Is Your Content Serving Your Sales Funnel?
Content is far more than just information about what your company does and how it does it. It’s a critical asset that drives customer engagement, builds brand loyalty and—when done right—boosts sales. But if marketing content is mapped out without a clear understanding of its role in your company’s sales funnel, it can lead to missed opportunities and wasted resources.
The key to maximizing your content’s effectiveness is to ensure that it’s strategically constructed within each stage of the sales funnel in order to most effectively develop and nurture leads before converting those leads into customers.
What Is the Sales Funnel?
Without an understanding of how the sales funnel should operate, it won’t be possible to effectively target interested parties and guide them on the journey to becoming a customer or client. The sales funnel is typically divided into three stages: top, middle and bottom.
Keep Your Content Aligned With the Funnel
To make the most out of your brand marketing funnel, your content should focus on specific needs and interests of potential customers at each stage.
Create content for the top of the funnel by generating interest and educating your audience. Informative blog posts, engaging and descriptive graphics, podcasts and educational videos can all present compelling narratives that bring value and establish your company or brand as a thought leader in your sector. Content done well is likely to be shared across media and extend the reach of your message.
The middle of the funnel needs to be curated to help potential customers evaluate their options and bring them toward your particular solutions. More detailed content is necessary at this stage, with expert webinars or videos, case studies and specific product guides that effectively showcase your expertise and distinct advantages over your competitors.
At the bottom of the funnel, it’s time to hit your prospects with what they need to make the decision to buy your goods or sign up for your services. Free trials, demos and customer testimonials can work well here. A strong call to action (CTA) is the linchpin that compels prospects to make the move to become customers.
How Do You Know if Your Funnel Is Working?
In order to ensure that all of the effort you put into your content is effectively serving your sales funnel, you should track its performance at each stage. Use analytics tools and automation to monitor metrics like page views, time spent on specific pages, click-through rate (CTR) and conversion rate. This data can be incredibly helpful when attempting to adjust what content works best and where improvements should be made.
Remember that the goal of your content isn’t merely to attract visitors or get their attention. Content should serve as a guide to bring people through each stage of the sales funnel in a cohesive, targeted—and ultimately successful—campaign. Turning your audience into leads and those leads into loyal and satisfied customers can be achieved by crafting a content strategy that aligns with your sales goals and effectively serves each stage of the funnel.
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