BOFU vs. TOFU: Navigating B2B SaaS Content Marketing Strategies With Expert Insights

Quick story: 2 months ago, I was doing my research on the headphones I’m planning to buy and had something specific in my mind -Sony headphones- but with a little bit of confusion with another option -JBL headphones.

Searching around the internet, it took me less than 20 minutes to decide. I knew what I was looking for and what I liked in terms of sound quality.

Pieces of content such as “ How to choose a headphone” or “pros and cons of having a wireless headphone” didn’t grab my attention because I was ready to buy while holding my credit card in my left hand.

What I actually searched for was Sony Vs. JBL headphones.

Yes, this is a casual digital shopping experience, but it has a lot to do with our topic today.

For example, If I were an experienced accountant looking for a tool or software to run my finances smoothly, I wouldn’t search for queries like “What is online invoicing?” or “Best tactics to prepare a cash flow statement.”

Instead, I would directly go for “Best accounting software 2023” or “ Quickbooks Vs Xero”

If I had something specific in my mind.

Why would an accountant listen to a freelance writer on preparing a cash flow statement?

This is odd, isn’t it…

It turns out JBL was the perfect fit for me since I enjoy the deep-beat feature.

Anyway.

In this article, we will objectively evaluate the outcomes of investing in bottom-of-the-funnel and top-of-the-funnel content and see which drives conversion and boosts brand authority.

Not just me,

• Tyler Hakes - Strategy & Principal Director at Optimist + Director of Full of Resources, amazing Slack community (TOFU)

• Joe Zappa, with over 10 years of experience in the content field- Founder of Sharp Pen Media

  
  

  will also be sharing valuable insights about the topic, so let’s get into the nitty-gritty.

The Content Marketing Fallacy in B2B SaaS

Content takes a lot of time to pay off; it’s just marketing, nothing to do about it. However, your approach to content can actually play a role in defining that unknown timeframe or reducing it.

it depends on how you’ve chosen to integrate your funnel stages and which one to prioritize over the others.

A marketer from 2015 who didn’t adapt and has no clue of what it means to deal with a B2B SAAS buyer these days will say, “Well it’s obvious. We first need to educate on the pain points we solve (TOFU), talk about how our product contributes (MOFU), and then claim that we are different than our competitors ( BOFU).”

This is logical and seems to pay off over time for companies selling enterprise-level SaaS products with established sales teams, but for the ones targeting small and mid-size businesses, it doesn’t always work, which keeps a lot of marketers wondering why they are not getting that much conversion from a decent amount of traffic.

Standardizing this approach to content is actually the fallacy here. Marketers should rethink and adapt.

Considering the hyper-competitiveness, demand shifts, and overly changing buyers’ behavior, some marketers have decided to take another road and start from the bottom, making their way up to the top.

Before we get deep into this Bottom-up content strategy, let’s talk about B2B buyers and their intentions behind typing down words on the search bar.

What Kind of Person Searches for TOFU Content?

Whenever we type down a short keyword on the search bar -broad topic- we face results full of tactics, tips, and best practices. Almost entirely generic, duplicated, or maybe AI-generated.

What makes things even worse is that Google is rewarding some of those pieces, which makes the journey even longer and harder for true marketers trying to push up their differentiated value on the SERPs.

Is this what actually TOFU content should look like? Personally, I would say no.

Tyler also has a unique POV on this, saying:

” I think that the way people think of TOFU is fundamentally wrong, They chase super broad generic keywords to put themselves out there and increase brand awareness which is right in terms of the pre-funnel stage.

But when the results of these practices bring in people who have never been a prospect, they start to wonder why we are struggling to convert those people from this amount of traffic, and this is where most people go wrong.

The right person who engages with TOFU is someone who has demonstrated a level of interest in a certain pain point your product might solve.

Tips and tactics articles are a pre-funnel type of content that has its own value but rarely translates into sales, that’s why TOFU content should instead, talk about those pain points your product was developed to solve, and as a result, the traffic for this particular type of content are the valuable outcomes of investing in TOFU content and they are much easier to convert and get deeper into the funnel.”

What Kind of Person Searches for BOFU Content?

Who said that the gate that leads to the sign-up button is on the top of the funnel? The main goal in investing in the content funnel is to educate and lastly convert.

There is a big difference between the personas that are pain-aware and solution-aware; those who are solution-aware have already passed the education and pain-awareness stages and can enter the funnel right from the bottom.

People who search for BOFU -long tail keywords- are done with TOFU; their whole journey on the SERPs is a loop of considering and comparing, looking for the right product that nudges them toward a sales call.

Those with a solid grasp of the tech industry and likely switching products would show search results like:

• Comparison pages ( X vs. Y)
• Alternative pages
• Product use cases
• Customer stories and testimonials
• Third-party evaluations and reviews

Why Prioritize BOFU Over TOFU?

ICPs take a long trip on the website reading content, downloading white papers, and attending webinars.

This whole procedure of content consumption might be over different periods of time which makes it hard for marketers to decide which content they should be given credit for; not to mention the data gaps that result from untrackable prospects who use different devices and accounts making ROI measurement even harder.

The issue of ROI measurement added to the poor capability of analytics actually affects the decision of which type of content to prioritize.

But considering a familiar SAAS category where most tech companies face this issue and the level of intelligence B2B buyers have these days, it actually makes sense to forget about this whole ROI thing for a bit and focus on long-tail and jobs-to-be-done keywords to convert those potential buyers that are already being educated from your competitors and social media.

In addition to that, Joe says: “Marketers should generally prioritize BOFU content when starting a content program because it will generate the quickest impact. This shows content marketing works and earns the marketing team the right to make further investments in a full-funnel approach.

For example, let’s say you have a marketing organization that has never invested in content. You can write TOFU blog posts and thought leadership bylines, but those will likely take a while to translate into sales opportunities, and the latter is also hard to attribute.

But if you focus your efforts on sales enablement materials such as case studies and comparison blog posts (Solution x versus Solution y), the impact is potentially immediate.”

Now, that we have a decent grasp of what it means to deal with TOFU and BOFU people, let’s see how Bottom-up content is actually done.

The Bottom-up Content Strategy for B2B SaaS

Before we go any further, let’s just agree that this strategy isn’t ignoring the importance of upper-funnel content and thought leadership bylines. It is just about collecting prospects that are almost in the decision-making stage.

Jake Ward, calls it: The pyramid SEO content strategy, which simply starts by flipping the traditional funnel into a pyramid, starting at the top and going downwards.

Let’s break it down.

Convert: Increases Covnersion, Earns attention of high puying intent buyers

1. [Competitor] + Alternatives: Help confused prospects choose between products:

   Objectively compare features and product uses so users can obtain a more enhanced experience with your product. Don’t overlook your product’s cons; you can’t be a perfect fit for everyone. Such pieces of content need complete honesty.

2. [YOU] vs. Competitor: Help the ones that are such between you and your 1# competitor:

   This type of direct comparison can go a bit deeper and highlight features, pros and cons, ease of use, etc. Some companies sign for a demo to not miss on points and express the deliverable value with real-life experience.

3. [Competitor] review: Provide fair reviews to help users understand products before they buy:

It should include a detailed description of the product, an in-depth look at its pros and cons, an analysis of its performance, and customer feedback.

Interest: Product-led education, lesser conversion oppurtunity

1. Best listicles: Best/Top [your niche] tools:

   After giving yourself the number 1 position, provide users with options that might be a good fit for them.

2. Pain-point focus: How to [product use case]:

   Explain how people can overcome obstacles using your product. Not only about features, it should also be giving guidance on how you can benefit from leveraging a single feature or the whole product itself.

3. Upfront value: checklist/templates:

   Provide users with utility in exchange for their email addresses through free downloadable gated content. In this sort of content, it is important to highlight the doubled value they could get by paying for the product instead of just utilizing those pieces of content.

Awareness: Earns Traffic, thought leadership, backlinks + rarely converts

1. Linkable assets: Stats, surveys, research papers

   Deep industry-related topics that generally encourage people to link to.

2. Educate: Step by Step guides, Whats, Whys, and How-tos

   Provide guidance and educate people on their market segment, explanations, and reasons to act.

3. Awareness: Up-to-date, trending, and thought leadership bylines

   Put yourself out there, increase traffic, and earn crawlers’ attention.

BOFU Works Better With TOFU and Vice Versa

“The mistake to avoid is jumping into TOFU content before you’ve created those core BOFU product-specific assets. Similarly, if you only ever write about your product — if you never shift to TOFU content — you will hit a wall because you won’t be able to draw in any audience members who are not actively researching your product.” Says Joe Zappa.

See, the Bottom-up content strategy doesn’t neglect the value of upper-funnel content, but it makes more sense to collect the closer and potential users and get into the radar of those who are on a product hunt.

Knowing that you have those core BOFU pieces, you can confidentially start doing TOFU because you know that there are already MOFU pieces to nurture and BOFU to convert.

That’s it for me, heading out for a walk with my brand-new JBL headphones on.