Top-of-the-Funnel Marketing: Elements and Importance
What is Top-of-the-Funnel Marketing?
Top-of-the-funnel, or TOFU, is an essential part of marketing as it deals with a broader range of people. Its primary objective is to make people aware of the product and persuade them to join the customer journey. This is what we refer to as top-of-the-funnel marketing.
Let’s discuss a real-life example; ours is a digital marketing agency that helps in the escalation of the search engine ranking of a business and build customer relation online through different mediums. Firstly, by writing a blog or through a direct approach, email, or phone calls, we make people aware of the importance of ranking and SEO. As soon as a person reads it or gets connected through email and phone calls, the client comes into the marketing funnel as now; they are aware of what solution we offer and of their problem that the agency can address.
Related Terms:-
- Middle-of-the-Funnel- This stage comes right after TOFU. You have built an engagement and trust with your target customers, who are developing a desire for the product or service at this stage.
- Bottom-of-the-Funnel– This is the final stage. By this point, the customer has developed a strong desire for the product. They are actively considering making a purchase. Their likelihood of converting into a customer is higher at this stage since they have come a long way in their customer journey and built a strong desire for the product.
Why is Top-of-the-Funnel Marketing Important?
It is essential to perform activities of top-of-the-funnel (tofu) marketing effectively as it lays the foundation of a customer journey. It represents the first interaction of your brand with your could-be customers. Its target is to cover a broader audience. The more people are there at the top of the funnel, the more people will be filtered to the bottom of the funnel.
Additionally, there are some more aspects in which TOFU marketing helps the marketing teams:-
1. Brand Exposure :
The objective of TOFU marketing is to raise awareness of the product among individuals. Whether they move further into the funnel or not, they become familiar with your company and its offerings. TOFU provides broad exposure for your brand. When individuals require your services, they are more likely to return to you due to your effective TOFU marketing strategies. With the right and engaging marketing approach, people may also share information about your services with others who are in need of the solutions you provide.
2. Exposure to the leads :
TOFU marketing helps in generating leads by attracting interested customers through lead-generating tactics such as lead magnets, gated content, newsletter sign-ups, etc. Once you have contacts of your potential customers, you can get in touch with them through a direct approach such as cold email marketing, phone calls, and more.
3. Increase in Sales :
When you target a broader audience for TOFU marketing, potentially more people will be there at the bottom of the funnel. Some people might decide to make the purchase immediately; some might take time to investigate, compare and then decide to purchase. In all cases, the sales will step up at every stage of the funnel. You catch some potential leads also in this marketing. As the people who made it to the mid or bottom of the funnel are more likely to be a customer in the future.
4. Attract the Right Audience :
Marketing does not work as a magic wand and cannot land you a customer’s offer in a single contact with customers. It is a process. The customer goes through a whole psychological journey of awareness-interest-consideration-intent-evaluation-purchase. Once people are made aware of the TOFU stage, people who move downwards into the funnel are your ideal customers.
Manpower is a valuable resource for any organization, and spending it where it will be valued and yield positive results is what organizations strive for. TOFU, in this way, helps to reach and attract the right audience where the resources are worth spending on.
The Elements for Top-of-the-Funnel Marketing
Now you know what benefits TOFU marketing can bring, let’s have a look at how to achieve those benefits.
1. Blog Posts
It is widely recognized that blog posts can be highly effective in creating awareness and offering diverse creative options for promoting brand visibility. This is the goal of TOFU marketing -to spread awareness; blog posts do the task effectively and can pull the audience towards the websites.
For example:- If one is running a home improvement business, the person can write blog posts to showcase one’s skills and make people aware of the services and solutions he/she provides. The topics of the posts can be ‘Top best home improvements gadgets,’ ‘Ways to protect your home from water damage,’ ‘Causes for property damage and how to protect them,’ etc. It is a great way to exhibit your expertise and make people aware of the services.
2. Search Engine Optimization:
In the TOFU stage, your blogs will be of no use if people cannot discover them and read them. Search Engine Optimization is a process of optimizing a website organically to increase its visibility online. SEO pushes your blogs further to present them to the audience. There are several methods to do that:-
- Keyword research
- Link Building
- Social media optimization
- Link Building
- Optimizing Local SEO
- Monitoring Technical factors
- Quality Content
SEO is not defined by these elements alone. There are more minute multiple aspects also that help in the ranking of web pages.
3. Pay Per Click
Pay-per-click is a marketing action where you pay search engines every time your product’s advertisement gets a click. It increases brand visibility by displaying your ads prominently in search engines. The payment is worthwhile, as with the correct keyword strategy; you can have a grand stage to showcase the services you provide.
4. Call to Action:
A call to action (CTA) refers to the action that you desire your customer to perform. It is the action that pushes your top-of-the-funnel audience downwards toward the bottom of the funnel. The call to action could be signing up, subscribing to an email list, asking to watch a video, or reading a blog. Remember to give a choice to your audience whether they want to follow the call to action or it. The audience sees multiple calls to action every day. They might get annoyed with a command. Make them feel that they are in charge of their actions.
5. Direct Approach:
Nowadays, obtaining the contact details of the audience is not a challenging task. You can establish connections with them through emails or direct phone calls. Although it may be a slower process, it gives a personal touch to the audience. By making them feel special and addressed, there is a high chance that the customer will start the journey and make the purchase.
6. Social Media Marketing:
Social Media is a platform you can use to showcase your product and provide a broader reach. With social media marketing, you achieve brand exposure to your product. A significant number of people use social media to get their minds off their busy life, and sweeping into their social media feed help in making people aware of the product. Optimizing your social media account according to the need of the product and target audience can assist you in having more leads and sales increase in TOFU marketing.
Recommendation :
From top to bottom, each marketing stage requires distinct strategic copywriting. 
Your product can reach new heights with an experienced team proficient in social media marketing, SEO, web hosting, local SEO, copywriting, Google Ads, and analytics. Schedule a meeting or leave a message to explore our offerings.
