Content marketing is a growing area of interest to bloggers, startups, and large brands alike but few people understand the importance of building a content funnel.
The concept behind a content funnel was created by Brian Clark in his book ‘Get Known Now’ and it’s truly transformational for anyone who wants to build an audience around their business or blog.
A content funnel is a simple strategy that forces you to produce valuable content regularly. It’s so effective because it streamlines the process of creating, writing, and publishing content.
How to Create a Content Funnel:
You start with your large blog post or resource (the main aim of your funnel).
Then you break down this resource into smaller pieces of content that make up a step-by-step guide (the funnel).
Then you produce bite-size versions of this information and turn it into resources, tips, and how-tos to help your audience consume the information you’re providing.
That’s the basics but there are some key steps that we’ll cover in detail so stick with me.
The power of a content funnel is that it’s pretty much foolproof, you don’t need to have writing experience and each step in the process holds value for your reader.
It also allows you to organically grow an audience around your blog or company without having to spend time trying to create something from nothing.
The first thing we need to do is break the large content resource down into smaller pieces.
Think of it like a tomato that’s been chopped up and thrown onto a plate for you, there are still some good pieces in there but you need to figure out how to eat them.
Anyway, back to our agenda “how to create a content funnel”.
So let’s break this down step by step.
1. The Big Idea or Main Aim of the Resource
In this step, you’re going to write 5000-6000 words on a single topic. This should be a very in-depth article that answers all of your reader’s questions and takes them through a complete process or journey.
2. Breaking It Down Into Smaller Pieces
The next step in our process is to take that large post and break it down into smaller chunks which should each contribute towards the original ‘Big Idea’. Here you want to try and write 500-1000 words on each topic.
3. Step By Step Guides
The next step is to take those smaller pieces of content and turn them into a full-blown step-by-step guide. For each topic, you need to create a full resource that helps your readers understand each point in the process.
4. Resources, Tips, and How To’s
This is the final step before we turn this into bite-sized chunks of information that are easy for our readers to consume. The idea here is to create a resource, tip, or how-to for each of the 4 points in your content funnel.
Why Content Funnels are Important?
By creating a Content Funnel with this strategy you’ll be able to create an almost endless supply of high-quality content without much stress or effort.
It takes some time but if you follow the steps properly you’ll end up with something that looks like this:
This is a short, simple infographic that covers the Content Funnel process step by step. This is perfect for sharing on social media to get people excited about your content.
You’ll also have something called ‘breadcrumbs’ which are useful when you want to guide your audience through a large resource. Your readers will be able to follow the steps in your content funnel and get more value from your post.
You can also use these pieces of content as ‘freebies’ or giveaways that entice people to sign up for your email list in exchange for the resource.
This is a great place to start building an audience that wants to hear what you have to say.
If you’re struggling to produce valuable content regularly, the Content Funnel strategy might be able to help.
Related Post: B2B Marketing Funnel: 5 Stages, Examples, and Template
Ali is a digital marketing blogger and author who uses the power of words to inspire and impact others. He has written for leading publications like Business2Community, Inc. Magazine, and Marketing Profs. When not writing, he enjoys spending time with his family.