Where’s the BOFU: How to Create Content that Actually Drives Sales

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I’m willing to bet that beautiful 3,000-word buyer’s guide you just put together is not bottom-of-funnel content. 

And that case study with the big-name customer? 

Nope, not that either. 

We content marketers have a bad habit of using the term “bottom-of-funnel content” to refer to anything that seems vaguely commercial or product-focused. All those general comparison pages, surface-level buyer’s guides and “alternatives to [competitor]” blogs. 

But when was the last time a sales rep sent that “alternatives” article to a prospect? 

When was the last time a B2B software buyer put a product on their shortlist because of that surface-level comparison post? 

Real BOFU content:

✅ Helps overcome real customer objection
✅ Walks buyers through implementation
✅ Demonstrates tangible, specific ROI
✅ Offers detailed customer evidence

In B2B content marketing terms: TOFU content gets you onto the buyer’s long list of options. MOFU content gets you onto the shortlist. BOFU is what gets them to buy. 

Here’s how to create that kind of BOFU content, according to: 

• Eric Doty, Content lead at Dock
• Fio Dossetto, Content lead at Float
• Halah Flynn, Senior content marketing manager at Lattice
• Jillian Hoefer, Senior content marketing manager at UserEvidence
• Lashay Lewis, Content strategy advisor and founder of Authority Plug and BOFU.AI

Why BOFU content is so tricky for B2B marketers

‍

‍

BOFU content is surprisingly hard to get your head round as a B2B content marketer. When I started asking subject-matter experts about it, I heard about everything from keyword research, to listicles, to templates, to ROI calculators, to slide decks.

There are good reasons we might struggle with BOFU content: 

It’s a completely artificial concept to begin with.

Fio Dossetto argues that BOFU is one of those “black hole marketing words”—it’s often more confusing than helpful. She suggests we scrap the funnel altogether. It may be helpful for getting on the same page with the rest of the GTM team, but it actually makes the content marketer’s job murkier.

Fio prefers a “jobs to be done” approach that encourages clearer thinking. Instead of calling it BOFU content, she calls it “high intent” content — content that meets buyers when they’re actively trying to make a decision. Call it what it is, and you’ll have a much clearer sense of what that content should do.

You’ll also ensure that this type of content gets used more widely. When you lump high-intent content (product comparisons, one pagers, case studies, etc.) into a bucket called BOFU, it rarely sees the light of day in channels typically reserved for distribution of ToFu/MoFu content. 

For example, Demand Gen might tie a case study into a retargeting campaign, but the Brand team might forget to lean on VoC and customer stories when developing earned or paid media assets. 

Reframing to "intent" widens the lens of how the content can and should be used. 

It’s impossible to create in a silo. 

“To create good bottom-of-funnel content, you need input from every team. You need input from CS, from product, from sales. But the problem is, a lot of companies have siloed communication internally,” says Lashay Lewis. 

In fact, our “Closing the Content Gap” report shows that just 4% of B2B content marketers (and 16% of their GTM counterparts) believe they have very effective cross-departmental communication.

‍

‍

BOFU content sits right between sales enablement and product marketing — which is exactly why it’s so hard to define and execute. 

Instead of trying to separate it out, content marketers would be better served positioning themselves as the unifying voice of the GTM function.

Of course, reaching out to other teams isn’t just challenging from a logistics point of view. Jillian Hoefer points out that it’s also uncomfortable. 

Sitting in your cosy little content silo is easier than making yourself vulnerable by going to Sales or CS and saying “Hey, I think this is what we need, but you tell me, is this actually what we need?”

Unfortunately, that’s the only way to create BOFU content that actually does its job.

It’s time-consuming 

There’s another obvious reason why many content teams struggle to create great BOFU content: it takes too long. 

Most content teams are tiny. Tommy Walker’s State of (Dis)Content Report found that 81% of content teams have less than 5 people, regardless of the size of the organization — and that many are struggling to keep up with external and internal demand. 

In that context, finding time to go deep enough for great BOFU content is a real challenge.

Jillian is on a small marketing team, which she says can slow down this question-asking process: finding time for a meeting or having someone gut-check her hypothesis, for example.

“But at the end of the day,” she adds, “It’s all worth it. Getting those answers before you go into the creation process? That's what's going to make the bottom-of-funnel content actually work.” 

Because that’s the thing. Good BOFU content isn’t just necessary for closing deals. As Eric Doty points out, it also “clarifies your own thinking.” By doing the hard work of getting on the same page and deeply understanding messaging from a sales, product, and CS point of view, content teams can help align the whole GTM team, far beyond creating a single content asset.

BOFU or…NOFU? 

What makes content BOFU isn’t the topic, or the format. It’s about the depth. It starts with getting deep into the product and listening to what customers are actually struggling with.

‍

‍

Here are some examples of what we probably shouldn’t be calling BOFU, versus what we should: 

Vague case studies vs specific customer evidence

Brooklin Nash points out that many content marketers are expected to create meaningful case studies with minimal resources. A 20-minute recording from an account manager is probably not going to cut it. True storytelling takes time and effort. 

And it’s not about the big-name client or the big percentage improvements, either. Customers are looking for specifics, not a logo they recognize or a hand waved towards a result. Too many case studies end up sounding like PR or brand awareness, not something that would drive a sale. 

Of course, you may not have a long enough engagement to produce meaningful metrics. But even if you can’t be specific about the numbers (yet), you can still be specific about the narrative. Share day-in-the-life stories about the before and after. Provide deep, granular information about what you did, why you did it that way, and what the impact was. 

Case studies shouldn’t just be a top-level overview of “We worked with this brand and it was good and they were happy.” They should help the decision-maker to actually picture what it would be like to use your product, how it will impact them in their day-do-day, and how it will feel.

UserEvidence’s “Evidence Gap” report showed this clearly: buyers are looking for case studies that specifically addresses their industry, use case and role, not just broadly positive results.

‍

‍

Example: Mutiny’s Playbooks

Why it works: Mutiny turns standard case studies into actionable playbooks that are actually worth reading, like this one from Exclaimer. They present the results of the case study in a context of “here’s how to do what this customer did”. The playbooks are extremely specific — exactly what was done and why — and genuinely useful. They also break down the tech stack involved and explain what tools you’ll need (outside of Mutiny).

‍

‍

Comparison pages vs detailed positioning blogs 

Way too many comparison pages are basically: Here’s a list of products, here’s a couple of features from their homepages, here’s why we’re the best. 

None of that helps a buyer map your product to their specific use case. BOFU readers want to know what the real tradeoffs are. They want to understand why each product works the way it does. They are not here to read marketing fluff. 

“You’ve got to talk about their pain points and then how the pain points connect to the capabilities and how the capabilities connect to the benefit of the pain point. It's very granular,” says Lashay Lewis. 

The more your comparison page reads like something a sales engineer would walk through on a call, the more useful it will be to someone actively trying to buy.

Case in point…

Example: Postmark’s refreshingly frank comparison blog

Why it works: Fio takes this alternatives blog up a level by explicitly acknowledging Postmark’s bias, and therefore overcoming the glaring trust issue that most of these articles run into.

‍

‍

The Con she adds to their product description is actually honest, and competitor negatives are expressed fairly and with nuance: “Mixed customer support reviews: reviews skew heavily toward either “excellent” or “poor” on Trustpilot (where the Mailgun team seems to be active and replying frequently, which is a point in their favor).” 

Another important point: creating a downloadable artifact can be a real BOFU power move. 

For example, this blog also includes a done-for-you comparison sheet that genuinely addresses a reader pain point. Buying B2B software can send you quickly into information overload, so pulling all the relevant info and links into a Google Sheet like this is extremely helpful. 

Including artifacts doesn’t just make the content asset more immediately valuable to the reader. It also increases the likelihood it’ll be shared within your prospect’s organization. For example, maybe the champion reads the comparison blog in full — but they can also share out the one-pager PDF or Google Sheet link to help support your case internally. 

Product mentions vs detailed objections handling

Dropping product mentions into your blogs isn’t a strategy — and whacking a few features and a CTA into what is essentially a low-intent topic will not magically make it a BOFU piece. 

Instead of trying to retrofit product messaging into a broader awareness topic, start with a thoughtful understanding of your audience’s pain points, likely objections, and key messages you need to land. 

This is one of the bigger opportunities for content marketers to partner with product marketing. It lets you create BOFU content that’s both product-led and genuinely useful — not just for buyers, but for the product marketing team too. It’s one of the simplest ways to prove the value of your work and hit the right reader intent at the same time.

At Dock, Eric creates BOFU blogs that specifically address common buyer objections, or give a detailed breakdown of ROI. You’ll know you’ve hit the mark, he says, when your sales team actually uses the blog during the purchase process. 

Example: Dock’s in-depth implementation guide 

Why it works: The blog post “How to introduce your customers to Dock” is hitting a number of BOFU objectives at once. 

Dock is a new product category. Buyers might love the idea — but still feel unsure how it fits into their sales process. They’re mentally rehearsing operational challenges before they buy.

‍

‍

The article here addresses this common objection by explaining exactly how to think about Dock, how to introduce it, how to refer to it, and what implementing it looks like — and also adds some customer quotes to layer in some social proof. 

This is an example of BOFU content that blends into customer success — it’s useful both for steering the conversation pre-sale, and for supporting implementation after purchase. 

General ROI statements vs statistical evidence

Many brands avoid getting down into the dollars and cents. The customer saw “significant time savings” or “a major increase in revenue.” To be fair, it can be hard to pin customers down on the details, and sometimes the numbers aren’t particularly sexy. So we end up waving our hand in the general direction of results instead of getting down to brass tacks. 

But being vague is a mistake. Even if the real numbers aren’t as impressive as you might wish, they’re still better than vague gesturing. According to the UserEvidence report, buyers want specifics: 67% said that a compelling and statistically significant business case around potential ROI is the most important factor in their purchase decision. 

Halah Flynn has seen this work at Lattice. Their top-performing BOFU content is “numbers-focused, meaning we're not afraid to talk about money or assign dollars to a solution. We understand that every buyer is concerned with their business' bottom line, and we haven't shied away from confronting that.”

Example: Lattice’s ROI estimator and impact report

Why it works: The ROI estimator is interactive, meaning that as well as being more helpful, it also helps the buyer to understand how Lattice will calculate their customized pricing. Meanwhile, the impact report was completed by a third party, which adds greater weight. Lattice coupled the report with a webinar to go into more specific detail about how they deliver ROI. 

‍

‍

How to create high-performing BOFU content, according to the experts 

Most content teams aren’t starting from zero. Before you dive into creating new BOFU content, talk to the rest of the GTM org and figure out what already exists. 

Here’s how our experts suggest you approach it: 

Audit what you already have in place

When we say “talking to your team”, many content marketers assume that it’s a question of aligning once a quarter about content topics, says Brooklin Nash. 

“Often marketing teams don't realize the deep dive work that sales enablement and sales engineering are already doing and the foundation that can have for the content they're creating.” 

Brooklin shares an example of a Beam client who wanted an ROI guide. 

Initially, the client was picturing a high-level overview. But Beam’s research quickly uncovered that the sales engineering team were already working with a really robust ROI deck that broke down productivity and performance gains, and a full cost breakdown of the platform. 

Drawing on that information and methodology meant that the Beam team was able to create a far more specific, and more effective, ROI guide. 

Understand what you need to know before you do your customer research 

Most guides to BOFU suggest that customer research is the first step — but to know what questions to ask, you’re better off talking to CS or Sales first, says Brooklin. 

He gives the example of a Beam client who’d run a customer survey, but asked questions that were too broad to be useful for BOFU content. 

To create a more useful survey, Beam talked to the CS team to understand the specific questions that would generate far more useful results — How many hours is your team saving? How many people are using the tool? How long did it take to come up to speed? How would you rank the onboarding? And so on. 

The answers they gathered then became a source of thorough, comprehensive and high-performing BOFU content. 

Ask specific questions to create specific content

‍

‍

In fact, asking the right questions was a common thread for all the experts I talked to. 

If you need some suggestions for how to start the conversation with the rest of the GTM team, here are a few ideas for you: 

Questions to ask Sales

• With where you’ve reached on sales alone, it’s clear something is resonating down funnel. What do you think is the main reason customers sign with ____ now? 
• Let’s talk about the customer journey. Where do you think there’s the biggest gap in content, from ToFu attraction on through closed/won? 
• What are leaders most excited about when talking about [key product benefit]? 
• In pre-sales, are you mostly focusing on ROI or on integration/security/data? Are prospects more concerned about finances or implementation? 
• Who should we be prioritizing in terms of content? The champion, the economic buyer, etc.? Who tends to be the sticking point in the deal? 
• Who is usually the champion? Who usually holds the budget for this product? 
• What are topics that are coming up during the deal process at the moment? What are buyers worried about? 

Questions to ask Product

• Who are our customers really comparing us to during the buying process — and why?
• Where do we genuinely outperform competitors in specific workflows or capabilities (not just on feature lists)?
• What are the most common jobs our product gets brought in to do — especially the ones that actually drive purchase? How do these use cases differ by segment (e.g. company size, role, industry)? Are there edge cases that surprise us or get overlooked in our messaging?
• What does a day in the life of our best-fit user look like, and where does our product make things faster, easier, or more accurate? What tools does our product usually sit next to (or replace) in the stack?
• What are the most common friction points when people adopt us into their workflow?
• What does [pain point] look like in real life for users — what’s the trigger that makes them go looking for a solution? Do we solve the root cause, or just make the pain more manageable? How do we solve it differently than others?
• What’s the outcome users care about most with [capability] — time saved, accuracy, control, confidence, something else? What objections or questions do users have about [capability] before they experience it?
• Is [feature] a major selling point, or more of a "why not" benefit once someone is already bought in? 

Questions to ask Customer Success 

• What do our best customers have in common? What signals tell you that someone is likely to be successful with our product?
• One of the main pain points we address is [____] . What questions are customers coming to us with around this pain point? What outcomes are they reporting back once it’s solved?
• When customers talk about our product, what words do they use? What benefits feel most tangible to them? What stories do they tell when they’re recommending us?
• During onboarding and implementation, where do customers tend to get stuck or frustrated? What kinds of questions are they asking at this stage? What internal hurdles do they mention?
• After the deal closes, what are the most common questions we hear from customers? What do they feel unsure about or need more clarity on as they get started and begin using the product?
• What signals or milestones tend to drive additional purchases or seats? On the flip side, when customers churn, what reasons do they give? What patterns show up in churn feedback?

Build a routine to uncover content requirements — but don’t be an order taker

“I don't think there's a specific type of content or length of content that makes it a great piece of bottom of funnel content,” says Jillian Hoefer.

“The reason I know it's going to be great and useful is because the sales team tells me they need it. I never, ever, ever would attempt to create a piece of content from my own brain or from our marketing team's brainstorms and say, ‘This is a great bottom of the funnel piece.” 

Instead, Jillian proactively reaches out to counterparts on the Sales, Product and CS teams to find out what they need.

This doesn’t mean asking the other teams to suggest the content resource itself, in terms of format, topic, or structure..”I don't ever expect them to go, ‘Can you make this thing for me?” 

Instead, it’s a question of investigating where your GTM team sees prospects running into issues. Then the content marketer’s role is to decide whether or not content could help, and if so, what kind of content would fit best.

For example, the UserEvidence sales team noticed that some deals were stalling because the champion was struggling to get buy-in from other teams within the organization. They flagged it up to Jillian’s team. Jillian, in turn, created a set of interview templates the champion could use to uncover internal needs. 

They knew they hit the mark when the Sales team were excited about the new resources: “We had so many reps going, ‘I’m sending this to three people right now.’” 

The key point, Jillian explains, is that the content team weren’t acting as order takers. Rather, they were proactively reaching out to the rest of the GTM org, understanding the prospect’s problems, and then creating an imaginative solution with content.

In the end, that’s what makes for powerful BOFU content. It’s not checkbox marketing — ‘We need a case study’ isn’t a strategy. If your sales team wouldn’t use it mid-deal, it’s not BOFU. It’s just TOFU in a BOFU costume.

BOFU content isn’t fluff. It’s firepower. 

But it only works if you’ve done the work.