ToFu, MoFu, BoFu unveiled
No, ToFu MoFu BoFu isn’t a Japanese dish nor an exotic saying. ToFu, MoFu and BoFu refer to the sales funnel commonly known as the customer journey and its 3 stages. In plain English we talk about, top, middle and bottom of the funnel when we address the 3 phases of awareness, consideration and decision. Each stage requires a different lead nurturing strategy as people have different behaviors and expectations through their journey to finding the most appropriate solution to their needs. If you take all aspects of the funnel into consideration in your strategy, your brand will gain credibility and you’ll eventually build solid trust leading to more conversions. Now we all know you’re here because you want that to happen, right? Well, you’ve come to the right place because I’m about to reveal how to get there.
Fasten your seat belt, we’re going to dive deep into the funnel!
ToFu: Increasing Brand Awareness
At this stage, the user is looking for information and answers. There’s a need or a problem to solve which leads to an investigation to find the perfect solution. The main characteristic of the top of the funnel is that people end up searching online for as many reasons as there are people in the world. In short, many different people are looking for different things using different words. Because this stage is about gathering information and looking for the brand that seems to be the right one, the user might favor content that is entertaining and informative. And this is where you enter the stage. Your part here is to provide your visitors with the right content that will entertain or educate them. And because you don’t know exactly what they’re looking for, having a wide range of topics and insights to present will make the difference. Needless to say, you need to be smart about what you say and how you say it as it needs to be aligned with your brand identity and the solutions you offer. Your product might then become a possible option to your lead’s problems and your brand could transform into an unavoidable reference in your field.
The audience at the start of the customer journey is broad and their need might not be urgent, therefore conversions are generally not very high during this phase. The objective is to be visible and gain your visitors’ trust. To do so you have to make sure you design specific actions that increase awareness and build credibility. The cherry on top – which is a very important treat you should consider offering yourself if it’s not the case already – is to catch all the information you possibly can about your leads so you can get back to them by email to send them all the useful information you have to provide. Having a CRM and tracking plugins on your website will change your life, trust me.
You can use free whitepapers, guides, ebooks, videos and checklists to lure your leads into becoming valuable and qualified prospects. These tools will certainly make a difference and help you capture their email addresses – and more – that you will need throughout the rest of the funnel.
MoFu: Where Consideration Arises
So, you’ve increased your brand awareness using a few techniques and tools to build a solid strategy and gathered all the information you could about the leads you’ve generated. Now you need to go further and try to convince them that your product or service is the key to solving their problem. If the top of your funnel is about generating leads, the middle part is about generating prospects.
MoFu visitors know what they want and what they’re looking for. They’ve clearly defined their needs and selected a few options to solve their issue, and your brand is one of them. At this stage, you lost quite a few leads as they naturally leave during the awareness phase if you were not offering what they were expecting. Those who stay are still investigating, they compare and weigh down the pros and cons of each solution so you need to be clever about how you address them. The objective in the MoFu stage is to inform your audience as much as possible to help them make a decision. You have the potential to solidify your relationship by showing you have the expertise and will provide the quality they expect. It’s also important to remind them of why and how you are different from the competition to make sure your personal value proposition is understood. But beware of overselling yourself here. The idea is to prove to them you care and that you have the solution they need. Remember it’s about them, not you. Empower them, make them visualize their life after purchasing your product or service to increase your chances of seeing them again at the bottom of the funnel. Be helpful. Be human. Humans love humans – at least some of them do – so don’t forget to act like one when you’re trying to sell something.
If you’re looking for inspiration about what to do for your MoFu visitors, here are a few things to use: webinars, case studies, free samples, catalogs, FAQ sheets, spec sheets, brochures… you have options.
BoFu: Time to Make a Decision
Congratulations, you’ve made it to the bottom of the funnel! It’s the final stretch to the finish line and now is not the time to slack your efforts. The leads you find at this stage are on their way to making their final decision but they need a little push to show them working with you isn’t a mistake. Please note that being too aggressive and sales-oriented might not be the right move here. My advice would be to interact with them as though you have already closed the deal. Why? Because you know they’re interested in what you have to offer, so all you need to do is advise and reassure them on their pain points. Show them you understand exactly what they need by presenting a tailor-made proposition and explaining your customer support policy and warranties. It will reinforce the trust they have in you and your brand. To do so, you can use free trials, demos, assessments, consultations, estimates and coupons.
Of course, the journey doesn’t stop when a prospect turns into a customer. Now you need to nurture your relationship so they stay loyal to your product or service. They might even become brand ambassadors if you’re convincing enough 😉. We talk about a double funnel when we address these next steps, but we’ll save it for another article.
In the meantime, if you’d like to know more about what you can do to build a genuinely efficient marketing strategy, have a look at this article about inbound and outbound marketing. It will allow you to see the big picture and create a business action plan!