Not every buyer journey is the same, but it follows roughly the same process. You become aware of a problem (you need new software for work, or an outfit for a night out). You research your options for products or brands and consider which best fits what you need. You make a decision based on
Not every buyer journey is the same, but it follows roughly the same process.
You become aware of a problem (you need new software for work, or an outfit for a night out).
You research your options for products or brands and consider which best fits what you need.
You make a decision based on your research.
This is known as the content marketing funnel.
For marketers, at a time when most customers prefer to research on their own rather than talk to a salesperson straightaway (especially in B2B, where more than 70% prefer doing this), understanding the content marketing funnel helps you plan content for every stage to get in front of your ideal customer no matter where they are in their research.
In this guide, we’ll take you through the content marketing funnel, how it matches up with the buyer journey, and how you can use it to plan, create and distribute content to improve lead generation at every stage of the funnel.
Each customer needs different information depending on where they are in researching a potential solution to a problem.
A customer who’s only just become aware they have an issue to resolve isn’t going to go straight to a brand or product. They’re going to research their problem, compare potential answers, review solutions and then look for a particular brand or product.
Say you’re a marketing manager looking to generate more leads.
You’re probably going to start by Googling (or asking AI) for “lead generation ideas” as a first port of call.
It’s only after you’ve done that, that you might start to look for lead generation tools. And only then will you start looking for specific products.
On the other hand, a customer who’s already done the bulk of this research, might be ready to hear or read about a particular product that can help them.
The content marketing funnel helps you map this user journey and strategically create content for every stage.
Rather than saying the same thing to everyone, the content marketing funnel helps you deliver the right message at the right time, gradually moving a cold prospect towards becoming a paying customer.
Lots of people overcomplicate the marketing funnel, adding stages like “pre-awareness” or “evangelist”.
But essentially, it comes down to three stages:
The buyer has just become aware they have a problem and are starting to research it. At this stage, their buying intent is low, and they’re looking for information rather than a product (they may not even know a product exists that can help them, or at least not what product they need).
They’re asking: “what’s the problem I’m trying to solve”?
The buyer has researched the problem and is now moving towards looking for a product or solution. The goal here is to build trust. They’re still not ready to buy, but they’re getting closer.
They’re asking: “what products exist to help with this problem”?
The buyer has considered all their options and is ready to buy. This is where you go in with your product specs and try to sell.
They’re asking: “why should I choose this product, or go with this company, specifically”?
A good content strategy targets customers with the right messages at the right stage of the funnel.
And it’s important to understand every stage to get in front of your potential customers early in the buyer journey.
If you focus too much on bottom of the funnel content, you might not build up enough trust with customers for them to consider you when they’re ready to buy.
If you focus too much on top of the funnel content, customers might not see you as a viable option to buy from (because you lack sales content or social proof) even if you’ve provided lots of information in the early stages.
As an example of what this would look like, let’s imagine you’re selling accounting automation software.
At the awareness stage, the buyer is still reliant on manual processes, which take a long time and are inefficient. So they start to do some research and come across your blog, titled: How to speed up the accounting process.
At the consideration stage, they see your guide on: Top 5 automated accounting software comparisons.
At the decision stage, they read your case study: How we saved x company 50 hours a month on accounting processes.
They’re finding your content at every stage of the funnel, and you’re providing the information they need to buy from you.
Source: HubSpot
Paying attention to the content funnel means you’re getting messages in front of your ideal audience (or buyer persona) at every stage of their research process.
Ignoring it could mean you either miss out on customers because they’re not aware of you early enough, or you miss out by not creating the bottom of funnel content they need to be convinced you can do what you say.
On the other hand, focusing on content for the complete customer journey has a number of benefits:
By answering questions and using content to qualify leads before they ever get to sales, it means sales can concentrate more on closing warm opportunities, rather than starting from cold.
Bottom of funnel content (price pages, demos, testimonials, reviews) can answer most of the objections your sales team would historically have to deal with. This means by the time a lead speaks to sales, they’re much further through the sales cycle than they would have been, meaning there’s a chance you’ll close them quicker.
Because content marketing focuses on providing useful information before the hard sell, you build trust with your audience. People don’t want to be constantly sold to, so companies that focus on educational content and become an authority in their space are more likely to get inbound leads, compared to those constantly selling.
Knowing what content to create for each funnel stage makes sure you have the variety you need to get in front of your audience in multiple formats (onsite content, video, social media) while mapping messages for each stage.
There will be crossover between stages and the types of content you can use, so the best advice is to experiment with different formats and see which your audience prefers.
Because top of funnel tends to be more informational, content like blogs, infographics, pillar pages and educational videos work best. The aim here is to create awareness of problems and start to identify answers for your audience.
At this stage, your audience is starting to look at solutions, so comparison guides, eBooks, framework templates, webinars, ROI calculators and product spec docs are ideal.
By now, your audience is wondering whether to buy from you or a competitor, so this is about convincing them you’re the best choice. Testimonials and case studies are ideal for providing social proof, while demos, walk-throughs and pricing sheets are ideal for highlighting the benefits and features of your product.
Just like every stage of the funnel needs its own messaging and content, each stage also has different KPIs to track.
Because the object of top of the funnel content is to raise awareness, you’re most likely going to track organic traffic, page bounce rates and time on page.
Some of these metrics, like organic traffic and keyword rankings, are often described as vanity metrics, but I disagree.
While they may not be commercial success metrics, if you’re generating interest and traffic with your content, it’s a good indicator that more customers are becoming aware of you, which can impact commercial results down the line.
This stage is all about leads that you can start to nurture towards a sale.
You’ll be looking at downloads, newsletter sign-ups, form submissions or any type of conversion that involves getting your potential customers’ contact information.
At this stage, you’re looking at anything that gets potential customers in front of your salespeople.
This could be demo requests, free trial sign-ups, or sales calls.
Chances are you’ve been creating content already before reading this, and a big part of the content marketing funnel is mapping what you’ve already got.
Most companies have lots of top of funnel content because they’ve spent years writing SEO blogs to get organic traffic.
And lots of companies tend to have some sales and bottom of funnel content.
Middle of the funnel tends to be where the biggest gaps are.
That, plus case studies, so when it comes to new content, this can be where to focus.
As for existing content, the starting point is to repurpose existing content into new formats or content types.
If you’ve done webinars in the past, turn them into a series of top of funnel blogs. Create a series of social media posts from existing blogs and pillar pages.
Package blogs into more in-depth eBooks.
The point is, you don’t need to start again by creating new stuff straight away. Consider the different stages of the content marketing funnel we identified area and see how your existing content can fit in.
Even sales scripts can be repurposed into marketing material.
You can also speak to your sales and service teams and see what questions they’re being asked on a regular basis.
If you’ve read They Ask You Answer by Marcus Sheridan, this is a big part of how he created a high-converting content strategy for his pool installation company back in the day.
Once you’ve mapped the content you already have, you can start to find the gaps and fill them.
The end goal of the content marketing funnel is to get more sales.
Both your content and sales funnels must work together to turn leads into paying customers.
By raising awareness of problems and providing information, your content funnel can handle much of the lead qualification that used to fall to sales teams, giving them more time to focus on warm leads.
Similarly, your sales funnel generates all kinds of useful information that can feed your content at every stage, using questions and common objections that people are bringing up in real life.
By getting your teams on the same page, you’ll have a constantly evolving and improving content funnel.
If you’re creating content but not the leads you expected, our content marketing agency can help.
We’ve got an expert team of SEO copywriters, strategists and analysts who create high-converting funnels for our clients on a daily basis.
Just check out our own case studies to see how we’ve helped generate more sales using content.
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