Middle Funnel Marketing: All You Need to Know

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If you want to bridge the gap between your initial leads and loyal customers, the middle-funnel is where all the magic happens!


Investing in middle-funnel content is the glue that ultimately binds a successful sales funnel together.


To move your top-funnel leads to the next phase of their buyer journey, putting in the work at the middle-funnel is key — this means having set goals and strategies in place.


It can be challenging to navigate the world of sales funnels — but we won’t leave you in the dark with our easy-to-follow guide!


Let’s get into what it means to quite literally, meet your leads in the middle!

1. What is Middle-Funnel Marketing?

Middle-funnel marketing refers to all the resources a marketer offers to build trust and instill confidence in your business’ product or service.


It’s also known as the consideration and decision stage, your leads are considering whether to buy into your business offers and which one fits their needs best.


At the middle-funnel stage, you’ve generated the leads already in your database — you’ve got their attention, but now you want their engagement!

got attention

Source: Tumblr

The goals of your middle funnel marketing should include:

  • Taking your prospects from the awareness phase to the decision phase by educating them further about your offers
  • Nurturing leads, guiding them to go through with purchases
  • Inspiring an emotional connection with your prospects

Only about 6% of marketers rated their content marketing as highly effective.


It’s clear that most marketers need better ways to optimize their marketing strategies — in these cases, the middle-funnel is often overlooked and needs improving.


Your prospects at the middle are looking for a product that will provide solutions to their specific needs.


This is why an important aim of middle funnel content is lead nurturing, much like top-funnel content.


But since your leads have already taken an interest in your business, you’ve got a significant advantage.


While top-funnel content is about creating brand-prospect connections, the middle-funnel is where you strengthen those connections.


It’s important to note that your middle-funnel audience can be separated into 2 groups:

  • Existing customers who should be persuaded to continue supporting your business
  • New leads from the top-funnel that you want to convert into customers

With both groups, your goal is to persuade them to make a decision to choose your business.


So, how do you get your prospects to make that pivotal decision to become buyers?


Strategies for middle-funnel optimization are key, so let’s get into them!

2. Strategies to optimize your Middle-Funnel Marketing

Converting leads into paying customers requires effort, attention, and some fine-tuned strategies.


With these strategies in place, your middle-funnel content will be converting leads in no time!

2.1. Stand Out Against Your Competition

Stand Out Against Your Competition

Most leads at the middle-funnel are comparing your offers to similar competitors.


It’s absolutely essential that you educate your leads on your unique selling points (USPs) — these are aspects of your offers that no other businesses are matching.


A USP should be:

  • Substantiated by evidence — you have to prove that your business really is walking the walk
  • Directed at what your customers value
  • Aligned with your business values

How to find your USP:

  • List the features about your offer that are distinctive
  • Identify what emotional need is being met by your offer
  • Create a unique slogan that combines the special features, and emotional needs together
  • Your USP should be able to answer the vital question for your customer “What’s in it for me?”

FedEx, the international shipping service company has nailed their USP with the slogan: “When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.”


With solid USPs, you should be able to move your leads smoothly to the bottom funnel.

2.2. Keep Content Lead-Specific

Leads

Just like at the top-funnel, your middle content should have the needs and interests of your leads in mind.


Top-funnel content tends to just scrape the surface of what prospects are looking for.


Middle-funnel content gets your leads to the good stuff — here’s where you get to show leads that you’ve done your homework.


So how do you create lead-specific content?

  • Use the knowledge you have of your leads from the top-funnel to make your middle funnel content even more distinct
  • Know what appeals to your leads you’re not just targeting a large and vague audience anymore but a very specific group
  • Get up-close and personal — now that you know what pain points your leads are facing, give them personalized solutions

To identify what your leads want, ask some insightful reflective questions like:

  • What problem does my business offer a solution to?
  • What are my leads looking for in a product or service?
  • How can I help my leads make the best decision when choosing from my offers?
  • Is my business keeping track of how my leads’ needs might change?

2.3. Make Your Offer Irresistible

Make Your Offer Irresistible

Source: Deepstash

Your leads are looking for the best value for their money and will invest in the business that offers them just that.


Let your leads know that they are getting an unmatched deal by adding some perks to your offer.


These are benefits that make people feel they’re really getting their money’s worth.


Some examples of irresistible offer benefits include:

  • Discounted first-month subscriptions
  • Free trials, eBooks, access to courses, the list goes on
  • Free shipping

The key take-aways here? Free and discounted offers!


When sending out emails to your list, you could promote these with subject lines like:

  • 50% off our course for 1 day
  • Free eBook inside
  • Free shipping on your first purchase
Dodocase

Source: Dodocase

Leads are likely to be hesitant to spend at first, show them that your business is worth every dime, without having them reach for the credit card just yet.

2.4. Lessen the Friction Points

Lessen the Friction Points

Source: Answerhero

The middle of the funnel is where some friction may occur.


Friction is a result of a gap between top-funnel content and middle-funnel content.


This is when some marketers don’t deliver high-quality content in the middle of the funnel, and as a result, leads become disinterested.


As a marketer, you want to ensure that your leads get the best buyer experience possible.


Friction points usually occur when:

  • Middle-funnel content is not specific enough to provide leads with the right solutions to their problems
  • There is a gap in communication with leads — emails aren’t regularly sent, or marketers might not provide enough informative content
  • Leads become disinterested if your content isn’t enticing enough, so the quality of your middle-funnel content is very important

To make sure the buyer transition from top to middle-funnel runs smoothly, it’s important to become accustomed to the leads’ previous engagement activities.


So how do you reduce friction?

  • Ensure that you stay informed about customer needs and desires which sometimes might change as they move from the top to the middle-funnel
  • Keep up the communication with leads — continue putting in the effort and provide informative content like FAQ pages, email newsletters, etc.
  • Keep leads interested — make sure your middle funnel content is enticing and get your leads excited to purchase your offer

If you provide informed, high-quality middle-funnel content, ideally you’ll pique the interest of your leads and have them follow through with your offer!

2.5. Research what Persuaded Your Existing Customers

Research what Persuaded Your Existing Customers

As a business owner, it’s good to focus on your successes — but most importantly on how you achieved them.


Research what middle-funnel content works best by determining what types of previous middle-funnel content propelled existing customers to the buying stage.


On the other end of the spectrum, it would also be useful to see what types of previous content didn’t bring positive outcomes to your business — this way you’ll know which mistakes to avoid in the future.


By researching previous lead behavior, you’re able to:

  • Create better middle-funnel content in the future
  • Become more informed about buying intent
  • Save time, money, and effort

3. Middle Funnel Marketing Ideas

These middle-funnel content ideas won’t only get the job done, but they’ll help make a lasting impact on your leads.


Get your marketing efforts to pay off by kicking some of these content ideas into gear!

3.1. Email Newsletters

Email Newsletters

Keep your leads in the loop by sending out regular email newsletters — this will show your leads that you’re up to date with current trends.


Newsletters should inform your leads of what your business is up to, this means new promotions, discounts, or offers.


The best rate of frequency for sending out newsletters is at least once a week, and no more than twice a week — remember, you don’t want to come across as overbearing or your leads will lose interest.


Newsletters won’t only regularly remind leads of your business but will instill a sense that they’re valuable to you.


Whilst leads may not need your product right away, they might need it in the future, and by staying in touch, you’ll be first on their mind.

3.2. Drip Email Campaign

Drip Email Campaign

Creating a drip email campaign plays an important role in the lead nurturing process and helps to build rapport.


A drip email campaign is automated, so it saves time whilst keeping vital engagement with your leads.


Systeme.io can help you do just that, there’s no need to look too far!

3.3. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Who are we? Leads. What do we want? Answers.


Many leads at the middle-funnel will have questions about your offers before deciding to go through with them.


Having a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page will give your leads the answers they need at the click of a button.


This will also build leads’ confidence in your business, showing them that you’re capable and informed of their needs.

3.4. Free Access to Tools

Free Access to Tools

What better way to show the capabilities of your business than to give leads free access to useful and interactive tools?


An ROI calculator is a great example. This tool helps customers predict their possible returns should they buy into your product or service.


Offering free access (usually for a limited time period) to any tool that showcases your business’ expertise is a good idea — it depends entirely on what your niche is.


For example, if you’re in the online business industry, you could offer a month’s free access to sales funnel tools.


If you’re offering an e-learning service, giving your leads access to a free course would be suitable.


You can get creative — tools are specific to your industry and what your business can offer.

3.5. White Papers

Source: Openledger

Though sometimes used at the top-funnel, white papers make for great middle-funnel content.


They fulfill the essential purpose of providing leads with informative content, further details, and solutions to common problems.


White papers help your leads make informed decisions and show that your business means business!

3.6. Testimonials

Testimonials

Source: FreshBooks

Using testimonials shows your leads how you’ve helped solve similar problems to theirs in the past.


Testimonials display that your business has a proven track record of success — because people are result-driven, this is really effective at attracting your leads’ attention.


They’re also a powerful tool for convincing your leads to make that final decision of buying into your offer.

4. Creative Examples of Middle-Funnel Marketing

A good place to start when creating your middle-funnel content is to have a look at what content other successful businesses have implemented.


Let’s delve into what these businesses have done right!

4.1. Amazon’s Email Drip Campaign

 Amazon’s Email Drip Campaign

Source: Vero

It’s no secret that Amazon has had exponential success as a multinational technology company.


But just like any other online business, it has to deliver expert middle-funnel content.


One aspect that has propelled Amazon’s high-ranking status, is its email marketing campaigns.


When you create an account with Amazon, you receive promotional emails regularly.


This is a great tool that has helped convert many of Amazon’s leads into customers.

4.2. Facebook FAQ page

Facebook Help Centre

Source: Facebook Help Centre

Social media platforms didn’t start out with billions of users, they started small, and Facebook is no exception.


Facebook currently has over 2.85 billion users, and that number continues to grow — need we say more about the importance of high-quality middle-funnel content?


Facebook has an informative FAQ page that users can access at the click of a button — these questions include everything from privacy settings to business page settings.


Users like easy access to an active help page, and Facebook has mastered just that.


If your users are struggling to find the information they need, you’ll be more likely to lose their conversions and sales.

4.3. Systeme.io’s Testimonials

Systeme.io’s Testimonials

Source: systeme.io

Systeme.io is an online business launching service that provides you with all the tools you need to get started.


With over 8000 users globally, testimonials have played an important part in how we’ve grown our customer base at a fast rate.


We’ve delivered top-notch service to many satisfied customers.


Some of our stand-out features that have been highlighted by many impressed customers are our user-friendly and simple funnel-building tools.


The world of launching an online business is a whole lot simpler for systeme.io customers, and this is why they keep coming back!


By displaying our testimonials, leads can see that we have a history of success — which builds their trust and ultimately converts them into customers!

5. Conclusion

Much attention has been paid to top-and bottom-funnel optimization — but don’t underestimate the importance of enticing middle-funnel content!


Your leads will stick with your business to the end if you align with their needs in the middle of their buyer journey.


Systeme.io is the ideal online business launching tool and has all the tools you need for creating striking middle-funnel content.


From email marketing campaigns to automated marketing we can make your middle-funnel content top of the line!


Sign up for your Freemium plan today and let us do the work!

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