How to Produce Content That Doubles Your Sales Funnel Conversion Rate

Come on, do you really expect your new leads to purchase your product without any form of resistance?

If it happens, great. But in real life, it doesn’t work that way.

Trust me, pushing promotional messages to strangers, even though they have just subscribed to your email list isn’t going to help. If anything, it’d discourage them from buying your product.

Content can help you build trust with your target audience. In fact, 76% of marketers plan to create more content in the future. Are you investing in the right content?

Smart marketers know that a relationship isn’t built in a day. Hence, they use the sales funnel to woo the cold lead until they agree to a date, and as soon as there’s a level of trust in the mix—getting these people to purchase any product or service becomes easier.

If you’ve done everything right to generate leads, and you’re excited about your next move, this article will help you understand the sales funnel better—and will give you insights on how to produce content that will double your conversion rate.

What is a sales funnel?

I’ll make it as simple as possible. A sales funnel consists of different stages that a potential customer is expected to go through before making a purchase.

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Though it’s popularly referred to as “sales” funnel, in reality it’s at the heart of your marketing strategy.

In essence, your focus isn’t to get the prospect to quickly purchase your product and leave, but rather,​establish a long-term relationship with them.

That’s marketing, right?

Guide customers in their buying journey

From looking at your website to placing an order, the sales funnel is expected to walk the prospect through the different stages, nurture them, and help them see how great their lives could be—if they try your offer.

Before you can create compelling content that will align with the prospect’s goals and aspirations, you must know the stage they’re in and speak their language.

In most cases, here’s the three-stage funnel to pay rapt attention to:

i). Top of the Funnel (TOFU): This is usually the awareness stage. This is where people are asking questions, making complaints and expecting responses on discussion boards. They want answers, directions, opinions, and more.

ii). Middle of the Funnel (MOFU): This is the stage where “evaluation” takes place. Having read through blog posts, received answers to their questions, seen the latest research work, prospects aren’t satisfied yet. In fact, they are usually confused at this stage.

Hence, they spend most of their time researching, weighing the options, and continuing to evaluate whether they should get this online course or just purchase an ebook, watch video tutorials or download a worksheet.

iii). Bottom of the Funnel (BOFU): Eventually, this is the stage we want our cold leads to get to. It’s the “purchase” stage—and it’s expected that before people get here, you must have proven that you have all it takes to help them.

Because, after they have purchased from you, they’re now your customers and you have a responsibility to cater to them.

That said, are you ready to create irresistible content that will speak directly to your “leads” at every stage of the funnel? According to Toprankblog, 65% of marketers are confused and don’t know the type of content to create, and when to create it.

Do you know why lead nurturing matters?

Listen up, ​the top of the funnel (TOFU) is very wide. This means you can use several marketing channels and strategies such as social media, referral traffic, word of mouth, SEO, native advertising, blogging, among ​others, to drive leads to your funnel.

Sadly, about 73% of the people are not even ready to be sold to. Of course, you’ll likely attract qualified leads ​but almost half of these people want to be certain that your product is right for them.

In other words, they’re not ready to buy. They need to be educated, engaged and nurtured. They need to trust you—how long it would take is relative—it will depend on your niche, and how responsive prospects are.

Creating content they can’t resist

1) Creating irresistible content for “Top of the Funnel”

At the top of the funnel, you have the opportunity to answer common questions the prospect is asking.

A typical FAQs page can be boring at times, so it’s better to produce an interesting article that addresses each one of the common questions.

More so, people don’t want to hear the benefits of your product or service at this stage.

To drive people into your funnel, you need to create educational content (e.g., ebooks, blog posts, and “how to” guides.

Essentially, you don’t have to manipulate, cajole, or use any unworthy technique to exploit the prospect at this stage.

2) Content for Middle of the Funnel

In permission marketing, no one can move into the middle of the funnel without first giving you their personal information (i.e., name and email address).

In this evaluation stage, people are aware of their problems, the intensity of what they’re going through at the moment, and why they don’t seem to get results. You’ve captured their full attention.

The truth of the matter is, you don’t really need to appeal to everyone at this stage. Because if you do, you would run into muddy waters trying to retain customers who are not convinced about your brand.

Since people are still evaluating the best solutions for them, hosting webinars, live demos, behind-the-scene videos, and other forms of content that deliver a memorable and live experience for the prospect is ideal.

Sure, blog posts would work, but make them long-form, step-by-step based, and include lots of screenshots, slides, and other multimedia content.

​3) Content ideas for "Bottom of the Funnel"

So far, you’ve done a great job nurturing your lead. From their first contact with you, down to the middle of the funnel, you have been truly helpful. Now, it’s time to get the sales.

Don’t be boring. And you don’t have to apologize for promoting your product (of course, in the most appropriate manner).

Create original and persuasive blog posts, showcase exclusive data, show results, capture screenshots of your earnings/traffic, create live demos, conduct free strategy sessions, consultations, give away coupons and discount codes, share case studies, give away free versions of your app, and more.

Here’s a persuasive case study from Frac.tl that’s geared at getting prospects to hire them.

Conclusion

The perfect time to build high-converting sales funnel for your lead generation and nurturing campaign is now. The good news is, if you nurture your leads, studies show that you’ll see a 450% increase in qualified prospects.

Most importantly, if you strategically nurture and establish trust with your qualified prospects, your sales conversion rate can grow by 50% at a 33% lower cost.

All you need is to create the right content, for the right people, at the right time. Hopefully, this article has given you a wake-up call to go out there and do it. Will you?