How to create a content strategy that follows the funnel

When browsing online, the never-ending stream of online content can seem limitless and generic. But for the vast majority of brands, every piece of online media, from podcasts and newsletters to articles and webinars, have all been crafted with sales in mind.

The creators of the content are doing the selling, and you are their potential customer, even when it may seem like just another article. 

What lies behind this content is strategy, known as a content marketing funnel. In this article, we’ll guide you through every step of strategising for your brand as you create the ultimate funnel for your specific goals.

Read on to discover how a marketing funnel can revolutionise your approach to creating content:

• What is the content marketing funnel?
• Why are there so many versions - are they all the same?
• Matching your content to the funnel stage
• What are the benefits of this?
• What should you avoid?

What is the content marketing funnel?

It’s a model that outlines a customer’s journey in their awareness of your brand. From their very first interaction with you, through all stages of becoming more aware of your brand’s products or services, to the moment where they become a paying customer.

Broadly speaking, these fall into 3 main stages:

Awareness
This stage focuses on attracting potential customers and making them aware of your brand and offerings. Content at this stage aims to capture attention and generate interest. 

Content at this stage can include:

• Blog posts
• Social media updates
• Infographics
• Videos
• SEO and paid ads

Consideration 
In this stage, the goal is to engage and inform the audience, helping them understand more about your products or services and how they can solve their problems. Content should build trust in your brand and educate users on what you can offer.

Content at the Consideration stage includes:

• E-books
• Whitepapers
• Case studies
• Webinars
• Email marketing and lead magnets

Decision
The final stage of the funnel is about converting leads into customers. Content here is designed to persuade the audience to make a purchase decision. You’ll find more calls to action in this stage. It’s all about encouragement and making it as easy as possible for a user to become a customer.

Decision-level content often looks like this:

• Product demos
• Customer testimonials
• Free trials
• Comparison guides
• Personalised emails and direct sales outreach

Why are there so many versions - are they all the same? 

While any content marketing funnel will follow those broad steps listed above, many businesses operate with very different goals in mind. Some want a certain number of sales to consider their marketing a success, others may be looking for sign-ups to a newsletter. 

With that individualism in mind, over the years several different funnel styles have developed. You’ll see that they all follow the same structure of awareness, consideration and decision, but often with different strategies in mind.

Alternate funnels - a super quick guide
Here’s a super speedy overview of some of the most common funnel styles. See which ones might apply best to your business and marketing goals.

1. Inverted Funnel
Stages: Advocacy > loyalty > conversion > consideration > awareness. 
Most useful for: Brands that have strong customer bases and want to transform those customers into brand advocates. 

You start with reviews and testimonials, leading to membership programs and exclusive content, then on to personalised offers and sales, resulting in broad content pieces written to place your brand at the top of your industry.

2. Content Marketing Flywheel
Stages: Attract > engage > delight > promote. 
Most useful for: Brands looking to focus on long-term engagement and customer satisfaction, playing the slow game but garnering lifelong advocates for your brand.

You attract clients with SEO, PPC and social posts, then engage with them via newsletters and interactive content, leading to follow-up and personalised content, ending with customers that promote your brand through reviews, user-generated content and advocacy programs.

3. AIDA Model
Stages: Attention/Awareness > interest > desire > action. 
Most useful for: Brands with more straight-forward marketing goals such as sales for an ecommerce brand. You want to simply guide the user to your site and encourage them to make a purchase, nothing more.

This linear model starts with attention-grabbing copy and media, leading to more in-depth articles, social media content and email campaigns, resulting in building desire from the customer to buy from your brand, with product features and testimonials. This funnel’s end goal is to make it easy for a customer to be led to a sale, through strong CTA’s and free trials and demos of your products and services.

So, are they all the same?
Though selecting the right funnel for your brand’s requirements is vital to your marketing success, there are also some universal similarities running through each model.

Regardless of which model you choose to work with, each one is designed to align any content that you create for your brand to a fundamental goal, such as a conversion. The primary goal of any funnel is to guide the user, introducing them to your brand in a way that is most suitable for the end conversion, taking them past multiple points of learning and consideration along the way.

They go from being a stranger, to a lifelong customer, in the best-case scenario. 

Matching your content to the funnel stage

The trick to successfully integrating a funnel system with your content is all down to your intention. Why are you creating a specific piece of content? Who does it serve and what are they looking for at this stage of interaction with your brand? Get the intent of the content right and you’ll be well on your way.

Awareness stage
Your objective: Generate interest and attract traffic to your website and brand via social channels, website and content of various forms.

Content types: Think big and bold, generic and useful. The best content to create for this stage is anything easily shareable that is useful to your customers. Highly visual and engaging content such as blog posts, infographics, social media posts that highlight your products, and videos designed to grab attention.

SEO is a huge factor here to bring in an organic audience, alongside a dedicated PPC campaign to help improve visibility of your brand. You’ll also want to stay active on your chosen social media platforms to prep your audience ahead of any content drops.

Consideration stage
Your objective: This is all about education and anticipation, building trust in your brand. You want your customers to get excited and engaged with your brand, products and services. This will put you top of mind when they come to make a purchase in the future. 

Content types: This is an ideal opportunity to get into the details of your products and services. Customers will want to make informed decisions on what they buy, so give them the information they need, with case-studies, webinars, e-books and product guides.

Decision stage
Your objective: Now’s the time to get your audience to make a purchase, sign up to your newsletter, or schedule in your services. It’s time to get that conversion!

Content types: This final stage leans heavily on the power of suggestion, subtle or otherwise! Creating content like product demonstrations, customer testimonials, personalised emails and comparison guides highlighting your advantages over your competitors are all useful at this stage. Your customers want to be totally convinced that you are the perfect brand to purchase from. It’s time to put their minds at ease.

What are the benefits of this?

Ultimately, a content funnel strategy results in an improved customer experience overall. You’ve crafted a meaningful journey that is tailored to them, that caters to their needs at different stages, so any content feels purposeful rather than generic. Not only is it more useful, it’s not boring to them!

From a data perspective, it’s much easier to track different groups through separating them into these stages of the funnel, which in turn makes it easier to market to them in your PPC and SEO strategy.

Done the right way, this increases customer loyalty. Through creating meaningful and impactful content that fosters trust and likeability of your brand the overall perception of the quality of your brand will elevate, too.

What should you avoid?

A few final tips before you start your content funnel journey. Here’s what to avoid:

Skipping funnel stages - They lead so naturally on from one another, you’ll miss out on an important stage if you skip any of them at all.

Not selecting the best funnel model for your goals - You’ll get different results from an AIDA vs an Inverted model, so choose wisely.

Focusing too much on one stage of the funnel - Don’t feel like you need to build out one signal stage at a time. Cover all bases, otherwise you run the risk of looking inconsistent to new customers. 

Producing content that is generic - No one wants to be bored. In the era of largely similar AI generated content, now’s the time to stand out.

The bottom line…

In summary, your content and overall marketing strategy will benefit enormously from a content strategy funnel. This will lead to purposeful content designed to engage users in just the right way, guiding them to discover your brand and become a customer, without everything feeling like a hard sell.

By creating a strategic, stage-specific content plan, you can ensure that your content meets the needs of your audience at every stage, driving engagement and conversions.