A HUSTLER’S GUIDE TO GETTING NOTICED AT THE TOFU

It’s normal that sales and marketing professionals can be confused about the meaning of ToFu (or top-of-the-funnel) regarding inbound marketing.

Is it a delicious bean curd dish? Is it the answer to my prayers? 

Yes.

Successful B2B sales teams strike the human-digital balance customers want in three core areas: speed, transparency, and expertise.

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A HUSTLER’S GUIDE TO GETTING NOTICED AT THE TOFU

Converting leads from the top of the funnel is a rewarding and effective practice, with companies that effectively nurture leads at this stage of the funnel  boasting a 450% increase in qualified prospects.

However, doing it wrong will cost you time, money and wrinkle-free space on your face. So let’s jump right into the meat of the matter. Hopefully, by the end of this article, you’ll move on a little wiser, a little more secure in your marketing knowledge, and a little bit more likely to successfully harvest leads from the top of that intimidatingly wide section of the sales funnel. Top-of-the-funnel marketing starts with nurturing prospective leads in a thought-out manner as they first pour through the sales funnel

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WHAT IS TOFU, OR TOP-OF-THE-FUNNEL MARKETING?

ToFu sounds like something you’d find in the refrigerated section of your nearest market. However, it’s not the soy product we all have strong opinions on; it represents the initial stage of the buyer’s journey (top-of-funnel, middle-of-funnel, bottom-of-funnel – with us focusing on the first one for now), which requires the right content to be delivered at the ideal time to move the prospect through the funnel until it eventually cultivates in a tasty, deep-fried sale.

 Through marketing, you’ll pull in an extensive pool of people into your website or database that, down the line, will eventually be interested in purchasing your products/services. As these prospects sieve through the sales funnel/journey, the collection of interested individuals gets smaller. Those interested in purchasing your products will continue to engage with your brand and learn more about your offerings. Those who are not interested in your product or service will depart the funnel to be on their merry way.

 When you first start looking for new leads you’ve never met before, you’re looking to gain the attention of a much larger audience of potential leads because you’re working to attract relevant traffic without deliberately straining or discouraging conversions. 

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THERE ARE TWO CHIEF GOALS AT THIS STAGE OF THE FUNNEL:

Drive brand awareness of your business,

Generate possible leads 

The most commonly found form of ToFu-type content would be blog articles on your website. From there, calls-to-actions should herd ToFu prospects to conversions, like sign up sheets or downloadable content that encourage potential leads to give their contact information for the helpful content offered as an incentive.

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GREAT TOFU CONTENT NEEDS TO BE:

Engaging

“You-centric” language-wise

Easily digestible

Visually appealing (images and video will do well)

Your goal with ToFu content should be to educate your audience on a specific question, need or pain point they’re looking to address, but without a sales tie-in. You’ll get the opportunity to do this with your middle-the-funnel (MoFu) marketing content at a later stage.

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HOW DOES IT CORRELATE WITH THE OTHER PARTS OF THE FUNNEL?

Middle-of-the-funnel (MoFu) – Once the essential information has been gathered on this specific subject, the lead travels into the middle of the sales funnel, where they will need detailed information: answers to their questions, solutions to problems, etc. etc.

The key is to continue to provide content that educates, assists with problems, and entertains.

While ToFu content might offer something like “The Top 10 proven solutions towards improving such-and-such process”, MoFu content will go on to pick one of those solutions and further explain it in more intricate detail. Examples include Case studies, white papers, eBooks, webinars, podcasts, and video tutorials.

Bottom-of-the-Funnel (BoFu) – All this information we’ve given the leads so far is excellent. But eventually, a prospect needs a solid solution to their problems. At the bottom of this sales funnel, they are now teetering on making a purchasing decision. Now the lead needs some swaying on why your option is the best one out there.

BoFu content includes customer stories, positive testimonials, and product pages. It will often feature a compelling call-to-action or a special trial offer as an added incentive. You’ll need to design this content to convince a buyer that your solution is the best one available for their needs.

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WHAT CAN YOU DO TO IMPROVE YOUR CURRENT TOFU MARKETING?

OPTIMIZE YOUR CONTENT FOR SEARCH ENGINES

Whether you’re concentrating on organic SEO or operating a pay-per-click campaign with a program like Google AdWords, both can help generate plenty of top-of-the-funnel leads. With that in mind, you must pay close attention to factors like keywords usage and content optimization to build a SEM program that results in viable new leads.

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UTILIZE SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media marketing is another sector that’s ripe for attracting new top-of-the-funnel leads. Developing a solid social media strategy in which you share content with your networks, engage with others (especially influencers with a high following) and encouraging your employees and customers to advocate on your behalf online can help attract new followers and leads alike.

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LOOK AT NETWORKS WITH AN EXISTING DATABASE

Most businesses work with partners who contribute complementary products and services to their own. These partners’ customer databases are prime territories for new leads for your business. Some ways to tap into these networks include writing guest posts on a partner blog, hosting a joint webinar and running a coordinated campaign on social media, email or any other network. Two viable markets are better than one!