The Content to Use at Each B2B Marketing Funnel Stage

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“How can I acquire customers with content?”

As a content strategy consultant, this is a question I often hear from growing B2B startups. 

My answer: Let’s set a content strategy that outlines the content you’ll create at each marketing funnel stage. 

The TL;DR:

Business-to-business companies (B2B) need content at each stage to: 

  • Grow awareness and increases your brand at the top of the funnel

  • Encourage consideration of your company at the middle of the funnel

  • Encourage decision among prospects at the bottom of the funnel

  • Encourage engagement among customers at the bottom of the funnel

This article walks through what content to create at each stage of the marketing funnel. 

The stages of the b2b marketing funnel

Your marketing funnel represents the journey that users take, from first learning of your brand to becoming a customer. That journey has a lot of steps. The funnel helps break out those steps. 

Why B2B? Because as a content strategy consultant, I primarily help businesses that are selling to other businesses. I’m most familiar with that marketing funnel. 

Acquiring a customer as a B2B startup is a long, multi-step process. It takes about 102 days for someone to fully go through the B2B marketing funnel. Your content will help speed up that process. It’s there to support users with every step they take towards becoming a customer.

If your business sells to consumers, your customer acquisition process looks different! The content you use will likely look different too. Here’s a great intro to B2C content marketing from the Content Marketing Institute. 

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Top of the funnel

You’re reaching as big a qualified audience as possible and increasing their awareness of your brand

Middle of the funnel

You’re picking out the most engaged users from the top of the funnel, and introducing your offering for their consideration

Bottom of the funnel

You’re picking out the few highly interested users from the middle of the funnel, and encouraging their decision to become a paying customer. You’re also engaging existing customers. 

And what a coincidence! All content created for marketing purposes needs to achieve 1 of 4 goals:

  • Increase awareness that your company exists

  • Open up a conversation with prospective customers

  • Convert prospective customers into customers

  • Keep customers and keep them happy

So, what content do you create for each stage of the marketing funnel? Read on. 

CONTENT FOR EACH STAGE OF THE B2B MARKETING FUNNEL

Website, blog, Youtube, oh my! There are a million-and-one types of content that your company could create. Startups can’t afford the time or resources to tackle everything. In fact, most companies can’t. 

So question #1 becomes: which content type do I focus on at each stage of the funnel? When building a content strategy for clients, I recommend one primary content type for each stage.

Here is the short list of content to choose from at each stage of the B2B marketing funnel. 

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TOP OF THE FUNNEL CONTENT TO GROW AWARENESS

Top of the funnel content includes:

  • Blog posts

  • Bylines

  • Guest blog posts

  • Illustrations

  • Infographics

  • Landing pages

  • Podcasts

  • Social media posts

  • Videos

  • Website homepage

Top of the funnel content should talk about: 

  • Your industry expertise, lite. Educate as if you were teaching an introductory course. 

  • Your perspective on the industry, otherwise known as thought leadership content

MIDDLE OF THE FUNNEL CONTENT TO ENCOURAGE CONSIDERATION

Middle of the funnel content includes: 

  • Customer profiles

  • eBooks

  • Email

  • Interactive content like a quiz or calculator

  • Live video

  • One sheets overviewing your company

  • Video

  • Webinars

  • Website feature pages

Middle of the funnel content should talk about: 

  • Your expertise. Educate as if you were giving a seminar to fellow experts. 

  • Your customers! Share their stories. 

  • Your offering, lite. Stay broad to introduce what you do at a high level. 

BOTTOM OF THE FUNNEL CONTENT TO ENCOURAGE DECISION

Bottom of the funnel content includes:

  • Competitive analysis

  • Customer case studies

  • Email

  • Help Center articles

  • One sheets overviewing specific features

  • Pitch deck

  • Plan overview 

  • Proposal

  • Tutorials

  • Website FAQ page

  • Website pricing page

Bottom of the funnel content should talk about:

  • Your value propositions. Explain the benefits of using your solution. 

  • Your offering. Explain the features, services, and solutions that customers use. 

  • Next steps. Encourage action by illuminating the process.