The formula for success in inbound marketing can be summed up with just one sentence: “The right content, at the right time, on the right channels, to the right audience.” Sounds easy enough, right?
But the challenging aspect of that model is pinpointing the best content to create for each segment of users. The answer to that concern relies on the phase in which the user is in: recruitment, conversion, sale, or loyalty.
In this article, we'll explain the process of creating a full-funnel content strategy in order to attract and convert your audience.
You may also be familiar with the conversion funnel, which uses terminology like TOFU, MOFU, and BOFU to classify users according to what stage of the buyer's journey they are in.
In the first phase of the conversion funnel, we want to attract traffic and turn strangers into regular visitors to our website.
To do this, we can use a wide variety of strategies, such as:
In this phase, the best content will be content that is generic and focused on solving a need that the user has detected. Here are a few examples:
The main goal of the conversion phase is to turn visitors into leads, by encouraging them to give you their data. There are three essential keys: landing pages, forms, and calls to action.
The landing page is a page of your website specially designed to capture leads. Users provide their data in exchange for content.
In order for a landing page to work, it is important that the value offer be appropriate for the audience. Copy and design are also key elements.
Here are a few tricks to creating the perfect landing page:
The form is also an essential element in attracting and converting leads. Forms are where visitors input their contact information. It is important that all fields are very clear, easy to use, and not overwhelming. You do not want to ask for too much information too soon. Ask for just enough to be able to assess whether they could be a lead or not.
CTAs are the elements through which we tell the user what we want them to do. They’re most commonly a button on your website, although they can take several different forms. When you’re designing your landing page you should always make sure the user’s attention is drawn to the CTA.
In this phase, think of your content as a hook that you’re using to get visitors’ contact information. Users in this stage have a clearer idea of what they need, so you should be offering more specialized content.
Now that you have your lead’s information and you’ve established a relationship, it’s time for the sale! The idea here is to nurture the relationship, turning the lead into a customer. Marketing automation can be a great tool in this phase, using two fundamental strategies:
Designing a system to rate each new contact, so that we can objectively know what the chances are of them becoming a customer. Did you know you can also use online surveys to do this?
Depending on the characteristics of the lead, you can use the below process to nurture a lead. The lead will receive a series of personalized communication, based on their unique needs.
To organize all of your sales efforts, you can use different marketing automation tools, like CRMs. The more you automate these tasks, the more fluid the process will be and the more time your team will have for strategy and creativity.
In this phase, you want to create an offer the lead can’t refuse. You want to use everything you have.
Congrats! You’ve earned a new customer. But your work isn’t done yet. You now need to turn your customer into a loyal user. Attracting and converting a new customer is much more expensive than retaining an old one. Don’t forget about your customers.
In the loyalty phase, your focus is on renewing the interest of the client using relevant content and new calls to action. Email marketing is a valuable tool for keeping in touch with your customers and fueling long-term relationships. Online communities, applications, and loyalty cards are also great ways to fuel loyalty.
The most important thing to remember in this phase is that your content should make your customers feel valued and special. Here are some examples:
We hope this helps you understand what content should you offer for each phase of the funnel. We’d love to hear what you think!