Your product or service can be the best in the industry, but it’s still not going to sell itself. For that, you need an effective sales team — and plenty of high-quality targeted bottom-of-the-funnel content.

Marketing automation software provides your brand with a more effective way to understand your leads and provide them with conversion-worthy content, but to get the full utility out of it, you have to put in some of the work yourself. As part of our series on what content marketing looks like at each stage of the buyer’s journey, we’re breaking down what you need to know about making your bottom-of-the-funnel content as productive as possible, including the types of content that you should be focusing on.

That’s right. We’ve talked about top-of-the-funnel content and middle-of-the-funnel content. But now it’s time to address content that can make or break a sale.

Understanding the Bottom-of-the-Funnel

The bottom-of-the-funnel is a good place for your leads to be. At this point, they’ve gained sufficient awareness of your brand’s solution and how it relates to their problem, and they’ve compared it to other options to ensure it’s a good choice. However, they haven’t quite sealed the deal yet. For leads at the bottom-of-the-funnel to pull the trigger on their purchase, they’re going to need a bit more information about what you can offer — which is where your content comes in.

Keep in mind that bottom-funnel leads aren’t all the same. Some are new leads, while others are previous customers you’re trying to re-engage. Ultimately, you can break down these leads into three separate segments, each of which will require uniquely targeted content:

1. Decision
2. Loyalty
3. Advocacy

Leads in each of these groups are in need of more information to guide them to the finish line, but how you get them there is going to vary. What’s similar, however, is that your content at this stage should be driven toward addressing any lingering hurdles that are standing in the way of a sale. Sometimes that will mean positioning yourself as the obvious preference in light of your competitors; other times, it means giving them the clearest picture possible of what your product or service can do for them. And always it means empowering your leads to make the most productive decision.

Bottom-of-the-Funnel Content Ideas: Decision

Bottom-funnel leads in the decision stage are considering partnering with you. By this point, they’ve typically been enrolled in your email campaigns and have received personalized, educational content that’s gotten them to this point. They just need a little bit more convincing before they’re ready to close the deal.

Content varieties to focus on here include:

• Email campaigns/drip campaigns
• Case studies
• Demos
• Testimonials

All of these types of content can be sent in ongoing, personalized emails to help your leads overcome any lingering objections and to provide brand advocacy for your company.

Bottom-of-the-Funnel Content Ideas: Loyalty

Leads here are already customers. What you want to achieve with your bottom-funnel content at this point then is to retain them as customers, sowing brand loyalty so that you’re always the first place they go for a solution.

Content varieties to focus on here include:

• Email newsletters
• Drip campaigns
• Promotions

Use marketing automation software to segment your existing customers so that you can send content specifically geared toward increasing brand loyalty. Sending out the same content you share with non-customers could devalue your relationship, so it’s important that you acknowledge these leads have already made a purchase and that your content is intended to help them make the most of them it.

Bottom-of-the-Funnel Content Ideas: Advocacy

You’ve got the decision, and you’ve got the loyalty. What you want now is for your leads to become advocates for your brand, sharing their experience with others and spurring on your lead generation efforts.

Content varieties to focus on here include:

• Email newsletters
• Drip campaigns
• Testimonials

See how you can make these content varieties work together. Drip campaigns, for example, can be designed to ask your leads for their testimonials or a quote or to provide incentives to share your product or service with their friends. Meanwhile, your e-newsletters provide an excellent platform for re-engaging with current customers and providing them with content that can keep their experience positive.

These leads are ready to take action, so make sure that all of your bottom-of-the-funnel content has a clear call to action. Collaborate with your sales team on ideas so that your bottom-funnel content best meets the needs of its audience. Not every single lead who makes it to the bottom-of-the-funnel is going to convert, but if they are, great content can only help.