Rethinking the Content Funnel: A New Way to Approach Marketing

Marketers have been using content funnels for decades. It’s a tried and tested method for moving consumers along the buyer’s journey to ultimately convert. But is it really the best method to be using in your digital marketing efforts? Probably not.

It might not be easy to hear, but it’s time to move on from content funnels and focus your efforts on buyer-centric marketing models like omnichannel or customer experience marketing. In this article, we’re going to go over what content funnels are, why they aren’t the best model anymore, and touch on some alternatives.

What are content funnels?

Whenever you see the acronyms ToFu, MoFu, and BoFu being tossed around, those are content funnels. They were developed as a method of visualizing the buyer’s journey as they move from initial awareness to conversion. This provides a strategic framework for content creation.

The three stages of a content funnel are:

ToFu – Top of the Funnel
Content created for the awareness or discovery stage that aims to educate and inform potential customers about a product or service.
MoFu – Middle of the Funnel
Content created for the evaluation or consideration stage that aims to provide customers with in-depth product information that highlights unique selling points.
BoFu – Bottom of the Funnel
Content created for the decision or purchasing state that aims to build customer confidence by showcasing product benefits and encourage conversion.

Each stage of the funnel needs its own content, and more importantly, each piece of content can only target one stage of the funnel or else you risk diluting the impact of your messaging. A well implemented content funnel lets you optimize your content strategy to increase conversions and build strong relationships with your target audience.

The problem with content funnels

On the surface, content funnels sound really useful. Here’s the problem: they were created back before the Internet revolutionized how marketing works. Before the advent of smartphones, social media, and online shopping, there were far fewer entry points into the buyer’s journey. Consumers generally learned about new products from TV, print media, or through flyers in the mail. These days, the buyer’s journey is not nearly as linear.

There are way more touch points through which your audience will discover your brand—and there’s no way of predicting or controlling which will be their entry point. It’s estimated that it takes an average of 8 touch points before customers convert. That means your marketing strategy is going to involve a broader range of channels, and the traditional content funnel is too rigid to account for the nuances of a multi-channel buyer’s journey.

Relying on content funnels is limiting your marketing efforts

Adhering too closely to the funnel framework has the potential to put up costly barriers between your marketing and sales efforts, which will make it that much harder to hit sales targets and marketing KPIs. This is in part because the assumption of linearity and rigid structure of content funnels very often leads to oversimplification of consumer behaviour. Today’s consumers are more likely to jump between different stages in the buyer’s journey, often revisiting stages multiple times before eventually converting.

Another major drawback is that content funnels don’t take into account the bigger expectation of personalization. A by-product of the algorithms that curate all of our social media feeds and streaming habits, consumers have come to expect a much higher level of personalization in content from brands. Cookie cutter, one-size-fits-all content will net you low engagement and a lack of meaningful connection with your audience.

What often gets left out in the funnel framework is the loyalty stage. This stage doesn’t have a fun acronym so all too often it gets dropped, but the loyalty stage is incredibly important to long-term growth. While driving sales is the primary goal of your marketing efforts, focusing on brand loyalty and customer retention should also be your goal. This is how you turn your customers from one-time purchasers into brand advocates.

Making the shift to a buyer-centric marketing approach

So, if content funnels are out, what’s the alternative? More and more, marketers have shifted to buyer-centric models that focus on holistic engagement and continuous interaction. These models have the benefit of much more flexibility and adaptability, which makes it much easier to move on buyer insights, as well as short- and long-term goals. The agility of these models makes it much easier for marketing and sales to collaborate and ensure their efforts are aligned.

Some alternative marketing models to content funnels include:

Omnichannel marketing focuses on providing a seamless customer experience across all channels.
Community-based marketing focuses on building and nurturing a community around your brand.
Customer experience (CX) marketing focuses on optimizing every interaction a customer has with your brand.
Conversational marketing uses real-time conversations to move customers through the buying journey.

The common thread with all of these models is that they intend to meet customers where they are, rather than expecting customers to come to you.

How to incorporate buyer-centric frameworks into your digital marketing strategy

Changing tacts can be daunting, and does require strategic planning before you can take action on a new marketing framework. Whichever model you choose, there are a few steps that will help you lay out a solid foundation for your marketing efforts going forward. When you’re done, you’ll have a marketing machine that offers agile responses to changes in the market.

Start by reevaluating your buyer personas. The aim is to build flexible, multidimensional personas that capture behavioural patterns across touch points. Your personas should reflect the tangible needs, wants, and pain points of your consumer base.

Next, work on facilitating cross-team collaboration. Create shared goals and metrics to keep marking and sales aligned and working in lockstep. These shared goals will ensure that no effort is wasted and that you’re maximizing your resources.

Lastly, reorient your marketing strategy to focus on engagement and retention. Centre your marketing efforts around treating every buyer interaction as valuable, emphasizing the relationship rather than only lead conversion.

What’s the takeaway?

The Content funnel is a marketing framework that caters to a linear buying journey that just doesn’t exist anymore. Consumers no longer pass through the stages of awareness, consideration, and decision in that order.

More and more, you’ll see your customers revisiting content geared toward earlier stages in their buyer journey. Additionally, marketing strategies need to account for vastly more touch points and entry paths into your brand. Because of this, no two customers are going to take the same journey to converting. This makes developing buy-centric strategies more important than ever. Not sure where to start? We can help.

Rethinking the Content Funnel: A New Way to Approach Marketing

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