Why did you post that photo of your puppy yesterday? Or that cute cafe you were working in? What’s it trying to achieve? Are you posting it just because you think it looks nice? Or are you sharing a video of your workspace because you haven’t posted in a few days, and you feel like you should probably put something up?
Have you heard so-called digital marketing experts throw around terms like funnels and ToFu, and you suspect they're not talking about the gross-smelling meat substitute? Then this article is for you...
There’s not much point in putting up content that doesn’t serve some sort of goal. As a rough guide, your social media content should vaguely be focused on one of these three phases:
Awareness, evaluation, or conversion.
1. Awareness
This does what it says on the tin. At this stage, people have just followed your IG page, or just signed up to your email newsletter. People are just getting to know you and what you offer. This is called the Top of the Funnel (ToFu).
Content idea: Write a blog post/ LinkedIn post/ Instagram caption about a topic directly related to your industry. This article is one such example for me!
2. Evaluation
Here, you’re warming people up. They know what you offer, and there's a good chance they're vaguely interested. At this point, you want to get more leads and grow your email list.
Consider creating a ‘gated’ offer. This could be a sales checklist that you’ve created, or a video explaining your top 5 tips for financial planning. The idea of gated content is that people can only access it by doing something that benefits you. Think signing up to your email list, or joining your free Facebook group. The trick is to make it enticing enough that people want to go out of their way to sign up. This is the Middle of the Funnel (MoFu).
Content idea: I encourage people to sign up to BURO155’s email newsletter by sending out a content-related free ebook each month (worth £10).
3. Conversion
Here, you want to seal the deal. It’s the Bottom of the Funnel (BoFu) and it’s all about coaxing people over the finishing line to make the sale. Examples are testimonials, demos, free trials...
Content idea: If you’re launching an online course, host a free webinar giving a teaser version.