Bottom of the Funnel (BOFU) Content Marketing

OK, it’s point of sale time.

What types of content will your new lead need to make an informed purchase decision?

Here are a few…

• Demos/Free Trials

• Customer Stories

• Comparison/Spec Sheets

• Webinars/Events

• Mini-Classes

Your lead may be reading your blog and downloading lead magnets (and it will help convert her), but you’ll need content that helps her decide between you and your competitor to move her through to purchase.

Notice how Salesforce supplies leads in the bottom of the funnel with plenty of customer stories to prove that their product can handle that lead’s circumstances…

Customer success stories are smart BOFU content.

Salesforce.com has dozens of these customer stories—one for every major industry, product offering, and size of business.

Customer stories are content that converts, and they are the responsibility of the content marketing team.

Consider this piece of content designed to assist prospective Quickbooks customers in choosing the right solution:

At the bottom of the funnel, prospects are comparison shopping, so comparison sheets make smart BOFU content.

But Quickbooks could earn some points by comparing their tools to their competitors’ tools as well. For instance, a Google search suggests that a comparison sheet between Quickbooks and their competitors (such as Xero) is another piece of content that should be on the radar of the Intuit content marketing team.

Google’s suggestions are a good source for content ideas.

And while we’re at it, look at all the bottom-of-funnel (BOFU) content Xero’s content marketing team has built:

And…

Brand comparisons are good BOFU content.

Customer stories are great BOFU content.

And…

The best BOFU content answers last-minute questions and gives prospects a reason to buy.

Is creating top of funnel (TOFU) content on a blog important? Absolutely.

But failing to build a full-funnel content plan will leave you disappointed in your content marketing results.