Regardless of the initial goal of your content, the end result you are looking for (in most cases) is getting the sale. Therefore, you also need a content marketing funnel for each entry point into your business. Map the path your prospects take from the initial interaction with your content to buying what you have to offer.
Just as with any other type of marketing, you need to know your audience, your products and services, and when, where, and how to get your audience’s attention. The marketing funnel consists of three or more steps that also covers the buying journey.
A content marketing funnel includes:
1. Awareness
This is when your customer may or may not know yet about the problems they have, that they can be solved, and that you can solve them.
2. Consideration
This is the time when the audience now knows that they have a problem that can be solved, and you need to give them exclusive content that helps them pick your solution over others.
3. Purchase
They’ve made the purchase, and are now your customers, so now it’s your job to keep them and delight them by sending them the right content.
This is the cycle for any marketing funnel. Understanding this and what it means for the buyer is important. As the content creator, it helps you to attract and serve your ideal customer in a very customer-centric way. A content marketing funnel seeks to map the content you’re going to provide to your audience and customers to the place it needs to be within the marketing funnel.
I think it’s helpful to make this funnel more in-depth to get even more specific about the content you need to develop and publish. Creating a mini funnel at each stage can be very helpful for keeping it straight in your mind.
Keep in mind that even though the existence of the funnel makes it seem like the audience moves through the funnel the same way each time, the truth is, any entry point to your funnel works. So, whether they get on your list in the awareness stage or after they make a purchase, the process is the same.
Now let’s look at each stage in a bit more detail.
Awareness
Awareness can consist of many levels of your funnel and not just one. Some people in the awareness 
stage know about their problems, some don’t. Others know about the solutions available, while some others don’t. You need content for all the levels you identify.
The types of content you can create for the awareness stage includes:
- Blog Posts
- Social Media Updates
- Infographics
- Images and Photos
- Memes
- White Papers, eBooks and eReports
- Web Pages
- Podcasts
- Video
- Print Magazine or Newsletter
- Primary Research
- Webinars
Consideration![consideration content markering funnel]()
When people are in the consideration stage, they’re trying to evaluate the problem and the solutions that they have discovered. You can think of this as an evaluation. Your content needs to inform them so that they can make a decision they feel good about.
The types of content that are needed to navigate this part of their journey include:
- Educational Resources
- Surveys, Quizzes, and Interactive Content
- Discounts
- Offers
- Emails
- Other Types of Resources
- Downloads
- Webinars
- Events
- Testimonials
- Case Studies
Purchase
The purchase stage of the buyer’s journey through the 
marketing funnel includes making a purchase. When looking at stats, sales are sometimes called conversions. Sometimes the conversion isn’t about making the sale, but about getting someone on your list.
Also, remember that when a customer makes a purchase you get the chance to really impress the customer too.
The content that works great for ideal customers in this stage of their buying journey includes:
- Demonstrations
- Customer Stories or Case Studies
- Compare and Contrast
- Spec Sheets
- Stats
- Thank You Notes
- Exclusive VIP Offers
- Events and Masterminds
- Bonus Information
- Offers
- Reports
Loyalty and Advocacy
While this is really part of the purchase stage, I like to break this out in a bit more detail. The types of content you can use at this stage is a combination of the content used at every stage. You really want to please your customers so much that they become brand advocates. Nothing sells better than happy customers.
The content you can use here includes:
- Loyalty Programs
- Exclusive Emails
- Customer-only Events
- Exclusive Access to You
- Case Studies
- Reviews
- Testimonials
- Interviews
- User-Generated Content
- Webinars
- Content in Groups and Communities
- Contests
- Conversations
Of course, for all this to succeed, you need a clear vision. You need to know who your audience is, what they want and need, and why and how you can provide it to them. The more understanding you have of them and yourself, the easier and more effective your content marketing will become.
If you need help with your content marketing plan, check out Daily Content Profits.
In this product, you get a checklist of what you need to do as well as explanations and instructions on how to do each task. You also get access to some custom tools to help with your marketing efforts.
The Content Promotion Checklist covers Preparing your Content, Creating Promotional Content, and Content Distribution. The remaining 40 pages are filled with instructions, tips, tools and ideas to help you create and use your content to get the biggest bang for your buck.
Check it out below:
Not sure about sales funnels and how to create them?
Here is a great training that shows you how to create sales funnels easily with the tools you already have. No fancy software needed. Anyone can do this. Click on the image to learn more.
