Creating Content for Each Stage of Your Marketing Funnel

May 26, 2021 Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us. I am Angela McAfee with SEO Rocket. I appreciate you taking the time to be with us today. We'll go over some quick housekeeping items, really quick. And by the way, I don't know if you noticed… Because I know a lot of you have attended many of our webinars which is awesome. As I was getting ready and putting the webcam up I noticed that you have really gotten an evolution of my hair! My haircuts go from a short, short short, then longer, longer, sometimes straight, sometimes curly. Sometimes curlier. Anyway, I was looking back at some of our webinars the other day, and I noticed that. So I certainly appreciate all of you being together with me on this hair voyage, that I seem to always be on. Now, that is completely captured on camera for all to see forever.

Anyway, thank you so much for joining us, SEO Rocket put this webinar series together for you. This time we are talking about creating content for each stage of your marketing funnel. So, a little bit of housekeeping, super quick. Obviously, you're in listen-only mode which means I can't hear you. So be feel free to go ahead and chomp on those potato chips. We won't hear a thing. Hopefully, you can hear me though.

And if you have any questions or any commentary, please feel free to type those into your little dashboard questions box, the chat box there and I'll make every effort to make sure I see those. And then at the end of the presentation, we will answer those for you. So stick around for that.

Today, we are going to be talking about several different things. You know, digital marketing has really been pushed through the to the forefront of marketing. Now, most of us think “Why not like digital?”. That's the ultimate form of marketing right now. But there actually have been a lot of Industries, which shock and awe and surprise, have really not taken it very seriously. They've been very old fashioned or, you know, just old school in their thinking. They haven’t really made that transition into digital yet.

What we have found though, is one of the positive things that came out of the covid pandemic was that, you know, industries that had never considered making digital a major primary part of their marketing are now doing that. They're really seeing the light there. So they've really pushed it to the forefront. Really, you know, driving initiatives to get that out there and get that change. So there's a lot of people now that are hungrier for these services and hungry for that information.

So wanted to share that with you today, we are always looking for new topics but felt like this would be a great one to have on the agenda for you - Creating Content for that Marketing Funnel. So today we're going to discuss why optimizing your content marketing funnel is important. What that has to do with not only your search, but converting those visitors as they come to you and giving them the information that they are really hungry to have so that you will always be in the running when they're looking to buy a product or service.

Next are the content types or channels that work best at TOFU, MOFU and BOFU. And no, we're not talking about Chinese takeout. When I say TOFU, MOFU and BOFU, if you don't know what those things are yet, that's okay. Stick around. I will explain them to you.

Then, getting out the most out of that content that you do create. You know, it takes a lot of time and effort and planning to create your content. I feel your pain there, I totally get it. We’re going to find ways to once we take those time and resources to create that to actually recycle it and reuse it again and break it down into different pieces. So, stick around for that.

All right, everyone, I'm going to take my camera down. We have so much to talk about. So, let's get started today. I want to make sure your precious time is well spent. I don't distract you, by the way. I know that I'm a hand talker, and you guys probably know that already too. So, actually raised my screen up this time. So I'm not giving you the big hands in the lense. Like I think I did last time. Anyway, here we go.

Let's talk about the foundational Basics. Here, this is our marketing funnel, inside-out foundational pieces here, the marketing funnel, or the sales funnel rather. You're probably very familiar with it. But if you're not, this is kind of how it looks. The digital marketing funnel is this series of online content channels which users encounter as they move through different stages in the relationship with your brand. So that could be Discovery or Awareness that's here at the top. That's that widest piece. That's the initial phase where users are considered a viewer, a visitor or a fan in social media.

Now, this is known as TOFU the top of the funnel. Not tofu which is really great with mixed vegetables. TOFU - top of the funnel is this widest part of the funnel where the greatest  number of prospects start when they're considering buying a product or service and they're not sure yet from whom they're going to buy.

Okay next in the middle there that is Interest and Consideration, that is the middle of the funnel. That's a deeper phase where they've started to engage with your brand online and become a prospect or a lead. This is known as MOFU or the middle of the funnel.

This is where the prospects come to you to qualify you and decide. “Oh, am I gonna buy from this this business or this other business?”

Next, is the bottom of the funnel. That's the purchase or conversion area, where you see the sales and the valuation, the purchase, this is the step where they become your actual customer by making a purchase. This is called BOFU or bottom of the funnel.

This is also known as a sales funnel like I said, it can be involved in the processes of your lead nurturing, your customer cultivation and it looks pretty much at your entire customer buying Journey as they go through and make their decisions to purchase and from whom.

So let's talk about tofu the top of the funnel here. This is Awareness and Discovery at this point.

Top of the Funnel (TOFU) - Awareness and Discovery - At this point your user is a viewer or visitor or who has found you through search engine optimization, advertising or maybe even a referral

Goal: Capture your audience’s interest

The TOFU is the very beginning of the buyer journey, when people might not be ready to buy anything from you. Instead, they’re starting to realize they have a problem that needs a solution. Or, they have this pain point, “I need to find a way to make it go away”. They're in an awareness area, aware of that issue and they're looking for help for a solution, to help them with that.

It's your job here to just capture their attention, offer the best answers to their questions and gently introduce them to your brand in this phase.

So what type of content works here? What works best in this awareness phase?

Here are some examples.

When we look at what attracts the most attention at the TOFU stage, educational content focused on high-level topics and aimed at solving your audience’s problems leads the way.

‘How-to’ guides prove to be effective as they allow you to provide valuable answers to particular problems your target audience is facing, showcasing your expertise and encouraging them to engage further with your brand.

Other highly effective content formats you can create at this stage are infographics, checklists, ebooks, even video tutorials are advantageous.

It’s worth noting that B2C brands also tend to leverage content to entertain their customers at this stage — for example, with humor, interesting facts and relatable stories, fun memes, that kind of thing. Great opportunity here to add personality because you're trying to attract attention, right?

Examples of TOFU content to attract traffic for your inspiration:

How-to Guide, Infographic, Checklist, Ebook/White Paper, Success Story, video interviews, tests, etc.

All very education focused here, product manuals, etc, By the way, these are all great things to have on your site at all times anyway, because you never really know when that person is in that funnel, right? You never know when they're coming to your digital assets. What stage of the funnel there in, when they're visiting you at any given time of day where they're looking at your website or looking at your social media or opening up their email and getting the email marketing piece that you sent out.

One more. There we go, top of the funnel. Here's a look at what those pieces of content look like based on the percentages in the top of the funnel here. So these are for our data Geeks, we like to see numbers.

Look at that. The how-to guide is above and beyond. In this first set here, where people are really looking for information, trying to decide who they want to work with.

Top of the funnel, the how to guides are very important. So keep that in mind when you're putting together your planning, your blogs, or any downloads or any FAQ’s types of things that you're including in your site. Look how highly that ranks. 72% That's over 2/3. So your people really want to see that when they're early on in their buying decision.

Some effective channels here for top of funnel awareness. Your search engine optimization. This is a big one right here, you know, in organic search, you're always casting a wide net over multiple search engines and we talked about this in the April webinar last month when we were discussing the benefits of SEO and PPC. One of the benefits of organic search and SEO. Is that you're casting that net. You’re being found in multiple search engines and multiple ways, you know, any different page on your site can rank. So depending on the search and the competition. This is a great way to get awareness at this stage.

Social media. You know, you can have a casual connection with people with no pressure to buy. They're just looking, they're not being pressured. This is a great way to speak to them.

Your email marketing also reaching out to your list to say hello and alert them to a solution they never knew they needed or they never knew was available, especially if you have some new offerings. This is a great time to put that out there.

Paid search. You can augment your SEO with those targeted searches. Using more broad, higher-level keyword choices.

Let's think about the next step, is your visitors have been made aware of you and they have more interest and they are starting to consider all the different options that they have.

Next…your visitors work themselves down to Middle of the Funnel MOFU. That’s Consideration and Interest. They have a clear idea of what their problem is and are researching specific ways to solve it.

Your Goal: Guide and educate

At the MOFU stage, the number of people interacting with your content is smaller.

These users may be more likely to engage with your brand further if you can offer them the right value. The goal at this stage is to help guide prospects from an introduction to your brand to an in-depth understanding of the solutions you are offering.

What type of MOFU content works best? According to most marketers, success stories work exceptionally well at the MOFU stage. Also, Product overviews, case studies, tutorials and webinars, as well as the how-to guides again can also generate a lot of engagement.

Here we go look at this list. Success stories case studies. This is where they're sort of trying to envision working with you and what that looks like. That's where those overviews and stories and the case studies, you know in the customer reviews come to mind for them. Checklists, video tutorials, maybe a quiz or assessment.

I don't know if any of you have ever purchased makeup online or even clothing or something. A lot of times. They'll do these quizzes where they say, let's look at your skin tone and look at your skin's undertone, things like that to help you decide what color to buy. Or, let's talk about for women's clothing. I see this a lot, I would say I'm speaking from experience her. But, shopping sites will ask you questions like what's your body type? What's your lifestyle? How casual you are, how formal are you? That type of thing to help you decide this would be a good purchased for you or not. That's when you're in that decision stage, right? Once again, educating.

Here's some numbers here, again.

The stats on this, the middle of the funnel. Those success stories on the product, overviews and the case studies are ranking highest here, customer reviews are big here. People really want to know what other people have to say. What their experience has been like. It’s get them to thinking about ”What will their experience be like with this product or service or good?”

Like I said, is always needed. You never know what part of the funnel your visitor is in, so always keep that in mind.

But this gives you some numbers here. This is an SEM Rush graphic. A great graph here to show you information there for those who like information. Once again, the channels that we're looking at here Search engine optimization again to get that broad reach and many places. The email marketing, your messaging there can always be ”Hey, we have a new case study released.” or “Check out these reviews.”. You can always make that part of each marketing, email marketing piece that you send out. Notice that email marketing has kind of risen up a little higher over social media at this stage. The social media still there are influencers out there. You have that casual connection. There's no pressure. But there's lots of that you can share, links to these things at this point. And, then your paid search as well to augment your SEO.

So now we're moving through the funnel to the bottom of the funnel. The BOFU!

This is kind of a conversion and purchase area. Visitors at this age are going to have a strategy for solving their problem because they've done all this research, they've read all your how to's and your case studies. They're ready, they're ready to solve this problem and make a decision on the best way to do it or the best provider which to do it with. Okay, so your goal here – surprise, shock and awe - your goal here is conversions. Get that sale, right? Get that sale. This is where you ultimately want your visitors to end up with you. Of course. So once your leads reach that BOFU stage, your main goal is to position your brand as superior to your competitors and build trust ultimately to secure that purchase. Okay, get that handshake. Secure, that purchase from them.

Content ideas. Here are some examples for you to feed off of in the BOFU stage. What type of content works best?

In this stage your content really needs to address those specific questions about the services, product and solutions that you are providing. You know, this is the time to seal that deal. Customer generated and case-oriented content are some of the most effective at this point. Those case studies, reviews or  something that's customer generated these can include product overviews, customer reviews, case studies, any kind of information like that is extremely helpful to a person who needs that last bit. That last bit of incentive to commit to a purchase. So they can see that these companies are these people had a great experience buying from this company. Surely, I will too, right?

So some examples here the product overviews, competitive comparisons. I know you've all seen those we compare, compare packages, if it's a service or compare different products, one to the other, or to their competitors. You see that a lot in the shopping ads too. By the way, that's just Google. Google does that you don't have to, but you have to give them the information to do that so they can be extremely helpful here, detailed specifications on a product. So they need to know what's the size, the height, the weight of it, will it fit? It will fit in my area. Is it what I need? A great thing to put out there. Give them  more information, the better. You can't give too much information. Then customer reviews, customer stories. We have talked about this before for conversion, right? Yet another recent reason that those reviews really are crucial to have and have them coming in regularly. They are fantastic for conversion at this bottom of the funnel area!

You know we did a webinar on reviews back in March FYI. If you ever want to refresh on that topic and to see once again, how it ties in here, I suggest you go back and watch. That was the March reviews webinar. It's on our on our website under the resources tab at SEO Rocket.com.

Great info, their success stories. Here people once again, are saying it was successful for them. Like, we were just saying, case studies, etc. This is where that person really wants to see the proof that someone has worked with you and been delighted by it, because they want to be delighted by it too. They do not want to regret spending that money. No buyer's remorse. They are trying to get that last bit of information that tells them “Hey, this is this is the one for me. This is the one I need to choose and make that purchase.”.

The perks here are promo codes, discounts, free trials. If someone's really lagging on pulling the trigger, that's a great way to kind of get them to go ahead. Put that carrot out there for them.

Again, the stats here on the content mix, for those who love their data. You like your numbers.

Look at this product overview, customer reviews, success stories. Those are the three biggies right there. And this is why we always suggest and know that reviews are important. Getting those reviews is often a numbers game but you can really see here how it will convert for you. Why it's important to put the time and effort into doing that. Product overviews, those are great to have.

You can even make a video. Have one of your employees do a video about a product, walking through it, talk about it. Talk about the specifications in different ways. It can be used if you're a product based company.  Lots, lots of fun ideas, there as options for you.

The most efficient channels here, once again, for driving purchases. At this point, email. Email has moved up to the top here. Email marketing remains an effective tool. It keeps that purchase moving forward and gives potential customers everything they need. You know, give them what they need to make that final decision to buy. You can put your coupon codes in here. You can put your reviews in here, you can put your stats in here, always a great thing to include your email marketing.

Once again, if you have a Salesforce or some other CRM or HubSpot or some other type of planning where you drip out information to people at different times, you can see how long they've been in that funnel and where they've been and have they purchased yet and you can cater your messages. That way, based on when you're sending the email out to them.

Also too, of course, organic search and PPC you can always get creative by adding other formats to chat.

You can add chat box to your site, you can do Academy courses if you want to do a certification program. This will speak in this phase of the funnel doing that way because those people are really serious, if they're going through a certification program with you, you know they mean it. You know they're dedicated to your brand. But, anyway organic, paid and social all of them are still in the mix here as well.

So let's talk about some tips to boost your content performance. Okay, let's rock it. Let's launch it. How can we boost our content performance? I mean we've created all this information. It's on the site, our social media, the email, if we're doing paid search and the paid ads you know, it's out there all the time. How do we make it look good?

You know your content not only needs to be original and relevant to your audience. You know who your audience is and what they like. Think of those audience personas you may have, but it should also create value. It also needs to be comprehensive and be visually attractive to catch the eye and give you that awareness that you need.

Factors such as word count, headlines, structure and visuals all play this crucial role in how the content we create delivers results. A few tips here to keep in mind when you're doing your planning to plan towards high performing content.

The more comprehensive a content is the more it drives traffic. So articles of over 7,000 words, 7,000 words tend to outperform those that only average 900 to 1200 words. So y'all 7000 words is a large piece of content. And actually, when I was doing my research, this was a surprise to me. 7,000 words is that's going to be more like a white paper or an e-book. I mean that's 14 to 15 pages long. Okay, that's a  lot of content. But you know, that if someone takes the time to read all of that, they are definitely serious about whatever it is you were offering them. So keep that in mind. This may be more applicable too if you have a large price point product or, you know, probably most likely a B2B product. Business to business that would apply. For your new pair of hiking shoes, you really don't need a 15 page download. However, you know, you may need a 15 page download for that piece of manufacturing equipment.

Think of it this way. Putting it in perspective, most blogs are five hundred to a thousand words long. That starts around one page, plus images. It's really most important here to remember that the longer articles will perform better because of the value that they create. Simply adding more words won't move the needle. It truly means to help cover the topic in depth and explain why this is a solution provider for that reader.

Always work to keep that value of the subject matter and the intent of the reader in mind. Value and intent. Just remember, that headlines actually do matter.

So, your title is what drives a person to open your content in the first place, right? Could be some link bait there. This is actually a big surprise to me. 10 to 13 word headlines drive twice as much traffic and one and a half times more shares than shorter ones. You know, that's interesting. I mean, we are a short attention span society these days. The bigger the headlines basically will alert the reader to that this gives them more information. It lets them know, gives them a more intense, understanding of what this article is about and helps them decide very quickly if they want to click on it and read it, or share it or not.

Lists. Once again, for the taskers in the audience like myself. The taskers love, love a good checklist, right? It's also great for scan reading. For those who are just time to scan through looking for bullets, lists are great for that, kind of thing.

Studies have shown that lists receive 70% more traffic. So if you have a blog that has a list it'll get more traffic than one that doesn't. Pages will get more traffic than one that doesn't if it has a list. People love to just stop briefly, scan through and keep going. Whether that tells them what they need to know or not and keep going.

Last, visuals. Visuals boost performance. There's just no way about it. So content with at least one image will get twice as much traffic as a text-only piece of content. Twice as much. It also encourages 30%, more shares in your social media, 25% more backlinks on your site. This is all according to a study by SEM Rush. In social media especially you really need an interesting intriguing visual to share when you're putting your post up there.

There are also SEO benefits to using images and videos because people can discover your content in the image and visual searches too. Also on YouTube. If you have videos on YouTube, they can discover you that way versus just in an organic search. Or as a result of a paid ad. They can find you in those other ways too. Video is also important on blogs.

Studies have found that blogs that do not contain a video, get 92% less less traffic than those that do. So put those webinars and staff videos up on your site. And in your social media, I mean, we do this with our webinars. You know, go to our site, go to our free resources page. All of our webinars are there. The transcript is there. The video is there. This one will be up on the site soon, too.

You know, those videos can give you some evergreen and everlasting content if you share them. Obviously, they get way more traffic if you do. So 90% less traffic, if there isn't a video. So how about that? Crazy. That sings the praises of video for sure.

Next, let's recycle this content. Your best performing content can be recycled. So this is awesome news for you busy marketers with limited resources, which pretty much speaks to all of us. I'm thinking you've made this investment of your time and your resources to create something. You've had the meetings. You've worked out for the writers. You storyboard it. Whatever you've done, you've made this investment. Let's get the most of it, okay?

Content repurposing has proved to be a true gem for many a content marketing team. Let me tell you, we do it here too. You may want to break a longer comprehensive piece like a webinar or a white paper down into smaller more digestible parts to repurpose it in your social media and your infographics or re-record it as a quick video. You know that 14 page, seven thousand word eBook download, could that be broken down into 14 blogs? Or 10 mini videos? I mean, you've written it already, can you reuse it in that way? The reworking comes in those many forms. You can rework your content to appeal even to a new audience or just to reflect current events and trending conversations.

Let's say something comes out about say hand, sanitizer. We've heard about that a lot lately. But you're a manufacturer of hand sanitizer. So you can say what makes a good hand sanitizer? What doesn't you know? How do you know it's working? You can do a little video, things of that nature. Break it down,   repurpose that content that you already have on your site and do something else that's more digestible  or speaks to a trending conversation. A blog, a refresh, an email. Marketing piece to address that new trend.

Industry news is something changes in your industry. You can do that too. Just something more current rather than starting from scratch. You don't always have to just start from scratch. You can really take that work and and build upon it. Let's see.

So, but one thing I do need to remind you is that with any digital marketing repurposing that content requires that it be well-thought-out and planned when you're putting it together the first time. If we're repurposing, let's think about it again, plan it again.

So you're going to first need to figure out which of your existing content ranks best for metrics like reach, organic visibility, linking structure, or shares, those kinds of things. Look at your data, your Google analytics, if you have that or any other analytics, traffic data, information that you're getting to help guide your decisions.

Then, you can brainstorm how to make it appeal to your target audience on another channel. For example, like we said earlier, popular blog posts can be repurposed and we can make that an explainer video or how-to video. Break it down into an e email series even or “how to” resource on your website.

Helpful tip here, make repurposing a regular part of your content marketing plan, and audit those activities with your Google analytics and the like. Because it's really going to give you an educated direction there. When you are looking to repurpose that content, you want to make sure which way you're going. You need that. You need that road map.

Okay, we are done y'all. We ran through this one today. Anyone have any questions?

Looks like I have one here. Alright. Awesome. Thank you. So, quick question. This is a great to know. What should we track at each step here?

I'll put my camera up so you can see me, I'm still here.

What, what do we track at each step of the funnel to know what it's working. What if it's working or not?

So, let's think about this in the top of the funnel. That's where you're looking for awareness. There you want to look at the organic traffic that's coming to your site. How many visitors are coming to your site? What number of site visitors and you can usually see if they're coming organically or they're coming directly. They actually typed in the url or they came from a link. You can tell the difference there. If they're coming organically through your search engine optimization. That's a really good indicator that you were offering something that they want. What they want and need. And so they're getting that awareness about you and that top of the funnel phase with their time on site. How long do they stick around? Are you giving them what they need to see there.

Then of course, in your social media - the engagement. How engaging, content comments, shares, etc. How what kind of engagement are you getting in your social media at this point.

In the middle of the funnel, your looking at people who are semi-serious, but they haven't pulled the trigger to purchase yet. So that would may be your number of leads. That could be phone calls that are coming in if you're doing call tracking. Which I suggest you do if calls are important to you. Contactttent, contact forms, if you have a contact form on your website. How many contact forms are you getting in? Calls once again, downloads if you do have the things that are downloadable on your site whether it be a checklist or how to. Any informational thing, it could be a user manual, things like that that are downloads on your site. How many downloads are you getting? Like, we have a Google My Business Optimization checklist. We can see how many people are downloading that. That's a good place to say we know these people are interested. But, they just haven't pulled that trigger yet and made the purchase.

Going to the bottom of the funnel. So, that is going to be your conversion rate or your rate of conversion and your actual sales. So obviously actual sales if you are e-comm would be a purchase. Who abandons the cart, who's staying in and making that actual purchase and paying for it. Those are great things to track on a regular basis.

You know I always say that you can't improve on something if you're not tracking it, so make sure you do track it. So awesome. Awesome question there.

Alrighty. Anything else like that, too? Okay, y'all are know-it-alls now. You don’t even have to ask  anymore, I get it!

Okay, next one thing to tell you about is coming up next month. We have a new webinar next month on June 30th. Love to have you join us for this! This one is about using storytelling to make your marketing stand out from your competitors. So, you know what? I feel like I should go through and count. Do a word count on that. See, if I'm at 12 on that. I don't think I am.

Anyway, this is gonna be really fun show. It's being presented by Elliott Strunk and Todd coats. They are both designers and co-hosts of the podcast. It's a very popular one, it's really fun. You can see it on LinkedIn, you can see it on their website.

It's called “Two Designers Walk Into a Bar” and they will be talking about storytelling. How that is important to include with your branding, in your site and your social media, in your email, etc. They're going to talk about how SEO, SEM and storytelling mix to help you convert. Something we're talking about today. For your brand and what people need. What they need to see on your site and how you can be very charming with your search, your storytelling on your site.

 Very interesting. These guys have a lot of wit and wisdom to share with us. A lot of insight here. They actually are designers, creative designers and creative directors. I've been around them for awhile. Once they launched their podcast I started listening to it. I said you've got to come on. I want to share you with everyone. You have great info to share. They have agreed to do that and be here for you. So please sign up for that.

You can go to the SEORocket.com home page. You should be able to register right now. That link was put up during our talk today. So you should be able to go there and register. I think it’ll be really fun. They have already promised me that just for you guys. They have promised me that there will be lots of “bad puns and pop cultural references”. Something to look forward to here. I can't wait to hear what they have to say. Absolutely can't wait.

Anyway, one more thing I wanted to let you know. I'm going to practice what I preach on the bottom of the funnel. So here it is. This is for all of you all today. For those who have registered and or attended the webinar today through June 30th, through the end of June, we are offering two hundred dollars off any search engine optimization or Paid search services Set up. That'll be $200 off your set up for those things. So if you're interested, if you're right there, once again, if you're right there and you're in consideration. But, you haven't decided to pull the trigger yet and make that purchase. Hopefully, this will do that for you. That is our discount that are offering to all of y'all good through the end of June.

You can go ahead and pull that trigger and then celebrate while you're watching the storytelling webinar with Elliott, Todd and I. Save your seat for this. We look forward to seeing you then.

Thank you so much for joining us today. Always love having you. I always see that I get repeat attendees, which just warms my heart. I love that. You are getting quality information here that you find actionable and we get that feedback a lot. So thank you so much. We will do our best to keep it coming and keep it actionable and usable for all of you.

See you next month everyone. I'm Angela McAfee with SEO Rocket over and out now. Thank you so much. We'll see you next month!