Making content for your business ticks off many boxes that can help your business, including spreading valuable insight to users, providing opportunities for a call to action and boosting engagement to establish trust with your audience. But the objective of using content as a marketing strategy is to connect the information to the user so they become a paying customer.
A content user may not become a customer immediately. They might start off as a lead that you have to nudge in the right direction: down the content marketing funnel. The content marketing funnel is a more specific approach to the customer journey funnel. The customer journey funnel looks at a customer’s entire relationship with your brand; the content marketing funnel looks at how you can use your content (e.g., blog posts, social media and e-books) to convert leads into customers through several stages.
Read on to look at how you can create content for each part of the funnel to increase customer acquisition and revenue. This will give you a basic look at the content marketing funnel and the importance of each stage.
What to do for top-of-funnel content
Even though people often work from the ground up in many different situations, the content marketing process is the opposite. Here, users start at the top and work their way down through the funnel. The top of the funnel is the “awareness” phase of the user journey, where lead generation occurs.
At the top of the funnel, your goal is to provide users with awareness about the value that your company can provide for the problem or issue they’re dealing with. The content in this phase should be informative and educational material that focuses completely on addressing the targeted issue with a simple mention of your related service.
For example, you can raise awareness about your healthcare services by targeting the keyword “persistent back pain.” You can create content such as:
- An infographic with a list of common causes and solutions for back pain
- A blog post about when to be concerned about worsening back pain
- An educational video showing exercises that target back muscles
What to do for middle-of-funnel content
You’ve grabbed a user’s attention and shown how you can bring value to their relevant concern, and now it’s time to nurture the lead in the “consideration” phase.
The middle of the funnel is the point in the buyer’s journey where they are trying to determine what solution is the best option for them. Now that they’re aware of your brand, you can use your content to nudge them toward becoming a paying customer. The key is to put your best foot forward and set yourself apart from your competition by creating content that spotlights the benefits of your services without losing sight of user intent.
For example, if you’re a healthcare practice, you can create the following middle-of-funnel content:
- Downloadable health resources
- Comparison guides of your treatments with competing treatments
- Case studies for the treatments that you offer
What to do for bottom-of-funnel content
You’re at the home stretch, but the work is far from done. You want to gently push a user over the finish line so they convert into a customer. The content in this phase, sometimes referred to as the “conversion” stage, should focus primarily on why you’re the best choice. You want to make sure they have all the information they need to make an informed decision and feel confident in their choice.
Let’s stick to the healthcare practice example and the example content that you could make for the bottom of the funnel:
- Patient video testimonials
- Webinars about your treatment results
- Video demonstrations of your office practices
Measuring success & optimizing the content marketing funnel
Taking a look at the performance of your content in every phase of the content marketing funnel will help you to see what’s working and what needs to be tweaked. This includes looking at metrics such as search engine optimization (SEO) rankings, organic traffic and engagement.
By optimizing the content in each part of the funnel, you’re increasing the likelihood that a user will feel encouraged to move on to the next one. Content optimization includes creating compelling calls to action, using relevant keywords and tailoring each effort to the targeted phase.
If you’re seeing users stuck at the top of the funnel or abandoning their customer journey during the consideration phase, BURG+CO.’s conversion strategy and content marketing services can help you work through every phase to get the results you’re looking for.
Our team has years of experience in helping businesses improve their digital presence to attract new leads and retain existing ones. If you’re looking to perform better in search engine results and attract more visitors to your site, we’re ready to talk to you to see how we can help. Contact our team today for more information about digital marketing or to schedule a complimentary consultation.
