Bottom of the funnel marketing (BOFU) is any marketing effort that’s focused on helping customers make a purchase decision. At this point in the sales cycle, buyers are already familiar with your company and what you have to offer—so BOFU tactics work best when they provide additional information or support about your product or service.
In contrast to top-of-funnel marketing campaigns, which aim to generate brand awareness, bottom-of-funnel strategies are designed for people who are ready to buy. For example, rather than create blog content that answers broad questions about your industry (e.g., “what is organic search?”), you would use BOFU techniques such as product demos and testimonials to show prospects why they should choose your products over competitors’ offerings.
10 Bottom of the Funnel Marketing Tactics
A membership program
A membership program is an initiative that rewards your customers for continuing to shop with you. For example, a store could offer discounts or free shipping to people who sign up for its members-only program. A few well-known examples of this include Amazon Prime, Costco, and Starbucks Rewards.
Membership programs are so effective because they encourage repeat business. They also make it easy for consumers to keep track of their rewards and make more purchases without having to think about it too much. Many of them even offer exclusive content like recipes, tutorials, or sneak peeks at upcoming products—allowing you to provide value beyond just the purchase itself!
Up-selling and cross-selling
Up-selling and cross-selling are two very common forms of marketing that can be employed throughout the funnel. They are defined as follows:
- Cross-selling is what happens when you offer a customer a related product or service that complements the one they're already considering for purchase. For example, if you're selling rain boots, you might also try to sell people umbrellas on the same visit.
- Up-selling is what happens when you offer a customer a bigger or better version of the product they're currently considering for purchase. For example, if someone is buying a 10" tablet, you might suggest an 11" model instead because it has more features.Cross-selling and up-selling both have the potential to increase your average order value without adding much additional work for your business once these products have been chosen and/or developed.
Content marketing
At the bottom of the funnel, marketing is about reaching people and making a connection. Here's how to do that in the best way possible by making use of engaging content examples.
Demos: In a demo, you provide a sample of your product or service as an example to illustrate your company's value proposition—or how great you are at what you do. Demo content gives users insights into what they can expect from your company. If they think it's good enough, they'll purchase it. If not, you've still made their experience better than if they hadn't even seen your product or service in action.
Case Studies: Case studies are a wonderful tool to help promote yourself and your products or services because they feature actual customers who have been taken through all the steps of using and appreciating them for themselves. They're more about personality than about what you do, which might be perfect for blog posts that delve into customer journeys and user feelings over time with your product/service.
Testimonials: Testimonials offer an extra level of credibility to highly-rated products or services because their authenticity is vouched for by real people who have used them! Choose testimonials from high-level influencers who have probably spent money on the items themselves too; this will give some weight to what the testimonials convey about your products/services too.
Pricing Pages: When it comes to pricing pages, you might want them long rather than short just because different segments want different things—and there's no need to write two entire pages when one will do! So keep it short but sweet and comprehensive so users know exactly what they're getting before buying!
Contract Pages: Contracts are all very well in theory, but in practice something like this can be pretty intimidating for users who don't know how much legal jargon there is involved in contracts and other legal documents that might be required before entering into one with a business (even if those details aren't necessary).
Explore deeper
Referral programs
A referral program is a great way to let happy customers do the marketing for you, by offering them something of value in exchange for spreading the word about your business. A few examples of what you could offer to encourage referrals from existing customers:
- Discount on their next purchase
- Exclusive access to your products or services
- Gift cards for their favorite brand or retailer
- Extra points or credits toward a rewards program
You’ll also want to make it as easy as possible for satisfied customers to refer others, which means providing links they can easily use on social media, an option in your app or product’s user interface, and (if it makes sense) an explanation of how they can refer others in person.
This last point might seem odd at first, but if you are running a retail store or local business, you should always be thinking about how best to explain your referral program; so that customers understand how they can help introduce others to your company.
Customer-centric product design
Customer-centric product design is primarily concerned with the user experience (UX) and customer needs. In order to create a successful B2C business, your company must have this as a high priority at every stage of the sales funnel, but it is especially important at the bottom of the funnel marketing stage, when you are most likely to lose your potential customers to competitors.
Think about it: How annoyed are you when a website has an outdated layout and confusing font? Or what about trying to navigate through a poorly designed app on your phone? Is there anything more aggravating than clicking on something only to be led down a rabbit hole of broken links and 404 errors?
In UX design, everything from color scheme and typography to navigation flow and error handling should be well thought out in order to streamline user actions.
Free trials and demos
You can offer potential customers a free trial or demo of your product as a low-risk way to allow them to experience its value. This is an effective way to demonstrate the product’s capabilities, uncover any concerns your potential customers might have, and get feedback from them so you can improve it.
Here are some examples of companies that offer free trials:
- Shopify offers a 14-day free trial for its eCommerce platform, so merchants can try out the software before committing.
- HubSpot lets users sign up for a free CRM to help them manage their contacts, leads, deals, and tasks in one place without needing to pay anything upfront.
Ways to increase sales at the bottom of the funnel
Be creative about your content
- Create content in any form, be it videos, infographics, or social media posts.
- Make the content unique, engaging, and personalized for your target audience.
- Position your brand as the expert on a particular topic by creating useful and valuable resources that help users make decisions.
- Write well. This one is pretty self-explanatory but not always easy to execute: write every piece of content so that it’s well-written and easy to understand.
Use marketing automation for nurturing leads
Nurturing leads is also a great way to keep them engaged with your brand. You can think of it as the process of guiding potential customers through the sales funnel by providing them with relevant content that addresses their challenges and needs.
Automated email campaigns are a key element of lead nurturing because they offer an easy way to distribute relevant, high-quality content at scale.
You don't have to be technical or an HTML genius for this tactic to work for you. Email marketing platforms like GetResponse offer the ability to create drip campaigns that automate the process of sending emails based on user behavior and other triggers—and they do it all in a highly visual interface that makes building your campaign as simple as clicking and dragging elements together.
Create unique personalized content for different buyer personas
To further nurture and convert your leads, it’s essential to create unique personalized content for different buyer personas.
Personas are semi-fictional representations of your ideal customers based on market research and real data about your existing clients. They help you understand the needs and goals of your audience, so you can tailor your marketing messages accordingly.
For example, a business owner’s top priorities might be increasing revenue, an engineer’s could be improving efficiency and security, while a marketing manager’s could be reducing budget waste or increasing website traffic. You may need to create different content for each persona with different messages, language, goals – even channels!
Be creative about gathering leads
The best way to generate leads is to understand your audience’s needs and wants. If you can satisfy your ideal customer’s needs through valuable content, you will be a lot more successful in turning those leads into customers.
Here are some creative ways you can use inbound marketing tactics to generate leads:
- Use Your Sales Team: Your sales team likely has the closest understanding of your prospects and customers than anyone on your marketing or advertising teams (unless it's just you). Think about how they can help with generating new leads, be involved with events, make introductions, and assist with market research.
- Use Social Media: Social media is a great way to get introductions from people who may be sympathetic to what you have to offer or have an interest in the content that you plan on sharing online. You can also use social media for influencer endorsement as well as customer research using tools like Facebook Marketplace Insights, Twitter Search, and LinkedIn Answers.
- Use Your Website: While not every website visitor is going to convert immediately into a lead or subscriber – that shouldn’t stop you from capturing their information so that they are somehow connected with your brand over time. Consider adding a pop-up window that offers additional content (eBook, Video) after they attempt to exit the page so they don't leave without giving up their contact information first!
Make it easy for customers
- Add live chat. Live chat allows you to communicate with leads in real-time as they're browsing through your site. Not only does it provide an easy way for visitors to get the answers they need, but it's also a great way for you to obtain valuable feedback from your customers and make improvements based on what you hear.
- Add a phone number. Adding a phone number to your page is another simple yet effective way for visitors to reach out and connect with your team. At this stage of the funnel, you want to make it as easy as possible for prospects to reach out so that they don't lose interest or go elsewhere while trying to find alternate contact information (e.g., emailing someone else at the company).
Use surveys
Using surveys to collect feedback from your customers
Surveys are a great way to gather insights from people who have interacted with your brand. They're especially helpful when you want to get feedback after a transaction has been completed—you can find out what people liked, what they didn't like, and how you can improve their customer experience in the future.
There are many tools available that allow you to create surveys on your own, including SurveyMonkey and Google Forms. In order to create an effective survey, define a clear goal and purpose for it.
Be sure to ask specific questions that will help you attain the information you need—it's best not to include vague or open-ended questions as this can make it difficult for respondents to answer concisely. Keep your survey short and simple so that respondents don't get overwhelmed by long questionnaires.
Consider providing incentives if possible—an incentive will encourage more people to complete the survey and provide truthful answers. Finally, be sure follow up with respondents after they've completed the survey! This is an important step for closing communication loops within your company (and it makes for great customer service).
Publish case studies on your landing pages
Case studies are a terrific way to show the success of your product or service with real-life examples. They help to build trust and credibility, which is especially important when you’re trying to convert leads into customers.
The best funnel marketing tactics include case studies on your landing pages and publishing them on your blog or website. Share them on social media as well!
Don't neglect social media, but use it creatively
This may seem obvious, but don't neglect social media. Social is where the majority of your target market is spending their time, and it's a great way to build trust with them. You can be subtle about it—for example, tell stories through images, or run contests.
But don't always try to sell! Instead, be helpful and give away free knowledge. Be creative with your engagement posts—don't just keep pitching people on how awesome your product is (although sometimes that works).
Everyone loves a good story, and they instinctively understand the message better if communicated through a narrative. Stories engage audiences more than statistics or general information; they're humanizing and relatable.
And let's face it: marketing is essentially telling stories anyway (your brand narrative), so why not use that same kind of message in your customer engagement posts?
Create an optimized checkout funnel
A well-optimized checkout funnel will not only make it easier for people to buy, but it will also reassure them that they’re making a smart decision by choosing your product. Here are some features you should include on the page:
- An attention-grabbing headline or a short summary of the product. Reviewers like this because it helps them quickly understand what you’re offering so they can determine whether it’s right for them.
- A clear call-to-action button, preferably with a strong color that contrasts with the rest of the page. This way visitors won’t miss it and can easily envision themselves clicking on it to move forward in the process.
- A picture of the product or service you're selling. Since most people are visual learners, seeing an image of your product will help increase their trust in its value and convince them to convert now rather than later.
Retargeting
You can do this by running retargeting campaigns that show ads to visitors who have already visited your website or landing page. Retargeting can be a cost-effective way to bring visitors back into the sales funnel and increase your sales. It works by tracking user behavior on your site, so you can then target them with specific ads they’re more likely to convert on.
When creating a retargeting campaign, make sure you don’t rush it, as that will hurt your success rate. Test different ad creatives offer and targeting options to see what resonates best with each visitor segment on your website.
Final thoughts
Bottom of the Funnel has been around for a while, but it's not just a fad. It's actually incredibly useful and is something you should be incorporating into your marketing strategy today.
The bottom of the funnel is where you make all the money. You want to get people in the door, but you want them to stay there. This is where you make your money.
And the best part about Bottom of the Funnel Marketing is that it requires no additional time or resources from you—it just involves changing how you do things now!
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