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How to Identify MOFU Content Ideas for your Content Strategy?

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If you are familiar with the marketing funnel, you may already have a good idea of how important the middle part is to the success of a transaction.

Sure, the top of the funnel informs. The bottom of the funnel generates sales. But the middle of the funnel is what holds both of them together. The middle of the funnel is where your qualified leads are nurtured. Plus, it is also the stage that has the most impact on a prospect leads’ decision to purchase.

Now you should know that SEO and content play quite an important role in defining how effectively a lead navigates the marketing funnel.

Let us see how.

What is MOFU Content?

If you thought tracking and taking care of your Top of Funnel (TOFU) customers was difficult, think again. Once your prospect leads have crossed the awareness stage, and are midway through the purchase process, they are officially in the Middle of Funnel (MOFU). 

These leads have either trickled down as a result of your highly effective TOFU content or have stayed on as potential repeat customers for your brand.

At this stage, you need to produce particular kinds of content that help customers further along the funnel towards a positive purchase decision. These leads are aware of their pain points and are actively looking for viable solutions. The ones that know you as a solution provider may be actively looking to interact with you and explore your value proposition.

Since these customers are already in the process of purchasing but away from the actual act of buying, this is a good time to nurture them and subtly push them towards transacting with you. 
Essentially, you are looking to position yourself as the perfect solution provider for your leads through your middle-of-funnel content.

What is the Purpose of MOFU Content?

So, now you know what does MOFU mean and what is termed MOFU content. Let us now get a deeper understanding of the main goals or purposes that this kind of content serves in your marketing and sales strategy.

The most important thing you need to know about MOFU content is that in its absence, your prospect leads could quickly lose interest and move on to other alternatives. You will need to carry out keyword mapping to understand the right kind of content to produce for your MOFU audience.

Lead Qualification

Let us get one thing straight — having one qualified lead in hand is worth having two potential ones out in the market. Basically, the number of leads you have do not matter as much as how qualified they are.

Lead qualification helps you classify which of your many identified leads are actually interested in your brand or products/services. Having the right middle-of-funnel content, complete with call-to-actions can help you identify these qualified leads.

Lead Nurturing

Once you have a list of qualified leads and prospects, you know the ones that you need to target and focus on. Now comes the tricky part — actually nurturing them and leading them towards making a sale.

Lead nurturing entails building and maintaining relationships with your potential customers, with the help of effective communication and messaging. Here’s where MOFU content can help you.

Creating content that answers queries that can help your leads come to a decision can go a long way. Be it through email campaigns, or webinars — your brand can benefit from positioning itself strongly as a solution provider in the minds of your prospects.

Establish Brand Differentiation

You may think qualifying and nurturing your leads may be enough, but not quite so. Once you have positioned yourself as a solution provider, you will need to prove that you are better than your competitors.

Here’s where brand differentiation is key.

Creating content that actively differentiates your brand when you have a significant number of leads and prospects in the middle of the funnel is important. 

Companies such as SEMrush and Moz actually get this aspect right. Their content is aimed at educating their audience while positioning their tool as a great solution to the possible pain points in the process. If you are selling a product, having comparison pages also helps in attaining this goal.

Types of MOFU Content

By now you may have a fair idea of what MOFU content is and how you can use it to target the leads and customers that are in the middle of the funnel. It is now time to look at different kinds of MOFU content and what they can offer for your brand.

Whitepapers

For the uninitiated, it is important to first know that whitepapers have quickly become a way to grab your customers’ attention. Whitepapers are highly researched reports on topics including the primary pain points and solutions, along with reassuring customers about your brand’s worthiness.

But remember — creating a whitepaper requires a lot of thought and time.

As a MOFU content piece, whitepapers need to be completely non-commercial in nature and ideally focus just on offering highly researched information. 

Product Comparisons

The best time to position yourself as the right solution provider for your leads’ pain points is to communicate it while they are still unsure about making a purchase. If you are the company that convinced them to make a purchase, there is a good chance that they will trust you over your competitors.

Creating product comparisons is a great way to highlight the difference between your and your competitors’ products, and get your customers more interested in buying from you.

If you have explored SaaS brands, you may often come across these product comparison pages. Here is an example:

Shopify has quite a detailed product comparison page, with dedicated comparison pages for virtually every one of its competitors. It is highly recommended that product comparisons narrow down on customer pain points, solutions and results as compared to just features.

Email Nurture Campaigns

Email campaigns can quite easily become a reliable way to attract your leads and propose your product or brand as the solution. It is a known fact that email marketing can help you nurture leads but you can definitely do it more effectively using middle-of-funnel content.

You can nurture your leads by bringing their attention to specific pain points and their solutions, and providing the material that will help them in the process. You can redirect them to your blogs or whitepapers so that your leads can read and educate themselves.

Case Studies

Case studies are wildly powerful!

Case studies when written well and designed right can convert leads into paying customers. They can effectively highlight how your product or solution has helped a client in achieving their goals.

In the context of MOFU, case studies can easily highlight pain points, solutions and results achieved by your brand. What’s more, you can also emphasise the specific features of your product that led to the accomplishment of your client’s success.

Free Templates

Where would we be without templates?

Right from creating graphics and posters, to designing functional websites, we use templates everywhere. Well, the great thing is that your potential customer probably does too.

So, creating checklists, cheatsheets, and templates could be the perfect way to give your lead and prospects something valuable to download, while of course, earning their trust. Customers love receiving practical solutions, which is why templates are great for inclusion in your email drip campaigns as well.

Plus, free templates can be quite a hit in your link-building campaigns.

Webinars

In 2020, a whopping 67% of marketers increased their spending on webinars. Why wouldn’t they?

They make for ideal middle-of-funnel content.

Webinars are topical presentations usually organised as live events aimed at providing a significant amount of information to attendees. These attendees are more often than not — you guessed it — potential or existing customers.

Webinars allow you to have productive conversations with your leads while also letting you answer their questions and doubts. The result? You can win over their trust and help them navigate their journey forward towards a purchase.

Free Courses

If you have ever browsed HubSpot’s website properly, it is easy to come across the plethora of courses and certifications that it offers, under the umbrella of HubSpot Academy. Now, many of these courses are free and some are paid but all of them are quite valuable.

Does that make you feel like HubSpot must be a subject matter expert? Something of an academician? A high-quality company?

Well, this works perfectly in their favour. And this is why offering free courses might be a great idea for you too. Offering courses can easily position you as a trustworthy source, and even an expert thus establishing your credibility in the minds of potential customers.

MOFU Content Best Practices

All set to start creating MOFU content for your brand? Great!

Let us now look at some of the best practices that you can use to create highly effective MOFU content.

Focus on Solving your Buyers’ Problems

A prominent aspect of a MOFU audience is that they are already educated and aware of all the background information required for purchase. They most likely have questions that they need answers to so that they reach that purchase decision.

Hence, creating solution-oriented content may be the way to go. You do not need the extra fluff describing obvious issues in detail. Instead, go for content formats such as testimonials, stories, or proof of customer success at this point.

Invest Enough Time in Content Creation

Remember that MOFU content adds an extra layer of complexity to the process as compared to TOFU. While it is easy to churn out listicles and to-do articles regularly without so much of a glitch, your middle-of-funnel content pieces will take more time.

So, it is imperative that when you are designing the content strategy, you factor in more time for production. When your content is so specific and aligned with sales goals, it requires diligent research and highly accurate information. What’s more, there is a risk of losing out on quality by rushing the content creation process.

We do not want that now, do we?

So, invest enough time in the process of creating high-quality content when you are targeting MOFU customers.

Use Customer Testimonials

What your customers have to say about you will weigh heavily on your leads’ likelihood of making a purchase with you. After all, 95% of people say positive as well as negative reviews impact their purchase decisions quite heavily.

But striking the perfect balance between being informational yet subtly promoting your products or services is not an easy feat.

This is where complementing your content with testimonials and reviews from customers might be a great idea. These testimonials will validate the purchase decision of any lead, who has decided to go ahead with your brand or is planning to.

The best part is that testimonials can play just as much of an integral role in your content marketing strategy.

Leverage Different Content Angles

In the past, we have all seen ads of that sad individual who was worn down by challenges and used X product to successfully overcome them, thus discovering a new zest for life. Sure, that tactic worked for many small-time brands at the time but the audience you are dealing with today is much smarter.

So, focusing just on pain points and challenges will only get you so far. Instead, focus on exploring different kinds of angles for your content. Address the pain points, but along with it, discuss how your product can help them achieve their goals and aspirations. And yes, promote your content to a wider audience to double your chances of capturing interest among relevant readers.

Doing so will help you diversify your content as well as capture a large, and loyal readership.

Use Opportunities to Personalise Content

Your TOFU content already takes care of all the informing and educating that you want to do for your audience. So, you can make your MOFU content tailored to your audience’s needs and requirements.

But when you are working with email campaigns and targeted ads, it is better to take a notch higher. Make your content even more personalised to increase the odds of your audience moving further along the funnel.

To get this right, it is a good idea to start by identifying and researching the buyer persona extensively. This will give you better insights into their preferences and behaviour, which will then allow you to create highly effective personalised content.

Avoid Ambiguity

Considering the high stakes associated with creating and managing MOFU content, it is important to have a diligent and clear approach to it. Gone are the days when customers would fall prey to companies that looked to benefit from beating around the bush.

Now you need clear copies and communication to be able to convince your fully aware customer that you have the perfect solution for them. Your middle-of-funnel content has to be honest, straightforward, and non-risky at all times, and clearly communicate your brand message.

Nurture Leads with MOFU Content

In today’s day and age, where valuable and loyal customers are hard to come by, you need to take care of every lead that seems relevant. Post lead qualification, nurturing relationships with them and taking them all the way to the bottom of the funnel is one of the most crucial processes you will carry out as a marketer.

Now that you have all the know-how, we are sure that you are going to ace your MOFU content strategy. But if you find yourself lost or unsure of where to begin, get in touch with us and we will be happy to help you.

Authors
Hardy Desai
Hardy Desai

Hardy is the visionary founder of Supple Digital, a boutique SEO agency based in Melbourne, Australia. With a profound understanding of the digital landscape and a deep passion for innovation, Hardy has steered Supple Digital to become a leading name in the SEO domain.

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