Consumers have innumerable opportunities to enter your conversion funnel, from social media network advertisements to articles on prominent websites. However, once you have captured their attention, the challenge is to guide them through the funnel to its conclusion. The solution lies in effective middle-of-the-funnel marketing, also called MOFU marketing.

MOFU marketing targets individuals in the consideration stage of their consumer journey when they are aware of the problem — and the potential solutions — but need a bit of nudge to convert ultimately. Help drive middle-of-the-funnel traffic through the conversion funnel with the following best practices: audience segmentation and analytics for personalized messaging. 

Segment Your MOFU Audience

Regarding full-funnel marketing, buyer personas are integral for tailoring your messaging to specific market segments. Buyer personas refer to semi-fictional characterizations of your target audience based on data-driven demographics and details like how they use your product or service. Your brand likely already has buyer personas to reflect your various market segments.

For instance, a financial management software-as-a-service (SaaS) business may have three buyer personas: Entrepreneur Ed, who is primarily concerned with the price; Small Business Sarah, who is looking for scalability; and Enterprise Emma, who requires in-depth analytics and automation. All three are on the same customer journey but have separate wants and pain points to fulfill. 

So, when it comes to MOFU marketing, it is not enough to only segment your audience by buyer persona. Every persona will end up in the middle of the funnel at some point. Instead, it is crucial to leverage more granular segmentation — like categorizing groups in the MOFU funnel by a shared industry, interest, or issue — to serve more relevant, personalized MOFU content to each user. 

Use Data and Analytics to Identify Patterns

Data and analytics are the throughlines between TOFU, MOFU, and BOFU marketing. Consumer data is essential to attract buyers at the top of the funnel (TOFU) and incentivize conversions at the bottom of the funnel (BOFU). Still, driving traffic through the entire conversion funnel in the middle is imperative. So, how do you use these insights in MOFU marketing?

Data like audience pain points, shared interests, and present needs power the MOFU marketing funnel. Marketers find these details by scouring analytics, like search volume for particular phrases (such as how-to terms), and by frequenting the same areas of the internet as their audience. For instance, social media networks and niche forums are known to reveal buyer characteristics.

With these details, marketers can identify patterns within an audience and MOFU funnel segments that guide personalized messages. Personalization is essential to engage and educate consumers with messaging correlating directly with their wants and needs. 91% of consumers will likely purchase from brands that provide personalized, relevant offers.¹ 

Leverage Omnichannel MOFU Marketing

As your business comprises multiple buyer personas, each persona will inevitably engage with diverse channels. When planning a conversion funnel marketing strategy, keeping each buyer persona in mind is essential. By implementing marketing campaigns across each of their preferred channels, you ensure that your target audience is reached effectively. In most cases, the multitude of channels available necessitates an omnichannel strategy.

An omnichannel strategy is an integrated marketing campaign that shares targeted messages across multiple touchpoints, including email marketing, social media marketing, and content marketing. The tactics used in an omnichannel MOFU marketing strategy may include the following:

1. Retargeting ads collect data about users who have visited your website and follow them around the internet to display personalized, relevant ads about the product(s) they were viewing. Middle-of-funnel Facebook, Instagram, and Google search ads are ideal for retargeting. 
2. Email campaigns help educate and engage your audience. They are also incredibly easy to personalize, from including a user’s first name in the email subject line to embedding a recently viewed product carousel in the email body.
3. Social media marketing tactics in the middle of the funnel range from interactive Q&As to informative infographics that speak to buyer pain points. 
4. Search engine optimization (SEO) efforts help your content become more discoverable to buyers seeking informative content. MOFU content examples range from optimized blog posts and product pages to lead magnets like digital reports and ebooks. 

Embrace A/B Testing in MOFU Marketing

As you begin crafting middle-of-the-funnel content, optimize continuously for optimal conversion rates. The simplest way to experiment with different messaging is to embrace A/B testing to learn which personalized campaigns resonate best with your audience. To begin an A/B test, select a page to use as the control. Then, edit one element on the page and use it as the variant.

Generally speaking, you should A/B test just one element at a time to identify what drives different results — in this case, more personalized MOFU conversions. For example, on a web page, you can A/B test page copy, headlines, calls to action (CTAs), form text, imagery, colors, fonts, and more. You can also A/B test the email subject lines, CTAs, and imagery of your email marketing campaigns. 

Your A/B test will contrast the number of conversions between your control page and the variant page, which features distinct elements. Next, use web analytics for each page (or email) to track and measure the results of your personalized campaigns. Then, continue to ramp up efforts that perform better in A/B tests and drive traffic through the middle of the funnel. 

Maximize Your MOFU Marketing Efforts

In a full-funnel marketing strategy, consumers must pass through the middle of the funnel to convert. If you are finding that buyers become stuck in the consideration stage of their consumer journey or lack the confidence to move through the conversion funnel, it is time to call the Bullseye Strategy experts. Our full-service agency specializes in a full-funnel marketing approach.

Contact Bullseye Strategy today to maximize your MOFU marketing with personalized messaging.