How to Build a Full-Funnel Marketing Strategy (w/ Example)

10 months ago 66

Strategies involving full-funnel selling and omnichannel selling tin beryllium confusing. Many articles connected the taxable sermon analyzable KPIs and extremity tracking. This usher keeps it simple.

Rather than giving you unnecessary details, this nonfiction aims to thatch you however to physique a elemental and effectual full-funnel selling strategy truthful you tin people imaginable buyers astatine each stages of your lawsuit journey. 

I’ll besides springiness you real-world examples to assistance you recognize and travel along.

What is full-funnel marketing?

Full-funnel selling means creating specialized contented for each portion of the marketing funnel: apical of the funnel, mediate of the funnel, and bottommost of the funnel.

Content for each portion of the funnel has a antithetic extremity and a antithetic audience, arsenic shown successful the graphic below: 

The selling  funnel that's made up   of 3  parts

Let’s interruption these down further, with examples:

Top of the funnel (TOFU)

Top-of-the-funnel marketing is aimed astatine customers who whitethorn not adjacent beryllium alert of your brand/product oregon a occupation you tin assistance them fix. 

The largest assemblage usually falls nether TOFU due to the fact that radical successful this signifier don’t person specialized cognition similar those farther down the funnel—which is wherefore it’s besides the biggest portion of the funnel.

For example, we wrote a usher to reply the question, “What is SEO?” 

Someone searching for that question connected Google astir apt doesn’t cognize what it is oregon that Ahrefs adjacent exists—let unsocial recognize wherefore our bundle is important. This is TOFU content.

Middle of the funnel (MOFU)

Middle-of-the-funnel selling is aimed astatine radical who cognize they person a occupation but don’t yet cognize what the solution is. The funnel is opening to get smaller astatine this stage.

Our usher to keyword research is simply a bully illustration of MOFU marketing. 

Someone searching “keyword research” astir apt understands basal SEO but whitethorn oregon whitethorn not beryllium alert that Ahrefs exists to assistance them with it. They are person to becoming a lawsuit than idiosyncratic searching for beginner accusation but whitethorn not beryllium acceptable to propulsion the trigger yet.

Bottom of the funnel (BOFU)

Bottom-of-the-funnel selling is aimed astatine radical who cognize what their occupation is and are considering your products oregon services to lick it. This is typically the smallest, astir targeted information of the funnel.

A large illustration of BOFU contented is our examination of Ahrefs vs. SEMrush.

Someone searching “ahrefs vs semrush” is apt acceptable to bargain but isn’t definite which merchandise to spell with. Our examination leafage helps usher them to making the last acquisition decision.

There’s besides full-funnel content…

It’s imaginable to instrumentality idiosyncratic done the full funnel successful a azygous portion of content. 

For example, our “What Is SEO?” usher takes idiosyncratic from not knowing what SEO is, to knowing wherefore it tin lick their problem, to knowing however Ahrefs can help. 

Be connected the lookout for opportunities similar this truthful you tin maximize income with little effort.

Why is full-funnel selling important?

It’s important to make contented oregon media for each stages of the funnel. If you don’t, you volition miss retired connected a batch of imaginable customers.

Most companies absorption solely connected BOFU marketing, which volition usually person the highest conversion rates. However, it is besides typically the astir costly and competitory signifier of the funnel. 

Including TOFU and MOFU selling efforts broadens your excavation of imaginable customers and plants seeds for aboriginal growth.

In fact, a Nielsen meta-analysis of CPG campaigns recovered that full-funnel selling strategies person up to 45% higher ROI and 7% increases successful offline income compared to single-funnel campaigns.

How to make a full-funnel selling strategy that converts

You tin make an effectual full-funnel selling strategy successful five steps:

  1. Mapping your customer’s journey
  2. Choosing your selling channel
  3. Setting your KPIs
  4. Creating content
  5. Tracking show and tweaking based on data

Step 1. Map your customer’s journey

Before anything, you should walk immoderate clip knowing however your customers spell from nary consciousness of your marque to making a purchase—i.e., the buyer’s journey.

The buyer’s travel is breached down into 3 stages:

  1. Awareness
  2. Consideration
  3. Decision

Here’s an illustration buyer’s travel for a caller Ahrefs customer: 

Potential buyer's travel  of Billy Blogger

Our lawsuit whitethorn statesman by looking for ways to get much traffic—without immoderate cognition of SEO oregon Ahrefs. From there, helium whitethorn determine to prosecute SEO, recognize helium needs tools, and statesman researching what is available. Finally, helium whitethorn determine to acquisition an Ahrefs subscription.

To uncover a customer’s travel applicable to your business, enactment yourself successful the customers’ shoes. 

Who are your customers? What problems bash they person that you tin solve? How bash they find the solution to these problems? How tin you make contented to beryllium a portion of this journey?

Of course, everyone’s travel is antithetic and each you tin truly bash present is effort to recognize however imaginable customers are apt to marque decisions, past usage content/media to guide them.

Step 2. Choose your selling channel

Trying to make a full-funnel selling strategy for aggregate channels astatine the aforesaid clip is simply a surefire mode to termination your program earlier it adjacent gets going.

Instead, it’s amended to take 1 transmission astatine archetypal and develop, execute, and way its show until you make a strategy that works—then determination connected to another.

You tin take from immoderate of the societal media platforms, paid advertising, and many different selling channels. However, astatine Ahrefs, we absorption connected integrated hunt by performing SEO.

SEO is large for full-funnel selling due to the fact that you tin people keywords crossed the funnel, fertile them successful Google search, and get accordant postulation period after month.

For example, our portion connected how to get much website traffic (TOFU content) gets an estimated 1K–2K monthly hunt visits, according to Ahrefs:

Organic postulation   for Ahrefs' nonfiction  connected  however  to get   much  website traffic

Our list of escaped SEO tools (MOFU content) gets an estimated 36K visits:

Organic postulation   for Ahrefs' nonfiction  connected  escaped  SEO tools

And adjacent our Ahrefs vs. SEMrush vs. Moz comparison (BOFU content) gets an estimated 1.2K visits:

Organic postulation   for Ahrefs' nonfiction  connected  comparisons betwixt  Ahrefs and its competitors

It’s besides imaginable that by creating contented for each signifier of the funnel, you tin really person compounding results due to the fact that Google’s hunt algorithm cares astir topical authority. In different words, if you screen each the topics targeting keywords crossed the full funnel—not conscionable the BOFU keywords—your wide rankings whitethorn improve.

Hopefully, it’s wide to spot wherefore we absorption truthful overmuch connected this channel.

If SEO sounds close for your business, cheque retired our implicit SEO contented strategy guide.

Step 3. Choose your KPIs

This is wherever different guides whitethorn get complicated. But don’t worry, I’ll support it ace simple.

Key show indicators (KPIs) are metrics that you tin way to support tabs connected however good (or poorly) your selling is performing truthful you tin accommodate your strategy accordingly. 

KPIs could beryllium anything: website traffic, extremity conversions and attributions, clip connected page, bounce rate, etc.

But I urge you commencement with a azygous KPI: traffic.

Traffic to your contented is 1 of the easiest and strongest indicators of however good your selling efforts are performing. Typically, much postulation = more sales.

Now, you don’t conscionable privation postulation for traffic’s sake. But if you’re targeting the close keywords and creating contented astir your selling funnel, postulation to those pages is simply a bully indicator that your efforts are working. 

What qualifies arsenic occurrence present varies depending connected your niche. Some niches are low-volume and hyper-competitive, portion others person a batch of high-volume keywords. The important happening is seeing your postulation numbers summation over time. 

You tin way postulation utilizing Google Analytics and Google Search Console. If you’re utilizing GA4, caput to Engagement > Overview and scroll down to spot your views.

Google Analytics 4 engagement overview chart

Another coagulated KPI that goes manus successful manus with traffic—if you’re utilizing SEO arsenic a strategy—is keyword rankings. The higher you fertile for a fixed keyword, the much postulation you’ll get.

Personally, I cheque Ahrefs astatine slightest erstwhile a week to spot however my websites are performing. I’ve been successful concern for implicit 10 years, and the wide website postulation and keyword rankings are inactive my main KPIs (alongside wide profits) to find whether my efforts are moving or not.

I’ll speech astir my tracking process successful measurement #5. For now, it’s clip to rotation our sleeves up.

Step 4. Create content

Now that you person your strategy successful spot and cognize what your KPIs are, it’s clip to statesman creating your content. 

What benignant of contented you make depends connected your niche and selling channel. I can’t perchance screen them each successful this article. So instead, I’ll presume you’re going with my proposal connected utilizing SEO arsenic your main postulation channel.

The archetypal measurement successful creating a full-funnel SEO strategy for your website is keyword research

This is the process of uncovering what keywords your imaginable customers are searching for connected Google astatine each signifier of the funnel. The simplest mode to bash this is by plugging a effect keyword into Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer and filtering the results to acceptable your needs. 

For example, successful the awareness/TOFU signifier of Billy Blogger’s purchaser journey, I would commencement with a effect keyword similar “website traffic” and look astatine the keyword ideas. 

Keyword ideas for "website traffic," via Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer

Right away, I spot 2 imaginable articles from these ideas:

  • How to cheque your website’s traffic
  • How to thrust postulation to your website

I tin past repetition this with antithetic effect keywords for each funnel signifier to get more ideas. 

For the MOFU stage, I tin hunt “seo” arsenic the effect keyword. This gives maine keywords similar “what is seo,” “how to bash seo,” “seo champion practices,” and more.

For the BOFU stage, I tin participate wide keywords that are circumstantial to my product, specified arsenic “ahrefs,” “best seo tool,” etc.

For much keyword probe tactics, cheque retired these different guides and tools:

After you decorativeness your keyword research, you tin prioritize which keywords to make contented for archetypal based connected a operation of hunt volume, keyword difficulty, and proximity to the bottommost of the funnel. I similar to make my BOFU contented first, past MOFU, past TOFU—simply due to the fact that contented person to the bottommost usually converts better.

Once you person your people keywords successful mind, it’s clip to create search-optimized content. There’s a batch to larn here, but I’ll interruption it down into 5 basal steps (you tin work the linked articles for a much in-depth look):

  1. Determine the hunt intent of the keyword you privation to rank for
  2. Create a contented outline if penning a blog station oregon landing page
  3. Follow my SEO penning tips portion penning the content
  4. Publish the contented and execute immoderate basic on-page SEO
  5. Learn nexus building to assistance your website and articles summation authority

That’s each determination is to it. There are much nuances to SEO, of course, but the basics are simple: Create high-quality contented that matches the hunt intent of your people keyword, past physique interior and outer links to that contented to beryllium its trustworthiness.

Step 5. Track show and marque tweaks

Once you’ve published immoderate articles and started promoting them, you request to way those KPIs implicit clip to spot however good they’re performing.

Again, Google Analytics and Google Search Console tin assistance you way your traffic. But if you besides privation to way keyword rankings similar I mentioned, you tin bash truthful with Ahrefs’ Rank Tracker.

Simply plug successful your website and the keywords you privation to track, and you’ll beryllium shown a dashboard with your existent rankings and which pages are ranking for which keywords.

Ahrefs' Rank Tracker report

This is simply a large mode to spot however good your pages are performing for your chosen keywords, but I besides similar to look astatine my websites successful Ahrefs’ Site Explorer by diving into the Organic keywords and Top pages reports. 

The Organic keywords study volition amusement you all the keywords you’re ranking for, arsenic good arsenic springiness you the enactment to comparison existent rankings to erstwhile rankings. 

Organic keywords report, via Ahrefs' Site Explorer

If you announcement you’re losing rankings implicit time, that’s a motion you whitethorn request to refresh your content to support it applicable and support your funnel working.

The Top pages report, connected the different hand, volition amusement you which pages are your apical performers successful presumption of postulation and fig of ranking keywords. This is large to spot which parts of the funnel are performing the best, allowing you to make much of what’s working.

For example, our blog station connected affiliate marketing is our top-performing nonfiction connected the full site:

Top pages report, via Ahrefs' Site Explorer

This tells america it’s astir apt a bully thought to make much contented astir affiliate selling which, for us, is simply a MOFU topic. We’ve published dozens of articles astir affiliate selling since learning however good this 1 is performing, and they’re present bringing successful thousands of caller visitors every month.

Lastly, the Top pages study is the cleanable mode to determine which pages to invest successful conversion optimization to amended the fig of leads and income you’re getting from your highest-traffic pages.

Final thoughts

Full-funnel marketing, erstwhile done right, tin maximize your income and minimize your costs. And luckily for you, it doesn’t person to beryllium that complicated.

In short: Try to recognize your customers, make contented for each measurement successful their buyer’s journey, past way however that contented is performing and tweak your strategy based connected the data.

Questions oregon comments? Ping maine on Twitter.

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