Why do we try so hard to use acronyms and weird words in the marketing world? Couldn’t we be like normal people and call things by name?
Well no. Because otherwise, we wouldn’t be so cool.
Today, I will tell you what TOFU, MOFU, and BOFU are so that you can apply them to your sales funnel.
By the way, what are a sales funnel?
If you want to know, keep reading.
What is a sales funnel?
Funnel in English means “ funnel,” It is nothing more than a simple metaphor that we use in the marketing world to represent the phases of the sales process visually.
This funnel represents the different stages our clients go through from when they meet the brand ( they are not clients, but we know they can be ) until they purchase ( CUSTOMERS in capital letters ).
The most widely used approach is the AIDA model, which defines the four stages of the process, very similar to the phases that love has (hello Tinder):
- Awareness: The moment of getting to know each other is the first contact with the client, from not knowing anything about us or what we sell to knowing our product or service. In this first stage, we will obtain many potential clients, and our objective has to focus on getting them to be interested in us so that they pass the second phase.
- Interest: It is the moment of the “ match.” This occurs when the customer realizes that the product or service is focused on him and can satisfy his needs. Our master move is to convince and seduce the customer and show him that our product is the best of the best and that he will not find anything like it. Sink the competition, come on. We are THE BEST, and we are going to show you.
- Desire: Occurs when the customer falls in love with our product or service. Here we have to enter the game of seduction, we must transform this desire into the action of buying, and for this, we must use our best seductive weapons: discounts, offers, sales conditions …
- Action: Time to establish a relationship: the potential customer buys! Become the desired customer! At this point, we have to do everything possible so that the customer makes their purchases easily, simply and that they feel at ease.
This model can be followed in any business and modified to taste and needs. And it may even be that your company has more than one funnel for each of the products or services it offers.
And where do the TOFU, MOFU, and BOFU come in in all this?
These three words will represent the type of content that you have to create for each of the stages of the sales funnel.
We want our potential clients to go through the funnel little by little until they acquire our product or service. We will do this by creating specific content for each stage so that the user feels unique and sees that we are here to help you throughout the process.
And this is what we will see today in this super post. The exact type of content you need to create at each stage of this sales funnel.
What is TOFU, MOFU, BOFU?
TOFU = Top of the funnel
MOFU = Middle of the funnel
BOFU = Bottom of the funnel
For those who do not know English, what is at the top, middle, and bottom of a ( sales ) funnel.
They are the different stages ( when we talk about content ) of the conversion funnel.
Most users will go through each of these stages before buying ( or hiring, or converting, whatever it is ). Since they recognize that they need it until they end up satisfying it with our product or service.
Do we see them separately?
Come on, we see you.
Why should you apply the different aspects of TOFU, MOFU, BOFU in your sales funnel?
The quick answer?
Because otherwise, you will not eat a donut. You will not sell anything. Nothing at all.
The most elaborate answer?
Because if you don’t accompany a user through the different purchase phases, using different texts, creatives, promotions, content… your efforts will be useless.
Because a user who does not know you will not buy your product at the first exchange. As much as you say: “ look, look, I’m giving you a 30% discount, buy me! “If he does not even know what you manufacture, or what you do or stop doing, and he still has no idea that he really needs you, I will tell you what will happen from your ad, post, blog, banner, email, whatever you are teaching how of shit.
Or is it that if you go to someone random that you see on the street and ask him to leave you $5,000, he will lend it to you?
I really doubt it.
For prospects to be comfortable with you, you first have to make a friendship, show that you are someone you can trust, etc., etc., etc. And this takes time.
What is TOFU (top of the funnel)?
When we say TOFU, we are not referring to oriental food ( second similar joke in the same post, #sorrynotsorry ), but to the highest part of the funnel, where visitors who:
- They don’t know they have a need ( or they know it but still have no idea how to satisfy it )
- They don’t know us
This phase is where attractive content is created to seduce and attract the largest number of visitors. We do not want to sell. We want to educate.
I repeat: we DO NOT want to sell at this stage.
At this stage, our main objective is to know us and recognize that they have a need/problem to solve.
What content should you use in the TOFU phase?
The objective of the content to be created in the TOFU phase is to respond to the needs of potential customers to attract the maximum number of users.
No, and that’s it. As I have said, here we are not going to try to sell out of the blue. Your content cannot be intended to convert.
What we will do is show solutions to the problems that the audience may be encountering. How?
With content that educates, inspires, and entertains, such as:
- Blog post (type listings → “10 reasons…”; “5 things you don’t know about….”)
- Downloadable Generic eBooks and Guides
- Tutorials
- Posts/games on social networks
- Podcast chapters.
- Cool infographics.
- Checklists
And how will you get traffic to your funnel?
- Your own blog
- Social media advertising
- Content ads & native advertising
- Google Ads
What is the MOFU (middle of the funnel)?
We enter the second stage of the funnel, the middle one.
In this phase, the potential client ( the one we want to become a great customer ) is already more predisposed to buy from you but still needs a little push. That is more information.
Yes, now the user is aware that they have a need or problem, and they already know who you are and what you offer, but they have not decided yet. Humans are like that. It is hard for us to make decisions.
We have to increase their interest in our brand and product/service and convert them into potential customers so that they are no longer just strangers. And what is the best way? Create content that gets users to leave us their personal data. That is that they become LEADS.
What content should you use in the MOFU phase?
The content that we create in this phase has to be more specialized and highly user-focused. We want here to leave us their personal data ( at least the name and email ) to continue to convince them with Email Marketing and/or SMS Marketing strategies ( apart from more advertising ).
For this, the ideal content is:
- Quality content in your blog
- Podcasts
- Expert interviews
- Case studies
- Demonstration videos
- Compilations of questions and answers
- Ebooks and guides
- Reports / White papers
- Testimonials: experiences of people
- Opinions and recommendations
- Tools kit
- Resources
- Free trials/demos
- Webinars
- Online events
And how do you get traffic to the middle of the funnel?
- Blog
- Email Marketing
- Remarketing
What is the BOFU (bottom of the funnel)?
The BOFU is the coolest part of the funnel. The one that actually makes you money.
( yes, without the other two previous stages, this stage would not work at all, so we LOVE all the phases equally)
It is the stage in which a potential customer decides if he will buy from you or, on the contrary, he will go directly to the competition ( or decide not to buy from anyone, man now ).
Therefore, in this phase, we must offer this little person much more specific information about our products or services to resolve their doubts and possible ( almost always there are ) objections.
We have to prove that we are THE BEST. That there is no other brand that can satisfy you as much as we do.
What content should you use in the BOFU phase?
If you want to sell, you will have to convince, don’t you think?
The path is almost done, thanks to the previous phases. Now it’s time to do a small push for the user to finish buying.
Here it is time to show that you are the best option that that specific user can choose. It is the moment when this user buys from you or goes to the competition. So you have to prepare the content.
- Free trials
- Offers, discounts, promotions, free shipping, free samples …
- Comparisons between products/services
- Real stories from satisfied customers/testimonials
- Product demonstrations
- Unboxing ( which is so fashionable )
- Demonstrations and tests
- More success stories
- FAQs
- Highly specialized and personalized service.
And you may have already guessed that we can use all existing and existing channels. You have to consider the format and tone that you can use in each of them to adapt the content.
What does the audience have to be like in each phase of the conversion funnel?
The content of each stage has to be directed to a different type of audience.
TOFU = very generic and broad audience. Users who still do not know what they want and often do not even know that they have a problem or an unresolved need. We want many users to know us so, if we talk about ads, we will segment broadly, with interests and behaviors.
MOFU = less wide audience. Users who already know what they have won’t know their needs and are evaluating the different options. If we talk about ads, we will most likely use lookalikes.
BOFU = super segmented audience. Only users who already know us, who know what they want and are about to acquire the product or service, have to decide whether it will be ours or that of the competition. This user is looking for more specific information about our products or services to solve their doubts. If we are talking about ads, here we will use remarketing audiences.
Tips to integrate TOFU, MOFU, BOFU in your strategies successfully
Now that you know what a sales funnel is, what is TOFU, MOFU, and TOFU, it only remains to give you some advice to integrate these three phases of content in your digital marketing strategies.
-Create a good Buyer Persona. If you don’t know your buyer persona or target audience, your sales funnel is NOT going to work. Every process depends on knowing well who the strategy is aimed at to create personalized and specialized content. If you want more info on creating a Buyer Persona as God intended, read this post.
-Organize the content according to the different stages (as we have seen). Each stage has to show different content since the objective is different.
- TOFU: we want to increase brand visibility and generate quality traffic. That is why we seek to attract more people.
- MOFU: we want to highlight the strengths of your business and at the same time reinforce the identity of the brand and presence in the minds of the users, so we seek to generate interaction to obtain personal data from potential customers.
- BOFU: we want to encourage users to take the last step and turn them into customers. We need to apply sales strategies to achieve conversion and retain new customers. Give us money! A little discount, maybe?
Never stop.-Always always always analyze everything that happens in your funnel. Analyze the necessary KPIs in all the actions to know if you are on the right track or need to modify the strategies.
In each of the three stages, you have to work so that your audience trusts the brand and thus makes sales and loyalty easier. How?-Convey confidence through the content. Create useful content and show transparency in all actions and your communication. Testimonials, reviews …
And we already have the funnel set up with different content for each of its phases!
If this thing about TOFU, MOFU, and BOFU is really cool.
Did you know these terms? Did you already have differentiated content according to the stage of the funnel in which a user is?
If you have any questions, leave me a comment below to be happy to read and solve.