A Content Marketing Funnel Explained

A funnel for content marketing helps potential customers learn more about your brand, solve their problems and feel comfortable buying from you. Different kinds of content work best in each phase of the funnel.

At the top of the funnel, infographics, videos, and checklists grab attention, create leads, and keep the readers engaged. Gated content, such as guides and templates, also is effective at this point.

Awareness

At this point, customers are only aware of your brand and the solutions you offer. At this point the content should provide answers and educate prospects on the problems your solution tackles, as well as how it differs from competitors.

Think about the keywords your target audience is using to search online. By conducting keyword research, you will find out what terms your audience is searching for and which indicate a need for your product or service. These data can be used to build an editorial calendar and determine which content pieces are designed to target these keywords.

In addition producing content for this stage of the funnel can help to build brand loyalty with consumers. The more your consumers know about your brand, they will have greater confidence in your ability to solve their problems. This will result in higher conversion rates for newsletter signups and purchases as well as clickthroughs on your website.

A well-planned and executed content strategy can also help you close the gap in conversion at this stage. For example, if you discover that the majority of your content is targeted at gaining awareness, but not enough is helping buyers make a purchase decision, you may increase the amount of money you spend on advertising campaigns to target middle-funnel keywords.

Social media is yet another method to boost your bottom-of-the-funnel conversion. Social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook allow you to interact directly with your customers, giving you the opportunity to show off your customer care. This could range from posting positive reviews on Twitter to promoting special offers.

You can also make use of existing content to push customers to the bottom of the funnel like blog posts or case studies. If you write a blog post that explains why your product is superior to the competition's you can share it on social media and encourage your readers to sign up for your email list to receive more information. You can also encourage conversions in this stage by asking users to include your name on their social media posts after they have used your product. This will inspire others to do the same and help spread the word about your brand.

Then there is the consideration

A successful content marketing strategy incorporates various types of content to attract customers throughout the funnel. Brand awareness campaigns, for instance could include ad copy as well as blog posts and infographics to address the most common issues and objections. This content could be further shared via social media and emails to drive organic traffic.

As consumers progress through the process of considering, they start looking for specific features of products that will assist them make a purchase decision. This is a great time to create FAQ pages. Use keyword research tools like Ubersuggest or search popular hashtags for your industry to find questions that your audience is asking. Find answers to these questions, and then place them on your content funnel map.

During this stage it is crucial to present an unambiguous value proposition that shows potential customers how your product or service can solve their problem and make them more money. This content should also highlight your brand's uniqueness when compared to your competition.

This is an easy stage to measure since the consumer is making a purchase decision. To determine whether you're getting the job accomplished, look for metrics such as conversion rate, number of payments and click-through rates.

As consumers reach the stage of advocacy your brand becomes more and more important to them. They will be sharing your content with friends because they are so passionate about it. This is a highly effective method of growing your audience. But you'll need to concentrate on creating content that entices people to share it, instead of focusing solely on engagement metrics. You might want to consider using a tool like Sprout Social to track the social shares that result from your content marketing in digital marketing marketing efforts. This will give you a precise picture of the impact you have.

Decision Making

They are looking for content during the decision-making phase that substantiates the purchase and provides instructions on how to use the product. At this stage they want to be sure that your solution will solve their issue and justify the investment. It is crucial to have high-quality content marketing b2b at this stage, including product guides videos, case studies, and customer success stories. Your customers want to be able ask questions and get answers from your support staff. It is a great way to impress your customers and encourage them by sharing their experiences.

You're hoping that at this point the customer will turn into an advocate for your brand and promote it to their coworkers and friends. To turn those who are advocates to raving fans, you'll have to provide them with relevant information that will allow them to make the most of your product or service. This can be done by creating personalised newsletters, tutorial videos, free trial offers and loyalty programs.

After your audience has changed from leads to paying customers, it's time to focus on retention. Content marketing funnels tend to focus on revenue as their end goal. However, customers will remain in contact and interact with brands after they make an purchase. It's essential to think of a funnel as a dynamic structure that includes revenue, rather than static models.

While conventional digital content marketing agency marketing funnels can aid in planning your strategy but they don't take into account the complexity of the buyer journey. Instead reinventing the funnel as a loop model will aid in creating an effective and more holistic content marketing strategy. You can create content that is engaging your target audience and increases conversions by planning for each stage of the process. You can then use the data from conversions to enhance and test your strategy. Ready to see the difference that this strategy can make for your company? Contact us today to request a free content marketing guidebook.

Retention

A content marketing funnel can be a valuable tool for helping brands plan, execute and measure their strategy. It also gives them visibility into the gaps in their content strategy that need to be filled. For instance when a company has a lot of content targeted at generating the public's attention and interest, but few pieces targeted towards the middle of the funnel, they should be focusing on creating b2b content marketing that is targeted at this stage.

An excellent way to determine how well-targeted your content is is to use tools like Ahrefs to determine the average time on the page and bounce rate of each piece. The higher these numbers are the more efficient your content is.

After you've put together content that will be at the top of your funnel for marketing content, it's important to keep it fresh and relevant. This will ensure that your audience remains interested and engaged in your brand and its products or services. This can be achieved by creating new content that is focused on key words, addresses questions that your target audience is likely to look for, and provides the most current information about your industry or product.

As your audience enters MOFU, they will be looking for more information about your product or services, as well as solutions to their issues. It's important to build confidence by giving honest reviews and demonstrating the value of your product.

In the final phase of your funnel for marketing content, your audience will decide whether they want to purchase. This is typically done via restricted content that requires an email address or some other method of registration 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 qualified leads for your sales team to follow up with.

While customer retention is largely in the hands of your support and sales teams, you can have an impact on the journeys of your customers your brand by creating content that entices them throughout the entire content marketing funnel. This could include useful resources, behind-the-scenes information and special promotions that only your target audience will have access to. If you can establish a relationship of trust to your customers, they will be your greatest advocates and will help reduce the time to sell.