{"id":21743,"date":"2020-12-22T13:06:04","date_gmt":"2020-12-22T11:06:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/?p=21743"},"modified":"2021-07-16T11:59:51","modified_gmt":"2021-07-16T08:59:51","slug":"top-of-funnel-content","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/top-of-funnel-content\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Create Top of Funnel Content (13 Ideas)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The content you use to communicate with your target audience can make the difference between converting your prospects into sales or losing them to the competition.<\/p>\n

Content at the top of the marketing funnel is especially important as it is often the first point of contact someone has with your business.<\/p>\n

In this post, you\u2019ll learn about the top of the funnel content and what it aims to achieve.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll also provide some examples of top of the funnel content you can start using for your business.<\/p>\n

What is Top of Funnel Marketing?<\/h2>\n

Marketing funnels<\/strong><\/a> are used to bring traffic to your website and then engage with these prospects before converting them into customers. The main value of marketing funnels is that they allow you to target your potential customers more effectively.<\/p>\n

Consumers are not interested in messaging and content that is not relevant to the challenges they are facing. Marketing funnels allow you to segment your audience based on where they are in the buying process so that you are able to communicate with them in a relevant manner.<\/p>\n

Funnels are broken into different stages in order to categorize their prospects.<\/p>\n

Businesses can use different stages to divide their funnels but typically stick to a four-stage approach with the following phases: Awareness, discovery, consideration, and conversion.<\/p>\n

These four stages are broken further\u00a0 into three sections and that\u2019s how we get the concept of top of the funnel<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Top of the Funnel (TOFU):<\/strong> The top of the funnel consists of the awareness stage. This is where your audience discovers and interacts with your business for the first time. The main focus of this stage is on attracting new prospects and collecting data on buyer personas to be used during the later stages of the funnel.<\/p>\n

Middle of the Funnel (MOFU):<\/strong> The middle of the funnel consists of the discovery and consideration stages. During this stage, your audience engages with your business and begins to explore your products or services. This is where you will look to prove the value of your business and how you can solve their specific challenges.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bottom of the Funnel (BOFU):<\/strong> The bottom of the funnel is the conversion stage. This where members of your audience become customers. Messaging during this stage is focused on selling and retaining customers.<\/p>\n

\"Digital
Digital Marketing Funnel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The top of the funnel begins the moment a prospect becomes aware of or interacts with your business in some way. You can think of the top of funnel marketing as making a first impression.<\/p>\n

Because the audience is not familiar with your business, once a prospect becomes aware of you it should be your focus to introduce your business and begin to lay the foundation of how you can provide them value.<\/p>\n

What is Top of the Funnel Content?<\/h2>\n

Top of the funnel content is any content used to target prospects at the top of your digital marketing funnel. The purpose of top of the funnel content is to bring traffic to your website, increase brand awareness, and establish your business as an expert and trusted source of information for your industry.<\/p>\n

Because the objective of this stage of the marketing funnel is to bring awareness and create interest, top of the funnel content should focus on informing your audience, not selling to them.<\/p>\n

Create content that provides real value to your audience<\/strong><\/p>\n

To create meaningful top of the funnel content you need to understand your audience<\/strong><\/a> and the unique challenges they face.<\/p>\n

Ask yourself: <\/strong>What are your audience\u2019s interests? What information would be of value to them? What challenges do they need to solve?<\/p>\n

Knowing your audience on a deeper level will enable you to create content that your audience actually wants and is willing to exchange their information for.<\/p>\n

Before you can begin creating top of the funnel content for your audience, you need to discover their pain points. The most effective way to do this is to find the search terms<\/strong><\/a> they are using.<\/p>\n

This will provide direct insight into the problems your audience is looking to answer.<\/p>\n

Search terms related to these types of ideas are considered top of the funnel keywords. You can use the following techniques to identify top of the funnel keywords:<\/p>\n

Keyword research:<\/strong> Use your favorite keyword research tool to begin looking for keywords around your area of expertise. Note down any search terms that you feel would be good for creating content around.<\/p>\n

Google suggests and people also ask:<\/strong> On search results pages, Google will often show a list of questions related to the search query that users are also searching for. Run searches for queries related to your industry and note any related questions that you find. These can make more relevant ideas for top of the funnel content.<\/p>\n

Once you have some ideas for the topics to base your content on, you can begin deciding what type of content to create.<\/p>\n

There are plenty of different types of content that are effective for building awareness and engaging your audience at the top of your marketing funnel.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s examine the types of content that work well for the top of funnel marketing.<\/p>\n

13 Best Content Types for Top of Funnel Marketing<\/h2>\n

Here are the top types of top of the funnel content.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Listicles<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. Landing Pages<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. Paid advertisements<\/a><\/li>\n
  4. Webinars<\/a><\/li>\n
  5. How-to articles<\/a><\/li>\n
  6. Downloadable free guides<\/a><\/li>\n
  7. Explainer videos<\/a><\/li>\n
  8. Free tools and free templates<\/a><\/li>\n
  9. Survey your existing customers<\/a><\/li>\n
  10. Checklists<\/a><\/li>\n
  11. Case studies<\/a><\/li>\n
  12. Whitepapers<\/a><\/li>\n
  13. Infographics<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    1. Listicles<\/h3>\n

    A listicle is a blog post made up of a list of items. They normally have a number in the title like “7 ways to do X”.<\/p>\n

    The structure of a listicle is simple. There is an introduction, a list of items, and a conclusion.<\/p>\n

    Listicles<\/strong><\/a> are great for both businesses and their audiences because they are easy to create and equally easy to digest. This is because they are a perfect match for our brain’s inclination to categorize information.<\/p>\n

    The most common type of listicles are “best of” posts. You have undoubtedly seen plenty of these around the web.<\/p>\n

    In fact, you’re reading one right now. Take a second to consider the experience this article is creating. Hopefully the simple and easy to follow structure will help you retain the information we have given.<\/p>\n

    These articles can work for you as well. Chances are, your audience is frequently in the market for different products and services to help them grow their business. They will want to find the best available solutions or ways to do something but may not have the time to do extensive research themselves.<\/p>\n

    This is where you can provide value to your audience by creating a comparison or \u201cbest of\u201d blog posts in which you review different products or services.<\/p>\n

    \n
    Examples of listicles for the top of funnel marketing<\/div>\n