A Content Marketing Funnel Explained
A content marketing funnel helps potential customers to learn more about your company help them solve their problems and be confident about buying from you. Content is more appropriate for every stage of the funnel.
At the top of the funnel Infographics, videos, and checklists attract attention, create leads, and keep the readers interested. Content that is gated, such as templates and guides, also is effective at this point.
Awareness
At this point, customers are only aware of your brand and the solutions you offer. This stage is where content is designed to educate and inform potential customers about the problems that your solution addresses as well as its differences from competitors.
Think about the keywords your customers use when searching online. Through keyword research, you can figure out which terms your customers are searching for that suggest the need for your product or service. These information can be used to develop an editorial calendar and determine the content pieces that are targeted at these terms.
As a bonus, creating content for this phase of the funnel can help you build your brand affinity with customers. The more your consumers know about your brand, they will trust you more in your ability to solve their problems. This leads to higher conversion rates for newsletter signups or purchases and click-throughs on your website.
A well-executed strategy for content will help you close this gap in conversion. For article rewrite software , if you find that the vast majority of your content is targeted at gaining awareness, but not enough is pushing buyers toward the purchase decision, you can increase spending on advertising campaigns to target keywords in the middle of the funnel.
Social media is yet another method to increase your bottom-of funnel conversion. Social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook permit you to communicate directly with your customers, providing you the opportunity to show off your customer service. This can include retweeting good reviews to promoting special deals.
You can also make use of content that already exists to guide buyers through the funnel, such as blog posts or case studies. If you write a blog post that explains the reasons why your product is superior to that of a competitor, you can share it on social media and encourage your customers to join your email list to receive more information. You can also encourage a conversion at this stage by asking your customers to include your name in their social media posts after having used your product. This will motivate other people to follow suit and help spread the word about your brand.
Consideration
A successful content strategy will comprise a variety of content types that draw customers in every stage of the funnel. Brand awareness campaigns, for example, might include ad copy, but also blog posts and infographics that address the most common issues and objections. These pieces of content can be distributed via email and social media to increase organic traffic.
As consumers move through the process of considering, they begin looking for specific features of the product that can help them make a purchase decision. Frequently asked questions (FAQ) pages are a great type of content for this stage. Use tools for keyword research such as Ubersuggest or search popular hashtags in your industry to discover the questions your readers are asking. Find answers to these questions and then put them on your content funnel map.
At this point, it's important to provide a clear value proposition that shows potential customers the way your product or service will solve their problem and make them more money. This content should also highlight the distinctiveness of your brand compared to the brands of your competition.
It's a fairly simple stage to measure, since consumers are making a decision whether or not to purchase. To see whether you're getting it done, look for metrics like conversion rate as well as the number of transactions and click-through rates.
As consumers move into the advocacy stage they become loyal fans of your brand and are more likely to share your content because they feel so strongly about it. This is an extremely effective way to grow your audience. You'll need to develop content that encourages people to share it instead of only focus on engagement metrics. You might want to consider using a tool such as Sprout Social to track the social shares that result from your content marketing efforts. This will give you a precise picture of the impact you have.
Decision Making
They are looking for content at the decision-making stage that substantiates the purchase and describes how to use the product. At this point, they want to know that your product will solve their issue and make the investment worth it. At this point it is essential to provide high-quality content, such as product guides as well as case study videos and customer success tales, is essential. Customers also want to be able to ask questions and get answers from your support team. It is a great way to please your customers and encourage them share their experiences.
At this stage you're hoping that the customer will become a brand ambassador and recommend your product to their friends and colleagues. To turn these advocates into enthusiastic customers, you'll be required to provide them with relevant content that helps them gain the most value from your product or service. Personalized newsletters tutorial videos and free trial offers and loyalty programs are great methods to achieve this.
After your audience has changed from leads into paying customers and paying customers, it's time to concentrate on retention. The conventional content marketing funnel models tend to view revenue as the end of the journey, however it's important to keep in mind that consumers will continue to interact with brands after they have purchased. This is why it's crucial to think of the funnel as a loop model, rather than an unchanging structure that ends with revenue.
While conventional content marketing funnels can help you plan your strategy however, they do not take into account the complexity of the buyer's journey. Instead, reimagining the funnel as loops will help you create an effective and more holistic content marketing strategy. By planning for every stage of the journey you'll be able to develop content that will engage your audience and drive conversions. Then, you can use the information from these conversions to optimize your strategy and make sure that it is working effectively. Are you ready to see the difference that this approach can make for your business? Contact us today to request a free content marketing playbook!
Retention
A funnel for marketing content is a useful tool that helps brands develop their strategy, implement it and evaluate its success. It can also give them insight into the gaps in their strategy for content that need to be filled. For example 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 prioritize creating content that is targeted at this stage.
Use tools like Ahrefs which analyze the average time spent on a page and bounce rates of each piece to determine how specialized your content is. The higher the number, the more effective your content.
It's crucial to regularly keep up-to-date and relevant the content you write for the top of your funnel. This will keep your customers interested in your brand and its products and services. The best way to do this is to create new content that is focused on specific keywords, provides answers to questions that are likely being sought by your target audience and includes the most recent information on your industry or product.
As your audience enters MOFU and MOFU, they'll be looking for more information about your products or services as well as solutions to their issues. It's also crucial to establish trust at this stage by providing honest reviews and demonstrating the value of your product.
In the final stage of your content marketing funnel, your audience will decide if they want to purchase. This is typically accomplished through gated content that requires an email address or other form of registration in order to access. The content is designed to turn the awareness and engagement you've created at the top of your funnel into qualified leads. Your sales team can then follow up.
You can still influence the journeys of your customers through your brand, even if the support and sales teams are the primary ones responsible for retention of customers. Create content that will delight your customers throughout the entire funnel of content marketing. This could include useful resources, behind-the-scenes information and special offers that only your target audience will be able to access. When you can foster trust with your customers they'll become authentic advocates for your brand and help reduce your sales cycle times.