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Attribution basics

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Bottom of the Funnel (BOFU)

BOFU is short for Bottom of the Funnel, it represents the last step(s) before a customer converts, which means they purchase your service or product.

The funnel is a popular marketing metaphor that portrays the different stages a customer goes through before purchasing a product or service, during the so-called buyer’s journey. Full-funnel content marketing is vital for the generation of leads and the increase of conversions. It is important to optimize your content marketing efforts for each funnel phase individually.

The Bottom of the Funnel is the final stage of the marketing funnel. It is often considered the ‘purchase’ stage of the buying process / journey. In this phase customers are taking the final steps before they make the actual purchase. The potential customer knows that they need a certain product or service, did not know from whom to buy, and is now close to making a decision.

Actions in this final phase are typically associated with practical manners, such as evaluation of product attributes, specifications, comparison with competitors, user reviews, purchase postponement, etc. On the contrary, top of the funnel (TOFU) and middle of the funnel (MOFU) are generally linked to psychological and abstract concepts.. For example these are brand awareness and brand preference.

The funnel marketing model helps marketers to understand their efforts to fulfill all the needs that potential customers might have during each phase of the purchase process. These needs reach further than only informational needs, but could also easily be inspirational, motivational, re-cognitional, etc.

An effective marketer addresses all types of needs in the different stages.

What Is Marketing Attribution?

Before you can completely understand full funnel marketing you need to understand what marketing attribution and attribution models are. Put simply, attribution models help you credit conversions to your various marketing channels. When a potential customer visits your site, they interact with it in a number of ways. See the examples in the previous section. By analyzing visits and clicks, you can understand how your campaigns are performing, and which strategies are giving you the highest return on investment. Full funnel marketing is one of these strategies. Where BOFU is the last step within the just mentioned funnel.

If you want to learn more about attribution models and marketing attribution please take a look at our articles on the academy.

BOFU content examples

A brand cannot sell a product or service to a potential customer who is not aware of the problem that the product or service tries to solve. So brands tell stories that help the market understand what problem their products are solving. These stories of awareness could be considered as top of the funnel content. Content or creatives that brands produce are also known as touchpoints.

Further down the funnel, brands need to tell other stories tailored to the needs of the bottom of the funnel state of mind. Bottom of the funnel content examples are:

  • Product reviews: Help potential customers see your product or service in action by demonstrating the benefits it has over other companies.

  • Voucher codes: To make it more appealing to the potential customer to buy your product because they have a deal.

  • Email marketing: Create a flow of nurturing emails offering content specific to the buyer. (lead nurture)

  • Customer stories: Show who is using the platform and what they think of your product or service, provide third-party validation.

  • Comparisons: Help potential customers understand where your product wins over the competition.

  • Quotes: Having quotes on places on the website shows how happy people are with your product or service.

  • Blog posts: Answer specific questions that relate directly to your product or service.

How long do potential customers stay in the BOFU stage?

The logical ending is that the potential customer becomes a full customer when they purchase your product or service. When they do, your relationship continues with a different dynamic.

It’s possible that potential customers will stay in the BOFU stage for a significant period of time. Perhaps organizational priorities have changed, new challenges need to be addressed, or they’ve simply decided against making a purchase at the moment.

These types of situations are common, and it’s important to follow up about them; to be kept in the loop about a potential decision down the line.

Don’t be afraid to be persistent in a respectful manner and keep the conversation going. With the information you obtain from the conversation you can improve your funnel, for this potential customer but possibly also for others. If a potential customer has delayed their purchase or decided against making one, their pain points likely still exist.

What to do after?

When the new customer successfully went through the funnel, your effort doesn’t stop there. Even after the purchase, your relationship remains important. Customers may want to refer your offering to others in their field, or they may even become advocates for your brand.

Public reviews and social media posts are some of the most important materials for any company, and can attract new potential customers. They add to the sales funnel without additional effort on the part of your company. Customers become confident enough with their skill set to use your solution without any additional help from you, due to your lead nurturing efforts.

Sometimes customers just buy your service and or product once and move on as their problem is solved. Maybe there is no opportunity to get the customer to buy the same service or product again.

Ask new full customers to take part in interviews and or case studies. With this new material, start again at the top of the funnel. With every successful finished buyer’s journey, you further establish that your solution helps to solve the problem.

How do you know if your BOFU is working?

The easiest way to notice if your funnel is working is by looking at your metrics. It is analyzed differently from your TOFU or MOFU content. You cannot only look at the traffic because that is not the goal of BOFU. The main goal is increasing conversions.

Your conversion rate increases month over month and the sales revenue reflects this. Instead of looking at the purchases, or the traffic alone, it is important to review the customer’s entire journey. This can give you indication of whether BOFU works.

More specifically, you should review metrics like feedback, support messages, and other interactions that customers or potential customers have with your site. By investigating the feedback from the sales and other customer facing teams, you can see if the provided content is actually helping customers to make a decision, or ends up raising more questions.

And by looking through support messages, you can identify the most common ones and find out whether they increase conversions and maybe also reduce drop off rates. If support messages prevent disengagement and keep customers in the sales cycle for longer, it indicates that your BOFU is working.

Conclusion

In conclusion, BOFU plays an important role in sealing the deal. While TOFU attracts the traffic, BOFU keeps it engaged with you, which is key for a successful business. Traffic alone will not be enough, if your brand does not have the content that can convert leads into customers.

As you can see, full-funnel marketing is a highly powerful strategy that can really make a difference for your business. Not only does it build your brand, but it also inspires trust in it.

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