for customer retention. Create content that delights your customers throughout the entire funnel of content marketing. This could include useful resources, behind-the-scenes information and special promotions that only your target audience will be able to access. If you can establish a relationship of trust with your audience, then they will become your best advocates and will help you reduce the time to sell.
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