Content Marketing Funnel: Obsolete or Here to Stay?
Does today's digital marketing still need the concept of a content marketing funnel? This is what the blog post of a consulting organization asked, recently. Naturally, the consultant made efforts to exacerbate the point to draw an extreme reaction. Of course, every good marketer's gut instinct was to cry out 'WHAT ?!?' ... how will you track your progress and impact? How will you know your conversions? How can you tell what is working in real-time?
Instead, the suggestion was to focus on building the pipeline with dollar generating opportunities, instead. Hmmm. Good idea. Ultimately, the primary goal of any lead generation / demand generation program is to drive converting leads that create a healthy pipeline ... which then converts into closed-won sales! And the content marketing funnel is there to guide the team to make sure they have the right material to help prospects on the fabled 'customer journey'.
Content Marketing Funnel: Why Bother?
A good place to start, is where all good customer centric content starts. Understand the pain point that this funnel helps resolve.
At the end of the day, it is true that bottom line revenue generation is the key growth indicator for any company. This is key to the founders, owners, and investors. As a good marketer will tell you, it is NOT about web traffic, click-through rates (CTR), nor is it about raw leads. Rather, it is about creating demand that converts into revenue generating sales.
From a CMO's (chief marketing officer) perspective, the challenge is to figure out how to create demand that converts. Content marketing strategy comes to the rescue for most B2B organizations. But, it isn't about just 'creating a bunch of stuff' and throwing it up against the wall to see what sticks'. This can certainly work, based on enough trial-and-error cycles... but there is a better way.
That better way is to map out a content marketing strategy. In other words, plan out the content you need to help your B2B organization achieve it's marketing goals. Part of those goals will be to grow demand generation, and brand awareness with your target audience. And, to do so the traditional plan maps out the funnel content that answers a customer's questions along the path of discovery. Clients will learn new things, and adjust their perceived needs as they deepen their perspective on how to resolve a pain, or improve a situation in their organization.
As the customer uncovers more about their needs, and some pains they did not realize they had, all marketers want to be there to help that client. Ultimately, we want to guide the customer to our offering in as many cases as possible, where it makes sense. Part of that guide, are the different pieces of content that inform, and educate along that journey.
What is the Content Marketing Funnel?
For those not aware, the content marketing funnel is a structure that takes a prospective customer through various steps toward a sale - with marketing content highlighted for each step of that buying journey. The marketing content for each stage intended to serve different purposes. For example, the first stage being to generate awareness with a customer of the offering. Brochures, infographics, blog posts, videos, and podcasts often serve as the top of funnel (TOFU) stage. Stage two is deeper consideration with a client, so ebooks, white papers, research, benchmark studies, guides, and topical webinars are good content examples here. These are also called the middle of the funnel (MOFU) stage. Finally the customer's decision stage also called the bottom of the funnel (BOFU), includes case studies, testimonials, datasheets/specification sheets, demonstrations, and free trials.
You may encounter various short forms for similar content marketing funnel structures including:
- AIDA - Attention | Interest | Desire | Action
- ACPP - Awareness | Consideration | Preference | Purchase
- KLT - Know | Like | Trust
- CAB - Cognitive | Affective | Behavior --> Stages
- ACD - Awareness | Consideration | Decision
Above is an example of the funnel structure - as it is often shown (as a funnel).
Content Planning? Seriously?
One argument is that all you need is a mixture of high value narratives which will build demand. Then just circulate it where your customers are most likely to find it. Put it online, and circulate it on social media... and voila! Who knows whether it was the top of the funnel, middle of the funnel, or bottom of the funnel content that worked. And, who cares? Never mind the stage of the funnel where the calls to action were most productive. There is no need to know what types of content are most attractive to customers! So who needs planning? All this talk about content marketing funnels and strategy are purely for the academics, right?
Turns out that the Content Marketing Institute, MarketingProfs, and ON24 - answer this exact question in B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks: Insights for 2021 research.
This research provides a perfect case study investigating both the most successful B2B organizations, and the least successful (in their study). Then they ask simple questions of the marketers in those organizations.
From the chart, 60% of the most successful organizations had a documented content marketing strategy. This compared to the least successful, where only 21% had one (p4). In this regard, 77% of successful firm marketers viewed their organization's content marketing as being sophisticated or mature. Compare this against the 10% from the least successful companies.
What does this Mean?
If you choose to listen to the consultant telling you that all that you need is to write 'good stuff' ... then stop reading. While I agree that high-quality content is extremely important, having a plan is equally critical to your success.
The B2B Content Marketing research provides empirical evidence showing that a structured plan is a contributing factor in a B2B company's success. Naturally this conclusion spans across any offering, products, or services.
Focus on Pain Points
Another good point the consulting firm introduced is the notion of highlighting and responding to customer pain points. It is an absolutely brilliant perspective. Map content ideas to the pain points customers experience, based on search volume. Use tools like Google Analytics, Google Ads, and SEMRush (among many others), to find such questions. Then tactically answer the questions about how to resolve the pain. Not only will this help potential customers better understand their own challenge, but it will build trust with that prospect.
What the consulting company highlighted well is not only to identify pain points and solve them... but to delve on the pains in some detail. Raising the profile of the pain, articulating the depth of it, and pointing out the risks and dangers of letting it continue unaddressed - accentuates it in the prospect's mind. This emphasizes the need for a purchase decision to be taken. And, if the content was written convincingly, it should guide the buying customer to your company's offering.
Quality Content is Key
In "StoryTelling with a Core Requires Market Education" (Forbes Magazine), I highlight that regardless of stage of funnel, or strategy; make sure your content is a quality product and has substance. An important step in building trust with your brand it to educate the market. Do so by highlighting, emphasizing, and then suggesting solution to solve customer pain points. Answer customer questions - as it will help educate, as well a pointing out your brand's own expertise in your given area.
2020 B2B Benchmarks Research showed that high quality content helped marketers achieve three goals being:
- 86% - creating Brand Awareness
- 79% - Educating Audiences
- 75% - Building Trust & Credibility
Content Marketing Funnel: Do I need it?
Customer buying journeys meander. At best, they are difficult to define, of not outright stochastic, and unpredictable. In this regard, does the concept of a content marketing funnel still provide value?
Ultimately, the answer is yes. If for no other reason, the marketing funnel provides a structured approach, and a semblance of a content strategy. As the CMI studies showed an organized, formalized, and documented content marketing strategy can mean the difference between being a successful and unsuccessfully run organization.
Naturally, this does not absolve the marketing team from producing high quality content that resonates with clients. There must be a continual search for the customer's pain points, emphasizing the discomfort, and explaining how your offering helps to resolve the issues.
So, are acronyms like AIDA, ACPP, or ACD things of the past, to be forgotten? Is the content marketing funnel obsolete? For those companies that want sustainable success - the answer is no. Should you strictly adhere to these, and believe that customers will follow this in a straight line driving toward a sale; no. But it is an extremely useful guide and reference point for guiding any B2B company's content strategy. For marketers who want to get it right - the content marketing funnel is here to stay!