Why you need to know about The Lead Generation Funnel 

A lead generation funnel is a representation of your customer’s journey.The whole aim of warming them up to the idea that they get to buy from you.

1.  From the time they visit your website. 
2. To the point, they like you enough to give you their contact information. 
3. The last stage when they trust you enough to give you their money.

Having a lead funnel will nature them down a particular sequence. You will be walking with your web visitor on a road map. .

You need to understand this process. Statistics show that 50 % of the people are not willing to buy from the very first interaction they have with you. 

By the time you are getting to the final stage of your road, you will realize that a very small percentage of the people who expressed interest are ready to buy your product. It might take  longer before you get to the place where a buyer gets to the stage where a potential customer:

1. Know you
2. Like you and
3. They can trust you with their money.

You will need to be patient with the whole process of generating leads. Don’t focus on making the sale right away, since this is more than likely not happen in the first instance.

Instead, focus on nurturing your potential customers. When they are ready to buy you can handle them over to the sales team so that they can do the final closing.

Content is Critical to Your Funnel

You will create content that will guide the potential customer down the lead funnel.

Here is an example of content that you can create:

1. Blog posts
2. An e-book
3. Print magazine
4. Primary research
5. Social media updates
6. Photos
7. Case study
8. Podcast audios
9. Videos

Content is the tool that you use to turn your lead into a prospect. Then turn a prospect into a customer. Later on, turn that customer into a regular buying loyal customer.

Segment Your Campaigns

You need to segment your campaigns. That way you can know what stage of the buyer’s journey your prospect is on. Then you can create content that they will be automatically attracted to read. Because they can resonate with them.

Your content needs to solve or provide solutions to your visitor’s problem at that particular point in their life. This will cause them to engage with your content and even respond to your call to action and buy.

Stages of The Funnel & The Type of Content to Create

Top of the Funnel Content (TOFU)

The lead generation process starts when your audience visits your website. Remember that at this particular stage, your website already has content.

 Remember to redistribute your content to different micro blogging sites. This could be platforms such as:

1. Twitter 
2. Tumbler
3.  Facebook
4.  Linked in
5.  Pintrest, and even other blog sites.

The top of the funnel content is meant to provide general information. It could address the problem that your potential customer might be going through. and also talk about the solutions. 

The goal of the top of the funnel content is to provide people with enough information that they trust you. Since you, are providing them with enough free valuable information. They will become more aware of the existence of your brand. 

Examples of Top of the Funnel Content include:

1. Short videos. – You can create less than ten minutes of videos that are meant to connect with your audience. 
2. Social media posts. – You could mix up the kind of content that you are posting daily on your social media. Post news about what’s happening in your industry, memes and inspirational stuff that’s in your niche
3. Infographic. – Present to your audience about a problem, a question or even a topic in a graphic representation.
4. Blogs – Do your keyword research in advance. This will help you know the questions, topics that your target audience is already searching for. Then write an article about that keyword. Watch as the magic of the search engine happening.

The secret for this stage is that you should continuously provide your customers with enough good quality content to keep them coming back for more.

The major goal for your business at this point should be to build brand awareness. Then the only way that you can do this is by letting people know that you are there and that you care about them.

There is a famous quote that says, people do not care about you they only care about themselves. The only way that you get to care about your audience is by providing them with valuable information that they care about. Then and only then will they care about you.

Your main focus is to provide enough value for your customers and create a connection with your audience. Then they can like you, trust you enough for them to give you their details.

When a web visitor gives you their details such as an email address phone number. That means that it is time they automatically move to the next stage of the funnel.

Middle of the Funnel Content

At this point, it is important to note that you are ready to convert your lead into potential customers. By the time that a prospect gives you their details. that means that they trust you enough and they are warmed up enough and ready to be converted into a buyer. 

But not yet…

At this stage, you will have to create a piece of gated content. Give them a piece of information that is so valuable. In turn, they are more than willing to give you their contact details. We call this a gated content…. 

Lead Magnet

This type of content is also called a lead magnet. Because it acts as a magnet that is helping you attract leads or rather new customers.

A gated piece of content means that it is valuable information that should otherwise be sold. But you are giving it away in exchange for an email address. Instead of transacting with money you are transacting for their information. 

After their immediate problem or need is satisfied almost immediately. then you start walking them throughout the third stage of your journey. The type of content that you can create here includes:

1. Webinars
2. PDF, downloads
3. Quiz and surveys
4. Discount and coupons
5. Ebooks 
6. White papers
7. Newsletters Tool
8. Checklist
9. Swipe files

The content you choose to use will depend on your resources, target audience, and offering.

Bottom of the Funnel Content

By the time your lead is getting to the bottom of the funnel. They are a potential customer who is ready and willing to buy your product or service. The whole nurturing system that has been happening to them they’re more than ready to from you. 

Because you have provided them with potential solutions that were meant to solve their problems. Now it’s time to sell to them the real deal,  that they can buy from you.

The type of content that you create at this particular stage is meant to remove the whole objections that they might be having towards buying your product or service. 

You could create:

1. Content that answers the frequently asked questions
2. Present them with successful customer stories
3. Provide for them a demo of how your product will work for them
4. You could even give them a free trial to your product for a few days or hours.

That way you reassure them that they can trust you with their money and that your product is going to do just exactly what its meant to do

As you can see, throughout the lead generation funnel. there is content at every stage. The whole purpose of this content at every stage is to:

1. Nurture
2. Warm-up your lead
3. Create a connection with them based on trust in the point they get to buy from you.