Top Of Funnel Marketing: What Kind Of Content and Analytics Should You Use To Grow Awareness
Marketing funnel stages
The marketing funnel is a picture of the steps customers take when making a purchase of a good or service from a business. It contains the following stages:
What is top-of-funnel marketing?
Campaigns, content, and other marketing initiatives that target potential customers in the top section of the marketing funnel are referred to as top-of-funnel marketing. These potential clients may not be familiar with the brand and haven’t yet interacted with the company’s sales or business development teams. Making potential customers aware of their product or service and gathering potential sales leads are the objectives of top-of-funnel marketing.
Why is top-of-funnel marketing important?
Top-of-funnel marketing strategies are important for marketing teams for the following reasons:
Sales
Top-of-funnel marketing may persuade customers to buy certain goods or services right away. Top-of-the-funnel marketing can help ready customers easily buy a product or sign up for a service while also increasing awareness of a company’s brand or mission. When viewers read or watch certain top-of-funnel content marketing, such as blog posts, they are given several options. The blog post might include separate buttons to sign up for additional marketing, share the post, get in touch with a salesperson, and make an online purchase.
SEO rankings
The position a particular website holds on search engine result pages for related keywords is referred to as its SEO rankings. Because they see those websites first, customers may be more likely to make purchases from businesses whose websites rank higher in search engine results. Making top-of-funnel content with links to other website pages, such as blog posts, videos, and infographics, is one way to improve a website’s SEO ranking. By demonstrating to the search engine algorithm that the website is a resource for users, the added content can raise a site’s ranking.
Brand exposure
Even though not everyone who clicks on a link or shares a social media post from a business actually buys something from it, growing the number of people who are familiar with the business’s brand and the goods and services it provides can boost sales. For instance, if a marketing coordinator for a daycare center writes a blog post about entertaining indoor crafts to do with kids, the post might get 100 subscribers. The business has now attracted 400 customers if those subscribers each share the link with three people. Many of these customers might sign up their kids.
Lead generation
For the purpose of gathering contact information for new potential clients, many businesses rely on lead generation campaigns. Following the campaign, sales representatives frequently get in touch with these prospective clients and make an effort to involve them in the sales process. Top-of-funnel content marketing strategies may be used in lead generation campaigns to draw in potential customers. For instance, if a neighborhood gym wants to generate 500 new leads in a quarter, its marketing department might produce a number of online workout videos. The videos may ask viewers to provide their information on the gym’s website so they can access more videos.
What to include in your top-of-funnel marketing content
Although top-of-funnel marketing content may vary by business and sector, successful content marketing at this stage frequently consists of the following components:
Visual appeal
Strong visual elements in top-of-funnel marketing content can be efficient at quickly communicating the company’s message or brand, which can increase the content’s reach with viewers. Infographics, videos, and digital images created by content creators may feature the brand’s colors and logo, which can help viewers associate the company with the content they’re seeing. Designers, content producers, and web developers may adhere to a style guide that details the colors, fonts, and logos that a company’s content marketing uses in order to maintain a consistent visual brand.
Engaging stories
Content for top-of-funnel marketing frequently features endorsements from pleased clients who used the goods or services to address a particular need. Some businesses’ marketing departments produce various types of content to appeal to customers with various needs. For instance, a trucking company that provides transportation services to clients involved in the production of biofuel and food might run two distinct email marketing campaigns, one of which would include a video showcasing the company’s produce service and the other would feature a testimonial from an executive from an oil company.
Customer-focused message
Marketing teams may produce content that focuses on a problem or query that their target audience may have in order to draw in customers. For instance, a content writer for a tutoring business might write blog posts on learning disabilities, study techniques, and the college application process. Parents’ inquiries about their children’s educational aspirations may be addressed by this information, which may also help to establish the company’s employees as subject-matter authorities. Content marketers provide a service and build brand awareness for their company at the same time by focusing on the needs of their customers.
Call to action
A call to action, which urges viewers to take a particular action after viewing the content, is frequently included in top-of-funnel marketing content. The call to action in top-of-funnel marketing might urge customers to register for a webinar, join an email list, read a blog post, or watch a video. When the customer takes the following step, they might get another call to action telling them to get in touch with a salesperson or make a purchase. Calls to action enable content marketers to interact with customers and lead them through the purchasing process.
Sharing options
Content marketing teams can expand the audience their content reaches by making top-of-funnel marketing content simple to share online. Because existing clients and staff members can share social media posts to their personal feeds, exposing their connections to the content, social media content can be an efficient way to reach clients. To make it simple to find and share web content with others, content marketing teams might also establish a video channel or hashtag for material about the company’s products or services.
Top-of-funnel examples
Here are some examples of top-of-funnel marketing content:
Landing pages
Customized web pages called landing pages are used to promote communication between customers and salespeople. The marketing department of a business might produce landing pages for sales and promotions that highlight new products and deals. A car dealership, for instance, might have a landing page for a new car sales event that includes up-to-date details on inventory, costs, and other aspects of the sale. Marketing departments may also create unique landing pages for specific target markets, such as parents or college students, and alter the content to suit those audiences’ needs.
Blog posts
Customers may read blog posts about the business’s services, important industry issues, or recent client reviews. For instance, a pet trainer’s blog might feature articles on training techniques, common dog illnesses, and rescue groups. Because they provide customers with answers or information on subjects that are important to them, blog posts can be effective top-of-funnel marketing opportunities and position a business as a valuable resource. When the time comes for the customer to make a purchase, they might be more likely to do so from a business that has clarified a concept for them or addressed a concern they had.
Videos
Videos are excellent top-of-funnel marketing tools because they are very visual. You can highlight a product’s features, tell a story, or provide informational content in a video that is simple to understand. Videos are also practical ways to introduce clients to a business’s personnel, logo, or brand message, particularly if they adhere to the business’s style manual and incorporate the website’s graphics. For instance, a shoe company might create a video featuring models donning its footwear while they are out and about, showcasing the style and functionality of the product and enticing viewers to buy a pair.
Social media posts
Engaging with neighborhood pages and other nearby businesses is one way marketing teams use social media for top-of-funnel marketing. To increase the number of people who see the brand, social media managers can use tagging and comments to make the company’s logo and page details appear on other pages. Social media managers may use messages and comments on a business’s own social media page to interact with current and potential customers. Social media posts can contain links that you can embed, making them useful for directing readers to a call to action.
Infographics
A visual representation of information or processes using a combination of words, shapes, and other elements is called an infographic. Infographics may be produced by content marketing teams to explain a product line or a difficult subject pertaining to their sector. For instance, the marketing department of a hospital might produce an infographic to demonstrate how patients can recover from surgery through diet and exercise. In order to make sure that everyone who views the information knows it came from a specific organization, they might include the company’s logo and use colors from the style guide on the infographic.
Podcasts
Listeners can access podcasts, which are online audio programs, for free or for a fee. The content marketing team may create and host a podcast featuring subject matter experts from a company who discuss industry issues and respond to listener questions. Additionally, company executives might support a relevant podcast produced by consultants. Podcasts can be efficient top-of-funnel marketing tools since they give listeners advice and information. Increasing the listenership of a sponsored podcast can boost customer engagement and persuade viewers to make purchases from the sponsoring business.
FAQ
What is top of funnel vs bottom of funnel?
- Analyze Your Own Customer Data. …
- Use Social Data to Improve Targeting. …
- Reach Your Buyers By Testing Channels. …
- Personalize Your Sales Outreach.
How does top of the funnel work?
When we use the term “funnel,” we’re referring to the marketing funnel, which depicts the most direct route a potential customer could take to make a purchase. The marketing funnel shows customers at the awareness stage at the top and customers at the purchasing stage at the bottom.
What is top of the funnel pipeline?
Last edited: Sep 16, 2021. Users who are just starting their research are at the top of the sales funnel for a given good or service. If you don’t convince them to proceed further down the funnel while they are still in the information-gathering stage, you risk losing them as clients.
