The Ultimate

Guide to Building
a High-Performing
Content Marketing
Funnel
+ Free Template

Powered by
Table of Contents
Why Your Content Marketing Funnel is So Important
03

Assessing Content Funnel Performance Post-pandemic

04

Measuring Content Success at Each Stage of the Funnel

07

Top of the Funnel (TOFU)

08

Middle of the Funnel (MOFU)

13

Bottom of the Funnel (BOFU)

17

Summary: Choosing the Right Metrics and Seeing the Big Picture
21

Your Free Content Funnel Template

22

Tips to Boost Your Content Performance

23

Your Best-Performing Content Can Be Recycled

25

Conclusion
26

About ImpactHero 27

semrush.com/impacthero Powered by
 03

Why Your Content Marketing

Funnel is So Important
A content marketing funnel is a system that Understanding which type of content works

helps companies attract potential clients. best at each stage — and continuously

It guides a user on their journey — from their measuring its performance — is crucial

first tentative interaction with a brand for delivering real value to your audience.

to actually becoming a paying customer.

Ultimately, it’s what will help you build a real

relationship with your customers and

In 2021, content marketing has become
encourage them to take the desired action.

central to having a successful digital

marketing strategy for many brands. Still, Let’s dive into how to build a winning content

marketers often fall into the trap of rolling out marketing funnel and measure content

content erratically, without thinking about the performance against your objectives.

best way to organize it, or how to measure

its performance. Of more concern is that many

also fail to decide how content will help them

meet their business goals.

semrush.com/impacthero Powered by
 04

Assessing Content Funnel

Performance Post-pandemic
Before we get started, it’s important to point According to a recent study by Newscred

out just how much the marketing world on Covid-19’s impact on marketing, marketers

is changing post-pandemic. Consumer are expecting to increase investment

behaviors are evolving and marketing in the following channels moving forward:

priorities are shifting. For instance, people

Virtual event creation 78%
are now searching for educational and

informational content that will help them Web content 72%

in these unusual circumstances.

Webinars 67%
Consequently, a lot of evergreen content from

before the pandemic has become a lot less Social media 66%

relevant, while long-term planning is getting

Blog content 57%
less effective.

Video 50%
Many businesses are therefore increasing

investment in new digital channels and

strategies to address these developing needs. As more and more companies transition

A recent Semrush study revealed that 84% to fully digital communication channels,

of companies claimed to have a content it is becoming increasingly difficult to create

marketing strategy and over half of them content that stands out. And even though

planned to increase their content marketing the demand for it is on the rise, the bar

budget in 2021. for quality has never been higher. What’s

more, the pandemic has introduced a number

of challenges to measuring content

marketing performance.

semrush.com/impacthero Powered by
 05

Here’s a look at the biggest challenges

marketers are now facing at each
stage in the funnel:
Top of the funnel (TOFU) challenge
Creating content that drives traffic
Post-pandemic, online behavior and user needs are changing. One noticeable
shift is that people are consuming a lot more digital content. This can produce
an increase in traffic, but this traffic is not always relevant. Many marketers
are therefore struggling to understand which efforts are truly moving
the needle for their businesses.

Middle of the funnel (MOFU) challenge

Keeping the target audience engaged
Even as people start coming out of lockdowns and recovering from personal
crises, they are still being inundated with digital content and information. This
will continue to cause attention spans to shrink, competition for this attention
to get more fierce, and tastes to become more discerning.

Bottom of the funnel (BOFU) challenge

Generating quality leads
With budgets and resources slashed, the big question remaining on everyone’s
mind is, “How do we get leads out of our content?”

What can content marketers do to better prepare for these changes?

Monitoring and analyzing content performance more frequently, and with the
right metrics, is one of the best ways to survive and thrive during this
unpredictable time.

semrush.com/impacthero Powered by
 06

5 things you could do in 2021 to start

solving the content funnel challenges:

Re-evaluate your keywords and conduct Introduce advanced content analytics —

regular content audits. This can help use automation or build predictive models.

to highlight keyword gaps and show how

Become more agile with content planning.
search trends are changing
Make sure you build some flexibility
in your segment.

into your content scheduling so you can

Attribute goals to each content piece respond in as near to real time as possible.

to ensure that its performance

is measurable.

Build content around the buyer’s journey

to provide your audience with relevant

information and valuable insights


at the right time.

semrush.com/impacthero Powered by
 07

Measuring Content Success

at Each Stage of the Funnel
The definition of “content marketing success” In our recent study, How to Build an Effective

varies from business to business and depends Content Marketing Funnel, we interviewed

heavily on the specific project or campaign 350 marketers across the globe. We

goals. However, there are some universal discovered that most of them are creating

metrics you can use to measure and analyze content for all stages of the customer journey:

content performance at each stage 95% of respondents produce TOFU content,

of the funnel. 86% MOFU content, and 76% BOFU content.

While aligning your content with funnel That’s why it’s important to:

stages is key to strategizing your content Ensure consistent messaging and tone

marketing efforts, real-life customers will of voice at every stage of the funnel.

not always follow the same path.

Always start with your buyer personas


vs. your brand: how does their search

for problem solutions fuel your

content funnel?

semrush.com/impacthero Powered by
 08

Top of the Funnel (TOFU)

Goal: Capture your
 What type of content works best

audience’s interest in terms of attracting traffic?1

The TOFU is the very beginning ‘How-to’ Guide 72%

of the buyer journey, when people might Landing Page 35%

not be ready to buy anything from you. Infographic 28%

Instead, they might be starting to realize Checklist 27%

they have a problem that needs a solution. Ebook / White Paper 26%

So, it’s your job to capture their attention, Video Tutorial 23%

offer the best answer to their question(s), Success Story 22%

and gently introduce them to your brand. Webinar 22%

Product Overview 18%

What type of TOFU
 Case Study 17%

content works best? Quiz / Test 17%

Customer Review 15%

When we look at what attracts the most
Use Case 13%
attention at the TOFU stage, educational
Video Interview 13%
content focused on high-level topics and
Template 12%
aimed at solving your audience’s problems
Industry Study 8%
leads the way. More specifically,
Podcast 8%
‘how-to’ guides.
Product Manual 3%

Other 10%

The most common “Other”

responses include:

Comparison Article

Tips


List Post

semrush.com/impacthero Powered by
 09

What are the most efficient channels


for attracting traffic to your content?1

Organic Search 70% Influencer Marketing 20%

Social Media Marketing 60% Content Syndication 14%
Email Marketing 54% PR / Media Publishing 13%
PPC / Paid Advertising 40% Other 3%

‘How-to’ guides prove to be effective Organic search, social media, and email

as they allow you to provide valuable marketing are also very effective

answers to particular problems your target at expanding your touchpoints with

audience is facing, showcasing your potential customers at this stage.

expertise and encouraging them

It’s worth noting that B2C brands also tend
to engage further with your brand.

to leverage content to entertain their

Other highly effective content formats customers — for example, with humor,

you can create at this stage are interesting facts and relatable stories.

infographics, checklists, ebooks,

as well as video tutorials.

Pro tip:

Use the ImpactHero tool


by Semrush to:

Define the set of performance

metrics you want to track.

Determine the most


successful content formats.

1. Source: How to Build an Effective Content Marketing Funnel (semrush.com)

semrush.com/impacthero Powered by
 10

Examples of TOFU content


for your inspiration:

The Conversational Marketing Blog to the arts on the brand’s own blog,

by Landbot.io is a fantastic content Medium, and social media. The idea

marketing growth case. By delivering value behind it is to promote Lemonade’s Extra

and great user experience with their Coverage, which includes art objects.

how-to guides, like this Guide to Creating

The 2020 Conversion Benchmark Report
a Whatsapp Bot and using the Content
by Unbounce is an excellent example
Marketing Platform by Semrush, they
of presenting gated content in a fun way.
managed to achieve a 570% traffic growth.

This interactive on-page experience

Lemonade’s Eye On Art by Lemonade guides you through the conversion

Insurance is a unique TOFU content benchmark data for various industries,

platform featuring the work of artists but to see the full content you’ll need

and diving deep into various topics related to leave your details.

semrush.com/impacthero Powered by
 11

How to measure TOFU


content performance
Key metrics to measure: User behavior, engagement, and SEO

User behavior

In our study, a majority of marketers (73%) You will also want to review your traffic

indicated that the number of visitors sources for each piece of content

is the primary metric they use to measure regularly. Analyzing these can help you

TOFU content effectiveness. However, understand which channels are generating

you should make sure that traffic the most results and where you should

is not the only success metric you use invest more of your resources.

at this stage.

Related to this, the bounce rate is a metric

You can also measure pageviews, that determines whether visitors are

or the total number of times that people leaving your content page without taking

visit TOFU content on a particular page any further action. Keep in mind that

of your website.
bounce rates depend heavily on the page

type and traffic source.

Monitoring the average time visitors

are spending on a specific page can offer Additionally, you could alter the way you

valuable insights. Dwell time can show you assess bounce rate by adding event

if you’ve made the right connections with tracking for scroll depth or time spent

your customers. Some experts argue that on page in your Google Analytics account.

this metric is becoming even more

important than traffic.

semrush.com/impacthero Powered by
 12

Bounce rate is important when the page is a sales page

or any page where the visitor has commercial intent

or when the traffic is coming from paid advertising.

When traffic is expensive, the bounce rate


is a measurement of waste.

Andy Crestodina, Co-Founder & CMO of Orbit Media Studios (@crestodina)

Engagement SEO

Another way to analyze TOFU content Finally, it’s important to monitor the SEO

performance is to look at specific outcome of any TOFU content you create.

engagement metrics. These can include Is the organic traffic, or the number

the number of likes, shares, comments, of people who found your content through

or mentions your content receives. a search engine, increasing over time?

You will also want to pay attention

Influencer / Media relations to backlinks, or links that refer to your

content, as they remain one of the most

Getting influencer or partner quotes,
important Google ranking factors. Having
as well as media mentions is another
a healthy number of backlinks (and
important TOFU metric. Building
excluding the spammy ones) is still key
relationships with these entities can
in 2021.

bring numerous long-term benefits

for your brand.
Doing keyword research and tracking

the performance of your target keywords

is essential for any TOFU content you

create. Remember that evaluating search

intent is crucial to create more helpful

content around specific questions

and topics.

semrush.com/impacthero Powered by
 13

Middle of the Funnel (MOFU)

Goal: Guide and educate What type of content works best

in terms of lead nurturing?1
At the MOFU stage, the number of people
interacting with your content is smaller. Success Story 43%
They have a clear idea of what their Product Overview 38%
problem is and are researching specific Case Study 36%
ways to solve it. These users may be more ‘How-to’ Guide 33%
likely to engage with your brand further Customer Review 28%
if you can offer them the right value.
Infographic 23%
Video Tutorial 23%
The goal at this stage is to help guide
Product Manual 21%
prospects from an introduction to your
Use Case 21%
brand to an in-depth understanding
Webinar 21%
of your solution.
Landing Page 20%
Industry Study 17%
What type of MOFU content

Checklist 15%
works best?
Ebook / White Paper 13%
According to the marketers we surveyed, Video Interview 10%
success stories work exceptionally well Podcast 8%
at the MOFU stage. Product overviews, case Template 7%
studies, tutorials and webinars, as well Quiz / Test 5%
as how-to guides and webinars can also Other 11%
generate a lot of engagement.

The most common “Other”

responses include:
Blog Post

Pricing Page

Expert Product Review

semrush.com/impacthero Powered by
 14

What are the most efficient channels


for generating leads?1

Organic Search 69% Influencer Marketing 21%

Email Marketing 54% PR / Media Publishing 10%

Social Media Marketing 52% Content Syndication 7%

PPC / Paid Advertising 46% Other 5%

This is also the point when most marketers set with various types of content to showcase

up full-stack email marketing workflows the different ways you provide value. Other

to nurture leads and keep them engaged with effective channels include social media,

the brand. Consumer motivation can vary organic search and paid advertising

significantly here, so you should experiment (including retargeting).

Examples of MOFU content


for your inspiration:

The 2020 Adobe Summit is a great Digital First Webinar Series by ON24 have

example of how you can combine TOFU been on spot as they explored strategies

and MOFU themes together and create companies can use to further improve

digital experiences replacing live events.

their digital events.

Educational health guides by Parsley

Health do their job with both delivering

value and recommending products and

services by the brand, complementing

their blog.

1. Source: How to Build an Effective Content Marketing Funnel (semrush.com)

semrush.com/impacthero Powered by
 15

How to measure MOFU


content performance
Key metrics to measure: leads and conversion rate

Measure the success of your MOFU content In the first case, you can reevaluate your

by looking at the number of leads and your buyer personas and make sure you aren’t

conversion rates.
targeting any irrelevant audiences.

There are multiple potential reasons for having In the second, try to make improvements

low conversion rates. For example, there may to the user experience (UX) to ease

be something preventing users from taking navigation.

the action, or your lead magnets might not

Adding interlinks and calls-to-action
be delivering the right value.
(CTAs) in each of your content offers

is key to encouraging your leads to take

the next step.

Where leads and conversion rates don’t apply

On the other hand, if you are using your quotes or helping your sales team,

MOFU content as a networking and sales where the contribution of content

enablement tool, the metrics you’ll want is not always that easy to measure.

to track will change considerably.

Establishing your content objectives
For example, you might be focused
before creating it will help you decide
on getting network-building contributor
on the right metrics to measure.

semrush.com/impacthero Powered by
 16

Pro tip:

Use ImpactHero to:

Analyze your current user

journey and how your

content fits in it.

Assess the traffic flow and

see which channels bring

you the most visitors,

engagement and leads.

semrush.com/impacthero Powered by
 17

Bottom of the Funnel (BOFU)

Goal: Conversions What type of content works best

in terms of driving payments?1
Once leads reach the BOFU stage, your main

goal is to position your brand as superior Product Overview 51%

to your competitors, build trust, and, Customer Review 49%

ultimately, secure the purchase. Users at this Success Story 43%

stage have mapped a strategy for solving Use Case 30%

their problem and are ready to make Landing Page 30%

a decision on the best way to do it. Case Study 25%

Product Manual 25%

What type of BOFU content
 Video Tutorial 25%

works best? ‘How-to’ Guide 16%

Ebook / White Paper 12%

At this stage, all of your content should
Webinar 10%
address specific questions about your
Video Interview 10%
solution. Customer-generated and
Checklist 6%
case-oriented content are some of the most
Template 4%
effective at this point. This can include
Quiz / Test 4%
product overviews, customer reviews, case
Podcast 4%
studies and use cases.

Infographic 2%

Email marketing remains an effective tool Industry Study 0%

to keep the purchase moving forward and arm Other 10%

potential customers with everything they

need to make the final decision to buy. Other

The most common “Other”
effective channels include organic search and responses include:

PPC. You can also get creative with adding Product Guid e

other formats and channels, such as chatbots Pricing Page

and Academy courses.
Email Follow Up

semrush.com/impacthero Powered by
 18

What are the most efficient channels


for driving payments?1

Email Marketing 73% Influencer Marketing 16%

Organic Search 61% PR / Media Publishing 8%

PPC / Paid Advertising 47% Content Syndication 6%

Social Media Marketing 33% Other 4%

Examples of BOFU content


for your inspiration:

This series of landing pages by Egoditor The Starbucks #WhatsYourName

explores QR code use cases for different Campaign Case Study by Iris illustrates

business types and industries, going how a digital agency can communicate the

beyond the value offered by product most important aspects of a client

landing pages.
campaign in an inspirational way.

The Customer Stories Hub by Lattice takes

customer success stories and customer

reviews to a new level, building trust with

their prospects.

1. Source: How to Build an Effective Content Marketing Funnel (semrush.com)

semrush.com/impacthero Powered by
 19

How to measure BOFU


content performance
Key metrics to measure: Conversion rate, payments, and ROI

In our survey, 73% of marketers said that However, the real challenge with
the conversion rate is the main success understanding content marketing ROI
metric they use at the BOFU stage, followed lies in determining how much each
by the number of payments and return of your content pieces has added
on investment (ROI).
to the conversion. The solution isn’t
straightforward and takes some
The formula for measuring content marketing
detective work: you’ll need to look
ROI is no different from other business areas:


at data from multiple sources and

ROI = (Return − Investment)/Investment
assess the contribution of each
content piece to the total revenue.

For example, if you invest $200 to create It could also be a good idea to start
a piece of content and your return (or profit) measuring the contributions and
is $1000, your ROI is 400%. effectiveness of entire thematic
clusters (categories) vs. individual
content pieces.

Google Analytics doesn’t immediately show us the insights.

You’ve gotta dig for them, right?

Andy Crestodina, Co-Founder & CMO of Orbit Media Studios (@crestodina)

semrush.com/impacthero Powered by
 20

Google Analytics and other tools can help you ImpactHero breaks down all existing

do this, but it will be time consuming (and website content by funnel stages. It also

sometimes inconsistent). You’ll benefit from shows how each piece of content

an automated solution that collects and is performing — and how well different

analyzes information, returns metrics, and formats fare.

provides content marketing recommendations.

Pro tip:

Use ImpactHero to:

Get down to the copy level

to see what can be done

to increase overall funnel

efficiency.

Analyze your content pages

and their performance in depth.

semrush.com/impacthero Powered by
 21

Summary: Choosing

the Right Metrics

and Seeing the Big Picture
It’s part art and part science — researching what
the customer goals are and then coming up with a ‘north
star’ idea and an editorial strategy to support that.
Then, using reporting and analysis as a follow-up to keep
improving on what you have.

Keith Reynolds, Founder & CEO of publi.io (@maximfuel)

After all, measuring the performance and funnel as a whole instead of only focusing
success of different content, even if it’s on individual metrics existing in silos.

at the same stage in the funnel, may require

Start by analyzing the way your content
different types of success criteria.

creates a flow to move the user from one

Besides, it’s essential to develop an funnel stage to another, and whether each
understanding of how to make your content of those content pages contributes
funnel work as a single entity. To achieve this, to the conversion and helps to solve
you should assess your content marketing the user problem.

semrush.com/impacthero Powered by
 22

Your Free Content Marketing

Funnel Template
Are you ready to start putting all the above into practice? Start mapping your
content ideas by funnel stages and buyer personas with our free template.

Download your free template now

semrush.com/impacthero Powered by
 23

Tips to Boost Your Content

Performance
Your content not only needs to be original and headlines drive twice as much traffic

relevant to your audience, but it should also and ×1.5 more shares than shorter ones

create enough value, be comprehensive, and (< 7 words) — and more than half

be visually attractive. Factors such as word of content with complex headline

count, headlines, structure, and visuals all play structures (for instance, content that

a crucial role in how the content we create contains H1, H2, H3, and H4s) performs

delivers results.
well in terms of traffic and engagement.

Here are a few tips to keep in mind Lists improve content performance.

for planning, creating, or repurposing Content that contains at least one list

high-performing content — based per every 500 words of plain text receives

on the recent Semrush study “The Anatomy 70% more traffic than content without

of Top Performing Articles”: lists. Using <ul> tags also makes your

content eligible for Google’s featured

More comprehensive content drives more
snippet section.

traffic. Articles of over 7,000 words tend

to outperform those that only average Visuals boost performance. Content with

900–1,200 words. It’s important at least one image gets twice as much

to remember, though, that longer articles traffic as text-only content. It also

perform better because of the value they receives 30% more shares and 25% more

create. Simply adding more words won’t backlinks. There are also SEO benefits

move the needle unless it truly helps to using images and videos as more

to cover the topic in depth.

people can discover your content in image

or visual searches. Video is also

Headlines matter. After all, your title
important — blogs that don’t contain
is what drives a person to open your
a video get 92% less traffic.
content in the first place. 10 to 13-word

semrush.com/impacthero Powered by
 24

Which factors boost


content performance?1
See how different aspects — such as content length, headlines, presence

of images and lists — affect the key content performance metrics.

Content Length Images

Avg. Unique Pageviews Avg. Unique Pageviews

300–600
59
no images
65

601–900
77
1
124

901–1200
82
2–3
184

1201–1500
93
4–5
208

1501–2000
100
6–7
241

2001–3000
104
7+ 275
3001–5000
122

5001–7000
188

7000+ 302

H1 Length Number of Lists

Avg. Unique Pageviews Avg. Unique Pageviews

<7
102
no lists
118

7–9
152
1 list / 500 words
204

10–13
194
2 list / 500 words
187

14+ 185 3+ list / 500 words 189

1. Source: The Anatomy of Top Performing Articles: Successful vs. Invisible Content (semrush.com)

semrush.com/impacthero Powered by
 25

Your Best-Performing
Content Can Be Recycled
Content repurposing has proved to be a true 1 You will first need to figure out which

gem for many content marketing team. It can of your existing content ranks best

come in many forms; for example, you can for metrics like reach, organic visibility,

rework your content to appeal to a new linking structure, shares, etc.

audience or adjust it to reflect current events

2 Then, you can brainstorm how to make
and trending conversations.

it appeal to your target audience

It can help you save time from constantly on another channel. For example,

creating new content from scratch and allow a popular blog post can be repurposed

you to reach broader audiences.

as an explainer video, infographic,

or broken down into an email series.

As with any digital marketing endeavor,

repurposing content requires 3 Make repurposing a regular part of your

a well-thought-out plan. content marketing planning and

audit activities.

semrush.com/impacthero Powered by
 26

Conclusion
As we move into life on the other side of the Covid-19 pandemic,

it is the perfect time to take stock of existing marketing efforts and make

monitoring content performance a key part of those efforts moving forward.

Doing so helps improve content quality and performance over time at each

stage in the funnel and allows us to understand which activities truly help

meet business goals in this ever-shifting landscape.

Content marketing success is going to look different for each business.

However, by measuring your content performance as related to the buyer

journey, you can make sure your efforts are working and you’re not wasting

valuable time or resources.

semrush.com/impacthero Powered by
 27

About ImpactHero
With ImpactHero, you can start collecting valuable insights on your content

and evaluating its performance at any stage in the funnel, all in one place.

ImpactHero breaks down your content by buyer journey stages, detects

the most impactful content, and offers tips on improving your


content strategy to maximize your content’s performance overall.

Start your free trial now

semrush.com/impacthero Powered by
 semrush.com/impacthero

Powered by