When customers reach the lower half of the marketing funnel, they’ve already done their research. At this point, they’re seriously considering spending money on your product or services. But they’re also considering spending money on the products or services of your competitors.
Bottom of the funnel (BOFU) content—detailed, helpful, and engaging blog posts and articles—can make the difference between customers choosing to buy from your company—or taking their business elsewhere.
Read on to learn the key qualities of lower-funnel content marketing and top strategies for creating BOFU content that converts.
The High Value of BOFU Content
You’ve already built awareness about your products and clarified what makes them great. Lower-funnel content deepens that trust and confidence as they get closer to their first purchase decision. It then helps sustain that confidence for the long haul, turning new customers into loyal ones. And it re-engages customers who made purchases in the past and then went quiet.
How Does BOFU Content Build Long-Term Trust and Loyalty?
In essence, BOFU content demonstrates to customers that you have their back. It offers:
- Support beyond purchase. BOFU content fills in the blanks for customers after the product arrives.
- High-detail, high-quality advice. This content takes a deep dive into all the possible questions customers may have about your product.
- Thoughtfulness, nuance, and transparency. Perhaps in some circumstances, your product isn’t the ideal choice. This content is upfront about issues and frustrations with products, and helps customers make wise choices.
Discover the Ideal BOFU Content for Your Business
Research Keywords and Questions
Search engine response pages (SERPs) are a great place to start. Search for your primary keyword terms to find the questions people ask about different products in your inventory. Then explore these areas of your SERPs:
- People also ask. This section returns common questions related to your search.
- Searches related to [keyword]. This shows similar and overlapping searches.
- Deeper page returns. Go well beyond page one to find unique queries and topics to cover.
Explore Comments and Product Reviews
Read product reviews thoroughly, on your website and across external marketplaces. Exploring reviews takes some digging and time, but they can be gold mines that reveal common questions and areas of confusion. You can also ask your customer service team to alert you to frequent issues that arise.
Put Yourself in Your Customers’ Shoes
Spend some time imagining your most in-the-know customers—and get specific. Have they purchased items from competitors and aren’t fully satisfied? What information can encourage them to make the switch to your product? Have they already purchased from you, but aren’t familiar with your full product line? Write about items that are good to purchase in tandem with your best-sellers.
Think Outside the Box
Your product or service is one of the best on the market—you can feel confident producing unique BOFU content that doesn’t exist elsewhere. This could be thought leadership in your industry or beyond-the-ordinary uses for your product.
Translate Your Research Into Engaging BOFU Content
Once you’ve finished exploring the variables above, you can start to build out the BOFU section of your content calendar. BOFU content should be a mix of timely posts and evergreen content that reliably draws search for the long haul. You might even create a comprehensive resource center customers can return to for help. Possible topics your research may spark:
- Getting started or onboarding your product. The product may include clear instructions for setup and launch, but customers appreciate alternative explainers and easy-to-access backup should they lose the instructions.
- Profile of an influencer making the best use of your product. Let an influencer share how the product makes their life better or easier, either through a Q&A format, first-person journal, or a classic profile.
- How your product sidesteps common customer frustrations. Create content that demonstrates how your product bypasses these problems.
- Checklists and bulleted information. Give people help beyond your products with essential lists and must-know information in straightforward bullets.
4 Strategies to Ensure Your BOFU Content Ranks
Use Keywords Naturally and Strategically
To ensure search engines deem your BOFU content ‘high-value,’ prioritize using relevant keywords naturally and in ‘discoverable’ locations. This means definitely including them in the content title, and within headers where it makes sense for the topic covered immediately below. In the copy, the keywords should appear near the top, and then where they work logically throughout. Don’t force keywords where they don’t make sense. Finally, for effective on-page SEO, include primary keywords in the page URL, the meta description for the page, and the title tag.
Make Sure the BOFU Content Is Genuinely Helpful
There’s a lot of “helpful” content out there that is actually vague and confusing. Readers catch on when content doesn’t answer their questions—and then they bounce off the web page. Your copy must provide real tips and ideas, with plenty of specifics.
Guide the Reader Through Each Post with Compelling Headers
It’s important to remember you are writing for people, many of whom are pressed for time. Craft your title and headers carefully. These act as guideposts that help orient your readers along the trail of information. They should also deepen the helpfulness of the post by giving savvy readers ideas at a glance and offering more details for those who want or need to dive deeper.
Prioritize Strong, Clear Writing
Quite simply, low-quality writing tarnishes your brand. All copy on your website, including BOFU content, must be polished, clear, and engaging. Strong and thoughtful copy reflects attentiveness and care, something people appreciate at every stage of the marketing funnel.
Need support with BOFU content ideas and writing? Let’s talk!