Optimizing the Middle of Your Funnel With Effective Content Strategies

Having a lead generation funnel strategy is vital to turning potential customers into actual clients. However, many people (even experienced marketers) need help optimizing areas between the early and later stages of a conversion path to boost sales.

The middle of the marketing funnel, the consideration stage, is crucial to the lead-generation process since it's where you can give that final push your clients need to move toward a decision-making mindset. So content there needs to be highly educational, targeted, and persuasive.

The problem is that it can be really challenging to figure out where to focus your energy at this stage — especially when you need to allocate limited resources between a variety of available marketing tools like paid ads, email campaigns, animated video content, lead magnets…

So, to help you do just that, we’ll take a closer look at the specific needs of the consideration stage and go over some valuable tools you can use to optimize your middle-of-funnel strategy and drive more leads to your business consistently and reliably.

Why is Middle-of-Funnel Optimization Key to Lead Conversion?

The consideration stage can make or break your sales strategy. People are already aware of your brand and product, so you need to help them make that final move to the bottom of the funnel to close the deal.

One of the most frequent mistakes marketers make at this stage is to try to attract more people by using broader content or strategies when they should be doing the contrary. At the middle of the funnel, it’s essential that you focus on your target audience and their transition to a decision-making mindset.

The Key to the Consideration Stage

At this stage, you have a unique opportunity to turn those still unsure about your product into customers by creating original and highly-targeted content that specifically addresses those people.

You don’t have to create tons of content, pay lots of money for ads or spend hours trying to get everyone involved.

It may sound cliché, but at this stage, less is more.

As mentioned earlier,  there are different strategies for each stage, and you shouldn't be focusing on attracting new people in the middle of your marketing funnel. You need to focus on converting those who already know you and the brand and need the solutions you can provide with your product.

Creating Middle-of-Funnel Content to Boost Conversions

Now it's time to get down to work and discuss the top middle-of-funnel marketing strategies to boost your sales. A great way to optimize the consideration stage of your marketing funnel consists of creating content around three main characteristics:

• Educational: so potential clients understand how your product will specifically help them overcome obstacles, solve a particular problem, or improve their lives.
• Targeted: by addressing your ideal client’s pain points, they’ll feel identified with your brand and be more open to doing business with you.
• Persuasive: so there’s no doubt that your product or service is not only the best for them but also fits their lifestyle, values, and choices in a unique way.

With that in mind, let's go over some marketing content that can be built around those characteristics to excel in the middle of your funnel!

Automated Message Replies

Implementing automated message replies using tools such as WhatsApp Chatbots can bolster the results of a funnel by leveraging the power of interactivity.

Without making additional efforts on your side, a client can start engaging with your brand in ways that bring them closer to a purchase.

These tools bring many benefits that are particularly suited for the middle of your funnel, such as instant interaction and the possibility to address questions about your products or services without requiring additional costs to your brand in terms of personnel and training — which can be a boon when your resources are limited.

Another effective way to automate message replies and enhance customer experience is by utilizing the auto attendant feature in your contact center software, which can provide instant interaction and help address questions about your products or services without requiring additional personnel or training costs.

Improving on Core Web Vitals

For your content to be educational, targeted, and persuasive, it first needs to be readily available and of easy access to your clients.

Core web vitals refers to those technical aspects of your website that make it easy (or hard) for users to find and navigate.

If a client wants to buy from you, but the link on your ad is broken, your website is slow, confusing to interact with, or unavailable for the device they're using, they'll quickly walk away. Therefore, they won't move from the middle to the bottom of your marketing funnel.

There are three main core web vitals you should look to improve for your ideal customers to successfully engage with your website and your brand:

• Loading speed: The time or delay between when people click on the link and when they can actually access the content.
• Load responsiveness (First Input Delay): the time your website takes to respond to an interaction (a click on menus, opening up a product image, loading a blog article, etc.).
• Cumulative Layout Shifts (CLS): this is about visual optimization. Sometimes the elements on a page can constantly change places (especially on mobile devices), which can lead to a user accidentally clicking on elements they didn’t intend to access.

Taking some time to ensure these technical aspects are all in working order and optimized will go a long way to prevent people from walking away dissatisfied with your online presence once they turn to you in the middle of their journey. Ultimately improving the number of potential customers reaching your funnel's final stage.

Retargeting Ads Campaigns

Some people engage with your ads or content but don't buy immediately. Instead, they give themselves some time to think about it. Not because they're not interested but because they need a little push.

Retargeting ads can act as a reminder that gives your potential clients that final push for you, keeping them on the funnel by reaffirming your brand's presence in their minds.

While you’ll use display ads at the top-of-funnel stage to attract new clients, retargeting ads will be your secret weapon to reengage those who stayed halfway when checking out your offer. They may have filled the cart in your store but didn't make the purchase or downloaded a free ebook and may be interested in your paid resources. These ads are meant to fill in potential gaps in your funnel and keep people moving forward.

Facebook and Google ads have specific features to identify users in those gaps and show them particular ads optimized specifically to renew interest in what you offer. Here are some ideas for those ads:

• Client testimonials: proof that your product/service works and is the right fit for them.
• Discounts: if they filled the cart but didn’t make the purchase, offer them a time-sensitive discount.
• Show them similar resources: they may need more convincing than the solutions they quickly saw on your website. Show them some alternatives, so they know there are more ways in which you can help them.

Targeted Content Creation

Creating highly targeted content that educates your clients on your products and services, addresses their questions, or helps them overcome a challenge, is another excellent way to optimize the middle of your marketing funnel strategy.

Targeted content works persuasively as a reinforcement by showing how your product or service works and how it could provide better results for potential customers and inviting them to continue their journey within your funnel.

The content you create for this purpose can take many different forms, but two mediums have proven to be consistently reliable across niches: videos and blog posts.

• Video: you can boost conversions using video due to their highly engaging nature. Allowing you to use the power of storytelling and customization to target, persuade, and educate potential customers while engaging them on an emotional level.

• ‍Blog posts:  Blog posts are great for targeting your clients (by addressing topics around their pain points) and persuading them (by elaborating solid arguments on why your solutions are the best way to tackle their problems).

You can create long-form content such as how-to guides, step-by-step tutorials, list posts, etc., to make popular and highly-converting brand assets that’ll encourage your potential customers to stay on the funnel and move on to the next stage.

FAQs Sections

If your potential clients have any objections or concerns about your products and services, that could be a reason that keeps them from moving to the bottom-of-funnel stage.

Many brands create and promote Frequently Asked Questions sections on their websites to anticipate and address their potential client's concerns and provide solid arguments that dispel any remaining hesitations.

That way, they'll know your offer is the right fit for them and feel confident to take the next step to the decision stage.

Also, know that you aren’t limited to your website exclusively for this type of content. You can serve your FAQs to your potential clients on your brand’s social media profiles and email marketing campaigns, and you can use tools like surveys or even software like Answer the Public, Google Search, or other online keyword tools to find out what troubles them.

Parting Thoughts

Optimizing your marketing funnel strategy is critical to converting leads into customers. By understanding the specific needs at the middle of your funnel (and the strategies you can use to meet them), you'll be able to create highly targeted content that ultimately results in increased sales.

No more wasting time, money, and energy on developing hundreds of strategies that don’t work.

With a robust content strategy in the middle of your conversion funnel, you'll ultimately see more clients coming in with less effort.