6 Effective Stages to Build a Content Marketing Funnel For Your Brand
In this age, customers consume around 11 pieces of content before deciding to make a purchase. They want businesses to offer consistent and premium content that solves their problems at any point of time. And they are looking for a responsive experience whenever they interact with a brand through a website, a mobile app or through social media platforms. Content marketing is one of the most effective ways to develop a wholesome digital marketing strategy. It can enhance user engagement, improve brand awareness and help you achieve your targets. Creating tailored content also enables you to connect with your target audience in a meaningful way and increase brand loyalty.
It is extremely crucial for any brand to have a solid content marketing funnel as it can provide more customers and customer engagement. Most users these days look at the content to figure out if the product or service is something they would like. Other people would want to get more information on a particular topic or to find a specific solution. More than 80% of users want to believe in the organic search results rather than trust a brand’s ads. Hence, it is crucial that your brand follows a methodical approach that answers users’ questions at various points and helps in goal realisation. In this blog, we will cover the process of building an efficient content marketing funnel and why it is important for a successful marketing strategy.
Why do you need a Content Marketing Funnel?
Building a loyal customer base is the first step of any successful business and selling the product or service comes later. This means you should be looking to engage users through the content and encourage them to interact with you.
By using a content marketing funnel, you can devise a path for your customers through different types of content and making sure they convert into your local customers. Your content should fulfill your clients’ informational needs at each step of their purchase decision making process and hence engaging them.
Different Stages of Content Marketing Funnel
There are a number of components in the content marketing funnel but it is generally broken down into three main stages: Top-of-the-funnel (TOFU), Middle-of-the-funnel (MOFU) and Bottom-of-the-funnel (BOFU). Each stage shows the user intent differently which means that the content will have different goals and the results will be analysed accordingly. Let us take a look at the different stages within these three main stages.
Discovery Stage
The discovery stage is the first part of the content marketing funnel. The content in this stage should be able to attract and intrigue prospective customers about your business. This is the stage where your customers will interact with your brand for the first time. Hence, your marketing efforts at this stage should be focused on fulfilling their informational needs.
This discovery content should inform the users regarding the use cases of your product especially if it is not a common product. It can include things like blog posts, webinars, guides and more. This will garner enough interest to spark user’s curiosity about what your brand is about and how you can help them. At this stage, you must be looking to encourage affiliations of trust, respect and gratitude. If you are able to achieve this, then it is a win-win situation for both.
Consideration Stage
In this stage, users should be able to link your brand with the solution you are offering. Your content should enable users to gauge your brand and what you have to offer. The content that readers are looking for at this stage should offer solutions to their challenges, how-to content and product descriptions. An ideal approach is to openly communicate with users to make sure they are aware of all the ways you can assist them. Bear in mind that you are still in the early stages of the funnel. This means your target audience doesn’t trust you completely yet and hence try not to provide a sales pitch at this stage. Hence, use this opportunity to provide easy access to all the relevant information. It is one of the best ways to develop trust and convert the target audience into paying customers.
Nurture Stage
Once the prospects have known your brand and understood the value proposition, it is time to nurture their engagement into a conversion. The nurture stage is when you should develop a strong relationship with the users by obtaining permission to contact them and provide an exciting offer. For instance, you can develop a relationship by following up with an email after a user has provided their details and downloaded a whitepaper.
The primary aim of this is to use free content to induce customers to submit their contact details and agree to receive future marketing. This kind of content is generally known as lead magnet and it can include informational resources, software downloads, quizzes, surveys etc.
Conversion Stage
The conversion stage is near the bottom of the funnel which means the users are pretty intrigued by what you have to offer. The main aim at this stage is to motivate customer transactions and make visitors want to buy from you. At this stage, you should finally make a direct pitch to convert prospects into paying customers.
The content offered at this stage should maintain a trustworthy and comprehensive sales process. It should be simple and outline your value proposition through clear and concise product descriptions. Although this stage is at the bottom end of the funnel, it is good to keep an eye on the leads and the sales that your content brings in. This will show the brand awareness and visibility of your brand and still look for new ways to use content to help your customers when they want to make a purchase.
Retention Stage
Retention stage lies at the bottom most part of the funnel. When your customers reach this point, it means you have got their attention and now it is time to keep them coming back for more. For businesses with a subscription model, this is the time when it is vital that customers continue with their subscription and not cancel them. The retention content should create an efficient customer experience and promote customer advocacy through offering help and support. It can be achieved using special offers, emails and follow-up.
Cross-Selling Stage
With this stage, we are going above the content marketing funnel. At this stage, you can evaluate a potential complementary feature to your product. However, it is best to implement such features in a seamless and meaningful manner. It should come across as a natural extension of your existing offer and not make them feel like you are milking them for more benefits.
Conclusion
Having said that, the content marketing funnel is a primary tool of your content marketing strategy and it is much more than just a template that helps you create content. It is an asset that can support your users’ informational needs. A way of successfully communicating your brand’s value proposition. Are you ready to take your content marketing to the next level? Follow these simple steps and develop your content marketing funnel now. Are you looking for an exciting opportunity in content marketing? Check out open jobs.
Keval Padia is the founder & CEO of Nimblechapps, a fast-growing mobile app development company. The current innovation and updates of the field lures him to express his views and thoughts on certain topics.