When you put your content marketing strategy hat on, best practices dictate that each piece of content you create should align with one of the stages of the sales funnel. When this happens, each piece of content will have a clear objective to welcome, move, or convert a visitor to a lead. Bottom-of-the-funnel content (BoFU) is designed for those last touchpoints before customers decide to buy, so it needs to be confirming, persuasive, and practical. It’s your final push to win the business.
However, it’s not that easy to create BoFU content. First, you must define your funnel. In a large enterprise, you may have multiple funnels, depending on the audience and solution. This type of content is also harder to produce because it has to have a final hook to close the deal.
You’ve already been sharing your narrative, answering questions, and educating the audience. Now, it’s time to sell them on your brand. When you do BoFU content well, it can be a huge catalyst for increased sales.
To inspire you to crank out some killer BoFU content, here are some ideas that should help you produce assets to close more deals.
You’re Probably Ignoring BoFU Content
BoFU content is hard, and often it’s not as in-demand since you have to start attracting at the top and nurturing in the middle. Aligning your content to the funnel is something lots of smart content marketers are doing. According to the Content Marketing Institute (CMI), 90 percent of you do this. The same CMI study confirms the assumption about BoFU being less important, as only 21 percent of respondents said they were creating it, whereas 47 percent said they were producing top-of-the-funnel (TOFU) content.
Why the disproportion? It’s easier to see the tangible value of ToFU because it feeds you new leads. It’s also easier to develop because you have a better idea of the buyer persona’s motivations, challenges, and needs in the beginning. It becomes murkier further down, as you don’t know the final considerations of a buyer.
Luckily, there are creative and strategic ways to develop BoFU content that follows your content strategy and goals.
Tip #1: Your Brand Shouldn’t Deliver the Message
What’s the best way to convince a buyer that your company is the right choice? Let them hear from an actual customer. Customer stories are a vital BoFU content format. They provide a prospect with a real-life situation that you solved. They’ll hear it in someone else’s words—not your own.
There are many options for this type of content. Consider these:
- Standard written case study with data points and quotes.
- Video interviews where you talk about the challenge and how you worked together to overcome it.
- Short video testimonials that “plug” your product.
- User-generated content (UGC) that your customers create (ex: reviews), and you share on social profiles.
Tip #2: Look to Those Outside Your Content Teams for Ideas
Your content team has great talent and ideas, but sometimes it’s good to get a unique perspective. You can often find a new angle and fresh ideas when you tap into your SMEs (subject matter experts), product owners, and sales teams.
They have different experiences in the industry than your content team. They may have some useful advice and insights on what pushes a buyer through the funnel.
For example, sales is often a good source, just by looking at their closed-lost deals. Sometimes, they can get feedback on why the customer went in a different direction. With this intelligence, you could develop some assets that can address common concerns.
Tip #3: Comparison Is the Greatest Format for BoFU Content
At this stage, your buyer is ready to make a decision, and they are weighing their options. Buyers may be creating scorecards to see which solution best fits their needs. However, they may not know about all the possibilities, and they may not know that they are comparing apples to oranges.
Make it easy for them with a visual and possibly interactive comparison piece that allows them to compare their options. Figure out the things that mean the most to a buyer at this point—price, quality, flexibility, functionality, etc.—and make your case. If you focus on your strengths and how they align with customer objectives, they should see why they need to say yes to you.
Tip #4: Try Pre-Onboarding Content to Get Them Excited
While a free trial has long been a construct to give customers a preview of what’s possible, they don’t always end with a sale. Instead of just a free trial or sample, develop pre-onboarding content that gets the customer excited about buying your solution.
You are trying to get that buyer to picture themself using your product or service. You want them to be thinking about how it’s going to solve problems and make their life easier. So, why not use this “daydreaming” to earn the conversion?
Here are a few ideas:
- Make mini-videos, TikToks, Snaps, etc. of your account managers or customer success specialists talking about how they welcome new customers.
- Produce explainer videos about how you onboard customers so they know what to expect.
- Develop implementation guides that are meant for customers as they begin to work with you. Sales can use these to send to prospects who may still have questions. From this, the buyer can see what’s ahead.
Tip #5: Thought Leadership Is Always a Good Fit
Thought leadership content is also a great idea for BoFU content planning. Writing some strong blogs or articles on a topic that is very influential in final decisions can give your prospect greater confidence. Showing this expertise and depth of knowledge solidifies your reputation and credibility.
Outside of written content, thought leadership is often expressed in presentations and panels. If you have a video of past events from your SMEs or C-suite, package this into a branded video. You could also consider hosting a virtual event with speakers and live stream it.
Keep BoFU Content Top of Mind
BoFU content shouldn’t be at the bottom of your priority list. While it is at the end of the funnel, its quality and consistency are vital to increasing your sales. Take these tips and start creating! And keep it all organized, transparent, and moving with a content marketing solution like DivvyHQ. Try it out today at no cost.