Top of the Funnel Marketing Made Simple

Do you want to generate leads that'll follow through with your business offers?

Top-funnel marketing is where it all begins, so you want to focus all your efforts on attracting potential customers.

About 81% of consumers will conduct research online before deciding to make a purchase — continuously comparing you to your competitors.

Prospects will be more likely to follow through with your business offer if the top-funnel content appeals to their interests and needs.

So, how do you create high-quality top-funnel content that'll give your audience an offer they can’t resist?

We’ll let you in on some key knowledge on how to do this!

But first, let's get into the formation of the marketing sales funnel.

A sales funnel consists of the stages that prospective buyers pass through before they decide to buy into your business offer.

Marketing starts with building a large pool of interest at the top, which ideally narrows down to buyer action at the bottom.

So, let’s take a trip down the sales funnel!

Blogging is a superb way to use keywords that will target your specific audience and ultimately makes it easier for prospects to discover your online business.

Use blogging as an opportunity for your business to personally relate to the goals, needs, and concerns of your audience.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is an integral component of effective blogging because it makes your content easily discoverable on Google and other search engines.

eBooks can show your prospects that you’re knowledgeable and serious about your specific market.

They also provide helpful and informative content — ideally at the top-funnel, you want to show your prospects that you’re both informed about their needs and that you can help.

A good tactic is to offer a free eBook in exchange for their contact information — like email addresses, this way they can be regularly informed about your future offers.

Email marketing has an impressive success rate and can significantly speed up the prospect journey down the sales funnel.

Sending out emails creates a personal connection with your prospects and encourages them to engage further with your business — engagement is key!

Your email content is your ticket to generating sales — make sure that it captivates attention and that it’s solution-orientated.

Video advertising is one of the best strategies to get your prospects’ attention — their audio-visual nature serves as a key component in getting prospects interested.

People like to see proven results in a business, so take full advantage of this by incorporating testimonials in your videos.

Short videos which showcase your existing customers’ satisfactory results, and success stories with your product, can go a long way in terms of generating leads.

A strong social media presence is a definitive asset in the digital marketing world, as well as a useful tool to attract attention to your brand.

Posting regular content about your business offers on social media platforms, like Instagram and Facebook, can help increase traffic to your website as well as promote offer exposure.

Social media is also a suitable platform to converse with prospects and gain priceless contact information to send out promotions.

But, that’s not all you’re limited to, the list is just about endless!

Additional top-funnel content includes:

A call-to-action (CTA) facilitates the transition from the awareness phase at the top of the funnel to the engagement phase in the middle.

When your prospects come to your website, there may be some skepticism at play.

Adding a compelling call-to-action allows your audience to opt-in to learn more and will guide them to the next step of the sales funnel — engagement!

Some phrases to use in your CTA’s:

Use these phrases and you’ll be right on your way to action and engagement from prospects!

Online shoppers are constantly bombarded with various businesses advertising the same products.

This can make it difficult for them to choose the right fit.

Having a unique selling point sets you apart from competitors.

The top of the funnel is where you display to your prospects that your business is worth their time, effort, and trust.

Try highlighting your USPs by displaying aspects of your business that no other competitors offer in your specific market.

Researching what your target audience is looking for will save you time and money — and will make sure that you're advertising to the right people.

Conducting surveys to a group of people will help narrow down your prospects, guaranteeing you secure the leads that will follow through to the end of your funnel.

Your top-funnel content should resonate with your target audience, which means you need to relate to your prospects as much as possible — your leads will be more specific too!

Creating and sharing educational content shows your prospects that your business is a well-positioned expert in its field.

Research findings from Conductor have shown that having educational content makes prospective buyers 131% more likely to buy from you— that’s an impressive degree of advantage!

Your educational content should be centered on building trust, providing expert solutions to prospects, and proving your product’s worth.

Identify the keywords that grab the attention of your target audience — this is especially important for SEO and will increase traffic to your website exponentially.

Keywords are a crucial part of the awareness stage, prospects can’t choose your business if they don’t know it exists.

Keywords are the link between what your prospects are searching for and what you can offer them — they help you identify and speak the language of your target market.

Knowing your target audience is also an important task here.

Applying the right keywords correlates with understanding your target audience’s search behavior.

Hulu is a streaming platform for subscription videos on demand.

They’ve mastered their top-funnel content, allowing them to rack up over 39.4 million paying subscribers.

How did they do this?

First, their customers enter the top-funnel where awareness takes place.

Here, they are directed to the landing page where there is a CTA to opt-in for a free trial — and later, ideally, become paying customers to access the streaming service.

Mixergy is an online platform that sells courses, interviews, and other content created by well-established and successful entrepreneurs.

Their company’s success is a result of their top-notch marketing strategy at the upper-funnel.

Their funnel begins with an informative free interview video that prospects can access by sharing their email address.

This gets prospects interested, moving their leads to the next phase where they can choose to subscribe to a premium plan — here they can learn more about start-ups.

If you’re an avid social media user, you have likely come across an advertisement for Audible.

Audible is an online audiobook and podcast service which allows users to access a wide range of audio content for a monthly subscription fee.

Their advertising has been prominent on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, with over 5 million page likes on Facebook.

A large social media following has allowed them to generate impressive leads by giving prospects a 30-day free trial.