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The B2B funnel &
how to create a
winning content
strategy
Katarina Dahlin
WhitePress®
Speakerdeck.com/katarinadahlin
linkedin.com/in/katarina-dahlin
@KataDahlin
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How to win in driving
qualified leads and
sales for B2B?
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Know your customer
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Know nothing
Everyone.
Potential buyer in
the future / Lead /
Contact
Students, Working in
some lower position.
Potential buyer / MQL
Working in a position
where they are directly
affecting buying
decisions
Potential buyer
with a case / SQL
Actively searching
for a solution.
Potential buyer
considering your
brand / Opportunity
Clearly interested in
your solution.
Customer
Existing customer,
Potential for
increased sales.
Promoters
Very happy customer.
The B2B funnel and buyer's journey
Close
Nurture
Convert
Attract
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Know nothing
Everyone.
Potential buyer in
the future / Lead /
Contact
Students, Working in
some lower position.
Potential buyer / MQL
Working in a position
where they are directly
affecting buying
decisions
Potential buyer
with a case / SQL
Actively searching
for a solution.
Potential buyer
considering your
brand / Opportunity
Clearly interested in
your solution.
Customer
Existing customer,
Potential for
increased sales,
Promoters
Very happy customer.
Close
Nurture
Convert
Attract
Know nothing
Everyone.
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Know nothing
Everyone.
Potential buyer in
the future / Lead /
Contact
Students, Working in
some lower position.
Potential buyer / MQL
Working in a position
where they are directly
affecting buying
decisions
Potential buyer
with a case / SQL
Actively searching
for a solution.
Potential buyer
considering your
brand. / Opportunity
Clearly interested in
one of your solutions
Customer
Existing customer,
Potential for
increased sales,
Promoters
Very happy customer.
Close
Nurture
Convert
Attract
Potential buyer in the
future / Lead / Contact
Students. Working in
some lower position.
Content: how to guides and videos,
informational blog posts, elearning courses
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Know nothing
Everyone.
Potential buyer in
the future / Lead /
Contact
Students, Working in
some lower position.
Potential buyer / MQL
Working in a position
where they are directly
affecting buying
decisions
Potential buyer
with a case / SQL
Actively searching
for a solution.
Potential buyer
considering your
brand. / Opportunity
Clearly interested in
one of your solutions
Customer
Existing customer,
Potential for
increased sales,
Promoters
Very happy customer.
Close
Nurture
Convert
Attract
Potential buyer / MQL
Working in a position
where they are directly
affecting buying decisions
Content: products, services, case stories,
webinars
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Know nothing
Everyone.
Potential buyer in
the future / Lead /
Contact
Students, Working in
some lower position.
Potential buyer / MQL
Working in a position
where they are directly
affecting buying
decisions
Potential buyer
with a case / SQL
Actively searching
for a solution.
Potential buyer
considering your
brand / Opportunity
Clearly interested in
your solution.
Customer
Existing customer,
Potential for
increased sales,
Promoters
Very happy customer.
Close
Nurture
Convert
Attract
Potential buyer with a
case / SQL
Actively searching for a
solution.
Content: products, services, product
comparisons, solutions, case stories
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Know nothing
Everyone.
Potential buyer in
the future / Lead /
Contact
Students, Working in
some lower position.
Potential buyer / MQL
Working in a position
where they are directly
affecting buying
decisions
Potential buyer
with a case / SQL
Actively searching
for a solution.
Potential buyer
considering your
brand / Opportunity
Clearly interested in
your solution.
Customer
Existing customer,
Potential for
increased sales,
Promoters
Very happy customer.
Close
Nurture
Convert
Attract
Potential buyer
considering your brand /
Opportunity
Clearly interested in your
solution.
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Know nothing
Everyone.
Potential buyer in
the future / Lead /
Contact
Students, Working in
some lower position.
Potential buyer / MQL
Working in a position
where they are directly
affecting buying
decisions
Potential buyer
with a case / SQL
Actively searching
for a solution.
Potential buyer
considering your
brand / Opportunity
Clearly interested in
your solution.
Customer
Existing customer,
Potential for
increased sales.
Promoters
Very happy customer.
Close
Nurture
Convert
Attract
Customer
Existing customer,
Potential for increased
sales.
The B2B and buyer's journey
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Know nothing
Everyone.
Potential buyer in
the future / Lead /
Contact
Students, Working in
some lower position.
Potential buyer / MQL
Working in a position
where they are directly
affecting buying
decisions
Potential buyer
with a case / SQL
Actively searching
for a solution.
Potential buyer
considering your
brand / Opportunity
Clearly interested in
your solution.
Customer
Existing customer,
Potential for
increased sales.
Promoters
Very happy customer.
Close
Nurture
Convert
Attract
Promoters
Very happy customer.
The B2B funnel buyer's journey
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Don’t make your
funnel too complex
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Everyone doesn’t need complex
multi-step funnels, this only for
complex products.
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Create a funnel and content
necessary for your business and
your audiences’ buyer journey
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Know nothing
Everyone.
Potential buyer in
the future / Lead /
Contact
Students, Working in
some lower position.
Potential buyer / MQL
Working in a position
where they are directly
affecting buying
decisions
Potential buyer
with a case / SQL
Actively searching
for a solution.
Potential buyer
considering your
brand / Opportunity
Clearly interested in
your solution.
Customer
Existing customer,
Potential for
increased sales.
Promoters
Very happy customer.
Start the content creation here, where
the potential buyer has a case or project
and is actively searching for a solution
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Know nothing
Everyone.
Potential buyer in
the future / Lead /
Contact
Students, Working in
some lower position.
Potential buyer / MQL
Working in a position
where they are directly
affecting buying
decisions
Potential buyer
with a case / SQL
Actively searching
for a solution.
Potential buyer
considering your
brand / Opportunity
Clearly interested in
your solution.
Customer
Existing customer,
Potential for
increased sales.
Promoters
Very happy customer.
But do not only focus on buyers
who are ready to purchase
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Know nothing
Everyone.
Potential buyer in
the future / Lead /
Contact
Students, Working in
some lower position.
Potential buyer / MQL
Working in a position
where they are directly
affecting buying
decisions
Potential buyer
with a case / SQL
Actively searching
for a solution.
Potential buyer
considering your
brand / Opportunity
Clearly interested in
your solution.
Customer
Existing customer,
Potential for
increased sales.
Promoters
Very happy customer.
Create content for earlier
stages only if needed
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Know nothing
Everyone.
Potential buyer in
the future / Lead /
Contact
Students, Working in
some lower position.
Potential buyer / MQL
Working in a position
where they are directly
affecting buying
decisions
Potential buyer
with a case / SQL
Actively searching
for a solution.
Potential buyer
considering your
brand / Opportunity
Clearly interested in
your solution.
Customer
Existing customer,
Potential for
increased sales.
Promoters
Very happy customer.
Close
Nurture
Convert
Attract
Need more convincing? Or do you want to
create more awareness, interest and
desireness for your product and brand?
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Know nothing
Everyone.
Potential buyer in
the future / Lead /
Contact
Students, Working in
some lower position.
Potential buyer / MQL
Working in a position
where they are directly
affecting buying
decisions
Potential buyer
with a case / SQL
Actively searching
for a solution.
Potential buyer
considering your
brand / Opportunity
Clearly interested in
your solution.
Customer
Existing customer,
Potential for
increased sales.
Promoters
Very happy customer.
So also create content that targets people
earlier in their journey
— before they’re actively looking to buy.
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Whether you want to raise
awareness or build long-term
relationships with
customers…
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The main goal is still to
create content that brings in
real sales opportunities
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Know nothing
Everyone.
Potential buyer in
the future / Lead /
Contact
Students, Working in
some lower position.
Potential buyer / MQL
Working in a position
where they are directly
affecting buying
decisions
Potential buyer
with a case / SQL
Actively searching
for a solution.
Potential buyer
considering your
brand / Opportunity
Clearly interested in
your solution.
Customer
Existing customer,
Potential for
increased sales.
Promoters
Very happy customer.
Start by developing and optimizing content that
directly drives Sales Qualified Leads
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Know nothing
Everyone.
Potential buyer in
the future / Lead /
Contact
Students, Working in
some lower position.
Potential buyer / MQL
Working in a position
where they are directly
affecting buying
decisions
Potential buyer
with a case / SQL
Actively searching
for a solution.
Potential buyer
considering your
brand / Opportunity
Clearly interested in
your solution.
Customer
Existing customer,
Potential for
increased sales.
Promoters
Very happy customer.
By focusing on content here, you ensure that
your efforts are grounded in strategies that
actually move prospects toward conversion
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The dark funnel
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A lot of buying decisions happen
outside of what we can track
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- word of mouth
- social media discussions
- private research
- peer recommendations
All these factors influence the buying decision
such as:
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Know nothing
Everyone.
Potential buyer in
the future / Lead /
Contact
Students, Working in
some lower position.
Potential buyer / MQL
Working in a position
where they are directly
affecting buying
decisions
Potential buyer
with a case / SQL
Actively searching
for a solution.
Potential buyer
considering your
brand / Opportunity
Clearly interested in
your solution.
Customer
Existing customer,
Potential for
increased sales.
Promoters
Very happy customer.
Have content as early as possible: blogs, videos, guides
Downloaded ebook or filled
out contact form on page
Visiting page
Watched Youtube video
Saw ad
Called a sales person
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so when people do their research, we’re
part of the conversation and can guide
them toward becoming our customers.
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SEO and organic is very important
in the dark funnel
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Plan content that’s helpful
and useful
– don’t waste the buyers time
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Plan carefully
What information are the buyer actually looking for?
How could we really help them at this stage of the
buyer’s journey?
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Should we have gated or
non-gated content?
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Should we always ask for
contact details before
giving content away?
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No. Not all next steps should be gated.
We still want potential new customers to
consume our content to warm them up.
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But we want to know when the buyer
are moving into the next stage, so
that we can target them with the
right content.
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Awareness
Consideration
Decision
Referral
Plan content for every stage of the buyer’s journey
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Create conversion points
and next steps that fits the
content and the buyer.
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TOFU conversion point examples
● Downloading a free ebook or whitepaper
● Signing up for a newsletter
● Registering for a webinar or virtual event
● Using a free tool or calculator
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MOFU conversion point examples
● Reading or sharing a case study
● Watching a product demo
● Viewing price lists
● Reading product comparison pages
● Engaging with chatbot or live chat for product
questions
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BOFU conversion point examples
● Filling out a contact sales or request a
demo form
● Starting a free trial
● Requesting a custom quote
● Booking a consultation call
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Produce quality content
over quantity
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Awareness Consideration
Close
Nurture
Convert
Attract
Decision
Interesting
articles
Cool video
Tests
New innovations
Social Content
Search (SEO)
Advertising
Website
Podcasts
Landing pages
Tools
Templates
Premium content
eBooks/PDFs
Analyses/reports
Messaging
Value proposition
Interactive
content
Email
Events
Webinars
eBooks/PDFs
Visual docs
Triggered email
Workflows
Short case
studies
Videos
Teaser demos
Longer case
studies
Visual docs
Sales content
Social selling
1-to-1 emails
Guides
You can create a vast amount of different content
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…but focus on one or a few content types to
begin with, so that you get good at something.
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Usually just a few “killer” content and
conversion points drive most of leads and sales.
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Quality over quantity always apply
when creating converting content.
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Buyer insight + great content
= conversions
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Do your content need
backlinks or stronger
brand signals to rank?
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48
Make sure your great content is
ranking in Google and AI
searches, and is being seen by
the potential new customers
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49
New domains or new content clusters on
your site will often need more backlinks
than established stronger sites.
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50
Niche sites can go with less
backlinks and referring domains,
because it is winning with topical
authority instead.
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51
How strong are your brand signals
compared to competitors?
Do you have brand searches?
How much brand mentions on other
websites?
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52
Always do the research and look at
the SERP to see what is needed to
rank higher than your competitors for
your selected keywords.
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53
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54
Order articles in
33 languages
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55
Order articles in
27 languages
Digital PR
campaigns
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56
Order articles in
27 languages
Digital PR
campaigns
Get brand
mentions
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Measuring the success
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Measure what matter, and align marketing and sales
Quality leads
Revenue
Number of leads / cost per lead
Number of MQL / cost per MQL
Number of SQL / cost per SQL
Marketing generated revenue
Returning revenue
Returning contacts that
stays in your ecosystem
Market Share of Search
Retention & Share
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Analyzing customer behavior, campaign
performance, and conversion metrics helps
you pinpoint which strategies work best.
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The winning
B2B strategy
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Create a funnel that is necessary for your business
and your audiences’ buyer journey.
Know nothing
Everyone.
Potential buyer in
the future / Lead /
Contact
Students, Working in
some lower position.
Potential buyer / MQL
Working in a position
where they are directly
affecting buying
decisions
Potential buyer
with a case / SQL
Actively searching
for a solution.
Potential buyer
considering your
brand / Opportunity
Clearly interested in
your solution.
Customer
Existing customer,
Potential for
increased sales.
Promoters
Very happy customer.
Close
Nurture
Convert
Attract
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Be helpful and useful, don’t waste the
buyers time.
Focus on one or a few types of content
to begin with.
Focus on Quality content
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Create conversion point / next steps,
that fits the content and the buyer.
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→ Create content for early stages as well.
Make sure that your dark funnel is also working.
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Analyzing customer behavior, campaign
performance, and conversion metrics helps you
pinpoint which strategies work best.
ROI
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Katarina Dahlin
Senior Growth Hacker
Thank you!
[email protected]
linkedin.com/in/katarina-dahlin
Get my slides:
speakerdeck.com/katarinadahlin
whitepress.com