TOFU, MOFU, BOFU: What They Are and What They Mean for Your Business

In the business world, there are three main stages that a buyer goes through when making a purchase: TOFU, MOFU, and BOFU. We will get into the fundamentals of each of these terms in a few but first I want you to remember when you moved out of your parents house.

At that time you probably sat down and thought- you know, you'll need several things including a bed for your new place because you don't want to sleep on the floor- the awareness stage.

So you started your research and considered several beds. You went to IKEA, scrolled through social media, visited several websites, and probably talked to friends and family who already had their own place and their own beds- the research or consideration stage.

You finally decided on a bed you saw on an Instagram shop. You visited the shop, paid for the bed, and took it home with you- the purchase stage.

The stages of awareness, consideration, and purchase are what we in the business world like to call the buyer's journey or TOFU, MOFU, and BOFU.

The buyer's journey is the process consumers go through when they become aware of a problem or need, consider possible solutions to that problem or need, and then decide which product or service they'll buy to solve that problem or need.

Let's dig deeper and see why these three stages matter and what you can do at each stage to maximize your sales through helpful content strategy. But first, warm yourself to the topic with our blog on sales funnel 101.

Relevant Reading:

How to Identify Your Target Audience Without Missing a Beat

Target Audience Definition: Why, What, and Why

Best Content Agency: How to Find the Shiny Agency in a Sea of Mediocre Content Writing Services

4 Target Audience Examples to Make Defining Your Brand's Audience Super Simple

TOFU (Top of the Funnel)

At the top of the sales funnel, your potential customer is at the awareness stage. They know they have a problem but don't know what solution is out there for them. They may not even know about your brand or your products and services.

Your goal at this stage is to create familiarity and trust. 

You want to be helpful, not sales-y. And in doing so, you introduce your brand as a helpful resource that can solve their needs.

You can do this by:

• Educating: Teach your audience something they didn't know before about their problem.
• Entertaining: Keep them coming back for more fun, original content.
• Inspiring: Get them motivated with stories of success.

TOFU Content Strategies

At the top of the funnel, you'll have a wide pool of people reading and interacting with your content. Some may not need an immediate solution while some might not have the finances to buy just yet.

Your main goal with content at this stage is to attract as many people as possible and get them interested in your product or service.

This implies you need to do your keyword planning quite well so as to help potential customers find you.

Look for keywords and topics that are relevant to your ideal customer needs' or problems'. 

These keywords will have words like “what is” “how to”, “tips” “strategies” 

For example, if you're a web design company, your ideal customer at this stage might be searching for general website tips and tricks. So have content that answers questions like:

• What's top 10 best web design trends in 2022?
• How to start a website?
• How to improve my website speed?
• What is a call to action on a website?

The content can be in form of blog posts, social media post, infographic, videos, and E-book

If you can get them to join your email list, the better. It will enable you to actively nurture them through the sales funnel and turn them into paying customers. 

MOFU (Middle of the Funnel)

In the middle of the funnel, you are attracting prospects who know about their problem and are actively looking for a solution but need more information before they are ready to buy.

They may be comparing you to other options, and weighing the value of each. So this is where you need to differentiate yourself and show why you are the best solution.

You want to portray yourself as an expert and a thought leader in your industry.

But remember not to oversell yourself during this stage. Instead, provide as much information as possible to help your potential customers make a decision. And one way of doing it is by creating content that showcases your product or service in action. 

MOFU Content Strategies

At this stage, your content should provide some sort of solution to their problem.

• Talk about the pros and cons of the solution they need
• Highlight the qualities should they look for
• Discuss the available options

Unlike TOFU, keywords for this middle funnel stage are solution-based and in most cases are long tail.They contain comparative words like “benefits” and “best”

For example, if you sell car insurance, your target keywords may include:

• Best insurance company for--------- (the dash representing the different car insurance coverage you offer). 
• Benefits of having a commercial truck insurance 

If you sell baby clothes, you can have keywords such as:

• Best warm baby clothes for 6 months babies 
• Pros and cons of babies wearing mittens at night

This content can be in the form of blog posts, white papers, case study, solution guides, product comparisons (create content that compares solutions- not vendors),and videos. 

BOFU (Bottom of the Funnel)

At the bottom of the sales funnel, your prospects are highly qualified and are ready to buy BUT they need that last push to seal the deal.

They want reassurance that your product works and is the one they should purchase. 

Therefore, your job at this stage is to provide a sense of assurance and urgency and show them why they need to buy now, not later. You can oversell yourself at this phase but taking a consultative approach may provide much better results than trying to plainly convince your leads to buy from you. 

BOFU Content Strategies

Since your leads at this stage already know your brand and what it offers, you don’t have to consider the broader keywords. Instead, aim to use product and brand related keywords when creating content.  

This means you need to find out how your audience searches for your brand online and combine those keywords with insightful conversation words. For example, if you sell car insurance you can have content such as BRAND A vs BRAND B car insurance coverage.  

Your main aim should be to set your brand apart and make it easy for your prospects to take that last step and become paying customers.

You should also always incorporate things such as offering discounts, trial offers, strong warranties, free shipping, or other limited-time offers within the content to show that purchasing with you is less risky and more of an advantage.

You shouldn't forget to include a call-to-action (CTA) with every piece of BOFU content you create! This could be a button that says "Buy Now," "Add to Cart," or "Get a Free Quote."

How To Create Content for TOFU, MOFU, and BOFU

Let's take a look at some examples of content you might create for each stage of the buyer's journey:

The three stages of the buyer's journey are important for businesses to understand because it helps them create content that speaks to their customers at each stage. It's important to note that not all customers will go through all three stages - some may only be in the awareness stage, while others may move straight from consideration to decision.

Businesses need to create content for each stage of the buyer's journey in order to be effective.

Need Help Creating Content For Each Stage of TOFU, MOFU and BOFU?

At each of these three stages, you need to be very intentional about the kind of content you present to your audience. Your TOFU audience needs more education on the subject to bridge to the MOFU stage and your MOFU audience may never buy from you if you don’t have well curated BOFU content. 

Simply put, your content needs to always be highly relevant to where your buyer is in their journey and what they are trying to achieve.

You may feel it’s a lot to write and present all these different types of content to your audience at each stage of their purchasing journey and it’s quite understandable- trust me. Running your business may be driving you nuts already and there’s no point in doing guess work when you can delegate your content creation needs to well versed writers who can do all the hard work for you.

And now say hello to Zoeywriters.

Our team of experienced content writers can create custom content for your business that will speak to your customers at every stage of their journey.

We can help you write articles, blog posts, case studies, e-books, whte papers, product descriptions that are all well optimized for search engines so that your potential customers can easily find you from the awareness stage to the purchasing stage.

Get in touch with us today to learn more about our services and how we can help you take your content marketing to the next level.

Photo by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay. Thanks, Mohamed:)