There are several customer personas to consider when creating content. There’s Customer A, who doesn’t even know who you are or what you offer. Then there’s Customer B, who is trying to decide between you and one of your competitors. And finally, there’s Customer C who is ready to buy but needs one final push to make the purchase.
All that to say, each of these customers is at a different stage of the buyer’s journey.
As a marketer, you need to craft a strategy that supports the different stages of your buyer’s journey. You’ll need material for every step of the content marketing funnel. Below, I’ll share strategies that work and examples of successful funnel content, according to fellow marketers.
Table of Contents
What is the content marketing funnel?
The content marketing funnel maps the buyer's journey through stages, from initial awareness, to consideration, to the final purchase decision.
Understanding this division and where your buyers are at in their journey helps you create targeted content that addresses prospects' needs and nurtures leads through each stage of the decision-making process.
Aligning content with each stage of the buyer's journey — typically top, middle, and bottom — helps you provide value, build trust, and guide customers toward choosing your product.
Content Marketing Planning Templates
Plan your content strategically with these handy templates.
- Editorial Calendar Template
- Buyer Persona Templates
- SWOT Analysis Templates
- SMART Goal Template
Download Free
All fields are required.
You're all set!
Click this link to access this resource at any time.
Levels of the Content Marketing Funnel
The content marketing funnel is divided into three stages: top, middle, and bottom. Like a funnel, the stages start wide and get narrower as buyers move through them and become more ready to make a decision or purchase.
In this section, I’ll explain what each of these levels involve and the kind of content you can create at each stage.
Top of the Funnel (ToFu)
At the top of the funnel, your focus should be on creating brand awareness. Top-of-funnel content should introduce your brand and make your audience aware of the problem you’re trying to solve.
The goal of ToFu content is to educate, inform, and engage.
ToFu content includes:
- Blog posts addressing target customers’ common struggles
- Infographics showcasing industry statistics
- LinkedIn posts sharing quick strategy tips or solutions
- Short videos explaining industry trends
Middle of the Funnel (MoFu)
The middle of the funnel is the consideration stage.
After potential buyers are familiar with your brand, they enter the research phase. This is when they start comparing your brand to competitor brands, learning more about the solution, and seeking tangible results.
The goal of MoFu content is to build trust and provide information prospects need to evaluate their options.
MoFu content includes:
- In-depth guides with tips
- Case studies highlighting customers’ success with your product
- Detailed social media posts exploring specific challenges
- Comparison charts showing how your product differs from competitors
Bottom of the Funnel (BoFu)
At the bottom of the funnel, your target persona is the decision-maker. They’re ready to make a purchasing decision, but they need one final push to decide.
The goal of BoFu content is to convert prospects into customers by offering the last piece of information or reassurance they need to make a purchasing decision.
BoFu content includes:
- Free audits, trials, or strategy consultations
- Testimonials from satisfied customers
- Live demos
- Discounts or coupons
Understanding the Buyer’s Journey in Marketing
Throughout my years as a content strategist for B2B SaaS companies, I‘ve personally discovered the buyer’s journey is rarely a straight path.
With the exception of impulse software purchases (which are rare in B2B), most decision-makers begin in an “unaware stage.” They typically fit the demographics of an ideal client or buyer persona, but they‘re unaware of the SaaS solution or don’t yet realize they need it.
A triggering event often changes their situation or highlights a pain point that needs solving. This is what kicks off their buyer's journey.
Let me share an example I've used with clients: Imagine a growing startup realizes its project management is becoming chaotic. These companies rarely decide to purchase a SaaS project management tool immediately.
Instead, they often turn to the internet to learn more and make decisions as they progress through the following stages. My job is to assist them in that decision-making process through strategic content.
Awareness Stage
In the awareness stage, B2B buyers are experiencing a problem or pain point, and their goal is to alleviate it. They're typically looking for informational resources to more clearly understand, frame, and give a name to their problem.
Content Marketing Funnel Example
A common search query a prospect might begin with is: “How to improve team productivity?” At this stage, they‘re not yet thinking about specific SaaS solutions; it’s much too early for that.
Instead, they‘re looking to contextualize their problem first. As a B2B SaaS content strategist, I’ve discovered that showing up in search engine results, even in these early stages, is crucial to establishing authority and gaining the trust of buyers starting the journey.
Consideration Stage
Moving to the consideration stage, I‘ve observed that B2B buyers have usually clearly defined and named their problem.
They’re now committed to researching and understanding all available approaches and methods to solving their defined problem or opportunity. In other words, I've seen how they start considering potential SaaS solutions.
Content Marketing Funnel Example
From my work, I know that a typical search inquiry a prospect would make at this stage might be: “Project management software vs. traditional methods?” In the consideration stage, the prospect isn't yet ready to buy, but they are deciding on the potential solution for them.
My strategy here is to consider indirect competitors and educate prospects on the pros and cons of various SaaS options.
Decision Stage
Once they've progressed to the decision stage, B2B buyers have typically decided on their solution strategy, method, or approach.
Their goal now is to compile a list of available SaaS vendors, make a short list, and ultimately make a final purchase decision.
Content Marketing Funnel Example
Prospects at this stage make search inquiries like: “Asana vs. Trello vs. Jira.” At this point, they‘re ready to invest in a solution.
They’ll likely go with a SaaS provider they like, know, and trust so long as that provider can meet their specific business needs.
Content Marketing Planning Templates
Plan your content strategically with these handy templates.
- Editorial Calendar Template
- Buyer Persona Templates
- SWOT Analysis Templates
- SMART Goal Template
Download Free
All fields are required.
You're all set!
Click this link to access this resource at any time.
Why Creating Content for the Buyer's Journey Is Important
As in all marketing disciplines, it’s essential to understand your audience: how they think, the answers they seek, and the path they tend to take to find a solution.
From that research, you can begin crafting a documented content strategy that maps your content to the various stages of the buyer's journey.
When you don‘t completely understand your audience, it creates a disconnect between your business and your potential customers.
I asked , head of marketing at , about the importance of the content marketing funnel and she made an excellent point about getting your content strategy right.
"Content isn’t just about attracting clicks, it’s about guiding potential customers through a decision-making process,” she says. “If your content doesn’t match their stage in the journey, you’ll either overwhelm them with too much information too soon or leave them hanging without enough details to make a decision.”
In Barry’s words, ToFu content sparks curiosity, MoFu content builds confidence, and BoFu content helps prospects justify their purchase. She adds, “A strong content strategy ensures buyers get what they need at the right time, reducing drop-offs and improving conversion rates."
Creating the right content at the right time can, however, be a challenge.
Building a content strategy starts with identifying the you’ll need to reach your audience according to their progression through the buyer’s journey. It’s also essential to use to keep prospects organized no matter where they are in the funnel.
Below, I’ll guide you through the types of content you can create for each stage of the content marketing funnel.
Creating Content for Each Stage of the Buyer's Journey
Once you have an idea of your buyer persona and how prospects move closer to purchase, you can begin creating content for your buyer at different stages and tailor that content per channel.
Doing so can help you to make a marketing funnel.
Your journey may look very different depending on your industry, business model, product, pricing, and audience.
Some B2C customers, for example, spend very little time in the middle of the buyer’s journey compared to B2B customers, who require far more nurturing, engagement, and relationship development before a purchase is made.
A $50 pair of sneakers, for instance, requires a lot less hand-holding when it comes to making purchase decisions than a $10,000 business software investment.
H3 (New) Content Marketing Funnel Template
Because audiences can vary widely based on industry and intent, buyer persona research is of the utmost importance. Using a content marketing funnel template can help you map out the existing content types you have and which content would be beneficial to add.
By understanding prospects’ unique process for awareness and evaluation, you can create a truly effective and strategy packed with custom content that best supports their journey toward making a purchase.
Now, we’ll explore each stage of the buyers journey in greater detail.
Content Ideas for Each Stage of the Buyer's Journey
Let’s take it from the top and start from the beginning of the buyer’s journey.
ToFu: Awareness
At the awareness stage, a buyer is looking for top-level educational content to help direct them to a solution, like blog posts, social content, and ebooks.
Their value as a lead is low because there’s no guarantee that they’ll buy from you. But those who find your content helpful and interesting may journey on to the middle of the funnel.
The ideal channels for the awareness stage may include:
- Blogging
- Search Engine Marketing
- Social Media Marketing
Let’s run through the different content formats best suited for these channels.
1. Blog Post
A blog post is an ideal piece of content to target people in the awareness stage.
By addressing a pain, problem, or topic your target audience wants to discover and then posting helpful information about it on your website, you’re creating a brand asset that’s crawlable by Google and discoverable by search engine users.
You can also promote your blog content across other channels, giving you more content to share and increasing your potential reach.
, content manager at time tracking software, shared with me that blog content in the awareness stage should do exactly that: bring awareness to the problem.
“People may need your product but don’t always realize it,” she says. “For example, people might search for productivity tips or remote work advice before they even know they need a time tracker.”
One successful ToFu content Traqq created was a blog post on how to calculate time differences in Excel. It’s an educational topic that offers practical advice for their target audience. “This question might be part of a larger time management issue, so we subtly introduce our time tracker as a potential solution,” explains Slimani. “However, the article is still about helping, not selling.”
Pro tip: When I’m having trouble ideating topics that align with my audience’s pain points, can come in handy — just type in a few details about your audience or content, and the platform will generate catchy titles relevant to your input.
Featured Resource:
2. Social Media Post
According to Backlinko, aged 18+ are active on social media. This makes it a great channel for the awareness stage. You can use social media to promote your other content, and you can also create content specifically for the channel.
Since I target B2B SaaS companies, my social channel of choice is LinkedIn.
In the above example, I’ve shared a carousel on my top tools on LinkedIn. These formats are popular on LinkedIn, as the content is created to be snackable with short-form takeaways.
3. Whitepaper
A whitepaper is an organization’s report or guide on a particular topic.
Whitepapers typically discuss an industry trend or topic, sharing key statistics, original findings, or case studies. They are especially useful as downloadable offers when readers want to go more in-depth on a specific subject they’re reading about.
I‘ve found it’s crucial to provide original data or information your audience can‘t find elsewhere, which helps audiences understand the report’s value and compels them to download it.
Every year, 探花精选 publishes a report on the state of marketing to provide helpful guidance based on thought leadership to marketers, sales professionals, and business owners. Inside, readers find statistics from a broad survey and industry experts’ opinions on what the data means and where the industry is going.
Pro tip: Depending on how broad or in-depth your whitepaper goes, you can also use it further down the funnel as MoFu content.
Content Marketing Planning Templates
Plan your content strategically with these handy templates.
- Editorial Calendar Template
- Buyer Persona Templates
- SWOT Analysis Templates
- SMART Goal Template
Download Free
All fields are required.
You're all set!
Click this link to access this resource at any time.
4. Checklist
For complicated tasks with many moving parts, your audience may simply want a blueprint that spells out what they’re supposed to do to achieve their end goal.
This onboarding checklist from business consulting firm is a perfect example of this. Nextant offers a free downloadable checklist using its proven onboarding framework. What I like best about this checklist is how it includes data-driven results that can be achieved by using this template.
5. How-To Video
My experience has taught me that sometimes, the best way to solve a pain or problem is to learn a new skill.
While a purchase may be required along the way, your audience often needs to become more informed about the problem and potential solutions first. That‘s where