Creating a successful content marketing funnel

Summarize with:

A content marketing funnel is a system that takes your prospects through the purchasing process step-by-step, from when they first become aware of your company to when they finally purchase from you.

You can improve your conversion rate by creating a successful content marketing strategy that shepherds your prospects through the three stages of the buying process — awareness, evaluation, and conversion. Each of these stages will require different types of content to appeal to buyers at different stages of the decision-making process.

The awareness stage

Awareness is the first step to attracting customers, positioned at the top of the funnel where the net is widest. The goal here is to increase brand awareness and generate leads by creating content that informs about the industry or common problems, rather than focusing directly on your product.

Examples of awareness content:

Blog posts answering high-level questions.
Infographics showcasing industry insights.
Short, engaging videos or webinars.
“About Us” page highlighting your brand.

Content should be fun, engaging, and valuable, appealing to a broad audience. Gated content like e-books or guides can help capture leads with stronger buying intent by requiring them to fill out forms.

For example, you can use Jotform to capture visitors’ names, email addresses, and phone numbers. This can help you identify prospects who are more likely to purchase so that you can follow up with targeted content and offers later to move them further down the funnel.

The evaluation stage

The goals of your content in this stage are to nurture the leads you’ve already generated at the top of the funnel and track their purchasing intent. This content should still be educational, but you should also highlight product benefits and key brand differentiators.

Examples of evaluation content:

Email newsletters.
Product comparison blog posts.
Demo videos and detailed product descriptions.

For instance, Shopify took a similar approach and created videos to show potential customers how their mobile interface allowed e-commerce shop owners to quickly and easily manage their stores on the go. While the videos were entertaining and showed customers using their product in various locations, they also highlighted specific product features that help Shopify stand out from their competitors.

The conversion stage

The bottom of the funnel is where things get serious. In this stage, your content should be geared toward converting prospective customers to actual customers. Often, sales teams will use this content, so it should focus on providing information that will help leads finalize their decision to buy.

Bottom-of-the-funnel content should also focus on speeding up the purchasing process. To do that, you need to create content that highlights why your product offering is better than the competition. Content at this stage is usually heavily data-driven and focuses on answering any last-minute objections a buyer might have.

Examples of conversion content: