If you’ve landed here, you’re likely aware of the marketing funnel already. This famous theory is more than a century old and is still essential knowledge today. Segmenting your visitors into three buying stages – educational, comparative, and purchase – better enables you to meet shopping needs and turn browsers into customers. However, while understanding the funnel is one thing, knowing how to target each stage remains an art in itself.
You might be tempted to think that you only need to earmark customers at the bottom of the funnel – those ready to buy. But this is a major misconception. Research shows that by the time B2B buyers are ready to engage sellers, they’re already eight months into the buying process.
This demonstrates how important it is to consider people at earlier stages of the funnel. By reaching potential customers sooner in their journey, you can ensure your brand remains front-of-mind as they move toward a decision.
Read on for a granular understanding of the marketing funnel itself, and be ready to build a content marketing strategy that connects with audiences at every avenue.
Key takeaways
- Focus on both Middle of the Funnel (MOFU) and Bottom of the Funnel (BOFU) to nurture relationships and drive conversions.
- Create interconnected content to guide visitors through the funnel.
- Establish clear objectives for each content piece and track relevant metrics.
- Use AI tools with human expertise to analyze keywords and optimize content.
- Assess traffic value and user journey to fix conversion issues.
Which level of the funnel should you target in your content marketing strategy?
On paper, focusing on the Bottom of the Funnel (BOFU) makes a lot of sense. After all, this is where conversions happen. BOFU content is an important part of any strategy, but as we’ve seen in our introduction, limiting your efforts to this stage is a misstep.
By concentrating only on BOFU, you’re entering a highly competitive space. You’re also missing out on valuable opportunities to engage potential customers – those not ready to buy but needing an incentive for a repeat visit.
At Ellipsis, we’ve found that a balanced approach – targeting both the Middle of the Funnel (MOFU) and BOFU – is generally best as it tends to have the most relevance for B2B businesses. You’ll gain a tidy balance between targeting customers who are ready to buy, and those who’ll keep you in mind until they reach that same point. This ensures your purchase pipeline doesn’t dry up when you’ve run out of BOFU leads!
It’s also important to have a mix of content because the B2B buyer journey is non-linear. Someone at the BOFU stage today might be a MOFU customer tomorrow, due to unforeseen disruptions in the buyer journey. For example, a product has been sourced and decided upon. However, multiple stakeholder input is needed for purchase. At the last minute, the holder of the purse strings decides that further research is required.
So, if the combination of MOFU and BOFU content allows for a solid balance of immediate purchase and discoverability, why not extend your range to TOFU as well?
The answer is found in relevance. As we’ll see in the examples below, TOFU certainly has its place in some contexts, but it largely depends upon the specific industry and business. In most cases, TOFU content loses relevance for B2B businesses as it’s difficult to attract the people who are specifically relevant to a direct product or service.
James Baldacchino, Head of Strategy and SEO at Ellipsis, emphasizes this point:
“Most B2B businesses will get some leads from people who need something right now – whether they’re scrambling to find a marketing agency or desperate to redesign their office. However, if you want to be the first company they think of when that need arises, you’ve got to start the relationship way earlier. That means creating content that helps them solve problems and learn new things, even when they’re not ready to buy. Because when they finally do need what you’re selling, they’ll already know and trust you.”
The Ahrefs example: When BOFU and MOFU content combine
The Ahrefs website offers a great example of how a B2B SaaS company can thrive with a strategic mix of MOFU and BOFU content.
MOFU content examples:
- How to Use Keywords for SEO: The Complete Beginner’s Guide: Educates users who understand SEO basics but need deeper knowledge about specific techniques.
- SEO Basics: Beginner’s Guide to SEO Success: Provides actionable strategies for users who recognize their SEO needs but aren’t yet committed to a specific tool.
BOFU content examples:
- Ahrefs’ New Pricing: Everything You Need to Know: Addresses specific questions about product costs and features for prospects on the verge of purchasing.
- 8 Ahrefs API Use Cases For Agencies and Enterprises: Sowcases specific Ahrefs API features with implementation examples, targets decision-stage prospects, and concludes with a clear conversion action (booking a demo) rather than focusing on general education.
Why Ahrefs.com is a TOFU free zone
For Ahrefs, TOFU content would be inefficient, as their target audience consists of marketers and business owners already familiar with SEO concepts. I was at Ahrefs’ Evolve conference in Singapore last year, and their Head of Video Sam spoke about some of their challenges with this.
YouTube analytics let us see this clearly. A TOFU video they did last year, The New York Times’ $100m Side Business, got a fraction of the views that I Tried to Rank #1 on Google in 24 Hours to Prove a Point received.
By the time someone searches for SEO-related topics, they’ve moved beyond basic awareness. Focusing on MOFU and BOFU content allows the Ahrefs brand to engage with qualified prospects who understand their needs and are actively seeking solutions. This results in more efficient resource allocation and higher conversion potential.
Shopify: Taking the full-funnel approach
Shopify’s comprehensive content strategy spans the entire marketing funnel, demonstrating how a full-funnel approach can effectively meet diverse audience needs in the eCommerce platform industry.
TOFU content examples:
- How To Start an Online Boutique With No Money: Attracts beginners exploring eCommerce without pushing Shopify directly, building brand awareness with potential future customers.
- 15 Ecommerce CTA Examples and How To Write One: This educational content helps newcomers understand an important aspect of online selling without directly promoting Shopify’s platform.
MOFU content examples:
- 707 Street builds brand loyalty with seamless digital shopping experience: Demonstrates real-world applications and results for those considering Shopify as their online sales platform.
- How To Improve Ecommerce Security for Your Online Store: Addresses specific concerns of prospects actively researching platform requirements.
- 6 Best Ecommerce Platforms for Small Business in 2025: Comparison of Shopify with other platforms, including Wix, Squarespace, and WooCommerce.
BOFU content examples:
- How To Import and Ship Products Internationally With Shopify: Offers a technical guide on how to achieve specific functionality for readers who are close to deciding they’d like to set up shop with Shopify.
- How to Keep Creators Engaged with Shopify Collabs: Offers specific tips on how to get the most value out of the Shopify platform.
Why the full funnel works for Shopify
Shopify benefits from TOFU content because its industry has a highly diverse audience with varying knowledge levels.
By creating content for complete beginners, Shopify captures potential customers early in their journey. Next, the brand then nurtures visitors through the consideration phase with MOFU content, with self-targeted BOFU content for those almost ready to purchase.
This approach allows Shopify to build a mighty pipeline of leads at different stages, ensuring continuous growth as prospects progress through their buyer journey.
Measuring success across each funnel
Accurately measuring the success of your content at different stages of the marketing funnel is never easy – it’s especially tricky when it comes to TOFU content. While high click-through rates and increased traffic may seem impressive, such metrics don’t always translate into meaningful business outcomes.
As we’ve seen, TOFU content can easily attract a readership that’s different to your intended audience. For example, a developer platform covering educational content around tech topics may be of interest to student developers – visitors that will never convert.
To really gauge effectiveness, establish a clear ‘North Star’ – your primary objective for each piece of content. This could range from increasing brand awareness or organic traffic to encouraging social engagement or newsletter sign-ups. Understanding what metrics matter most for your particular business will help to position your content strategy.
So, how do you effectively measure whether your content connects with audiences at each stage? Use the following checklist when planning your strategy. With this in mind, every piece will have a purpose, and every customer is covered.
- TOFU: While tracking TOFU success can be challenging, concrete metrics like newsletter sign-ups provide tangible evidence of interest. Many of our clients, such as Codeable, have found success by focusing on newsletters as a TOFU strategy. These sign-ups indicate that visitors find value in your content and are willing to engage further. Newsletters serve as an excellent tool for capturing traffic. Visitors may not be ready to convert immediately, but they’re likely to engage with your brand in the future. By nurturing this audience, you can maintain a connection that pays down the line.
- MOFU: At this stage, focus on engagement metrics. Success indicators may include how frequently users open and click on your newsletters or blog posts, attendance at webinars, and access to resources you’ve published. These metrics reflect deeper interactions with your content and suggest that prospects are considering their options more seriously.
- BOFU: Where the rubber meets the road! Your BOFU content should drive actual business results – think conversions rather than mere engagement. Key performance indicators here include conversion rates, sales revenue, and the number of qualified leads that transform into customers. Tracking results is still a difficult undertaking, so use whatever data is available to help link sales back to your content!
Why a blog is the best way to target funnel stages for measurable results
Selecting the right channels is key to driving engagement and conversions. While the platform pile gets added to every year, ignore the latest trends for now and begin with a blog.
Blog content remains the foundation of B2B marketing strategies, offering a scalable and efficient method to produce timely and relevant info. Well-researched blog content will build authority and attract organic traffic over time. 55% of B2B marketers consider blogs to be the most valuable content for moving prospects through the sales funnel, and the format is also highly adaptable to changes.
Unlike video, which can become outdated quickly, blog posts can be edited to reflect new insights, technologies, and trends. This flexibility ensures that your content remains relevant and valuable to your audience as their needs evolve.
Blog content can also be produced at scale, particularly if you work with an expert SEO content agency like Ellipsis. We handle strategy, research, and production for our clients, while maintaining your tone, expertise, and voice.
Let’s see how strategically crafted blog posts can serve various purposes across the funnel stages:
- TOFU: As we know, the TOFU goal is to attract attention and raise awareness about your brand. Blog posts should focus on educational content, addressing broad industry questions or highlighting emerging trends. For instance, a topic like 5 Emerging Trends in Automation can draw in readers who are looking for a broad overview of their chosen subject.
- MOFU: Here, prospects are actively considering their options and require more in-depth information. Content at this stage should include case studies, how-to guides, and comparisons that position your company as a trusted expert. For example, a post titled How Our Automation Tools Helped X Company Cut Costs by 30% provides concrete examples of your solutions in action.
- BOFU: Drive conversions by addressing any final concerns prospects may have. Content should include customer success stories, detailed product information, and ROI analyses. An article titled Why Our Solution is the Best Choice for Scaling Your Business can reassure potential customers about their decision, and get them over the purchase line.
Here’s a handy visualization of how to make content most effective across each funnel stage:
Your Tone of Voice is Your Brand
Studies indicate that potential customers require approximately seven hours of content engagement to develop a lasting affinity for your brand. So, make those seven hours work as hard as possible! Blogs can be an incredibly effective medium for showcasing expertise and addressing the specific needs of B2B buyers, but it’s hugely important to create content that’s so useful that people will actively seek your brand out, rather than relying on random clicks.
One way to test the value you’re giving to your readers through your blog content is to ask the following question: If you stripped away your logo and branding elements, would readers still recognize your content? No matter the format – be it website content, email newsletters, or social media – the tone of your words needs to be instantly recognizable. Brand identity and trust are still major sales factors, and familiarity breeds trust, ensuring that you don’t just secure a click but also earn ongoing engagement.
You want users to choose to click on your site and then trust the information they’re reading. This helps ensure that you win both the current click and the next click from the user. This is how you build leads and sales from people moving across the funnel.
If people land on your site and they’re not going to convert right away, you need to give them a reason for them to convert in the future. Making sure you’re serving content that is helpful to them is the best way for them to move from being aware of you, to considering you, to deciding you’re the best fit for their needs.
Content clustering strategy
An innovative approach in B2B content marketing is content clustering. This strategy involves targeting related subtopics around a main core topic.
Even if you have top-notch predictive AI software in your bag of tricks, you can’t just write a single article about ‘digital marketing strategies’ (for example) and expect it to rank. Instead, you’ll need to build a topic cluster around related topics such as ‘seo best practices’ and ‘social media platforms that deliver the best ROI’.
Search engines judge your website and content offering as a whole, and a single well-researched page has little authority when compared to a site that’s rich in relevant content.
The best approach begins with the creation of a pillar page, which serves as a comprehensive resource on a core topic that’s relevant to your audience. A pillar page should provide a broad overview of the cluster as a whole.
Next, develop supporting content that burrows deeper into specific subtopics related to the pillar.
The final step is to link these related pieces together internally:
- Your pillar page needs to link out to all pages within that cluster.
- Your cluster pages should link back to your pillar page and a selection of the most relevant pages within that cluster.
This makes it easier for search engines to find and rank all of your content relating to a specific topic. It also improves navigation for your site visitors.
Over time, you’ll build a more comprehensive library of information around this core topic. When Google crawls your site, your authority on this topic receives an SEO boost, helping you rank better for all related articles.
How an AI-powered content strategy can help drive content marketing success
As we’ve seen, the complexities of the B2B content marketing funnel tend to make the process a lengthy one, so it’s important to get it right. Using AI in a content setup is NOT here to replace human writers, but it CAN help you meet some of the challenges you’ll likely face along the way.
For example, analyzing a keyword’s relevance to different funnel stages requires a nuanced understanding of your business and the competitive landscape. A skilled professional might spend 20-30 minutes per keyword to achieve this. Meanwhile, AI can accomplish the same analysis in just 30 seconds, processing countless keywords at the same time.
Such efficiency allows marketers to explore a far broader range of keywords than traditional methods permit. The time saved allows you to uncover hidden opportunities that can lead to greater brand success. AI tools allow you to find more keywords at a faster rate and produce content at scale. Given the usefulness of content to visitors and the emphasis given to it by search engines, the more quality info you can create, the more successful you’ll likely be.
At Ellipsis, we harness this power through FALCON AI©, our proprietary keyword research tool. FALCON AI© uses machine learning to identify optimal keyword opportunities across the entire funnel.
Our unique platform addresses several key funnel challenges:
- Identifying awareness-stage topics: As we’ve seen, knowing what will attract the right audience at TOFU level is quite a challenge. FALCON pinpoints awareness-related topics that will yield the best results, ensuring your content captures attention.
- Determining optimal content types: By analyzing keyword intent and search behavior, FALCON suggests the most appropriate content formats for each stage. This could include blogs, videos, or infographics.
- Measuring content effectiveness: Beyond basic metrics like traffic, FALCON can help you determine how a piece of content is going to perform, in comparison to similar competing articles.
- Predicting engagement and conversions: The tool forecasts which topics are likely to generate high engagement and conversion rates based on historical data and trends.
FALCON outputs include detailed keyword data such as search volume, keyword difficulty, and predicted ranking. It also categorizes keywords into funnel stages based on their fit with user intent.
For example, a keyword analysis might reveal that the term best B2B marketing strategies fits well in the MOFU category due to its focus on solution evaluation.
James Baldacchino, Head of Strategy and SEO at Ellipsis, notes:
“FALCON gives us a lot of data to work with. We get far more context than a normal keyword research tool would give, and context is the key to everything. FALCON understands the commercial value of the keyword. It understands what the client is good at. It then decides whether a keyword would be valuable for them or not.”
FALCON AI© improves processes by reducing timescales, adds precision to your research, and drives more successful outcomes across your content marketing funnel. Match this with great writers and SEO strategists, and you’ve a winning trinity on-side.
What to do if your marketing funnel is leaking conversions
If you find that your B2B content marketing efforts aren’t matching the expected value, don’t take it lying down! Pop on your doctor’s hat and get ready to diagnose the issue.
Start by assessing the traffic value of your content. This metric provides insight into the quality of the clicks you’re attracting. If there’s a major discrepancy between the traffic value and your actual conversion results, it indicates a potential problem in your Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) strategy.
For instance, if your traffic value is low, look to refine your SEO strategy from tip to toe. You may have focused on the wrong keywords or produced content that fails to match the search intent of your desired audience.
If you have a strong traffic value but low conversions, the problem may stem from your BOFU content, CTAs, or general navigation. Ineffective BOFU content may fail to address specific pain points, leaving customers unconvinced to buy. Likewise, CTAs need to have a compelling message and be strategically placed. And if your navigation is complex or confusing, your readers won’t be able to find the answers they’re looking for.
Analyze the user journey using a tool like Google Analytics, and see where potential customers are dropping out. A messy UX might lead to high bounce rates as visitors simply can’t find what they’re looking for. Likewise, an overly lengthy checkout procedure could be the culprit.
If the content itself doesn’t appear to be causing any problems, check for any technical issues on your site. Pages with poorly-tagged HTML might be getting ignored by Google, or at least not getting the rankings they deserve. Likewise, a poorly executed internal linking structure could make it difficult for search engines to find all of your content.
Pinpoint the problem with accuracy – it’s better to understand and fix a problem rather than throw time and money at guessing games. If all seems to be set up correctly, and you’re still not getting results, consider adding more value.
If you happen to be trading in an especially competitive market, position newsletters or email captures as a ‘next best action’ conversion. Immediate sales may not always be feasible, so encourage users to subscribe, and you’ll be able to nurture those leads over time.
Ready to transform your B2B content strategy? Let’s talk
As you contemplate the future of your B2B content marketing, consider the potential gains a well-executed strategy can bring.
Take Akkio, an Ellipsis client that experienced an astounding 55x increase in organic traffic, soaring to 35,000 visitors per month. This transformation was driven by a content strategy that harnessed our three-pillar PTE approach:
- Process: Expertise-heavy content at scale.
- Technology: Using our cutting-edge FALCON AI© platform.
- Expertise: A specialized in-house team dedicated to delivering results.
We understand that effective content marketing is not just about producing great articles. It’s about creating a strategic ecosystem that’s useful for visitors from all points of the sales funnel. Our proven methods have consistently helped clients like Akkio navigate the complexities of digital marketing with precision and impact.
Together, we can craft a tailored approach that aligns with your business goals, propels your brand forward, and delivers meaningful results.
If you’re ready to unlock the full potential of your content strategy, let’s start a conversation today.
