Advertising funnels are visible representations of the phases a buyer goes via, from first studying about your model to turning into a buyer.
Every advertising and marketing funnel is cut up into three phases:
- Prime of the funnel (TOFU)
- Center of the funnel (MOFU)
- Backside of the funnel (BOFU)
Immediately, we’ll be speaking about top-of-the-funnel advertising and marketing.
Prime-of-the-funnel advertising and marketing refers back to the advertising and marketing methods and techniques used to create consciousness of your model or product.
TOFU is the content material you create—be it a PPC advert or a weblog article—that will get your model in entrance of latest potential clients.
TOFU content material is essential as a result of it’s typically the broadest advertising and marketing technique, i.e., the extra prospects on the prime, the extra clients on the backside (often). Moreover, producing consciousness about your product/service helps to generate the necessity for it.
For instance, let’s say you promote wild-caught canned tuna. Your TOFU content material generally is a weblog publish concerning the points with farm-raised tuna, sharing why it’s an issue and why wild-caught tuna is healthier for you and the setting.
This weblog publish crops the seed in potential clients’ minds that they could wish to begin shopping for wild-caught tuna over farm-raised ones.
From there, MOFU content material generally is a weblog publish discussing the completely different corporations that catch wild tuna and their practices, and BOFU content material generally is a publish speaking about why your organization has the most effective tuna and fixes the issues different corporations create.
With MOFU and BOFU content material, you’re competing with different corporations for the purchasers’ consideration. However with TOFU content material, you’re catching them earlier than they’re even conscious of your rivals and constructing belief with them earlier than they get to the analysis and buy phases, growing your probabilities of capturing the ultimate sale.
That’s why TOFU content material is so essential—it’s the primary chain within the hyperlink.
Prepared so as to add TOFU to your advertising and marketing menu? Listed here are 5 TOFU advertising and marketing techniques price implementing in your corporation:
1. Writing weblog posts
I already talked about how a weblog publish may be an essential TOFU content material piece with the tuna instance. However that’s simply certainly one of many—almost each enterprise can profit from writing weblog posts as TOFU content material.
Let’s take a look at an actual instance. I run a weblog referred to as Adventures On The Rock, which makes cash by reviewing and selling overlanding and tenting merchandise. My objective is to get my readers to buy my really useful merchandise so I could make a fee.
On the prime of the funnel, I must make individuals conscious of what overlanding even is and why individuals may wish to strive it. So I wrote this text, explaining all of it intimately:
From there, that article results in different phases of the funnel by speaking about what sort of gear you want and the place to purchase that gear.
I discovered this subject via key phrase analysis.
I began by researching the key phrase “overlanding” on Ahrefs’ Key phrases Explorer and located that a lot of the web sites rating for this key phrase wrote an article explaining what overlanding is and how one can get began.
You’ll find TOFU article concepts in the identical method. Enter a broad seed key phrase into Ahrefs’ Key phrases Explorer (or our free key phrase generator device) and peruse the outcomes.
2. Using website positioning
Pushing the weblog publish tactic a step additional, you should use website positioning to get your TOFU content material in entrance of latest individuals each month—free of charge and robotically.
For instance, I wrote a TOFU article about website positioning writing on this weblog. It ranks on the primary web page for key phrases like “what’s search engine marketing writing,” “writing for search engine marketing,” and over 100 others:
This single article brings over 1,500 new guests to our website each month and leads the readers towards utilizing Ahrefs to help them of their website positioning duties.
Different examples of TOFU website positioning embrace:
Wish to be taught extra? Evaluation our website positioning fundamentals information.
3. Posting to social media
Social media is an apparent advertising and marketing channel for any enterprise—and it’s good for spreading model consciousness (i.e., TOFU content material).
There are loads of social media platforms and loads of methods to make use of them. I can’t presumably cowl them multi functional article, however I can provide you a number of examples.
1. TacomaBeast: Instagram
TacomaBeast makes use of Instagram (and different social platforms) extraordinarily nicely. It has a extremely focused area of interest viewers (Toyota Tacoma house owners) and posts TOFU content material on a near-daily foundation.
Its posts typically enchantment to the area of interest as a complete—individuals who personal Tacomas and wish to see cool Tacoma mods and builds in motion, and those that don’t but know the model.
These posts are proven to its present viewers however are additionally proven to many accounts that don’t at the moment observe it, constructing model consciousness. That is very true with Instagram Reels and TikTok movies.
2. Duolingo: TikTok
Talking of TikTok, few manufacturers use it in addition to Duolingo. It’s an app that teaches you how one can converse different languages—however you wouldn’t have the ability to inform that from its TikTok movies.
It embraces the concept of virality and easily getting its model in entrance of individuals over attempting to promote its product with its movies. Due to this, its movies are seen by tons of of 1000’s and even hundreds of thousands of individuals—individuals who may doubtlessly turn into customers of the app.
3. The Wandering RV: Pinterest
The Wandering RV will get 1000’s of latest guests each month from Pinterest. It has Pinterest-sized graphics on each weblog publish on its website and all the time shares them once they’re revealed.
For instance, it has posted pins about RV meal concepts. As soon as an individual reads this text, they see hyperlinks to RV cooking gear and equipment. These push them additional down the funnel.
You are able to do the identical by grabbing a free Canva account and utilizing the “Pinterest pin” template. Canva has 1000’s of templates you’ll be able to simply modify to suit your model.
4. Working PPC adverts
Typically, you could pay to play, and operating PPC adverts is among the greatest methods to get your model in entrance of latest audiences.
You possibly can run adverts in lots of locations:
- Search engine adverts
- Social media adverts
- Show adverts
- And many others
One of many best methods to start out doing that is by copying what’s working in your rivals. Head to Ahrefs’ Web site Explorer, plug in a competitor’s web site, then click on the Paid key phrases report within the left-hand menu.
You’ll typically see loads of branded key phrases and MOFU/BOFU key phrases in right here, however typically you’ll come throughout non-branded TOFU key phrases you’ll be able to put a competing bid on.
Higher nonetheless, TOFU key phrases are sometimes very low cost to bid on, since not as many individuals are operating adverts for them.
For instance, we sometimes run PPC adverts for key phrases like “crawl an internet site” and “content material concept,” which have just about no competitors and are TOFU queries.
These additionally occur to have a really excessive Key phrase Issue (KD), that means they’re robust to rank for organically on Google’s first web page. By operating adverts to those key phrases, we will bypass the competitors with out spending loads of cash.
Take a look at our information to PPC advertising and marketing to be taught extra about this tactic.
5. Direct outreach
Final however not least, you should use direct outreach as a TOFU advertising and marketing tactic. These embrace:
- E-mail outreach
- Unsolicited mail
- Telephone calls
Whereas unsolicited mail and cellphone calls can work nice to search out new shoppers, e mail outreach is probably the most scalable for almost all of on-line companies as a result of it requires the least by way of time and cash.
I take advantage of direct outreach to construct hyperlinks to my content material, promote my articles, and discover advertising and marketing companions and new clients. It’s a flexible and efficient tactic.
For instance, I not too long ago ran a examine rating the highest states in America to go tenting, then used e mail outreach to get journalists to publish information articles with my findings. This examine resulted in over 40 new backlinks to my website, together with some from MSN, Yahoo, and TimeOut Journal.
Along with these high-powered hyperlinks, the examine additionally despatched 1000’s of latest guests to my web site.
If you wish to learn the way you are able to do one thing comparable, try our information to digital PR and browse up on how one can ship outreach e mail.
Last ideas
The highest of the funnel is usually the place the widest-reaching advertising and marketing techniques lie. However as a result of it’s so removed from the place shoppers make their remaining buy, it’s not the obvious advertising and marketing alternative.
Nevertheless, TOFU content material is the place you plant the seeds that may scale your corporation sooner or later. Whereas it shouldn’t be the primary space you place money and time into, it shouldn’t be ignored both.
Questions or feedback? Ping me on Twitter.
