In the marketing landscape, MOFU is an opportunity to build meaningful relationships, increasing lead conversion. How can you make the most of this phase?

With the ongoing digitization, the buyer’s journey continues to shift and evolve. When you are at the MOFU phase, your potential customers have gone past the initial awareness stage. They are now at a point where they are seriously considering purchasing your offerings. In this middle stage between TOFU and BOFU, potential prospects know your brand and have shown interest in your product or service. But they are looking at various options to make the best purchase. It is also the phase where they perform a comparative analysis with the competitors. For this reason, MOFU is known as the consideration phase of the sales funnel.  

At this point, supplying some information that will help them make an informed decision. Your marketing strategy targeting the mid-funnel must balance a solid foundation with flexible strategies.

Utilizing the potential of middle-of-the-funnel

The key ingredient of acing MOFU marketing comprises delivering content that conveys the right solution to your prospects. You need to provide them with detailed information about your offerings, or some added value to engage them. Amplify your mid-funnel content by making it more helpful and informative, without being too sales-y. Your target audience must feel like your offerings are providing some value. And it’s not some aggressive sales pitch. When you launch relevant and value-rich content, prospects are likely to respond positively to them.

While providing useful data, focus on building relationships with potential customers. You can achieve this through personalized emails or social media messages. Using these initiatives, you want your prospects to become excited or motivated to read the messages or posts. Building strong relationships with your prospects cultivates trust in your brand, making them more likely to purchase your offerings.

Mid-funnel buyers involve more thorough research from the prospects’ end before they go ahead and leap into that final decision to buy. Utilize this crucial point to stand out from the other brands, so the prospects choose you over the competitors. The mid-funnel content should revolve around delivering solutions that address the audience’s pain points. You should be able to help the MOFU buyers find the right solution through your content.

MOFU Marketing Tactics

Prospects entering the middle-of-the-funnel may not be familiar with your products or services. So, your main objective here is to enhance customer-brand relationships. By implementing this approach, your team can establish its authority in the market. The mid-funnel phase is also the perfect time for you to start nurturing leads who may not be ready for a sales discussion yet. Implementing a robust content marketing strategy can be a great tool to showcase the value of your brand. To accomplish this, your marketing strategy should be research-based and involve educational content, thought leadership, and case studies.

An effective MOFU content marketing helps you close the gap between the initial curiosity the audience feels when they engage with a brand’s content and the final sale. The leads you have at this stage are in the consideration phase of the customer journey. Your marketing team needs to produce educational content that engages the audience to your brand, increasing the lead conversion.

Key Elements of Successful Mid-Funnel Content

An effective mid-funnel content must be educational and highly persuasive while being target-specific. When you create materials with all these components, there is a better chance that your customers will resonate with your brand, causing them to convert into leads. Let’s look at each of these elements more closely.

Educational and brand-specific

Considering the prospects in your MOFU, they already have a solid understanding of your brand and its offerings. But what they need to dive into is how your company is different from the competitors and why they should go for your product/service. That is why, when creating content, make sure it is more sophisticated and informative, discussing your USPs.

Highly-Targeted Content

At its core, middle-of-the-funnel is your chance to add prospects in your sales cycle who are already interested in your offerings. Utilize this aspect of the sales process as an opportunity to drive more organic traffic to your site through engaging content. However, there is a stark difference between actionable insights and consumers casually seeking a solution. To garner customers likely to convert into paying accounts, you will want to create targeted content, supplying them with specific information that adds value and addresses a problem faced. 

Engaging Content

In the MOFU phase, your content needs to hook prospects for the long haul, inviting them to explore more about your company and its products or services. When developing your content plan for the mid-funnel phase, ensure that you provide enough data that gives them confidence in your brand to solve their problems. Showcase your unique capabilities and publish various forms of content demonstrating your expertise. A gentle push is all you need at this stage to convert into leads.

Types of content for effective MOFU marketing

Middle-of-the-funnel marketing requires certain forms of content to create an impact. These are some examples to educate your audience with the resources they need.

Case Studies

Through case studies, you can offer insightful explanations of how your offerings will make a difference and what new it is providing that other brands are now. You can highlight success stories or discuss applications of your products or services. This will let potential customers understand how you helped their existing clients achieve business goals. When creating case studies, demonstrate data such that your customers feel connected. They will want to see how the success of other brands can relate to them.

White Papers

The core mission of launching whitepapers is to draw light on a specific pain point and promote an approach you used to overcome the hurdle. As a brand that wants to stand out, you must publish white papers on your website and share them in your email campaigns. You must ensure they contain valuable, concrete facts, and statistical data that give your offerings a steady skeleton. If engrained with the right ingredients, white papers allow your prospects to grasp first-hand the benefits of your solutions.

Email Campaigns

Target-specific email campaigns provide an easy and effective route to reach many prospects. For instance, if you can garner more email open rates, it implies that your email marketing campaigns are making an impression to lead to actions. You can also look into email newsletters to compile value-added information to provide details about your brand. These campaigns can be curated to provide insights to move leads further into the funnel. The standout feature of emailers is they allow you to send multiple messages in one go.

Blog Posts

Whether you are a new brand or have established your brand voice strongly in the market, blogs are a useful catalyst to amp up your sales funnel. You can curate articles as per your audience, trying out different lengths and formats while you do so. Each blog is customizable plus easy to consume. The best part of blogs is updating informational content that your prospects will consume. If your blogs have unique insights, they also give you a cutting edge. Enrich your blogs by adding more SEO keywords and relevant links to increase search rates.

News Articles

Publishing curated news pieces could open another doorway of communication with your target audience. While launching this content form, obtain a content license from a trusted source that helps you share timely and reliable updates. In this way, you can enhance brand credibility among your prospects.

Summing up,

The middle-of-the-funnel is one step ahead in the sales funnel. Your prospects have surpassed the getting-acquainted-with-your-brand phase and are seriously considering choosing your brand. This phase is all about them researching and comparing across competitors to decipher which brand makes the best fit for them. The way for your brand to shine in this stage is to provide content that enlightens them on how your brand’s offerings will solve their pain point. You can retain more leads past the MOFU phase by launching value-rich content that highlights your services and offerings. It is a great stage in the funnel to increase lead conversion by planning and delivering content that matters.

As per reports, for every 100 leads, only 2-5 prospects may convert into paying customers. How do you increase this ratio by targeting TOFU clients?

A sales funnel comprises different levels, each denoting the type of customer or the status of your deal with them. These are categorized as TOFU, MOFU, and BOFU.  At the top of the sales funnel (TOFU), you probably have many potential leads. These customers could be new to your offerings and may be getting acquainted with your brand.

Yet they may not be actively looking to buy a product or service. In short, not all the leads you have at this stage are likely to convert into paying accounts. Frankly, very few will. Studies indicate that the average conversion rate for top-of-the-funnel sales leads ranges between 2%-5%. So, utilize this awareness stage phase of awareness as a good opportunity for your brand to make a lasting impression that has them returning to your products or services.  

The top-of-the-funnel is your chance to get your target audience hooked and want to know more about your offerings. It needs to focus on value-added content and ads that create brand awareness while leaving your prospects wanting to learn more. You want to maintain a fine balance between showcasing your expertise and not coming on too strong by selling too much information. If you successfully catch the attention of maximum prospects without being annoying, there is more chance of bringing them to your brand’s sales funnel.

Let trust-building be the core of the TOFU phase to educate your prospects with insights they find valuable. When they trust your brand, they will likely sign up for the long haul. The right elements can enhance awareness and win the interest of more prospects in your brand’s offerings.

How can you make the most of TOFU?

Your sales and marketing teams know that attracting new prospective customers and generating leads are the stepping stones to a successful strategy. However, when the top-of-funnel is a hit-and-miss, your sales and marketing funnel teams won’t have many leads to nurture and carry forward.

Inventing innovative tactics to strengthen your TOFU is the key to building trust among the target audience. Moreover, this is a catalyst for helping you establish thought leadership with prospects. But where do you begin to create a robust top-of-funnel content for your sales?

Adding value to your audience makes all the difference. Be it through your content or your communication, the more you focus on delivering value, the better will be your success rate with prospects. When prospective customers resonate with your brand voice, it enhances their engagement. And if more people engage it elevates the chances of prospects converting into paying accounts. Since more potential customers are in their research phase early on, the primary goal of marketing at the top of the funnel is to stimulate awareness and propel lead-gen campaigns.

These are the prospects who expressed interest in your offerings but are yet to make a purchase. When you can add value through your offerings and address the prospects’ needs, you can create content that appeals to TOFU clients. This enables them to take the next step toward an informed decision for purchase.

Quality TOFU leads help you increase brand awareness, generate qualified leads, and foster strong relationships with customers. A steady flow of top-of-the-funnel leads paves the way for optimizing the best strategy to maximize your returns on investment.

How will you benefit from TOFU sales?

Your sales and marketing teams implement the latest strategies to appeal to the right audience. Yet, there are times when the newest ideas may fail to yield the results you seek. This is where TOFU-focused sales come in handy. It helps brands like yours to produce interest among prospects in your offerings. Moreover, blogs launched to level up the TOFU include impactful CTAs. Feel free to ask your prospects to sign up for a newsletter or a contact form that connects them with your sales team. SEO-rich top-of-funnel content can benefit you in several ways, ultimately increasing client reach and sales conversions.

Brand awareness

Whether your business is newly launched or you have established your brand identity in the market, instilling and sustaining brand awareness are always critical. Plan every content you launch or deliver and use the right keywords. Create brand awareness by connecting with TOFU prospects and discussing ways in which you can address their concerns. When you take different routes to build relationships with the audience, more prospects will become aware of your brand.

Generating leads

If the blogs and content pieces you deliver are rich in value-added information and SEO-backed, they will attract more prospects. If more potential clients read your materials, there is more scope for garnering high-quality leads. While crafting various forms of content, ensure you cover topics that intrigue the target audience. Integrate every content piece with relevant keywords that elevate the overall search engine optimization. Also, discuss the significance of building relationships with potential prospects using social media posts, email campaigns, or other marketing tactics. Implementing these initiatives will increase your lead generation, allowing you to stay ahead of the competition and build a strong client base.

Building relationships

Strong relationships with prospects go a long way in expanding your database and improving customer retention. Although B2B brands realize the importance of robust customer-business relationships, it may feel like a struggle to accomplish this. The good news is— with careful planning and strategic implementation of ideas, it is not far-fetched. For instance, engaging with potential customers through content and social media channels will prove effective.

Researching your audience and understanding the content they grasp will serve as a roadmap to help you decide the types of topics to discuss in your content. Include advice and informative content to develop trust with the clients. Launching interactive and value-added posts allows your messages to create an impact on the target audience. Tailor messages and content to make them interesting, drawing readers and invoking purchase interest. Catching the attention of TOFU clients with your content and campaigns is a surefire way of increasing the performance efficiency of your sales cycle.

Segmentation

Client segmentation is an essential element to customize campaigns for audiences in a specific funnel of the sales cycle. It is important to thoroughly understand the tone your target audience prefers, the type of content they find interesting and what are their pain points. The sales and marketing approach will vary depending on whether you are targeting new leads or wanting to provide useful information that encourages them to engage with your brand. Whereas, if you are looking to retain existing customers, providing updates about new offerings may work in your favor. The bottom line is the more you know each client segment, the more effective is your marketing campaign.

Ace your content for efficient TOFU marketing

Content conveys your brand’s voice, and at the same time, it is a channel that allows your audience to align with you. Combining high-quality content with strong visuals builds relationships with prospects, attracting new leads. While there is a diverse stream of content that can be launched, these are the common content types the TOFU clients may find appealing.

Blog posts

Blog pieces are a great way to talk about your expertise. You can use short-form or long-form blogs to highlight how your offerings address audience pain points. Develop them as a means to resonate with more prospects. Cover topics your target clients would search for and amplify the searchability with keywords. In this way, you deliver value-added content that drives traffic to your site and increases your customer reach.

Landing pages

Leverage landing pages to discuss all your services to engage a specific target audience. Optimize landing page content to increase site visits and generate more inquiries. Utilize these to encourage brand-customer interactions either directly with the purchase or through web chat or a contact form. You can also create separate landing pages for events or special offers. 

White papers

These offer the perfect opportunity to publish long-form content, shining light on the impacts of your benefits. You can draw upon success stories and how-to guides, and build case studies as white papers. Make them available to download from your site and to the email list. Utilize the launch of white papers as a perfect time to showcase your expertise and connect with the audience.

Infographics

These are concise and visually appealing forms of content. Infographics allow you to represent complex concepts in a clear and easy-to-interpret format. You can post them on your website and social media channels to generate interest among prospects through reposts and engagement.

E-books

If you are looking to establish your thought leadership, E-books are the best resource for sharing valuable content. You can discuss software solutions that would address the pain points of your audience. Leverage this form of content to connect with a large base of prospects and share it through email marketing campaigns. Another way of attracting leads through E-books is making them available on your site and linking them to a contact form for enhancing audience engagement.

Wrapping up

Your brand has a unique idea and offers solutions that address the pain points of your audience. But without connecting with the prospects, it is tough to build your brand reputation. Top-of-the-funnel marketing is your chance to attract your target customers and keep them for the long haul. Focusing on the TOFU of your sales cycle allows you to create a good first impression and generate more conversions. Your innovative marketing techniques focused on the top potential customers are a driving force to convert those potential leads into actual sales. Spend time and resources on marketing tactics to deliver your best lead-gen campaigns and take advantage of top-of-the-funnel sales opportunities.

With an undefined sales strategy, reaching the critical mile may seem like an endless struggle. These 5 steps map out the route to closing more deals.

The success of your brand relies on a solid sales foundation. Without knowing the critical markers, it is hard to measure sales performance. The lack of a clearly defined sales strategy may be why 45% of surveyed sellers believe their biggest challenge is incomplete data. When your sales team follows a system, it allows them to take the right actions at the right time. The 5-step sales process is a structure to improve the efficiency of your closed deals. It is a guideline to ensure that you are on track and open to tweaking your sales approach.

While the sales approach requires tailoring as per your product or services, the five-step sales process lays a strong foundation to get the pipeline moving. Your sales team can utilize this linear approach to move through each step efficiently. These sales steps allow you to seamlessly monitor the performance and identify gaps that require improvement.  

Mastering this framework makes it easier to tweak or modify your sales process strategy in alignment with your goals and the client’s needs.

Step 1: Prospecting

Prospecting involves developing a list of prospects likely to convert into paying accounts. This step has everything to do with researching potential leads and knowing them as much as possible. Understanding the target niche is the stepping stone to drive a sales strategy that yields the results. Focus on your ICP instead of randomly targeting a pool of audience and going nowhere in the journey.

Step 2. Connecting with the customers

Ace the first impression with your target audience. While interacting with the prospects, work toward not making the conversation sales-y. The goal of this step is to transform from a generic call to schedule a first appointment that could potentially close a deal. So, setting the tone right is of utmost importance here.  Building a strong relationship with your client can go a long way.

Step 3: Identifying the pain points

Spend enough time figuring out the challenges of your target audience. You can begin by asking relevant questions to draw out the problem and understand how your offering could address the pain points. As you do your research, also find out their preferred solutions and whether they have budget constraints. Communicate your understanding of their problem and how your solution can help. When doing so, emphasize the winning points while at the same time not sounding too sales-centric.

Step 4: Sealing the Deal

Closing a deal involves a series of discussions and reasonings. As you move towards the final step, make sure you walk through the right questions. Talk about the details of your sales flow chart and be open to handling questions and client objections. Have a clear plan in place as to what you will do if the client objects or if they are not ready to commit yet. Such preparation will pave the way for overcoming roadblocks swiftly.

Step 5: Keeping up with the Follow-up

The journey doesn’t stop at signing a deal. Once you have closed a sale, make sure to follow up with the client. You need to make sure that the client receives the product/service as discussed and the whole experience simulates customer satisfaction. This small initiative can work in your favor, promoting brand loyalty. A happy client is likely to be loyal to your brand. At this stage, do not hesitate to ask for referrals to generate new leads.

Wrapping up

Sales are centered around fulfilling milestones. Every aspect of the sales cycle revolves around garnering the right clients, identifying their pain points, strengthening bonds with them, and offering an ideal solution. These 5 steps can be a real game-changer for your business, aligning with your vision and adding structure to an otherwise complex sales process. You gain clarity and can deliver the best solution to address the customer’s pain points.

As companies rush to scale sales personalization, they must understand the importance, strategies, and the ethical conundrum it poses in the process.

Sales personalization has gained a lot of traction during the pandemic. Businesses that understood the term had an easier time surviving and even thrived. A study by McKinsey during the pandemic revealed that 71% of consumers expected personalization, while 76% of consumers got frustrated when they did not receive it.

So, what exactly is sales personalization?

In technical terms, sales personalization aims at providing a personal experience tailored to the user. Imagine walking into a clothing store, where you get greeted with t-shirts of the same color and design. You won’t be ready to even give a chance to the store. A similar experience unfolds when you treat your consumers with a generic sales communication. It is neither special nor personal. Instead, a consumer might find it too commercial for their taste. Sales personalization targets the emotional aspects of the consumer journey and customizes the sales strategy accordingly.

Sales Personalization in 2023

In the 1980s, a professor, Leonard Berry, first coined the word ‘relationship marketing’ now known as sales personalization. From the 1980s right up to 2020, companies used various strategies to leverage sales personalization. These strategies included using sales calls, email marketing, targeted ads, and more. You could have easily used sales personalization to effectively predict your consumers’ journey and gently nudge them towards your products. However, sales personalization underwent a massive change during and after the pandemic. As more consumers opened up to try new products, their loyalties towards brands began to diminish. 

Such a shift in consumer behavior was due to the arrival of the Gen Z consumer segment. Gen Z consumers are open to try new products and crave a personalized experience from the companies. The sales personalization strategies to target Gen Z are inherently different and pose a challenge to companies in retaining their consumers. In 2023, as AI swept through every industry, it forced companies to rethink their strategies for sales personalization and adapt to the changing world. 

Why is sales personalization so vital for companies?

Some firms and businesses have flourished for years. The sole reason is relevancy. Companies adapted to the needs and wants of the times, where sales personalization played a major part in it. So, why is sales personalization so important?

• Customers feel special when recommendations and emails seem personally addressed to them. Another study by McKinsey shows that 76% of consumers tend to purchase from brands that personalize their sales.
• Brand loyalty is a thing of the past. If you can offer a product with better value and personalized sales communication, consumers of competing brands will switch to your product in a heartbeat.
• You can use sales personalization to make your brand stand out. While brand loyalty is in a downward spiral, brand recognition has been at an all-time high. Consumers are more likely to recall your brand and recommend it to their friends and family based on how good your sales personalization techniques are.

Sales personalization strategies in 2023

Sales personalization strategies have always been volatile as times change. You can incorporate certain strategies to help you scale sales personalization.

• Utilize CDM to manage consumer data

Consumer Data is a key metric through which companies design, develop, and launch their products. You can use the same data to target your sales to your consumers. Companies use consumer data management to gather, maintain, and revise consumer data. CDM aims at gathering consumer data and turning it into usable consumer profiles. To simplify the process of managing scores of consumer data, you need the help of a consumer data platform.

The digital expansion in 2023 has made consumers vary in data privacy. As consumer data is the first step towards sales personalization, you must educate consumers and assure them of strictly following data privacy protocols. 

• Analyze consumer behavior with CRM

While CDM is used to manage consumer data, companies depend heavily on CRM tools to analyze consumer data. CRM can analyze consumer profiles to provide actionable, personalized sales communication targeting consumer experiences. Fortune Business Insights has forecasted the CRM market size to grow by a CAGR of 12% by 2030. CRM system can anticipate consumer behavior to help your sales team identify touchpoints of your consumer’s journey. The sales team can easily craft a personalized recommendation or pop-up ad to target consumers based on their purchasing journey.

• Provide real-time product recommendation

The influx of shopping apps has greatly simplified consumer journeys and provided them with complete control of their journey. Companies face a complex situation providing personalized experiences to consumers who have multiple touchpoints in their journey. You can utilize aspects of the consumer journey by offering real-time product recommendations based on metrics like search intent, and previous purchases.

McKinsey conducted a survey involving 60 shoppers. They found that a brand interaction commonly desired by consumers was relevant recommendations based on their buying intent. Consumers in 2023 have a limited attention span, leading to more focused buying decisions. Without relevant and real-time product recommendations, there is a high chance that your sales strategy might fail.

• Focus on Digital Sales Personalization

Smartphones, apps, and digital payment methods are as common as horses were in the past, maybe more. Nearly every consumer and business has a digital footprint in some form. Your consumers might even prefer digital sales communication to dealing with a sales representative in person.

Gartner’s research shows that 33% of all buyers hope for a seller-free sales experience. You can scale your sales personalization by leveraging your consumers’ desire for a more digital sales experience. Provide your consumers with a user-friendly buying experience, shopping cart reminders, email and text communication, a free trial of the product, AR visuals for product verification, and more. Your consumers will feel more comfortable with an increase in digital sales experience.

• Let AI lead

As companies have automated most of their processes through AI, your sales team can also utilize AI for personalized sales communication. 2023 has seen consumers with zero patience. They expect a quicker, seamless, and personalized sales experience. You can use AI to automate experiences that might take time if done manually. 

Suppose a consumer on your app has a doubt, you can use an AI chatbot for immediate redressal, leading to a better experience for the consumer. You can use AI, in almost every stage of the consumer journey. The scalability of your sales personalization becomes boundless with the help of AI. It can provide recommendations, lead your consumers to the correct page or product, and send out personalized sales communication without any constraints of human error. While you shouldn’t hand over the wheel to AI, you certainly can let it take the lead.

• Learn where to draw the line with sales personalization 

Providing personalized sales communication comes at a cost. While consumers want a more personalized sales experience, they are reluctant to share more than the necessary data. Companies must be open with the data they aim to collect and its use. They need to know where to draw a line when collecting user data. Many consumers feel creeped out when they find product recommendations even before searching for them. Sales personalization in such cases can instead have a negative effect on the consumers.  You can focus more on consumer satisfaction during their journey and utilize upstream and downstream engagement metrics to gather data. Your engagement with your consumers will significantly improve without asking for too much personal data. 

Conclusion

Technological advancement has made it easier for companies to provide a personalized sales experience. You must realize that you can effortlessly increase revenue generation and better consumer retention through sales personalization. It is necessary for companies to understand the nuances of the consumer journey. Consumers expect sales communication that they feel is curated for them. Companies can target their consumers with personalized communication at specific touchpoints along the consumer journey. Scaling sales personalization can be easily accomplished by keeping consumer behavior in mind, utilizing the resources at hand, and being adaptable to market changes.