Top-funnel content attracts customers. Bottom-funnel content seals the deal.
A content marketing strategy isn’t complete without a plan for each stage of the funnel. Consider bottom-funnel (BOFU) content to be your closer — you won’t always need it to make a sale, but going without it may mean you lose customers to your competition.
Keep reading to learn what BOFU content is, why you need it, and how to maximize the impact of your content strategy with proven examples and best practices.
- What Is BOFU Content?
- How Bottom-Funnel Content Affects Your Bottom Line
- 11 Essential Bottom-Funnel Content Examples and Formats That Convert
- What To Do When These BOFU Content Formats Won’t Cut It
- 7 Tips for Creating BOFU Content That Converts
- Outrank Your Competitors With Optimized Bottom-Funnel Content
What Is BOFU Content?
Bottom-funnel content targets prospective buyers nearing the end of the customer journey, offering the information they want and the push they need to make a purchase.
Customers at this stage are ready to buy, but they’re still on the fence about what option they should choose. Bottom-funnel content should answer their questions and give them a good reason to opt in.
BOFU content can take several forms, including:
- Competitor comparisons and alternatives posts
- Downloadable resources like checklists, frameworks, and templates
- Free tools, webinars, or training courses
Upper-Funnel vs. Lower-Funnel Marketing
The main difference between top-funnel content (TOFU) and bottom-funnel content is intent: upper-funnel marketing focuses on generating brand awareness and building authority, while bottom-funnel marketing aims to generate sales.
Creating content for every stage of the funnel is critical; you can’t close a deal if customers don’t know who you are, and focusing only on informational content won’t bring your customers any closer to making a purchase.
How Bottom-Funnel Content Affects Your Bottom Line
Your bottom-funnel content can make or break a potential sale. Without it, your customers may linger in decision limbo or even drift toward your competitors.
Of course, not every conversion comes from bottom funnel content. But for discerning customers who want to make an informed decision, your bottom funnel content can be exactly what they need to see before they’re ready to commit.
The value of your BOFU content depends largely on the type of content you produce and how well you execute your strategy. When done well, bottom-funnel content can accelerate business growth and convince more customers to convert.
11 Essential Bottom-Funnel Content Examples and Formats That Convert
Creating a BOFU content strategy that actually converts is easier said than done. It’s important to choose content formats that align with your offerings, brand, and customer needs.
We’ve identified 11 proven examples of bottom-funnel content to help you drive conversions and stand out against your competitors.
1. Case Studies
Case studies are an opportunity to brag about your customers’ success and satisfaction as a result of your efforts. There’s no one right way to create a case study, but you should strive to highlight:
- Customers aligned with your buyer personas
- Success stories that demonstrate your unique value proposition
- Data that supports the narrative
In our Zapier case study, we provide a detailed account of the work we did to grow Zapier’s organic traffic as well as concrete data supporting specific examples for a complete picture of our approach and the results we achieved.
2. Competitor Alternative Posts
Whether you’re up against a big name brand or your market is just naturally competitive, creating alternative posts for your biggest competitors allows you to highlight your differences and demonstrate why customers should choose you.
Mentimeter is a presentation tool designed to boost audience engagement through interactivity; one of their main competitors is Kahoot!, a gamified learning platform.
A strategic Kahoot Alternatives page positions Mentimeter as the superior tool by highlighting the unique features of their software. As a result, this page brings in $2.2K traffic value each month, has earned 20K clicks since going live, and has led to 1.7K total sign-ups.
3. Comparison Deep Dives
Hone in on what sets your business apart from top competitors with a deep dive into how your brand compares to another. Pitting your brand against a competitor allows you to appeal to customers who may be torn between similar options — and a “vs.” post is the perfect opportunity to highlight critical differences that can tip the scale in your favor.
As a senior living software company, Aline operates in a niche industry with fierce competition. By creating a number of “vs.” posts like Aline vs. Eldermark, Aline emphasized features that matter most to their clientele, like customer service availability and integrations.
All of their comparison posts have managed to rank in the top spot on SERPs with featured snippets within days of publication, giving them an edge over the competition with greater visibility and definitive examples of what makes their software better than others.
4. ”Best X” Roundups
Similar to the alternatives post, roundups of the best products, services, and other offerings give you a chance to position your brand as the top choice in a given category. By creating “best X” BOFU content, you can give potential customers an honest look at what you and your competitors have to offer — and ultimately, convince them that they should choose you.
Zendesk’s post on the best customer experience software offers a comprehensive guide to popular options, including top competitors. With a heavier focus on Zendesk’s software and an emphasis on its unique features and benefits, this post gives users the information they need to make the best decision.
Testimonials and Reviews
Social proof is a notoriously powerful marketing tool. Unlike many other types of bottom-funnel content, testimonials and reviews have a home in a variety of places, such as:
- Website home pages
- Dedicated review pages
- Landing pages
- Social media
- Existing BOFU content (e.g., case studies)
If you’re targeting “[product] review” keywords, creating a dedicated page for reviews or testimonials may be your best chance at ranking alongside third-party sites. No matter how you intend to use reviews and testimonials, it’s a good practice to request them from satisfied customers so you have access to a library for later use.
Product Features and Use Cases
Highlighting the unique features of your products as well as specific use cases can give your customers a better understanding of what sets you apart from competitors. Hone in on your target audience, their pain points, and how they are most likely to use your product.
When you’re working on bottom-funnel content, you can blend BOFU tactics into other pieces of content to provide more value, guide customers to the next stage of the funnel, and encourage conversions.
For example, the bulk of the content in Zapier’s MOFU “no-code” blog is informational, but the inclusion of a complete product list along with use cases provides additional insight into how their products can enhance workflow and improve efficiency.
Buyer’s Guides
As customers become more familiar with your brand and products, a buyer’s guide can help them determine the best solution for their needs. These guides should break down your offerings, describing the features, uses, benefits, and other essential details for each option.
Buyer’s guides should be as detailed and objective as possible to provide customers with the information they need to make a purchase decision.
Pricing Pages
Customers at the end of the marketing funnel want concrete information. Pricing pages with clearly listed costs for your offerings can help customers make up their mind. Be sure to keep these prices up-to-date to provide customers with accurate estimates.
But a standard pricing page may not be ideal for all businesses. If the price of your product varies based on individual user needs, a static guide could mislead your customers.
Instead, you can use a dynamic pricing guide that accounts for user input to generate a custom quote. Cybersecurity app Clario took this approach with an interactive questionnaire that asks targeted questions to better gauge a customer’s needs, resulting in a personalized price estimate.
Demonstration Videos
Show your customers exactly what to expect with a detailed demo video. By giving potential customers an inside look at your product’s functionality and how it can benefit them, you’ll clearly demonstrate that you have the solution they need. Tailor your demos to your target audience to determine what processes and features you want to highlight to help them make their decision.
Velocity Global includes a “Watch Demo” button on their main menu, making it easy for customers to access at the end of the buyer journey. The demo is behind a pop-up requesting contact information, which is a fairly low barrier to entry.
A SaaS business like Velocity Global can benefit from a high-quality demo video by giving customers a closer look at how they can use the software on a day-to-day basis.
White Papers and eBooks
Most common in B2B marketing, white papers, eBooks, and other extensive gated content can establish your business as a true authority with unique insights and thought leadership. These content formats typically include a thorough exploration of a problem with supporting research to position your product as a suitable solution.
For example, HubSpot manages an extensive resource library with eBooks, templates, guides, and more. These kinds of long-form content can empower customers to trust the brand and invest in their products.
Webinars and Training Courses
Hosting webinars, training courses, or certification programs builds your authority as a key player in your industry. Whether you’re educating participants on intro-level topics or offering unique tips for how to maximize the benefits of your product, these content formats can cultivate engagement and serve as valuable lead generation tools.
Cin7, an inventory management software company, hosts Cin7 Academy, a free resource for users to learn how to best use the Cin7 software. These complimentary training courses are a valuable resource for Cin7 users, providing insider knowledge for how to best use their products.
What To Do When These BOFU Content Formats Won’t Cut It
If you’re in a niche market, working with strict compliance regulations, or offer something so unique that traditional bottom-funnel content doesn’t really apply, it’s time to get creative.
What this process looks like depends on factors like your target audience, your primary competitors, and your unique value proposition. For example, Instacart wanted to avoid mentioning competitors and other brands in their content, so alternatives and comparison posts were off the table.
As an alternative, some research into specific markets led to an innovative approach: creating tailored content for food delivery services with custom product carousels that allow users to shop directly from the page. Targeting hotels and dorms created an opportunity for Instacart to identify distinct groups of potential customers who would benefit from food delivery services.
By creating content around these atypical BOFU topics, Instacart was able to secure the top position on SERPs for target keywords. More visibility on SERPs contributes to a higher likelihood of web traffic, and by implementing creative BOFU tactics on these pages, Instacart can better provide solutions to potential customers in unique situations.
7 Tips for Creating BOFU Content That Converts
Your SEO content strategy shouldn’t just include top-funnel and middle-funnel topics. Bottom-funnel content should generate conversions, and successfully executing your BOFU strategy often requires a combination of effective SEO, graphic design, and copywriting to close the deal.
Here are seven tips to help you optimize your bottom-funnel content:
Research BOFU Keywords
Before you start creating bottom-funnel content, try to find relevant keywords to guide your strategy. Unlike other types of SEO content, your bottom-funnel content may not target keywords with high traffic potential, but the most important factor for BOFU keywords is user intent.
Bottom-funnel keywords may have low search volume, but customers who search for them are looking for answers to help them make a decision. Transactional keyword SERPs may include ads or sponsored content, Google shopping features, product roundups, and brand comparisons.
Consider What Your Audience Wants
While all forms of bottom-funnel content can be profitable, your choice of format and how you execute it depends on your industry, products, branding, and customer needs.
At this stage of the funnel, your audience is generally ready to make a purchase, but they need that final nudge to take the plunge. Customers may want to know explicit pricing details to inform their decision, or they may want a comprehensive, objective comparison between you and your competitors.
Get into the mindset of your customer base, and curate your BOFU content for specific buyer personas. You can get started by:
- Collecting customer feedback from surveys and reviews
- Consulting your customer service team for common questions and concerns
- Analyzing customer data for insights on buying habits
Offer direct, detailed content that speaks to your customers’ knowledge and expertise with examples that address their pain points and clearly provide the information they want.
Offer Tangible Value
Your business offers a solution to your customers’ problems or pain points, but BOFU content shouldn’t be solely focused on selling your product. Adding more value to your bottom-funnel content not only sweetens the pot for potential customers but can also benefit your site’s SEO, user experience, and brand authority.
Including expert insights and sharing proprietary data in BOFU content can boost conversion rates, establishing your business as an authority in your industry. You can also offer downloadable resources such as:
- Product guides
- Templates
- Checklists
- White papers
- Survey and study reports
Use Clear, Consistent CTAs
Customers at this point in their buying journey want explicit, direct messaging. When writing CTAs for bottom-funnel content, keep the language as simple and clear as possible, with phrases like:
- Sign up
- Add to cart
- Buy now
- Request a demo
- Get a free trial
- Download
Your audience knows what you have to offer, and your bottom-funnel content should guide them toward converting with minimal obstacles.
Include Helpful Visuals
Detailed tables, illustrative graphics, and engaging videos are part of SEO blog design best practices, especially for BOFU content.
Including visuals can make your bottom-funnel content more engaging while allowing you to provide more information to your audience in an easily digestible and memorable way. If you want your BOFU content to generate conversions, adding visual elements can help capture readers’ attention and keep them on the page longer.
Keep Your Content Fresh
You can leave some content alone for a year or more without risking the loss of traffic, but other pieces of content should get a touch-up every few months. No matter what kind of update schedule you keep or how often you refresh content, make sure key details are accurate, including:
- Product offerings and features
- Pricing information
- Competitor comparisons
Bottom-funnel content should give customers what they need to choose your company. Giving them a complete, honest picture is the best way to build confidence and convince them that what you’re offering is the best option.
Build Links to BOFU Content
Link building is a fundamental part of SEO content creation, sharing link equity to tell search engines that your content is reliable. Building high-value links to bottom-funnel content can increase traffic and conversions, boosting reach and profitability.
Not every BOFU content format is well-suited for this kind of outreach, so you shouldn’t expect to get links for content that leans into sales and marketing language. But journalists and third-party publications may be more likely to provide a link for content that provides tangible value, such as:
- Downloadable resources
- Webinars
- Free tools
- Guides
- Original data
We build links to quality content to help you rank higher. Learn more about our link building services.
Turn Users Into Customers With Optimized Bottom-Funnel Content
Creating bottom-funnel content that converts requires a thorough understanding of your business, product offerings, customer base, and industry. If you need to boost conversions for your B2C or B2B content marketing strategy, prioritize bottom-funnel content that adds value for potential customers.
At Siege Media, we create impactful content marketing deliverables for all stages of the funnel, building value, trust, and authority among your customers to increase traffic value and conversion rates.
