What is Bottom of Funnel (BOFU) Marketing?
When you’re marketing a B2B SaaS product or solution, it’s important to develop content assets and marketing experiences that support your potential customers through every stage of the marketing funnel, from initial brand awareness through to the purchasing decision. To achieve this, marketers deploy different messaging and types of content for Top of Funnel (TOFU), Middle of Funnel (MOFU), and Bottom of Funnel (BOFU) prospects.
Bottom of Funnel (BOFU) marketing targets prospects that are nearing the bottom of the sales funnel with highly persuasive content that nudges them toward choosing your brand at the moment they’re ready to make a purchasing decision.
Effective BOFU marketing drives revenue and accelerates the B2B sales cycle by differentiating your brand and products from the competition and increasing your prospect’s confidence that they can solve their problems or achieve a desirable outcome using your products.
How Does Bottom of Funnel (BOFU) Marketing Work?
Prospects that reach the bottom of your marketing funnel have invested valuable time to clearly identify their problem and learn about the solutions you provide, as well as other alternatives in the marketplace. They’re almost ready to make a purchasing decision, but could be hesitant to commit unless they can be sure they’re choosing the best option and getting a great deal.
Prospects near the bottom of the funnel are more likely to engage with high-intent pages on your website, such as your pricing page or checkout process, to see if you’re offering any special deals or discounts. They’re also likely to review any case studies you have published, and they may seek out content that features explicit comparisons between your brand and your competitors in the marketplace.
BOFU marketing increases conversion rate at the bottom of your marketing funnel by targeting your prospects with content that demonstrates the success of your products and customers, helping them visualize their own success with the solutions you provide.
5 Bottom of Funnel Marketing Tactics
Below are five types of BOFU marketing content that can persuade prospects near the bottom of the funnel to take action and purchase your solution.
Feature/Benefit Comparisons
An article or infographic comparing the features and benefits of your solution with those of your competitors can be a valuable BOFU marketing asset. Direct comparisons with other companies in your niche make it easy to differentiate your product by drawing attention to the specific areas where you’re delivering better outcomes and greater value than your competitors.
Prospects are sometimes required to conduct a due diligence investigation by comparing the features and benefits of your solution to some alternatives before making a purchasing decision. A comparison infographic makes life easier for this buyer and gives you the opportunity to nudge them in the right direction while accelerating the sales cycle.
Product Guides and Tutorials
When prospects start browsing tutorials or guides related to your product, they’re generally trying to answer two questions:
- Will this product be able to solve my problem?
- How easily will this product be able to solve my problem?
Publishing how-to guides and tutorials for your product helps convince your prospects that your product is easy to use and capable of delivering the results and outcomes they’re counting on.
Customer Success Stories
Social proof is a great way to assure BOFU prospects about the quality and impact of the solutions you provide. Testimonials, customer interviews, case studies, and customer success stories are all examples of BOFU marketing content designed to drive prospect confidence and increase conversion rates at the bottom of your funnel.
Free Trial Experiences
Free trial experiences are a crucial component of any product-led growth strategy. A free trial gives your prospect the opportunity to experience real success with your product before they commit to a purchase. When your prospect enjoys a productive free trial experience, a successful customer conversion becomes even more probable for your business.
Product Demos
If your ARPA is relatively low, you’ll gravitate toward a self-service sales model where prospects can finalize their purchase on your website without going through sales. When this is true, the best option is to feature a recorded product demo on your website as a piece of BOFU marketing content.
When your ARPA is medium-high, you’ll be following a transactional or enterprise sales model where live product demos and one-to-one interaction with sales are essential to the purchasing process.
What Does Bottom of Funnel (BOFU) Content Accomplish?
Increase Buyer Confidence
Some buyers are risk averse and will delay making a decision when they feel unsure that your solution can deliver the outcomes they want. BOFU content should increase buyer confidence by demonstrating the success of your product and customers, or allowing the prospect to experience product success through a demo or free trial experience.
Accelerate the Sales Cycle
BOFU content should encourage prospects to accelerate their decision-making and get started with your solution. Sales promotions, discounts, or limited-time offers on pricing pages are part of BOFU marketing strategy and encourage your prospects to get started sooner, rather than later.
Differentiate Your Brand and Products
Prospects sometimes delay purchasing decisions because they can’t decide between you and your competitors. BOFU marketing is the perfect time to focus on explaining exactly why your prospective customers should choose your solution instead of an alternative.
Data Analytics Drives Funnel Optimization for Modern SaaS Marketers
In today’s digital marketing environment, marketing funnels are complex and nonlinear. Prospects now interact with your brand across multiple touchpoints and channels before a sale happens, blurring the lines between TOFU, MOFU, and BOFU marketing.
As a leading Marketing Operations Agency, Directive has adopted new tools and technologies to help our clients thrive in today’s environment.
We use marketing attribution technology to identify the content and campaigns that have the biggest impact on conversions for our B2B SaaS clients. Then, we leverage those insights to assess purchasing intent for prospects throughout the customer journey and deliver optimized experiences that result in Customer Generation.
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