Bottom of the Funnel Marketing Strategies that Work

Macy’s Flash Sale

Macy’s offers flash sales that go on for multiple days, but the great part about their flash sales as part of a bottom of the marketing funnel is the fact that each day the sale will feature different product categories. For example, they may advertise a one-day flash sale for perfumes and colognes one day, then the next day the discounts feature summer clothing. This attracts and converts different prospects each day and adds urgency while also giving customers plenty of time to save money on their purchases. 

1 Body’s Pop-up Messaging

1 Body uses pop-up limited-time messaging as part of their bottom of funnel strategy both for upselling and for encouraging first-time buyers. One way they do this is to anticipate exit intent and offer free shipping with a 15-minute timer that adds urgency. 

BOFU Strategy 2: The Power of Free – How a Free Trial Can Drive User Acquisition and Conversions

Using free trials can help you conclude the buyer’s journey by demonstrating value, user-friendly features, benefits, and more. This works because the best way to show a prospect the true value of your offer is to have them try it out themselves or see it in action. Plus, it qualifies them as prospective customers that are past the awareness stage. 

The key is to persuade them to become paying customers after the trial. There are a few ways to increase the chance of doing this in addition to demonstrating the true value and cost-effectiveness of your offer. One option is to require payment details to sign up for your free trial with auto charges. This makes it very easy to convert them into paying customers after the trial but will likely reduce the likelihood of signing up in the first place. 

Another option is to provide limited access to your product or service free, but if they want the full features or product use then they will have to pay. For example, you could provide a single-use product or restrict the type of content for paying customers. 

Free trials are not always a viable option depending on your specific product or service. If a free trial is not an option for your offer, then try demonstrating the product or service in use with free videos, infographics, or webinar demos. However, make sure that you don’t use the same strategies you would use for the middle of your funnel. Instead, strive for BOFU tactics like urgency and conversion-based CTAs.  

Here are great examples of a free trial based around bottom of funnel content:

Convert’s Free Trial

Convert.com offers a 15-day free trial that highlights that no credit card is needed, but they also offer free support and a free demo during the trial to answer objections, ensure usability, and demonstrate even more value.  

Ultimate Meal Plans — Free of Charge

Ultimate Meal Plans has a free trial landing page that offers tons of great benefits and clearly states them including the ability to cancel anytime, 15-minute recipes, and over $300 of partner discounts. 

BOFU Strategy 3: Retargeting Campaigns – Capturing Lost Leads and Boosting Conversions 

Retargeting campaigns that engage potential customers who previously entered the lower stages of your funnel can be a great way to enhance conversion rates and support lead generation efforts with bottom of the funnel marketing strategy methods. 

Since retargeted ads are displayed to people who have already shown awareness and interest in your offer, they generally offer a great ROI. You can also use them to promote your limited-time promotion as we mentioned in our BOFU strategy 2. 

When constructing your retargeting campaign, make sure that you use personalization. According to one study, 71% of consumers expected personalization, and 78% repurchased or recommended brands due to personalization. In addition, target the right customers at the right time using segmentation and dynamic creative optimization. Dynamic creative updates and personalizes your messaging in real-time depending on current performance, user preference, and more, which makes it the perfect option for conversion-based retargeting campaigns. 

Check out this great example of an effective retargeting campaign:

Xeroing in on Visitors

Xero Accounting uses retargeting ads personalized to previous interactions of their website visitors. Their ads provide free templates and downloads based on the mid-funnel blog content that the user viewed and motivate them to make a purchase. That’s one of the reasons they increased account signups by 8% after implementing Facebook Conversions API.

BOFU Strategy 4: Optimizing Pricing Strategy for Maximum Conversions

A major component of your bottom of marketing strategy is your pricing structure because that’s the last place before a prospect commits to a purchase. One thing to concentrate on is demonstrating more value than the price of your product or service. You can add value with guarantees, free shipping, discounts, additional benefits, and fair return policies. 

In addition, you can try different pricing models that motivate the prospective customer to make a buying decision. One option is to use pricing tiers that give the customer the option of less expensive or more expensive purchases. You can also try using a cheap initial purchase combined with upsells to encourage higher conversions. Other pricing options include a pay-per-use pricing structure, monthly pricing, or flat rate. 

It’s important to test and measure the performance of different pricing structures to determine which is best for both profits and conversion rates. For example, lower pricing options may encourage more conversions, but make you less profit per conversion. Use metrics to decide which is best for your revenue and profitability. 

Shopify — Shopping Beautified

Shopify’s pricing structure uses three tiers with clear benefits to encourage purchase. In addition, they offer a 25% discount for yearly subscriptions over monthly and the ability to try free for 3 days before paying only $1 per month for the first three months. This combines the benefit of free trials with a clear, benefit-focused pricing structure that’s primed for conversions. 

BOFU Strategy 5: Utilizing Social Proof through Testimonials, Reviews, and Case Studies

Social proofs like testimonials, reviews, and case studies are a great way to build trust that encourages a buying decision. That’s why over 93% of consumers rely on ratings and reviews. However, you still have to use them correctly to not only reinforce your brand’s credibility, but to correlate with your bottom of the funnel marketing strategy and boost conversions. 

Try highlighting testimonials or reviews that not only reinforce benefits, but that address some of the most common objections for leads in the lower stages of your funnel. You can also use in-depth case studies to dig deeper into these objections, highlight specific instances of benefits, and demonstrate more value in your product or service from the customer’s perspective. 

Check out these examples of effective social proof that you can mimic for your BOFU strategy:

Fitbit’s Success Story

Fitbit leverages success stories and use cases from their community members that act as action-oriented case studies that are on-brand and perfect for BOFU conversions while simultaneously supporting top of funnel and MOFU tactics like lead generation and early buyer’s journey stages like awareness. 

Nature Made Connection

Nature Made uses a variety of social proof tactics to boost conversions. For example, they include “#1 Pharmacist Recommended” on webpages while also displaying their star ratings and reviews on their product pages. In addition, they proudly display their partners, researchers, and other experts they work with. 

BOFU Strategy 6: Leveraging SEO with Bottom-of-Funnel Search Keywords 

While you may use SEO practices for lead generation and top of the funnel marketing, it’s a great bottom of the funnel marketing strategy too. To do this, use search terms and keywords that are related to the lower stages of the buyer’s journey right before they are making a decision. 

While this will take some specific SEO research, here are some examples to give you an idea about the type of things your BOFU customers might be looking up:

• Pros vs. Cons
• Brand vs Brand 
• [competitor brand] Reviews 
• [product type ] Pricing
• Buy [product type]
• Cheap [product type]
• Best [ product type] for [purpose]

Here are two bottom of funnel content examples that effectively use SEO keywords that target buyer’s intent:

Click Funnels Leverages Competition

Click Funnels uses a Click Funnels vs HubSpot page to target keywords related to customers interested in product comparison information. These customers are ready to buy, but they need a little help and Click Funnels makes it easy with a side-by-side comparison that effectively highlights the benefits of choosing them over their competition. 

Targeting the Best Buy

BestBuy uses bottom-of-the-funnel content to target keywords like “Buy headphones,” “Cheap headphones,” “Inexpensive headphones,” and more for their different product types to show up high on search results for people looking to buy immediately. This content strategy makes it easy for BOFU prospects to click on their website over a competitor. 

BOFU Strategy 7: Abandoned Cart Email Campaigns – Recovering Lost Sales 

Abandoned cart emails are sent to the customers that seem to have gotten away from you. The customers who had items in their cart on your website but didn’t end up buying them are already in the lower funnel and just need a little encouragement for conversion. 

Email marketing efforts that target abandoned cart customers should highlight the items that the customer left in the cart. Try not to assume they remember what they planned on buying from you. Then, make it easy for them to regenerate their cart and buy. You can do this with a clear checkout button or other conversion-based CTA. 

You can also use these email marketing channels to highlight social proof and display customer stories that are personalized for the product type that the customer left in the cart. In addition, you can add new irresistible promotions that add a little more value that may push the prospect over the edge to buying instead of abandoning. 

Finally, you should try following up a couple of times. We recommend sending an email within a few hours or at least within a day of the abandonment. Then, send a reminder a few days later and finally a promotional email a few days after that. 

Here are a couple of abandoned cart campaigns to copy for your own bottom of the funnel marketing strategy:

The Prose Proposition

Prose uses a clever email to turn the traditional abandoned cart structure upside down by showing that they could say the customer left items in their cart, but that it wouldn’t be true because “every Prose formula is customer made-to-order.” This demonstrates more value that could lead to a conversion. 

PEELing-Out

PEEL uses their abandoned emails to create urgency for the purchase using phrases like “don’t wait too long” and “order today.” Plus, they make it easy to return to the cart with a clear call to action as well as a reminder that they offer free shipping on orders over $49.

BOFU Strategy 8: PPC Advertising for Brand Campaigns – Driving Conversions 

PPC advertising is a great way to target the lower stages of the buyer’s journey and direct them to your sales team, pricing page, or landing page that’s designed for conversion. When creating these types of PPC ads, you want to utilize urgent, high-intent keywords to capture the right leads. That includes brand campaigns for users who are already searching for information about your business. 

Remember, these leads are already ready to buy, you just want to motivate them to do so based on their search intent for your brand. They may be searching to buy directly from your brand or asking where to buy your brand, for a promo code or discount, or a specific product. They may also be looking for your pricing or comparing you to a competitor. 

Whatever their search intent, you want to make it as easy as possible for them to click and pay while also promoting a good user experience. A branded PPC campaign is exactly how you do that. Just make sure you show the value of their purchase in your ad. 

Here’s an example of PPC advertising for brand campaigns:

• DreamHost uses great branded PPC campaigns that provide concise answers to search intent. 

BOFU Strategy 9: Competitor Targeting in PPC Campaigns – Capitalizing on Competitor Brand Searches

Bottom of funnel prospects are often comparing your brand with a competitor to determine which one is the best option for their needs. Because of this, it’s a good idea to target competitors searching for BOFU leads that have not decided yet. 

You can then use BOFU pay-per-click ads to highlight things that make you stand out like being faster, higher quality, or more affordable. You can also increase conversions by quickly showing that you solve the pain points that may have kept them from buying previously. For example, use your PPC ad to state a benefit you offer that your competitor doesn’t and how it relates to the customer’s problem. 

When crafting a competitor-targeted PPC campaign, make sure you research different keywords, search volume, and intent. Sometimes searches are related to existing customers for a competitor who are unlikely to switch to your brand, so you don’t want to waste your time and resources trying for those. Instead, focus your marketing efforts on searches that reacted to pricing, frequently asked questions, comparisons, and other BOFU topics.  

Use a competitor PPC technique like this one to boost your BOFU conversions:

BOFU Strategy 10: Optimizing Calls-to-Action (CTAs) for Maximum Conversions 

Bottom of funnel call-to-actions should be focused primarily on direct conversions. Because of this, you want to use formats that are actionable like “Get a quote,” “Buy Now,” or “Redeem Offer.” For a BOFU CTA, you can use two components to drive conversions. 

First, the action you want the potential customer to take whether that be to buy, upgrade, or add to cart. Second, something to add urgency like “now” or “today.” Finally, make the CTA easy to see and click. This improves the user experience and can motivate a hesitant customer to take action. 

Here’s an example of a well-done CTA that combines many bottom of the funnel marketing strategy tips:

Beast Mode

This Beast Health Blender page has a clear and actionable CTA button that says, “Add to Bag” as well as a second CTA to directly “Buy with Prime.” The bright colors are not only on-brand, but contrast with the background color so that the call to action stands out among other page elements. Plus, there are other BOFU tactics to support the effective CTAs like highlighting “Free Delivery” with a delivery date, marked out regular prices to indicate a discount, and social proof with a star rating.

BOFU Strategy 11: Incorporating Sales Letter Videos on Landing Pages to Drive Conversions 

Using a video sales letter on your landing pages can support your BOFU digital marketing strategy by engaging visitors, highlighting value, and showing things about your product or service that couldn’t be demonstrated with images or words. They’re effective too with 88% of people saying they have been convinced to purchase a product or service by watching a video. 

To create a sales letter video that resonates with qualified leads at the bottom of your funnel, you need to address their main pain points using eye-catching visuals. You shouldn’t waste any time. We recommend starting with an “If/then” statement. For example, say “If you want to [pain point], then [product and benefit]. 

 Then, you can highlight unique benefits that are relevant to prospective customers who are already aware of your offer but haven’t decided to purchase. That means you also need to end with a clear call to action that encourages them to buy. 

Check out these great examples of landing page videos designed for conversions:

Pooling Their Strengths

River Pools uses an embedded video that addresses specific objections and pain points that may be holding bottom of funnel prospects back from requesting a free quote. It’s short and sweet while explaining the benefits and simplicity of their process and sales team procedures. Plus, it reiterates what the landing page says and finishes with a call to action. 

Take Action: Applying BOFU Marketing Best Practices to Drive Conversions 

When improving your marketing funnel, it’s important to enhance your bottom of the funnel marketing strategy. To do so, you can use limited-time special offers, free trials and demos, retargeted advertising, abandoned cart email campaigns, and SEO content targeted for BOFU search intent. In addition, make sure you have clear call-to-actions focused on conversions. 

As long as your upper funnel is also optimized, using these bottom of funnel marketing tactics will have a direct impact on your bottom line. However, if you need a little help accelerating growth and boosting conversions, Ideas Collide offers a team of marketers, strategists, artists, and developers ready to conquer your funnel and it starts with a free consultation.