You may be wondering why customer acquisition is called a journey. It is a journey that takes you from the lead stage to the paying customer.
There are audiences at every stage of the customer journey. This is represented by a funnel .
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You can see that each stage has different needs. It is not recommended to distribute one type of content across all levels.
Customers who have never contacted your business before will be accommodated at the top of the funnel (ToFu). These customers have just discovered a problem and are looking for a solution. Top-of-the funnel content is focused on providing value to the audience – not trying to sell them anything.
Top-of-the funnel content has three goals: to increase brand awareness, sustainable lead generation and organic traffic. The question is: How can you grab the attention of your target audience, make a lasting first impression, and reach these goals with your ToFu content. Continue reading. This guide will provide you with the answers.
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The Focus on Informative Content
Your top-of the-funnel content shouldn’t be focused on selling, as we have already mentioned. It should instead educate, entertain, and inform.
The goal is to grab the attention of the reader and answer their questions. You shouldn’t try to sell right away. Publishing informative and compelling pieces instead will allow you to move them down the funnel where they will be more likely to buy something.
Below is an example of scoop. This blog post is a great example of a SaaS marketing strategy. This is an opportunity to leave a lasting impression on anyone who struggles with SaaS marketing.
It addresses the reader’s problems and establishes the foundation for a relationship which will eventually lead to them investing in the Scoop software.
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Asking questions like:
- What are my potential customers looking for?
- What are my pain points?
- What information will they be able to value?
These questions will give you an idea of who your buyer is and what keywords they might use to find solutions. These keywords can be used in SEMrush and Moz Keyword research tools. These tools will also show you relevant keywords that your audience uses.
For a better view, see the image below.
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Quick tip: Always target long tail keywords that have low competition and high volumes.
These keywords can be combined to create extensive content. Before you publish the content, make sure that it is edited and proofread.
Remember that your brand image is represented by this content. You must provide reliable and factual content to establish yourself as an industry thought leader. This will allow you to attract more leads, increase conversions, and keep your customers for the long-term.
You don’t have to limit yourself to just text content. Instead, use visual elements to make your blogs more appealing and reach a wider audience. Google claims that 90% of YouTube users discover new brands and products through YouTube. You should tap into this space.
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Consistently Post on Social Media
PewRearch identified entertainment and information access as the top reasons that 70% of social media users use it. Your prospects may be searching Twitter and Reddit for information. Creating compelling social pieces can help solve your prospects’ problems.
But consistency is key. You must set a pace and stay consistent.
You can keep track of your social media schedule or calendar by creating one. This can be created with Airtable, Trello or other workflow optimization tools. For an example of a great format, see the below.
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Platforms may differ in the type of content they allow. Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat all require engaging and informative videos. Below is an example from YouTube.
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You can also use text on platforms such as Twitter, Reddit and Quora. Below is an example from Twitter
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You should also limit your use of platforms that are not relevant to your audience. To get a better understanding of your audience, you should create a persona that represents their preferences and age. This will help you to determine where your efforts should be directed.
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Answer Common Questions
To understand common industry questions, use AnswerThePublic, People Also Ask, and other online communities.
AnswerThePublic allows you to enter search terms that are relevant to your niche in its search bar. This will display a list of questions related to the search term.
The following search terms are related to content marketing.
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You’ll also find relevant questions under the People Also Asked section if you search for a term in your niche on Google.
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You might also ask your sales team members to join social media groups on Facebook, Reddit and Twitter. You will be able to connect with prospects and get relevant FAQs.
These strategies can be combined. Find out what people want and create the best informational content type. These content can include listicles or blog posts, explainer videos on social media, checklists, and other types.
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Make a strong call to action
Now that you have created great content, what is next? You want your audiences to take additional steps to get to the middle part of the funnel. These actions should be clearly stated with a strong call-to-action.
Keep in mind that people who are targeted by top of the funnel content may not be ready to purchase. Avoid making too many calls to action. They might be discouraged. Instead, focus on creating calls to action that are relevant to your audience.
- Take their contact information. This could be “subscribe for your free worksheet” or even “download your digital marketing e book”. These are great calls-to-action to build email lists.
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- Drive engagement: Examples of this include “leave comments,” “share this article” and “follow us social media”. These are all ways to increase awareness and build relationships with leads.
Each piece of content should be a guide to help prospects move further down the marketing funnel. But don’t assume that prospects will know what to do. To make sure prospects know what to do next, include the CTAs.
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Encourage Feedback
Content creation at the top of the funnel is not monolithic. Feedback is essential to understand how you have met these leads’ needs, and where you can improve. You can enable comments on any content on your website or social media.
Enabling comments requires that you deal with both relevant comments and non-relevant comments. To filter out spam, Akismet is a good option.
YouTube and other social media platforms allow you to view only the most relevant comments by using the top comment filter. Reviewing the top comments can help you to learn some things.
You can see the image from YouTube below.
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Through comments, you can find out what other issues your audience may be experiencing. This will help you to identify how you can improve your content strategy and what other content types you could produce.
Finally, ask for these comments. These comments can be made at the end or via email and other channels. Ask your audience to leave a comment or let you know how they feel about what they have just read.
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Incentives for more newsletter signups
For attracting leads, top-of-the funnel content pieces are great. To nurture these leads into paying customers, however, you will need more than just these content types. Email marketing is the answer.
Email marketing allows you to follow up with leads and nurture them throughout the customer journey, until they are ready for purchase. It is crucial to build your email list using your top-of the-funnel content.
To get the best results, incentivize leads to sign up for your email list. Brands use gated content and lead magnets to encourage this behavior. Lead magnets allow you to offer valuable resources for your leads in return for their email address.
If the lead is interested, for example, in content marketing, you might offer a free template, a calendar or comprehensive content marketing ebook. The lead needs to provide their email address to receive the resource.
These are some common resources that you can use to build your email list.
- e-books
- Templates for documents
- Education courses
- Downloadable pdf assets
- Workbooks
- Cheatsheet
You must offer an incentive that is attractive enough to encourage your audience to trade their email address. You will need to determine what type of content or asset your customers need, and then create it.
A solid email marketing strategy is also necessary. To keep your prospects interested in your newsletters, share more valuable content after you have emailed the asset.
Summary
Your top-of the-funnel content is a great way to get qualified leads to your channel and to familiarize them about your brand. ToFu content can include guides and informational blog posts.
This guide will show you how to create the right content for your audience to get the best results. You will first need to create educational and informative content. The top users of the funnel are likely to seek out information on specific topics.
To move leads down the sales funnel, you must post regularly on social media and answer frequently asked questions.
Encourage feedback from your leads, and offer incentives to grow your email lists so that you can nurture them further.
This is how you can create top-of the-funnel content to help you achieve your goals.
Scoop.it Blog published the article Your Complete Guide to Creating Top of the Funnel Material.
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