Are you generating a steady stream of traffic to your site or blog, but the leads aren’t what you’re looking for? Does your sales team think that the leads you’re bringing in aren’t quite ready to be contacted yet?
If so, you aren’t alone. But don’t fret.
After all, you’ve accomplished the first step in a successful inbound strategy. You’re creating valuable and helpful content that’s consistently attracting leads to your site. That’s worth celebrating.
However, for your leads to start converting at a higher rate, some tweaks to your inbound approach might be in order.
We can start by adjusting how you plan your content. Ideally, you should have content catered to exactly where a lead is in the sales funnel.
TOFU (Top-of-the-Funnel): General Topics, How-To Guides, Short Videos, Checklists, Educational Webinars, Tip Sheets
MOFU (Middle-of-the-Funnel): More Niche or In-Depth Topics, eBooks, Case Studies, Product Samples, Subscriptions, Podcasts, Product Webinars
BOFU (Bottom-of-the-Funnel): Free Trial, Live Demos, Brochures, Consultations, Pricing, Estimates, Coupons
Now, just because we’re focused on creating great and helpful content for the MOFU and BOFU sections of the sales funnel, doesn’t mean you should neglect your TOFU offerings.
From all the leads that have been coming to your site, you should know one fact to be true.
Content from the top of the sales funnel is more easily shared by colleagues on social media and can attract leads from all areas of the buyer’s journey.
Yes, TOFU content has the possibility of attracting leads that don’t fit your target persona perfectly, but the opposite can prove true as well.
Ideal prospects and those just beginning their educational journey through your industry find TOFU content immensely valuable.
Which is a fact that underscores a fundamental truth about leads generated from the top of the funnel content: Just because they might not be a great lead yet, doesn’t mean they won’t be a great lead in the future.
Now, in order to begin generating leads that are ready to be handed off to sales, you need to develop helpful content for those MOFU and BOFU prospects.
But before you get started creating all of that content, ask yourself versions of these questions for the remaining two sections of the sales funnel.
“How can I demonstrate that our company offers the best solution to the problem the prospect is looking to solve?”
“What might these prospects ask our salespeople to elaborate on?”
“What commonly asked questions could we answer around our products/services?”
“How can we offer clear instructions to solve one of their most pressing problems?”
“How can we best show our product/service in action?”
“How might we compare our product/service to a competitor? How are we different?”
“What objections would a prospect potentially have?”
“How can we let prospects get a hands-on experience with our product/service?”
From these questions, start creating a list of content ideas. What kinds of content can best answer them?
Approaching your content creation from this perspective will aid you in accomplishing an important rule: Don’t be “salesy.”
If a prospect is engaging with MOFU or BOFU content, that means they are at least somewhat interested in the solutions your business offers. There’s no need to actively sell to them.
Instead, focus on the questions they might have and create helpful content that answers them.
Yes, the topics you cover won’t be as general as some of your best-performing content, but that’s okay.
MOFU and BOFU prospects will find your answers extremely valuable and further persuade them that not only is your product/service the best option, but you are an absolute authority in your field of expertise.
Finally, once you have content for every level of the sales funnel, you want to make sure that you’re keeping solid track of the leads you have and exactly where they are at in their buying journey.
To help with this, make sure that you have a nice balance of content between TOFU, MOFU, and BOFU.
That way, for anyone who still isn’t quite convinced of your solutions, you can keep them engaged via streams of content that are targeted toward their exact interests and pain points.
Before you know it, those leads that might not have been so great to begin with might just commence their journey to the bottom of the funnel.
*Editor's Note: This blog has been updated since it's original publishing date.