What is a content marketing funnel?
A content marketing funnel is traditionally made up of three different stages that a customer goes through on their purchasing journey. A funnel is of course wider at the top, and gets more narrow towards the bottom. When it comes to a content marketing funnel, this illustrates the process of generating brand awareness with a large audience at the top and then moving a smaller percentage through the educational steps all the way to a point where they are ready to convert.
Your content marketing funnel can go into as much depth as you feel your brand needs, including separate steps for things like consideration (when the customer is shopping around but aware of the need for a service like yours.) You’ll also see the different steps in the funnel referred to as TOFU, MOFU and BOFU. Simple meaning top of funnel, middle of funnel and bottom of funnel.
Why is a content marketing funnel important?
A content marketing funnel is important as it forms the strategy that will push cold leads to converted customers. The content you give to your audience at each step will educate them about your brand’s message, and form an opinion in each prospects mind. Creating a successful content marketing funnel takes a little bit of time, but it’s really important to work to achieve that so your customer acquisition cost becomes more effective over time.
We form opinions based on how a brand presents itself all the time, hence why you’ll find lots of organic colours and shapes on healthier food packaging and more serious professional imagery and fonts in a business presentation for some large enterprises. Colours, shapes, images and layouts help us to understand the message better. At the core of marketing is a mission to communicate with your audience with as much impact as possible, and that’s the same goal of graphic design. These two methods team up when creating a content marketing funnel to generate an interest in your brand that can only be done by relevant content designed professionally.
What kinds of content should you use for each step of the funnel?
Top of Funnel Examples (TOFU)
The content at the top of the funnel is traditionally used to generate awareness of your brand. So here is where you’ll introduce your brand to a completely cold audience. Some examples of content types to use at the top of the funnel include:
- Infographics
- Landing Page
- Explainer videos
- Product demonstration
- Industry relevant webinars
- Podcasts
- Industry relevant free tools
Middle of Funnel Examples (MOFU)
In the middle of the funnel, the prospect has already met your brand and wants to get to know you some more. This is the stage where your content should have the goal to educate your audience more about your brand. Some examples of MOFU content include:
- Case studies
- Ebooks
- Whitepapers
- Product walk-through / demos
- Webinars about product features / benefits
- Customer testimonials
- Blogs
- Answer FAQ’s
Bottom of Funnel Examples (BOFU)
At the bottom of the funnel is where your audience should be looking to purchase, so the goal of this content is to persuade your audience to take action. When designing and writing copy for the content at the bottom of the funnel, make sure to include strong CTA’s. Some examples of BOFU content include:
- Customer testimonials
- Case studies
- Success stories
- Demos
- Landing Pages
If you’d like help producing any graphic design content, our team are here to help. To learn more about Design Cloud’s unlimited graphic design subscription service, book your own free 20 minute demo today.
