Introduction
Our story begins in 1898 when St Elmo Lewis, an advertising pioneer, created a model that maps a buyer's journey from ignorance to purchase. This was the AIDA (Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action) model on which we map the three stages of our marketing funnel: ToFU (Top of Funnel), MoFU (Middle of Funnel), and BoFU (Bottom of Funnel).
ToFU is for awareness, MoFU for interest and seeds of desire, and BoFU is where the desire matures and culminates in action.
This blog makes a case for demarcating the marketing process into top, middle, and bottom of the funnel. It explores, through numerous industry examples such as the spectacular Shopify campaign featuring Mr. Beast or Matthew McConaughey promoting Salesforce, how the three acronyms ToFU, MoFU, and BoFU can revolutionise your marketing game!
Understanding the ToFU, MoFU, and BoFU Stages of a Marketing Funnel
ToFU, MoFU, and BoFU are stages of the marketing funnel that represent a buyer's journey from the awareness stage to conversion.
Top of funnel, middle of funnel, and bottom of the funnel are building blocks that take you closer to a conversion. Each stage has separate goals, strategies, content, and buyer personas.
Creating funnel content corresponding to each stage is a great mantra to drive sales for any organisation, whether a SaaS-based company, an e-commerce brand, or even a food business. What varies is your buyer persona, according to which you need to customise your ToFU, MoFU, and BoFU strategies.
Breaking down the marketing process into three stages helps tackle each stage separately and create dedicated content for each stage.
According to Kurve, 90% of B2B SaaS buyers research 2-7 websites before making a purchase decision. They also engage with an average of 3-7 pieces of content before speaking to a sales representative, most of which happens through online channels.
What is ToFU, MoFU, and BoFU in B2B SaaS Marketing?
Making a SaaS purchase is a long process. Various professionals must approve your product at different rungs in the client company's hierarchy. In other words, you need to spark the interest of an array of people to get a conversion. This is why breaking down the marketing process to suit each personnel is essential.
An enterprise with several decision-makers means you must pass through several filters before a purchase is made, such as a DevOps engineer, then the product manager or the marketing head. As you move along the funnel, from top to bottom, the buyer persona also moves up the client's company hierarchy. Your website, product, and success stories will all be evaluated.
To sustain this arduously long process of a customer's buying cycle, we break down the marketing process of a SaaS product into well-demarcated stages. If B2B SaaS companies treat marketing as a monolith, it could adversely impact the overall goal of conversions.
Think of it like a leaking funnel.
Top-of-funnel marketing tells potential customers that you exist!
For instance, let's take a hypothetical company named ACME, which is a SaaS company that offers a range of developer productivity tools. So, if I want to do ToFU marketing for ACME, the best strategy is to create informational blogs that merely address a pain point of ACME’s potential customers, such as DevOps or DevRels. At this stage, there is no mention of ACME or its product. ToFU is singularly customer-focused. It therefore brings in a vast swarm of audiences to your website.
Middle-of-the-funnel marketing nurtures some of this organic traffic.
So, the MoFU content for ACME can be more detailed blogs or whitepapers where, besides being solution-oriented, you offer your product as an answer to the customer’s problem.
An even lesser portion of the audience moves to the final stage, the bottom-of-funnel. Here, the customer is on the brink of a purchase. If ACME comes up with, for instance, a timely offer or discount, it could lead to conversions!
ToFU (Top of Funnel) Marketing
ToFU is the awareness stage. All you need to do is ensure that your potential customers know you exist.
But how can you create awareness for a very niche product when it is mostly probable that no one will specifically search for your product? Creating content about what people will search for related to your product or your target audience is the answer.
In this stage, the main aim is to come up in the search engine reference page with solution-oriented or educational content so that potential customers click on it and become aware of your domain.
Top of Funnel content is about adding value to your customer's needs. It is not yet about you or your product. It is about your potential customer's pain points, like a need for simplified code testing. Make content about simplifying code testing without an intent to sell, just to guide the range of DevOps engineers that might search for it.
This way they will remember your enterprise as a comprehensive repository of informative guides!
A rule of thumb in the ToFU stage is to not even try selling anything. It is all about helping your customers. Create educational content at this stage that addresses the common pain points of your potential customers. Let them know you, don't sell anything; just make them aware of your existence.
ToFU Marketing Strategies
Content Syndication
B2B content syndication is a marketing technique wherein a company leverages a third-party website such as Reddit, Medium, or dev communities like dev.to to distribute its content. It entails publishing your content on other platforms and your own to increase visibility and create awareness among new customers.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO involves improving ranking on the search engine reference page to increase visibility and organic traffic.
Some SEO strategies are:
- Keyword research: Include keywords using tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs.
- On-page SEO: Optimise meta titles and meta descriptions to make them SEO-friendly.
- Link building: This can include internal interlinking, creating a maze-like ecosystem within your website. It also includes getting backlinks from authoritative sites.
Paid Advertising
An excellent ToFU strategy is creating an advertisement. Salesforce's recent advertisement with Indian cricketing legend Rahul Dravid is a great example of making your presence known to a new audience. When Salesforce entered the Indian market, it needed a campaign to create awareness and pique interest. They hired the perfect man, known as Mr Dependable!
ToFU Content
- Informational/Educational Content: This includes blogs, videos, podcasts.
- Thought Leadership Content: This comprises content that comments on existing or forthcoming industry trends.
Remember, add value in this stage. Don't put on your sales hat yet!
MoFU (Middle of Funnel) Marketing
This is the stage of nurturing the generated traffic. Here, the buyer is aware of your existence as well as their need to find a solution for their pain point. In the buyer's journey, this is the consideration stage.
The ToFU content brings in a big pool of audience in the form of organic traffic to your website. The intent level in this vast audience is very low. But the section of the audience who sticks around till the MoFU stage is your target audience. It is high intent. Here, they have not only realised that they have a problem but are also actively searching for a solution, considering different options and weighing their pros and cons.
Buying a product is coming up on their horizon! Now is the time for information about your product and its specifications to be introduced.
For instance, your cloud security software, XYZCLOUD, made itself visible in the market through informational content in the ToFU stage. In the MoFU stage, the marketing team has to position XYZCLOUD as a viable option for potential customers such as DevOps teams focusing on infrastructure as code (IaC) that might need secure deployments, or nascent-stage tech startups who need cost-effective security solutions.
Potential customers are edging towards a purchase; don't let them go. Nurture your leads.
MoFU Marketing Strategies
Email Marketing
A side aim in the MoFU stage can be collecting contact information of a small percentage of those who visit you. For instance, you can provide your case studies over email or give information regarding pricing for writing technical content through email. Once accumulated, the emails can be used to relay tailored information like discounts and limited-time offers.
Great Landing Page
This is what pops up when you click on the Shopify advertisement with Mr Beast. This is called the landing page, which falls under MoFU content, and its job is to sustain the piqued interest. Outrightly, the Shopify landing page introduces itself while maintaining the link with Mr Beast. Great, right?
MoFU Content
- Whitepapers & Reports: These detailed and long-form content ideas suit the tailored audience in the consideration phase, which is now looking for more in-depth information.
- Gated Content: These are content pieces available to the audience in exchange for some action, such as giving personal contact information. Gated content can include demos, pricing quotes, etc.
BoFU (Bottom of Funnel) Marketing
At this juncture, a small proportion of the audience brought in by ToFU content and retained by MoFU content has trickled down to the BoFU stage.
These are highly qualified leads who are ready to make a purchase. They are just weighing their several options. This is the stage where you need to come up with a great offer for that final step—conversion.
This stage is centred around the specificities of your product and its corresponding pricing. This is where you need to differentiate your product. For instance, BoFU content for marketing XYZCLOUD should tackle the product offered by it head-on. The entire blog should be centred around how XYZ’s security is better and more cost-effective than the competitors in the market. BoFU should be through and through about your product, be it the features or the pricing.
BoFU Marketing Strategies
Offers and Discounts
A timely offer can make all the difference in nudging a customer to make a purchase.
Free Trials or Demos
Offer your potential customers options where they can experience your product without incurring any cost. For example, XYZCLOUD can offer a month-long free trial to a bootstrapped nascent startup, not only building trust but also making a future purchase more probable.
Product Differentiation
The BoFU stage is all about your product. Talk about your product's unique features to set it ahead and apart in a swarm of products. Elaborate on how, for example, Shopify can help influencers market their product better than any other competitor in the market. BoFU should be focused on the technicalities and specificities of your product.
BoFU Content
- Case Studies/Success Stories: At this stage, your potential customers are ready to make a purchase decision. Relaying testimonials at this juncture can be the needed trust-building that will lead to the purchase decision.
- Competitor Comparisons: The most sticky point is the price point. A potential customer usually has to manually compare the pricing page of several products. However, if you provide valuable insights into comparative pricing, it can make all the difference.
ToFU, MoFU, and BoFU Performance Metrics
Each stage also has specific performance metrics peculiar to that stage:
- ToFU (Top of Funnel): Measured in impressions, click-through rates (CTR), and generated website traffic.
- MoFU (Middle of Funnel): Metrics can be webinar attendance and lead magnet downloads.
- BoFU (Bottom of Funnel): Metrics can be demo sign-ups and deal closures.
Common Mistakes to Avoid in ToFU, MoFU, and BoFU Stages in SaaS Marketing
Let's take a hypothetical scenario in which we have Steve, the marketing head of XYZCLOUD, a SaaS company that makes cloud security software.
Now Steve wants conversions! So, he created a paid advertisement to tell people to buy his software for their company's security solutions. People come to XYZCLOUD's website following the advertisement but find nothing on the landing page that will retain them on the website. And so they lose interest and leave.
Do you see Steve's mistake?
He created good ToFU content that drove potential customers to his website but failed to create content for the 'consideration' phase, the MoFU stage.
Hence, seeing the divisions in the marketing funnel is very important!
ToFU, MoFU, and BoFU Examples
1. Salesforce
Salesforce is like a superstar in creating content for each stage of the funnel. It is a cloud-based software that centralises different aspects of customer relationship management such as interaction, sales, etc.
Salesforce has collaborated with Hollywood star Matthew McConaughey to advertise their AI-powered solutions. Let's go through its spectacular campaign that was launched in 2022, titled ‘Team Earth’ featuring Matthew McConaughey. Here we had a SaaS software being advertised by a Hollywood superstar!
Stage 1: ToFU Stage
An advertisement featuring Matthew McConaughey. It piques everyone’s interest and creates vast awareness. A lot of people who might potentially want CRM services will know about Salesforce.
Stage 2: MoFU Stage
The landing page welcomes us with an elaborate account of all its features, such as a subheading that states ‘Why go for Salesforce for CRM technology?’, containing several points under it that differentiate Salesforce in a swarm of competitors.
Stage 3: BoFU Stage
The excellent campaign culminates in offering free demos. This helps the customer on the brink of a purchase to try Salesforce’s services without incurring any costs.
2. Shopify
Understanding who constitutes your target audience is the holy grail of marketing. Shopify, in its campaign with Mr Beast, demarcated a specific segment of its audience: content creators who want to sell their merchandise. They used Mr Beast not only as a famous face promoting them but also as a success story who had used Shopify’s services.
Stage 1: ToFU Stage
Shopify recognised content creators as potential customers. The entire campaign relentlessly catered to only this segment and used Mr Beast’s wide reach to connect with creators. The content creators who are slowly transitioning to commerce and business became aware of using a SaaS product to sell their merchandise. Here, the focus was the content creator’s pain point of not finding a simple solution for merchandise sales and marketing.
Stage 2: MoFU Stage
When you click on the advertisement, the landing page pops up, maintaining its theme of catering to the content creators ‘like Mr Beast’. It also mentions several product differentiations, such as being simple and cost-effective.
Stage 3: BoFU Stage
The resultant advertisement also doubled as a video walkthrough of how Shopify works — all of this in 30 seconds! Mr Beast not only creates awareness about Shopify but also demonstrates how to use it.
Conclusion
The demarcation of the marketing funnel into Top of the Funnel (ToFU), Middle of the Funnel (MoFU), and Bottom of the Funnel (BoFU) marketing, as well as content, is a brilliant strategy that leverages a deep understanding of the client’s enterprise and demands to deliver maximum results in terms of building brand visibility and increasing conversions.
The ToFU, MoFU, and BoFU stages have different goals and content formats, but it is essential that these stages follow a theme and become a cohesive whole. Consistent messaging across stages that stays true to the enterprise’s theme is a hallmark of excellent marketing.
While there can also be times when the three stages will merge, the important thing to remember is that there are three stages. Marketing like a monolith is not the best approach!
Looking for marketing and content tailored for each stage of the B2B SaaS marketing funnel?
Book a call with us now to elevate your marketing and content with Infrasity.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is a marketing funnel for ToFU, MoFU, and BoFU?
A marketing funnel is divided into three parts: Top of the Funnel (ToFU), Middle of the Funnel (MoFU), and Bottom of the Funnel (BoFU). These three stages employ specialised techniques to cater to the different needs of potential customers at each stage of the marketing funnel.
- ToFU stage: Creates visibility for the enterprise.
- MoFU stage: Nurtures the traffic generated through enhanced visibility.
- BoFU stage: Through product differentiation, fosters conversions.
What is a B2B Marketing Funnel?
A B2B marketing funnel maps a buyer’s journey from ignorance to purchase. It comprises various stages from awareness to interest and desire, culminating in action. As potential customers travel through the stages in the funnel, their demands and needs change, and therefore the corresponding marketing techniques also alter to suit the customer.
What is BoFU in the Sales Funnel?
BoFU refers to the Bottom of the Funnel stage in the buyer’s journey, wherein they are ready to make a purchase.
At this juncture:
- A small proportion of the audience brought in by ToFU content and retained by MoFU content has trickled down to the BoFU stage.
- These are highly qualified leads who are ready to make a purchase.
- They are just weighing their several options.
This is the stage where you need to come up with a great offer for that final step: conversion.
