We often talk about marketing strategies for conversion, the bottom of the purchasing funnel. However, companies that invest in creating high-quality content for the beginning stages of the buying journey can see significant impact on their overall marketing success – building customer trust, loyalty and retention that ultimately impact the bottom of the funnel when it comes time to purchase.
Finding a balance between top of funnel and bottom of funnel content
A lot of companies spent time and effort creating high-quality content for the middle and the ending stages of the buying journey for their customers. Although this is important, companies should test and learn what the appropriate balance is between content that speaks to consumers at the beginning of their buying journey and those that are further down the line. According to research, not only does investing in brand awareness content drive ROI itself, but it also helps the performance of content created for later stages in the buying journey.
Brand awareness is a long game
What does successful brand awareness content need to do? Common practice says that a marketer should aim for 6-8 marketing touchpoints before a buyer will engage with a message, so in order to connect with the consumer at that level of volume, brand awareness content needs to stand out, build trust and tell a story – ensuring that the audience will see it, believe in it, and come back for more. Companies that create this type of valuable and high-quality content have put themselves on a path to success, as their buyer is already primed to be invested in their brand and trust their business when it comes time to purchase. Further, they are more likely to be repeat customers, and even referral partners, as the brand has spent more time building a relationship with them that is not purely transactional. The brand can then continue to remarket itself, not just to these customers through newsletters and content, but actually use their characteristics to refine the profile of who their target customer is - improving and expanding their lookalike audiences for bottom of funnel campaigns.
