In today's competitive business landscape, crafting compelling sales funnel content is the secret sauce to driving conversions and nurturing customer relationships.
A well-structured sales funnel acts as a roadmap, guiding your potential customers from awareness of your product or service to making a purchase decision.
Think about your own buying behaviour…
When I’m considering a purchase, I’ll usually do some research, look at other alternatives, leave a browser page open to go back to when I’m closer to needing the item, or I might add it to my basket to ‘bookmark’ the item for when I’m ready to commit.
There are many opportunities for companies to influence my decision at each stage and, if you get the content and the timing right, it can be very successful in oiling the funnel until I splosh out the bottom with your item in my hand!
You might be great at generating awareness and convincing me that I NEED your item, but if I have a wobble at the checkout stage and you haven’t thought about how your content can overcome objections at this point in my buying journey, I’m shooting right up to the top of that funnel again.
Equally, you may have awesome content that would delight me at the consideration and purchase point, but if you haven’t honed your awareness content, I’m never going to reach it.
Let’s look at some key strategies for creating sales funnel content that converts...
1. Lay the Foundation: Understand Your Audience
Before jumping straight into creating content, it’s super important to have a deep understanding of your target audience.
Who are they? What challenges do they face? What are their aspirations?
The answers to these questions will help you tailor your content to resonate with your audience's needs and desires. Conduct thorough market research, analyse demographics, and create detailed buyer personas to craft content that speaks directly to your audience.
As I said earlier, each stage of the funnel needs to work together, so you will need to also take a critical look at your existing content and buyer journey to understand where there may be holes.
2. Top of the Funnel: Build Awareness
The top of your sales funnel is all about generating awareness and piquing interest.
Content at this stage should be engaging and memorable. It’s all about reaching people who have not encountered your products or services before, who are likely to be interested in the type of thing you offer.
Typical content might include TV adverts, social media ads, Google ads, or organic content designed to go viral!
3. Middle of the Funnel: Consideration
As potential customers move deeper into the funnel, they're seeking more in-depth information.
You need to overcome any objections they might have. They might be asking themselves, ‘do I really need this?’, ‘is this good value?’, or ‘can I trust this brand?’.
At this stage, you need to foster their interest by creating content that addresses their pain points and provides solutions, showcases your expertise, and offers valuable insights.
Blog posts, infographics, videos, E-books, whitepapers, webinars, case studies, comparison articles, and sharing reviews are excellent ways highlight the benefits of your products or services and demonstrate how they can solve specific problems your audience is facing.
You might share them on your social media pages, in newsletters, or through retargeted adverts.
Always include clear calls-to-action (CTAs) that guide users towards the next stage.
4. Bottom of the Funnel: Conversion
Now that your audience is interested and well-informed, it's time to get them to stop thinking and just buy!
They should already be convinced that they WANT to buy, but they may still have some objections that are holding them back.
They might be asking themselves, ‘do I need this right now?’ or they may be worrying that the quality will not live up to expectations.
Quite often, it’s committing to the expense that holds people back - it may be a little over their budget or, if it’s a delivered item, shipping may be considered too expensive or too slow.
You can help them make a decision to commit by offering time-sensitive sales or free shipping promos. A series of abandoned cart emails work well for ecommerce businesses to nudge them to complete checkout and reminding them of your product’s amazing benefits. Having a chat widget on your website is also great for answering any last-minute questions.
5. Post-Conversion: Nurturing the Relationship
Your relationship with the customer shouldn't end once they make a purchase. Post-conversion content is critical for customer retention, upselling, and getting your customers to recommend you or refer a friend.
Deliver content that educates users on how to get the most out of their purchase, shares relevant updates, promotes other products, provides exclusive offers and lets customers know how they can review you or be rewarded for their loyalty. This could be done through follow-up emails, ‘thank you’ page content, or remarketing adverts.
By nurturing these relationships, you encourage repeat business and potentially turn customers into brand advocates.
What next?
Creating sales funnel content is not a one-time endeavour; it's an ongoing process of refinement. You should regularly analyse metrics to identify what's working and what's not.
At the awareness stage, this might be tracking reach, engagement levels, number of new website visitors, or product page views.
Consideration can be measured by looking at the number of returning website visitors, review page clicks, or more detailed landing pages.
At the conversion stage, keep track of how many people add to cart, abandon cart, and convert from checkout to purchase, as well as how well they are interacting or responding to follow-up emails or retargeting ads.
Post-purchase, you should be measuring how much revenue you get from returning customers and from customer referrals.
Leverage user data and insights to deliver content that speaks directly to individual preferences and behaviours. Personalised emails, dynamic website content, and targeted recommendations based on previous interactions can significantly increase engagement and conversion rates.
You can also use A/B testing to experiment with different content formats, headlines, CTAs, and timings to optimise your funnel's effectiveness.
Mastering the art of creating sales funnel content requires a deep understanding of your audience, strategic planning, and a commitment to providing value at every stage.
If you need help with reviewing your sales funnel content and delivering tailored content that guides potential customers through the buying journey, get in touch with me.