Before we delve deeper into what the top of the funnel is, let’s get an idea about what the digital marketing funnel is all about.
What is a digital marketing funnel?
The funnel starts with the open top of the funnel, narrowing into the middle of the funnel, and ends at the bottom of the funnel. Each stage of the funnel represents a different mindset a lead has while going through the process of becoming a customer.
Top-of-funnel (TOFU) or the awareness stage:
- Customer becomes aware of their need or want
- Looks for resources, answers, educational materials, data, insights, or brands that can help them
- Focuses on acquisition of new leads
- Draws in those who have become aware of your brand
- Encourages them to take the next steps down the marketing funnel
Middle-of-funnel (MOFU) or the consideration stage:
- Customer starts to narrow down their options
- Considers which brand, product, or service will provide the best result for their needs
- Looks for in-depth product guides, webinars, and eBooks
Bottom-of-funnel (BOFU) or the decision stage:
- Customer is ready to make their final decision
- Picks which company will earn the sale and their business
- Looks for content like testimonials, demos, and pricing comparisons to make their final decision
Why is the top-of-funnel stage so important?
TOFU is where you introduce your brand to your audience and spark their interest. It’s the first stage in the customer journey, and it sets the tone for the rest of the journey. A strong TOFU strategy is crucial to create brand awareness and move potential customers along to the next stages, ultimately converting them into leads.
Before diving into any marketing strategies for your top-of-funnel approach, take a moment to reflect on the core essence of your business. Ask yourself why you do what you do and what your purpose is. It may sound deep, but it’s important to stay true to your vision, mission, and purpose. Remember, what works for your business objectives may be different from what works for others. So, finding the right balance that works for your brand and target audience is crucial.
Start by defining your target audience and buyer personas
To create a strong brand awareness at the top-of-funnel stage, it’s essential to know your audience well. One effective way to do this is by crafting buyer personas that represent your ideal customer. This includes understanding their demographics, interests, and behaviours, so you can tailor your content to their specific needs and preferences. By creating content that resonates with your target audience, you can attract their attention and build a strong foundation for the rest of the customer journey.
See eye-to-eye with your customers
To create valuable top-of-funnel content that really hits home with your audience, you need to get to know them well so that it resonates and drives them toward the next steps in the marketing funnel.
This means understanding who they are, what their biggest challenges are, and how you can help them in their time of need. By putting yourself in their shoes and going above and beyond to serve them, you can create content that truly resonates with them and encourages them to take action and buy your products and services.
Harness the power of educational content
It might seem contradictory, but we recommend focusing on content that educates more than one that sells.
Here’s why:
To succeed in top-of-funnel marketing, your content should be engaging, informative, and educational, providing value to your audience and helping them understand how your brand can solve their problems.
To make your content more compelling, use visuals, headlines, and calls-to-action (CTAs) that encourage your audience to take action.
There are many other interactive content types you can consider, including videos and infographics.
Don’t be pushy to the point it drives your potential leads away
When it comes to creating content for your top-of-funnel marketing, it’s easy to get carried away and be too pushy with your top-of-funnel marketing content. But, you don’t want to drive potential customers away before they even have a chance to learn about your brand.
To prevent this from happening, always keep in mind the importance of creating informative and educational content that addresses your audience’s needs.
Posting for engagement success
One reason your content might not have gained traction in the past could be because it wasn’t optimised for search engines or SEO (search engine optimisation) for short.
You see, when people search for something online, they use certain keywords or phrases to find what they’re looking for. If your content doesn’t include those keywords or doesn’t answer the question that the user is asking, it won’t show up in search results.
That’s why it’s so important to optimise your content for search engines. By doing so, you’ll make it easier for people to find your content and improve your chances of getting more organic traffic to your website.
You could outsource this to an SEO specialist and have them optimise your content for you so that it ranks highly.
User experience has a huge impact on how people see you
To improve user experience, it is important to reduce overwhelming factors on your website. Internet users generally want to find information quickly without feeling bogged down or overwhelmed by an excessive amount of content or confusing design elements.
Collaborate with influencers in your niche
Partnering with influencers can be a powerful strategy for your top-of-funnel marketing efforts. When you team up with an influencer, you have the opportunity to reach their loyal followers and encourage them.
However, it’s important to choose the right influencer for your brand and ensure that their values align with your own. A successful influencer collaboration requires authenticity and transparency, as well as a genuine interest in your business.
Finally, don’t forget to measure your efforts
Keeping track of your progress will help you know what’s effective and what’s not.
Some important KPIs to look out for include website traffic, social media engagement, email open rates, and lead generation.
To optimise your marketing efforts, it’s important to set specific goals and track relevant KPIs and metrics. Analysing the impact of your campaigns through regular reports can provide valuable insights into what’s working and where you need to make improvements. After all, if you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.
If you want to improve your content strategy, book a free 15 min consultation with a Melon and you’ll get all the advice on creating the most effective top-of-funnel content for your brand awareness. We’ve got some great resources, a personalised workshop and more!
Don’t hesitate to get in touch with us today.
