How to build a content marketing funnel for your business

I’ve been talking about my SEO / content marketing funnel recently and how it’s working to drive organic traffic for my business, and I hope it’s made you curious about creating an SEO or content funnel for your business, too. Here’s the thing: organic marketing works amazingly well for small business owners when you use several channels together. Let’s talk about how to build a content funnel for your business, and then we’ll touch on how to optimize that content so it gets discovered by the people you’re creating it for. 

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What is a content marketing funnel? 

A content funnel is pretty simple. It’s content that’s designed to help your ideal customer answer questions, gain information, and ultimately make a decision to either work with you or purchase from you. Your content will likely include a website and blog; sometimes, it includes a podcast and social media content. You’ll also likely want to include email marketing in your content funnel so that you can capture and nurture your leads. 

Listen to the podcast episode here.

What types of content can you use in a funnel?

Your content funnel can include your website and blog, podcast, social media, and email. You want each of these channels to work together to nurture your audience and turn them into customers. 

What are the stages of a content marketing funnel?

Traditional marketing funnels have 4 or 5 stages, depending on the niche. Most marketing funnels include:

• Awareness
• Consideration
• Intent
• Decision

Some include a fifth stage, due diligence, though we don’t see this with most marketing funnels. Due diligence is more common with high-ticket items, large investments, and major purchases. Over my career, I’ve seen it with banks, mortgage companies, insurance, and higher education clients. I haven’t seen it in many other areas. 

What is the awareness stage of a marketing funnel?

Awareness is just what it sounds like. It’s helping someone become aware of your brand or your business. It’s the first stage because they can’t work with you if they don’t know you exist. 

Your content at the awareness stage is going to be high-level. It’s going to provide initial information, guidance, and tips. It’s not super involved because this consumer is probably just beginning the research process. Awareness content is also referred to as top-of-funnel content. It’s designed for those at the top of the funnel, just beginning their research. 

What type of awareness content might you create? If you’re a coach, you might have a blog post on the common issues someone might face within your niche, and you might highlight the fact that coaching can help them. You’re not yet saying, hey, let me coach you through this but rather, this is an issue, and there are things that can help. It could also include very beginner questions on your topic area – things like how do I get traffic to a new website? This is someone who’s just beginning their journey. They’re probably not ready for SEO tips, but they’re trying to understand how to get traffic to their website.

What is the consideration stage of the marketing funnel?

The next stage is consideration. This is a consumer who’s done a bit of research and now has a slightly better understanding of the situation or what they need to solve their problem. They may be looking for help with their issue. The coach here might have a blog post on how losing just 10 pounds can improve your health. I might create a post on the benefits of SEO for your small business.

The intent stage of the marketing funnel

As we move further down the sales funnel, we get into intent. This consumer knows what they want, and they’re actively searching for a solution to their problem. They might be interested in a blog post on how to lose weight during perimenopause or how to lose weight to prevent type 2 diabetes, or, in the case of the website, they might be looking for tips on how to get started with SEO for their website.

The decision stage- the final stage of the marketing funnel (most times)

The final stage for most businesses is decision and this is when the consumer is going to decide if you’re the one they want to work with or learn from. Here, they’re going to maybe book your consult call or download your free guide; they might sign up for your webinar, even register for your class, or book coaching sessions with you. If they’ve decided that you can help them, they’ll purchase. The content on your About page and your reviews can be very helpful in the decision stage, too, since they’re trying to decide if you’re the one they want to work with. They know they want to do X, whatever X is.

The due diligence stage

The due diligence stage isn’t one you likely need to worry about, but in this stage, people search for information, including reviews, the total cost of a loan, the average salary for someone earning X degree, etc. They are making a big purchase or investment, so there’s a bit more research that goes into the process. 

How do you create a content funnel for your business?

You want to create content for your ideal customer at each stage of the sales funnel. You need to think about what questions they will have, and as each one is answered, what else might they need or want to know?

How your content marketing funnel works

When someone searches for information online, if you are doing SEO on your content, they’re likely to find your blog post, website page, podcast episode, etc., in their search. This is likely the first time they’ll hear about you or your business. If your content is engaging and helpful and answers their questions, they’ll likely read another post, listen to another podcast episode, or look around your website to learn more about you.

It's important to have content at each stage of the sales funnel so you can help them move through the process of gathering information all the way to making a decision. It takes a while to get from awareness to decision, and it takes multiple interactions with you, your content, or your business.

Why your content funnel needs SEO

If you’re going to invest time in creating content, it’s critical that you optimize it for search engines so that the people who need it can find it easily. If you skip this step, your content funnel won’t work.

How do you optimize the content in your funnel?

I’ve got lots of information on my blog about SEO for your blog, website, and podcast. Here are a few tips to get you started: Choose SEO keywords for each piece of content and follow the SEO best practices for the channel you’re using. For example, the SEO on your podcast episode will be different from the SEO on a YouTube video, and both will be different from the SEO on a blog post or website page.

How do you make money from a content funnel?

Getting traffic to your content is the first step; in order to make money, you need to be able to convert that traffic into paying customers. You want to start by creating an email opt-in for your ideal customer and offer it on your blog post, website page, or mention it in your podcast episode. From there, you’ll need to set up delivery of that opt-in to your customers and then, ideally, nurture them with your new content on a regular basis. That simply means emailing your list each time you have a new piece of content relevant to them (and that should be all of your content because you need to create content for your audience, not just for giggles). 

You also can (and should) link to other blog posts or reference other podcast episodes that could be helpful for the reader. If you have more information that can help them move to the next step in the sales funnel, link to it and help them discover it quickly and easily. You can also link to your opt-in, scheduling link, products, or services where it makes sense in your content. Make things as seamless as possible for your reader or listener, and you’re more likely to get the conversion. 

What makes a content funnel an organic marketing funnel?

An organic marketing funnel is powered completely by free traffic. It’s not using any ads to bring people into the funnel. People find your business through social media, SEO (Google search), or podcast apps. When you build your business with an organic content funnel, you build a more profitable business because you’re not paying for ads. If you’re already creating content for your business, you need to optimize it (that means doing SEO on it) so you can get more traffic coming into your funnel. It’s that simple. The more people who find you, the more people you can help. If you're ready to create a content marketing funnel for your business, join me in Simple SEO Content, and I'll walk you through what type of content to create and how to get it found on Google. If you're a podcaster, too, join Simple Podcast SEO, and I'll teach you how to grow your downloads organically so more people listen to your show each week.