The biggest gap we find when doing content audits is a lack of middle of the funnel content. Almost no one is immune—from enterprises to emerging growth companies.
When creating a journey to move prospects down your funnel, it’s common to have a million pieces that work perfectly for the top of the funnel and case studies for the bottom, but the same two or three content pieces for the middle of your funnel.
We’ve found three reasons why companies struggle to maintain enough high quality middle of the funnel content:
- People don’t know exactly what middle of the funnel content is and what it should accomplish (Click here to jump to the three pillars of middle of the funnel content.)
- There’s a hesitance to invest in middle of the funnel content, as it tends to take more time and effort to create than content at other stages of the funnel.
- Middle of the funnel content is hard!
I’d like to address the first two points in this article. The third point deserves its own piece, so find our guide to creating MOFU content here.
What is middle of the funnel content?
Middle of the funnel content bridges the gap between awareness and decision-making for your prospects and leads. Its purpose is to educate prospects on your solution, address objections and build trust with your company. This content should help prospects understand how your solution uniquely solves their problems as well as what it looks like to actually implement it at their company. For example, if you are selling a technology platform, some things MOFU prospects will want to know include: why your product’s features are necessary, what other platforms it integrates with and what kind of support you offer.
This type of content is frequently used by Marketing in demand generation campaigns and by Sales during prospect interactions, with classic examples being case studies, whitepapers, webinars, comparison guides and detailed product information.
Examples of MOFU content.
Here are some of the assets that have worked the best for our clients and us, which all appear on Semrush’s list of best content formats for MOFU assets. Remember, you won’t need to create every type of MOFU asset. It all depends on what makes sense for your company and what your buyers need at that stage of the buying process.
Written MOFU content.
- “How to” guides
- Solution/product guides
- Fact sheets
- Surveys and reports: here are a couple ways we’ve presented original research
- Case studies/Success stories: here are our success story examples
- Landing pages (Don’t forget your website can work for you as MOFU content)
- Customer reviews/testimonials
- White papers
- Templates and checklists
- Infographics: here’s an example
Video MOFU content.
- Webinars: (live and on-demand – See our Coffee Break series for inspo)
- Video tutorials/guides/demos: check out our latest video guide
Interactive MOFU content.
- Interactive tools: see our tools for examples.
- Self-serve pricing/ROI calculators
3 Pillars of effective MOFU content.
Here are three main pillars your MOFU content should hit to effectively engage interested prospects.
1. It has to be valuable to your target audience.
One reason creating content for the middle of the funnel is especially tricky is because the version of your prospect who’s ready to read that content isn’t the same person who clicked on your top of the funnel stuff. You’ve made them smarter; you’ve made them more interested; you’ve already introduced yourself. Middle of the funnel content needs to be more tightly focused and it needs to offer information that’s more valuable.
2. It has to answer the real questions they have.
This leads to another reason why companies often have less middle of the funnel content than they need—they’re afraid to give too much information away too early. But this is the stage of the buyer’s journey where you’re trying to answer the questions your prospects have. That does mean you’re going to have to give them answers. Traditionally, these conversations may have happened with the sales team, but as the buyer’s journey transforms to a more online-focused experience, your content needs to pick up some of that slack.
3. It has to speak to who they are.
By the time your prospect gets to this stage in their journey we’re past the point of creating “one size fits all” content. You should start mixing in content aimed at the different members of your prospect’s buying group (which can include 6-10 people these days). The person who’s going to be using your product or services daily likely has different questions than the person who’s going to sign the purchase order. Make sure you’re creating content for both of those people—and anyone else who might be a significant part of the purchasing decision.
Why MOFU content is worth investing in.
If you’ve read this far in the article and thought to yourself, “Creating enough high-value content to reach all key members of my buying group seems really hard,” you’re in good company! It is hard. It takes time, resources and alignment with Sales. But it absolutely is worth it. Here’s why.
MOFU content makes the self-serve buying journey possible. According to TechTarget’s recent media consumption research, B2B technology buyers are now engaging with an average of 12 pieces of vendor content while researching and considering a company and their solution. In fact, the number of pieces of content and touches required for the average buying cycle continues to grow year after year. If you don’t have enough MOFU content to fill that pipeline now, the gaps will only continue to grow.
MOFU content is also vital to demand gen programs. Lack of full-funnel content is also stopping ABM programs in their tracks. It’s hurting your demand gen campaigns and the efficacy of your sales departments. According to our 2024 Sales Effectiveness Report, a majority of high-growth sellers named challenges scaling personalization and an increased dependence on content as a top drawback to ABM—meaning, your campaigns can only work so long as you have fresh, valuable content to share.
Building up your content library with valuable MOFU assets will help you effectively reach and engage your target audience, wherever they are.
The Iron Horse insight.
Without middle of the funnel content, your prospects cannot efficiently move from interest to conversion. Marketers and sellers need to be able to intercept interested buyers with the information they need in the formats they prefer at whatever point they’re at in their decision-making process—and that’s impossible without a robust MOFU content library.
