Posted by The pandemic is pushing the eCommerce forward, and so are the marketing campaigns to new heights. Some marketing experts claim that real-time data models are the new face of content marketing. It is data-driven and has many aspects that help marketers design the right campaign.
There is no doubt that content marketing campaigns are seeing a shift toward more data-driven strategies. But are they enough, or are there other secrets to strategizing the content marketing campaigns? Let’s explore how content marketing funnels will help your brand generate more leads.
But, before we do that, let’s understand what a content marketing funnel is?
The Marketing Funnel
A content marketing funnel is a process to generate new leads from different types of content. Such leads are then converted into buyers and are nurtured to make the purchasing decision through progressive “funneling.”
Progressive funneling is a process of profiling buyers at different stages of funnel right from top to bottom. It helps marketers strategize content marketing by identifying the buyer’s position in a sales funnel.
There are three parts to any marketing funnel.
- Tofu-Top of the funnel (Social media, Blog, Video, Quiz, Ebook/whitepaper)
- Mofu-Middle of the funnel (Webinar, Email drip, Guide/How-to content)
- Bofu-Bottom of the funnel (Product demo, Product comparisons)
One of the secrets to a successful content marketing funnel is creating a buyer’s persona. Link your buyer’s persona to either Tofu, Mofu, or Bofu to create content accordingly. If a buyer’s persona indicates Tofu, the content creation is more focused on brand awareness.
While for the Mofu, content should focus on lead generation. At the same time, Bofu is all about the conversion or buying decisions.
Now that we have some idea about the content marketing funnel let’s get to know how to build one.
Design an Effective Website
An underrated content strategy that many believe is – Great Website! It is often the best practice for your campaigns to design a website according to the content marketing strategy.
Bro the truth na say these people not get sense enough to understand the importance of Ui design or a good website… They understand not the value we have to offer them.. They know nothing! Absolutely Nothing!
— Hariu Emisho (@Hemisho_) October 17, 2020
Most marketers run from a simple truth – “a well-designed website is the best strategy”. One of the essentials for a website design is the UI or User Interface.
The landing page is like a holy grail of content marketing. You need to design useful landing pages that resonate with customer’s challenges and convince them to buy. This way, you will keep users exploring your content and cut the bounce rate. A bounce rate is a measurement of the number of visitors that leave your web page without clicking or taking any action.
There are many landing page software these days to help you optimize it. The best practice is to create the landing page content closer to search intent. So, users get the information they seek as soon as they reach your landing page. For example, you can place a minimalistic form for users to request desired information.
This landing page doesn’t require a user to fill out dozens of fields.
It reduces the time spent by users on filling out details, making the experience remarkable. This landing page doesn’t require a user to fill out dozens of fields.
The LongTail Content
The long tail strategy involves adding products of a different niche rather than focusing on a single development. For example, a 3D printing company Shapeways offers customized products to different types of customers. So, you can have your dental 3D printed or even a surfboat.
Amazon is another example of the long tail strategy, where products of a different niche are catered to the consumers. Netflix uses the same approach to cater to local content for users around the world. It makes the whole marketing campaign more diverse and unique.
Content marketers can use such a strategy to create diverse resources for websites. It allows different users to reach for the content and increase the traffic to your website.
Content Marketing SEO
Take your marketing to another level with SEO strategies. Create SEO strategies for your content marketing campaigns. It helps marketers with better lead generation and conversions. Whatever content you choose to create, SEO strategies can help you achieve better rankings and generate higher leads.
For example, rather than choosing a keyword to plan the content marketing campaigns around it, do vice versa. Plan your campaigns on products’ attributes, search for keywords that can relate to features, and lead users to the end-product.
Let’s understand step-by-step how to achieve better marketing SEO?
#1 Target Features & Audience
Let’s take the example of a shoe brand. Now, what are the attributes that you can choose to market? It can be shoes like sports or casuals, then only types like rubber or foam. There are endless possibilities for features you can choose. The choice entirely depends on the product.
Similar to the features, the research on search intent can help you determine the end-consumer. If you grasp the target audience, you can quickly know where they are in the content marketing funnel(i.e., Tofu, Mofu, or Bofu).
Once you know the buyer’s exact position in the content marketing funnel, it makes the entire process.
#2 Keyword Plan
Plan your keywords according to the features you decide. For example, if you consider a shoe brand, you can look for keywords like “shoes without laces” or “casual shoes.” There are many keyword research tools that you can use, such as Ubersuggest, Ahrefs, Semrush, moz.com, and others. Here, we are exploring one such tool called Ubersuggest, a free tool you can use. You can choose any tool of your liking.
As you can see, thorough research into keywords will allow you to optimize the content for marketing campaigns. It will help you gauge the exact volume of traffic towards a search phrase on the Internet.
Now, build unique content around such keywords. You can use a different set of keywords for content creation, including the following:
- Primary Keywords
- Secondary Keywords
- Long-Tail Keywords
- Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) Keywords
Many believe that primary keywords are essential, but LSIs are equally necessary. It helps the search engine to determine the exact concept of your content. They are related to the primary search phrase that allows the search engine crawlers to understand the content.
Web page’s
#3 Content Creation
Any content creation needs proper planning and thorough research. It provides the purpose, relevance, and facts of any content. Once you have your content idea, planned keywords, and a target audience, the research helps with a roadmap.
A well-researched content can help you with better lead generation. At the same time, it also enables the conversion of these leads to potential buyers. But, is research enough? Execution is all you need to transform researched content into a real winner.
There are many forms of content, ranging from blogs, videos, and emails to newsletters. But, the best practice remains to be the value that content provides. Blogs and articles are still very much in the race. If you include some personalized images and mix some fantastic videos into it, there is more than what meets the eye!
For example, emails can be more fun with personalized images. Many experts believe that it can boost the replies twofold. Another way of making the email content more personalized is by adding tags. Many email marketing tools offer creative personalization tags for your clients. If you have a well-researched buyer’s persona, personalization tags are icing on the cake!
#4 Videos That Engage
Videos are, in fact, one of the most popular after content marketing strategies. Audience engagement for any video marketing campaign is quite essential. There are many ways to measure the engagement towards your videos. From the average number of page visits to session durations, you can count them all with tools like
- Google Analytics
- Hotjar
- Semrush
- Ubersuggest
- FreshMarketer
When you study the session durations, they will have excellent data. Most of the video sessions are around 60-90 seconds. It is the length of videos that become key to audience engagement.
Striking a balance is essential even if you choose to create a video with a length of 30 seconds.
Just look at this video ad, which is only 42 seconds, but the impact is high. It educates the viewers on road safety within a short span, making it highly engaging!
Conclusion:
The content marketing funnel is all about identifying the right stage of the buyer’s transition towards a purchasing decision. Here, you can get a grasp on the different facets of content creation. From a great website to thorough research on the buyer’s persona, everything depends on content. The best practice for creating a successful content marketing funnel is to have extensive research on the consumer and personalize your offering.
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