How Content Marketing Plays an Important Role in Sales Funnel Creation?

Let’s be blunt about this. The most effective resource at your disposal for sales and marketing right now is content. A well-written piece of content can be used at various points in your sales and marketing funnel, assisting you in achieving a variety of goals.

As long as that material remains pertinent, it will continue to be interesting and appealing to potential clients and consumers, opening up fresh business opportunities for your company many weeks, months, and possibly even years after it was first created and released.

However, Producing content can be challenging and might not necessarily bring rewards immediately. As a result, sales and marketing teams may undervalue it since they erroneously prioritize lead volume over lead quality.

Keep in mind: The top content marketing agency concentrates on providing the highest quality leads.

They do this in recognition of the fact that low-quality leads given in bulk are expensive, challenging to manage, and have a poor return on investment.

Modern marketing and sales don’t revolve around figures. It is much more advanced than that.

Why Does Content Matter So Much?

The main purpose of content is to address issues for both current and potential customers. Customers who read your material before moving on and more formally interacting with your company are essentially identifying themselves as potential clients.

This screening procedure also crucially eliminates tire kickers and lukewarm leads that obstruct your sales funnel. It strengthens the bond between your sales and marketing teams and aids in keeping your sales team’s attention on the prospects most likely to turn into paying clients.

This straightforward tactic can be used at different points in your sales and marketing funnel to direct and deliver leads to your sales team at the ideal time for conversion. 

How Does Your Marketing and Sales Funnel Look?

Although there are several versions of the sales and marketing funnel, they consistently travel through the same five stages:

Awareness: During the lead generation stage, prospective customers find your company while looking for a solution to a certain issue.

Consideration: When prospective customers begin comparing your company to rival offers.

Purchase/Decision: The point at which a potential consumer makes a purchase or chooses to leave your funnel in favor of a rival offer.

Retention: Producing Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) and recurrent income opportunities.

Advocacy: When clients are happy with your company, they actively tell their friends about it.

It would be impossible to cover all of the chances for content deployment during these different stages in a single blog post. But even these straightforward blog entries are crucial to the procedure.

Let’s analyze, the different sales and marketing funnel phases and highlight the best ways to use content at each level.

First Stage: Awareness

The pre-relationship phase of the process is the most difficult.

The main issue currently facing marketers is discoverability. You must first provide material that explains to potential clients how your company may assist them in solving a certain problem.

However, you’ll also need to produce content that can be found on the top social media platforms and search engines. 

Highly visual social media content, like as videos, photographs, and short-form articles, is a terrific method to direct potential customers to more in-depth and interesting blog entries.

Those blog entries also need to be SEO friendly, so don’t forget to include all those crucial words and phrases while making sure the writing flows naturally (nobody said this would be simple).

For readers to formally enter your sales and marketing funnel by subscribing to your email lists and gaining access to the following step of the customer journey, your blog posts must also include an effective call to action (CTA).

Second Stage: Consideration

You can begin directing more specific content at your prospective customer once you have obtained their email address.

More timely blog articles, in-depth whitepapers, eBooks, podcasts, videos, and webinars are just a few examples of content that could be included. This material will require a significant time and skill investment to produce.

However, because of the worth of this content, it can be used for a long time. Keep in mind that it will be far simpler to update existing material than to start from scratch after interesting content has been created.

It’s amazing how a small update or design change can give an outdated piece of information new vitality. 

More experienced marketers will want to use marketing automation technology to set off specialized campaigns depending on specific events, including clicks on email campaigns and visits to blogs and websites.  

Marketers may choose to assign a “lead score” to certain subscribers during this consideration stage based on their interaction with your content-led campaigns and other elements like firm name, job title, etc. (We will expand on this later in the month.)

Third Stage: Decision/Purchase

The marketing team thinks the prospect is now prepared to become a customer. At this stage, you can start sending targeted emails to subscribers encouraging them to either schedule a meeting with your sales staff or buy anything from your website.

Now is a fantastic time to promote added-value purchases or request a product or service review because your clients will never be more engaged than at this point (see Stage 5).

Prospects who aren’t quite ready to buy will move back and forth between Stages 2 and 3 until making a decision to buy or exit the process entirely by unsubscribing from your email lists.

As part of your list management/cleansing process, you should also eliminate prospects who, along the road, ceased engaging with your material.

Even after a buyer makes their first purchase, content marketing continues to be effective. It might even increase in worth and profit potential.

Fourth Stage: Retention

Upselling and increasing customer lifetime value are only two aspects of retention marketing. Additionally, it’s about keeping your clients interested in your enterprise and preventing them from turning to a rival.

Keep in mind that sometimes the grass appears greener on the other side of the fence. Therefore, the role of the content marketer is to emphasize how your company is keeping up with the times and can continue to provide superior customer service than your rivals for a very long time.

The good news is that you can almost probably use a large portion of the “thought leadership” content you create for Stages 1 through 3 of your sales and marketing funnel as part of your retention plan.

Fifth Stage: Advocacy

Your marketing becomes more genuine and credible when customers promote your company or brand.

Customer reviews and other user-generated content give a terrific perspective on what it’s like to deal with your company. As a result, at this point, seek out satisfied customers and ask them to provide a review (they will likely tell you how much they have appreciated your service). This process is advanced by case studies and testimonies.

People make purchases from people they like and are motivated to do so by peers who they can relate to. A strong testimonial or case study that is posted on your website and social media can help move potential buyers more quickly through Stages 1 and 2 of your sales funnel.

What Are The Various Stages Of The Funnel For Content Marketing?

The content marketing funnel has three tiers in general. Potential clients first become aware of the brand at the TOP OF FUNNEL (TOFU).

The middle of the funnel, or MOFU, is when prospective customers are interacting with your business and determining why you could be the best option for them.

The customer journey ends at the bottom of the funnel, also known as BOFU, and conversion to a purchase is the objective.

TOFU: Top-Of-Funnel

The first level of the funnel is where you develop top-of-funnel content that attracts potential customers. In an effort to raise as much brand recognition as possible, this is how you expose your brand to a large audience.

This is your opportunity to make a good first impression. You should concentrate on producing fascinating material and engaging, and encourage readers to learn more about what you have to offer.

MOFU: Middle-Of-Funnel

The middle of the funnel is where prospective customers are thinking about your brand and attempting to learn more about you as a company or brand.

They might be studying social media posts. Furthermore, reading comparison guides about your company’s goods or services, or reading client success stories.

Your objective is to inform customers about your goods or services. So they may make an informed decision about working with you.

BOFU: Bottom-Of-Funnel

The end stage or final decision-making step is at the bottom of the funnel. Here, you deal with clients who are prepared to decide but are unsure about what to do next.

Converting a buyer who is prepared to become a paying customer is your objective here. Recognize that a customer’s journey through the content funnel can take a few minutes or several weeks.

Finding out where the customer is in the process and nurturing them with relevant material is your responsibility.

The Steps of the Content Marketing Funnel and How to Develop Content for Them

Depending on the stage of the content marketing funnel you are currently targeting. Your content strategy may incorporate different types of material. Consistent, informative content creation should raise brand recognition.

You want to establish yourself as a pioneer in your field and offer customers a window into your corporate culture. This is a thorough strategy that will connect with clients wherever they are in the sales funnel.

Content at the Top of the Funnel

Because it is captivating and makes people want to learn more about what you have to offer, your TOFU content attracts customers. These are blog posts, infographics, sponsored advertisements, eBooks, landing sites, checklists, and quizzes that have been optimized for search engines.

At this point, creating content entails determining what will assist you in appearing on search engine result pages and drawing in clients. To continue promoting your brand, you need to understand why consumers are interested in it.

Infographics are a simple approach to delivering attention-grabbing content in an easy-to-digest format. While blog entries will demonstrate your subject matter expertise and brand voice.

eBooks provide clients with a solid idea of what they can anticipate from your business. Paid advertisements can assist in increasing traffic to your website.

Your top-of-funnel content needs to be compelling and distinctive enough to encourage visitors to stick around and learn more. Make sure your content is clear about what you have to offer and compelling enough for customers to want to learn more.

Content at the Middle of Funnel

You have the opportunity to go into great detail in your MOFU information about your business and the products or services you offer. MOFU material includes both shorter-form items like Instagram and Twitter posts as well as longer-form writing like blog posts with lots of information.

In addition, MOFU content includes comparative guides, case studies that demonstrate client success stories, webinars, video tutorials, and email newsletters.

How-to guides, which are instructional manuals in textual form similar to video demonstrations on how to address problems specific to your sector, are available online. Email newsletters provide regular email updates to keep your customers informed.

Middle-of-the-funnel content gives you the chance to demonstrate to customers that you are a pioneer in your field. Be explicit about what you know and why the buyer should choose you. You have a better chance of converting to sales when you can demonstrate your breadth of knowledge in an approachable manner.

Content at the Bottom of the Funnel

Customer success stories will be shared in bottom-of-funnel content to demonstrate the actual results of working with your business. Customer testimonials are utilized as proof of what it’s like to use your services or purchase your goods.

Product descriptions go into great detail and tell the customer exactly what to expect when they make a purchase. BOFU content, which represents the bottom of the funnel, is simple and similar to sales collateral that converts leads.

Build an Effective Content Marketing Funnel

Your content marketing funnel has many different components. One of them is developing a content strategy that can accommodate the needs of your customers wherever they are in the sales funnel.

You can categorize potential leads using Mailchimp’s products and services to keep them organized throughout the process and nurture each lead according to their needs.

By adopting sound SEO techniques. Your content will be driven by keyword and content research, giving you the highest chance of appearing on the front page of searches.

You may schedule your material when you use tools like Mailchimp for a more efficient method. When you can persuade customers to make a purchase. Your marketing strategy will be able to attract potential leads. Nurture those leads down the content funnel, and convert your leads into sales.

You will find it simpler to create the content you require for success. If you can recognize the differences between top-of-funnel content, middle-stage content, and bottom-stage material.

Online paid or organic searches will lead clients to you. Once this has happened, your top-of-funnel content must be compelling enough to pique clients’ interest. Interactive tests, clear infographics, and concise information are used to accomplish this.

Encourage potential customers to find out more about your business before concentrating on what happens next. When purchasers are prepared, you want to give them a strong enough incentive to advance to the next stage. You will experience the business success you desire if you concentrate on your content marketing funnel.