Stuck in the Middle Funnel with You
Creating marketing content for the middle of the sales funnel is important in turning prospects into buyers for B2B sales.
Understanding the Modern Sales Funnel
Stealers Wheel, a little-known folk-rock band from Scotland, woke up to a surprise in 1973. Their sarcastic riff on breaking into the music industry, Stuck in the Middle With You, hit #6 on the USA Billboard charts.
Fifty years later, their one-hit wonder is the perfect anthem for B2B Product Marketing.
Brand to the left of me, Performance to the right. Here I am stuck in the middle funnel with you.
Top of the Funnel: Brand
Brand marketing is the start of the process. It is glamorous, existential, and effective. It builds awareness and imparts a positive image to a potential buyer. Brand Marketing feels good, like a love letter from your favorite family sedan:
Love. It’s what makes Subaru, Subaru.
The awareness or 'top of funnel' activity is essential. Brand tells the 'who' and 'why' part of the story.
There is a resurgence of corporate investment in brands. Airbnb recently announced success from its shift from performance marketing (bottom of the funnel) to top.
Airbnb attributes this growth to marketing the 'experience' of Airbnb. Tugging at the heartstrings, they explore the human need for connection, belonging, and real-life interaction in an increasingly digital world. The Story of Belo is one example of how Airbnb used this concept to differentiate its brand from other accommodation options.
Consumers move into four 'buckets' after the brand awareness stage:
No consideration - Brand or product category is not a fit.
Future consideration - Aware and may consider when the need arises.
Desire & Interest - Identified need for brand/product category in near term
Action - Ready to purchase.
Buckets 2 and 3 go into the middle funnel. Bucket 4 races to the bottom of the funnel.
The Bottom Funnel: Performance Marketing
Airbnb's leadership described bottom of bottom-of-the-funnel focus as 'buying customers.' It is a pay-to-play activity that focuses on conversion to a transaction.
In a B2C or transactional sale, performance marketing could be the last touchpoint before a customer pays and a sale is completed. B2B marketing is more complex. Performance marketing pushes the consumer into an active sales motion -- or, a sales accepted opportunity (SAO) / sales accepted lead (SAL), etc.
Bottom-of-the-funnel activities answer the 'how' and 'where' buyer questions. Such as where to find the product and how to purchase it. It is useful when you are ready to buy. Perhaps there is a new sale or offer that pops up at just the right time.
Performance marketing has its place. The issue is that brands have been over-emphasizing the bottom of the funnel because they think it will drive revenue faster. So, brands send more...and more... emails, texts, paid ads, retargeting, sponsored, affiliates, and SMS.
It’s called the Marketing Rule of 7, not the Marketing Rule of 777
In one week, I counted 69 emails from Gap. This doesn't count the other brands in the GAP family such as Old Navy, Banana Republic, or Athleta. I have hundreds of those too. I delete the texts, but I likely get 3 or more a day.
Unfortunately, too much push can turn a consumer from 'interested' to 'no consideration.'
Trying to make some sense of it all. But I can see it makes no sense at all. Is it cool to go to sleep on the floor? 'Cause I don't think that I can take anymore.
Stuck in the Middle Funnel
There are two steps in the middle funnel.
First is what I call the 'thinking' period - or 'interest' if you follow the AIDA model. It's the time when a potential customer tries to figure out if they have 'the right problem.'
Well, I don't know why I came here tonight. I got the feeling that something ain't right. I'm so scared in case I fall off my chair. And I'm wondering how I'll get down the stairs.
This period is for reassurance. Marketers validate the problem, tell the customer that they aren't alone, and provide some emotion-driving content to build on the previous brand connection.
The most meaningful content should be focused on thought leadership. Demonstrations of problems to solve and insights that validate a solution. A brand build credibility during this phase and sets itself up as a trusted guide in the buying journey.
The second stage of the middle journey is for educating, or 'desire' in the AIDA model. They know they have a problem, but haven't figured out the solution yet.
Yes I'm stuck in the middle with you. And I'm wondering what it is I should do.
Potential buyers research, read, watch videos, seek out reviews, and educate themselves. This is the sweet spot for Product Marketing. You want the potential buyer armed with information -- all the features, benefits, use cases, case studies, comparisons, tools, guides, how to, 5-step lists etc.
It can't sound too aspirational like brand and it can't be too salesy like performance. It needs to have the right mix of 'this is what this does and how it could work for you.'
Middle of the funnel can't give away all the goodies -- just enough to make them hungry for more. There needs to be a reason why a potential buyer would need to set the motion in place to contact sales.
Once you get a middle funnel buyer to the top of the bottom funnel - i.e. lead scoring as a real MQL- then it gets passed to Performance to click that demo button or take advantage of that special offer.
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You got this far - did you listen to the song yet? Listen to it on YouTube. Credit to Stealers Wheel songwriters Joe Egan & Gerald Rafferty for their 1973 hit.
