When it comes to the bottom of a marketing funnel, the goal shifts from creating general awareness for your company and educating prospective customers, to pushing for a purchase decision. 

This is one of the most critical stages within your funnel, as good bottom of funnel marketing tactics can mean the difference between a customer conversion, and not receiving any ROI for getting a lead this far.

Follow these steps to build your bottom of the funnel content and tools to see better conversions from your marketing funnel.

What is Bottom of Funnel Marketing?

Bottom of the funnel is the last of the marketing funnel stages, and it is where a lead is considering a purchase decision. Commonly referred to as BOFU, at this funnel stage leads have already passed through the top of funnel where they became aware of your company and its products through tactics like social media and PR, as well as the middle of funnel stage where they were educated about your industry and products through content like blogs and whitepapers. 

Bottom of funnel marketing is more direct, hitting the value of your products on the nose and demonstrating how they outclass competitors’ products. Marketing materials and assets at this stage should focus on convincing buyers to make their decision, and providing any relevant information that helps them understand how they can buy your products, how they work, and what value they will derive from them. While this type of direct selling would come across as salesy at other marketing funnel stages, it is appropriate at this stage, as leads have passed through fluffier content at other stages and want to get down to brass tacks.

Learn more in Brand Credential's marketing funnel guide.

1. Use a CRM for Lead Capture and Engagement 

For B2B brands, a CRM serves as a home base for customer lead engagement. CRM platforms like HubSpot and Salesforce allow marketing and sales teams to integrate their efforts and create a cohesive strategy for delivering content to leads and managing every touchpoint that they have with your company and its content. 

Think of your CRM as a repository of sales leads, and a framework for organizing them and structuring your touchpoints with them. Most CRMs have sales stages that go beyond the three basic marketing funnel stages (top, middle, and bottom), with tactics, content, and playbooks setup for each stage. 

For example, when a new inbound lead comes in and enters the first stage in a company’s CRM, that organization could have a lead nurturing campaign that auto enrolls the inbound lead, and an established collection of sales enablement materials that sales reps know to reach out and engage the new lead with. Mapping content to each stage, and establishing rules of engagement for each stage with sales team members are key aspects of organizing outreach to customer leads, and progressing them through the funnel. 

Tips for Getting the Most out of Your CRM

Use these tips to structure your own CRM and the marketing tactics you use within it to convert leads. 

• Map content for each funnel stage - For example, write blog posts specifically to address top of funnel and mid funnel goals, and create sales materials designed to help influence purchase decisions. These marketing materials can be delivered automatically using CRM features,  or by sales team members who have been trained  on how and  when to use the content.
• Use analytics to see which funnel stages are your strongest and weakest - For example, if you have a high volume of top of funnel leads, but a small portion of them are making it to your bottom of funnel content, try focusing on middle of funnel marketing to address the drop off.
• Automate content delivery with lead nurturing campaigns (see more on this below)
• Setup lead scoring - creating standards for scoring marketing qualified leads (MQLs) and sales qualified leads (SQLs) will help your marketing and sales teams focus their time and energy on the most qualified leads. This can also inform when leads should be entered into nurturing campaigns to help them progress to lower funnel marketing stages. 
  

2. Setup an Ecommerce Store to Serve as Your Point of Sale

For B2C brands, an online store is where customer leads learn about products in detail and make purchases. Similar to the role a CRM plays for B2B brands, ecommerce stores should be set up to offer information about your brand’s products  that will persuade customers  to make purchase decisions.  

B2C brands should treat their ecommerce store as the bottom of their marketing funnel, and design the rest of  their marketing tactics like social media marketing and blogging to funnel leads back to their store. For example, a social media campaign or paid social media ad could like to a product landing page on the ecommerce store, or blog posts could include links and ‘buy now’ buttons that link to the product landing page. In this example, the top and mid funnel content is funneling leads toward the product landing page where a customer could make a purchase. 

Tips for Making an Ecommerce Store a Bottom of the Funnel Platform That Converts

• Make landing pages for each of your company’s products - Ecommerce store product pages are where customers add items to their shopping cart, and the content on them  should reflect the critical nature of this digital real estate. Make sure your product pages have nice photography, video assets, and well written copy that articulates your product’s value propositions and features. Other nice additions to product landing pages are FAQs about the product, and customer testimonials and reviews. Anything that you think could help convince a custom to push that “add to cart” button is worth including on  these pages.
• Use retargeting campaigns - Most ecommerce platforms have built-in retargeting features where you can deliver ads to customers who abandoned items in their shopping cart, or viewed specific product landing pages without making a purchase. 
• Refresh content on your ecommerce store homepage - Treat your homepage like the front window on a physical store, displaying your latest products, sales, and most popular items. Keeping this content fresh and rotating your product placements will help you to keep selling your best performing products, while gathering data on other products to determine what customers want. 
• Include links to blog posts and white papers about your products at the point of sale - Content that helps customers see the value in your products is an impactful thing to share with them at a funnel stage where they are considering a purchase decision. Try adding content like product brochures, competitor comparison guides (that make your products look better), and video reviews to your product landing pages to increase conversions. See the sales enablement content section below for more product-focused content ideas that can be used in your online store. 
• Use a chatbot or live chat feature - Most ecommerce platforms have features or integrations that let you put a chatbot for customer service chat on your website. This is  a feature that gives prospective customers a place to go and ask questions and receive customer service at a critical moment. Giving people a good experience here where they feel attended to can be the factor that sways their purchase decision. 

3. Focus on Sales Enablement

Bottom of funnel is the funnel stage where sales and marketing teams work most closely together to engage leads. At this stage, it is the marketing team’s job to arm sales representatives with content and marketing collateral with which they can tell the story of the company’s products.

Engagement with leads at this stage has typically gone past customers finding information on their own, with sales team members now delivering content via email or setting meetings to walk customers through sales materials and present the product. 

Sales enablement is not just for B2B brands, as sales enablement materials like product catalogs, spec documents, and ROI case studies can also help B2C sales teams convert bottom of funnel leads. 

BOFU Sales Enablement Content Ideas

Add these sales enablement materials to your BOFUl content to better support sales teams and increase lead conversion:

• Product one sheets - One sheets, or sales sheets as they are sometimes called, are a one page document that provides an overview of a product or service. These documents should concisely cover the problem a product solves, the key value propositions it offers customers, and the features it has to deliver on those value propositions. Product one sheets can be shared via email in the form of a PDF, turned into a downloadable asset that can be shared on a website, or printed for distribution at events and conferences. 
• Product overview decks - Product overview decks, or sales decks, are a more indepth version of a product one sheet. These pitch decks can be used to present to a customer lead during a meeting, or they can be shared as a send along asset over email. Product decks contain multiple slides or pages that expand on the product’s benefits and features. There are many approaches to what content is included in a product deck and the order of that content. One common approach is recapping the problem the product solves toward the beginning of the deck, explaining the value propositions the product offers, the key features of the product, and then getting into product pricing and how to buy. 
• Product catalogs - Product catalogs can be used at the bottom of the funnel to provide an overview of your products along with their pricing.
• ROI case studies - Case studies that provide data on the actual ROI customers or organizations receive when they use your products can be an invaluable asset to share during a funnel stage when a lead is considering a purchase.
• ROI calculators - ROI calculators are a strategy many brands utilize where a customer is able to input information about their use case (ex. Number of people who will use a product within their organization, how much they will use it, how much they currently spend on a competing solution, etc.) in order to calculate how much money they would save or make by implementing your product. ROI calculators can be hosted on your website, or shared with customers in a spreadsheet template. 
• Competitor comparisons - White papers or blog posts that compare your products to competing products can help to sway potential customers at the bottom of the funnel stage. These documents are often presented in a competitor matrix with features / value propositions on one axis, and the products on the other (including yours). Showing that your products checks the most boxes in a competitor matrix in terms of features / capabilities can be a powerful tool to arm sales teams with.
  

4. Build Lead Nurturing Campaigns 

While the sales team is directly engaging with leads and handling direct contact through emails and meetings, they still need help convincing a lead that your company and its products are the one to go with. Lead nurturing campaigns that periodically share engaging content with a lead who might be on the fence about a purchase can help to increase purchase intent, and provide valuable information at a critical decision making point. 

Create email nurturing campaigns through your marketing automation platform or CRM that deliver leads a sequence of emails based on certain actions. These emails can contain links to various assets like whitepapers, videos, PR articles, and blog posts. The best lead nurturing campaigns compliment the sales team’s direct product sales efforts by continuing to expose leads to content that demonstrates credibility for your organization, and creates FOMO based on showcasing the success of your products and the customers who use them.

Lead nurturing campaigns can be as simple as a single email, or as complex as a series of emails designed to build upon each other in terms of the information they share. Use actions and characteristics to enroll leads in these campaigns based on the interest they’ve shown in your products, or the stage of the sales funnel they are in. 

An example of an email lead nurturing campaign that is triggered based on sales stages would be setting up a campaign that sends a lead one email per week for four weeks, with the campaign beginning as soon as a lead is moved into the bottom of funnel sales stage within your CRM by a sales team member. 

An example of a lead nurturing campaign triggered by an action would be enrolling leads in a campaign that sends them a sequence of emails, with the first email being triggered when the lead downloads a whitepaper from your website and provides their email address. 

Content Ideas That Can be Included in BOFU Lead Nurturing Campaigns

Try including these content ideas in your lead nurturing campaigns to help keep your brand and its products top of mind, and to support sales efforts:

• One sheets and product overview decks - These pieces of sales enablement collateral mentioned above can also be included as attachments in automated email nurturing campaigns.
• Recent media coverage - Media coverage is valuable because it shows a third party validating your company and its products. Include recent press hits in your lead nurturing campaigns to help create FOMO and demonstrate the popularity of your brand.
• Podcasts and video webinars - Any time you or someone from your company speaks on a podcast or is featured in a webinar or panel recording you have an asset that’s worth sharing with prospective customers. These types of assets show your company out in the world positioned as a thought leader, which can be an influential thing for a customer to see during the purchase decision making process. 
• Blog posts and whitepapers - Educational content from the top of funnel and bottom of funnel stages is still valuable for lower funnel marketing. Include these materials in email nurturing sequences to keep providing free value to leads as they move deeper into your funnel. 
  

5. Build Community Around Your Company and Products

Building community around your company and its products is one of the most powerful marketing strategies there is, because it opens the door for current customers to market your products through word of mouth. Promoting your products yourself is one thing, but creating a forum for customers to talk about your products with each other creates a different level of trust in your brand and credibility. 

Engaged communities can be lead generation machines because they not only create brand advocates out of customers who help to attract new customers, they also encourage repeat purchases from loyal community members who are already customers. 

The goal of community building is to get people talking to each other about your industry, your company, and your products. Playing the role of community thought leader and guide, it is your job to create places for this conversation to take place, and to create and share content that encourages discussion and sharing. 

Community Building Ideas

Implement these strategies to create a forum for people to discuss your company and your products:

• Create a forum or Slack community for your customers - Hosting a forum on your website, or using a third party tool like Slack will give customers and prospective customers a place to network and discuss your products. Companies often invite leads to join Slack communities or forums toward the bottom of the funnel in order to give them a higher level of engagement with company representatives, and also to give them the opportunity to meet current customers and learn from them. 
• Create a Facebook Group or LinkedIn Group for your customers - Creating a group on social media platforms is another example of a way you can build a forum for your customer community to engage with each other. 
• Enable comments on blog posts and whitepapers - Enabling comments on your digital marketing content is a simple step that can encourage conversation among your audience. 
• Host an event - Hosting in-person or digital events is a way to bring people together and spark conversation about your company and products. These events can be as simple as a webinar where you invite current customers and leads to come listen to a talk or panel hosted by company reps, or as large scale as a digital event complete with multiple sessions and chat rooms. Learn more about digital events and webinar hosting from our blog post on digital skills.
  

Community Building Content

Create and share this type of content to support your community and encourage engagement:

• Launch customer appreciation campaigns with swag and hand written notes - The least scalable strategies often provide the most value, and this is true when it comes to giving customers branded swag, or writing them hand written notes demonstrating your appreciation. This will make people feel good about your brand and show that you care about customers, and it also creates the chance that they share a picture of the swag you sent them with their own networks. 
• Share how-to content and tutorials - Education is a powerful marketing strategy because it provides free value. Create content like guides and tutorials to teach people how to use your products and solve problems. This will put you in a position of thought leadership, help customers have better experiences with products, and encourage other community members to share their own tips and how-to content.
• Share user generated content - If customers do create their own resources like a tutorial for using one of your products, share this content and help them promote it. Promoting user generated content will come across as genuine to other community members, and shows your appreciation for your customers. Sharing more simple user generated content like photos of your products that customers post is also valuable and encourages others to follow suit. 
• Promote customer success stories - Customer testimonials, case studies, or user generated content that shows customers having success with your products are all examples of content that shows the positive value add that your products and brand bring to customers. These can be shared as you come across them from customers, or you can be more systematic about creating them by reaching out to customers and asking for testimonials, or if they’d be willing to be interviewed about their experience with your product for a blog post or video. 
  

When it comes to marketing funnel stages, the bottom of funnel is arguably the most critical stage because it’s where all of your investments in strategy and content pay off into customer conversions. Follow these bottom of funnel marketing tips to improve the content, tools, and processes you use to engage with customers at this key marketing funnel stage.