We’re in the middle of the sales funnel now, the heart of your customer’s journey. It’s a crucial step in the sales funnel to turn Awareness and Interest into genuine Consideration and where leads who have shown an interest in your insights, begin to explore their options and evaluate how your offerings align with their needs.

It’s like if a potential customer entered a shop, the Top of Funnel content attracted their attention and got them into your shop, and now they’re ready to see what products you offer. They want guidance on what you do, what you specialise in, how your products work. Middle of Funnel content is like a helpful salesperson who steps in to help them make the right decision for their needs with information and guidance.

Middle of Funnel content is a great opportunity to stop being coy and be more direct about the value of your products and services, you can address your audience’s problems directly and match them with the right solution you offer.

Impactful examples of Middle of Funnel content

With a thorough understanding of the challenges and pain points your intended customers experience in the middle of the sales funnel (based on your persona documents, or a persona-establishing exercise), I would home in on the following content formats when considering my Middle of Funnel content approach:

1. Comparison guides: Content that compares your product or service with competitors. These guides would highlight your unique selling points while addressing common questions or concerns
2. Case studies: Success stories and customer testimonials that demonstrate the practical benefits of your offerings. Prospects in this phase are keen to see proof of value, so I like to make sure any success metrics are front and centre on the page or document
3. Product demos and webinars: Live or recorded product demonstrations that provide an in-depth look at how your offerings work and how they can address specific pain points
4. Interactive tools: Any tools or quizzes that help prospects identify which of your products or services would be the best fit for their needs
5. Expert content: Showcase industry experts and their insights, they could be from your in-house team, or affiliated influencers who can provide valuable insights related to your offerings
6. Email campaigns: Targeted email campaigns that nurture leads and guide them through the consideration phase. Within an email sequence, I would share relevant content that addresses their specific concerns to continue to build on momentum

These examples share a common purpose: they guide potential customers toward informed decisions. My Middle of Funnel content is about offering valuable insights and providing clarity, assisting prospects in their journey to conversion.

How I choose the right Middle of Funnel content to suit your needs

As there are lots of different Middle of Funnel content types to play with, picking the right one depends on a few considerations.

When pulling together a content strategy and plotting out which Middle of Funnel content would meet my strategic objectives, I assess the below areas to make the right decision:

1. Your customer journey: I need to know where your prospects are in their journey. Middle of Funnel content should align with their current stage, addressing their specific needs and queries at that point
2. Product/service relevance: I ensure the Middle of Funnel content directly relates to your products or services. It should help prospects appreciate how your offerings can solve their problems
3. Customer behaviours and preferences: I need to know what resonates best with your customers at this stage in the buyer’s journey, some may prefer detailed case studies, while others find interactive tools more engaging
4. A/B testing: I find it useful to experiment with different types of Middle of Funnel content and analyse which performs best
5. Feedback: I think it’s important to listen to your internal teams to understand what they think would help them in their jobs and gather feedback from prospects themselves! This can provide insights into what works and what needs improvement

A couple of guiding best practices for Middle of Funnel content marketing

To ensure that every piece of Middle of Funnel content has the best chances of making the right impression on your target audiences, I follow these best practice measures:

1. A seamless transition from the top to the middle: I believe it’s important to ensure that the change in messaging is a smooth transition as your target audiences progress through the sales funnel via your content. That’s why I focus on consistency of tone, and ensuring that any challenges I bring to the fore in my content are solved via your company’s products and solutions
2. Make it personal: I use prospect data to personalise Middle of Funnel content to the right audience segment. I ensure that the right piece of content goes to the right audience, so they get specific advice based on their pain points, industry considerations, and market influences
3. Focus on quality: There’s nothing worse than spotting a typo in a company’s content. It puts you right off their claims about “expertise” or “attention to detail” and can impact buying decisions. That’s why I focus on well-crafted Middle of Funnel content pieces, ensuring each one is typo-free, well researched and high quality. It’s important to note that one high-quality case study will have more impact than several shoddy blogs or product brochures
4. Adapt Calls to Action (CTAs): As we go down the sales funnel, CTAs need to be more directly related to sales and product offerings than they were at the top of the funnel. That could mean directing readers to request a demo, find out more about that specific product, or get in touch for a consultation, etc.

Stuck in the middle, what’s next?

In the middle of the sales funnel, your potential customers need to be ushered and guided towards making a buying decision. It’s time to show off and get serious about standing out from the crowd through personalised, highly accurate and specific information for your intended audiences.

And then to smooth their way into Bottom of Funnel content. By consistently delivering value, I guide your audience toward conversion, where I start nurturing leads into loyal customers. In the end, effective Middle of Funnel content marketing is all about providing the right information at the right time, facilitating informed decisions, and paving the way for lasting customer relationships.

If you’re interested in working together, shoot me an email: gracewrites892@gmail.com