We’ve all been there. When we’re so close to making a sale, but something goes wrong, and another potential lead falls through the cracks.
This is especially heartbreaking in the B2B world, where consumers are not as impulsive, and it can take from 6 to 12 months to convert a lead into a buyer.
However, that’s where the sales funnel comes in.
In simple terms, a sales funnel is the journey your potential customers go through to transform from leads to buyers.
By creating a sales funnel, you can understand what your prospects are thinking at each stage of their journey. You're then able to mould their journey by providing the right content at the right time.
Understanding your audience and their journey is a brilliant way to develop and make the most out of your B2B content marketing strategy.
The typical B2B sales funnel consists of three key stages. These are:
Top of Funnel (The Awareness Stage) – This content is all about bringing in leads.
Middle of Funnel (The Consideration Stage) – This stage is about nurturing them and showing them why your brand is worth the investment.
Bottom of Funnel (Purchase Stage) – This stage is to seal the deal and transform them into buyers and loyal brand advocates.
So, what types of content is suitable for each stage? To break it down, we like to consider the three stages of the funnel as follows.
This stage is where people first become aware of your product or service.
In this stage, we recommend creating long-form content with sound SEO to help you rank high on search engines and generate organic traffic. This can include blog articles and eBooks.
You can also create short-form content (often based on the long-form content) to post on social media platforms and get your audience talking.
Starting conversations within your community is a distinctive way to show that you’re a proactive thought leader within the industry and your voice should be heard.
Once you’ve shown the world who you are, the consideration stage follows. This is where a prospect takes an interest in your product or service and becomes more invested in your brand.
At this stage of the funnel, content such as case studies, drip email campaigns, and newsletters come in handy.
They share who you are, what you do, proven problems you’ve solved and the results that have stemmed from it and so forth.
At this stage, your prospects could also look into who you are as a brand. What are your core values, and do you live up to them? Do your values align with theirs, and how can you prove it?
These are all the questions you should ask yourself and incorporate in your B2B content marketing strategy.
This is the final stage when a prospect decides to buy from you. Here, you can continue conversations through emails, how-to guides and so on.
Regardless of what stage of the sales funnel your prospects are in, it’s always good practice to continuously follow up with them.
Did you know that 80% of sales require five follow-up calls after a meeting? Why? Because you’re not the only contender in the space.
Although you may have a unique selling point, if there is anything we’ve learnt since the pandemic, it’s that we need to approach B2B prospects with a ‘serve not sell’ mentality.
By doing this, you can help speed along the sales process and ensure they remain loyal to your brand.
You can do this through various content marketing techniques, including:
- Drip emails
- Newsletters
- Follow up calls
- Personalised content
- Events and so on.
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