BoFu Content for Professional Services Firms: Turn Prospects into Customers

by Christina Hooper.
Last Updated on May 8, 2022

Converting leads into paying customers with content marketing sounds pretty straightforward, but once you start doing it, you might realize just how difficult it can be.

When you’re creating content randomly, without any plan or strategy, you’re likely to achieve nothing more than entertaining your audience, which doesn’t result in many sales.

You might be getting lots of shares and follows, and possibly even comments, but are any of those people buying your products or services?

Our experts here at Sparktive like to call this type of content “random acts of marketing.”

Your random acts of marketing might seem worthwhile at the time. Maybe you read a blog post or watched a video that pumped you up and got you motivated to churn out more content or test something new.

That’s all fine and good, but does the tactic or strategy they’re teaching make sense for your target audience and potential customers?

If not, then you’re just wasting your time and resources. Let us help you avoid creating content that’s a waste of time. 

QUICK NOTE: If you’re new to the terms “ToFu, MoFu, and BoFu,” you can read the overview by clicking here before you read this article.

If you’re familiar with these terms and you want to take a deep dive into BoFu content, keep reading.

In a hurry? Click here to skip to the quick summary.

What is BoFu Content?

BoFu content convinces your “ready-to-buy prospects” to go ahead and take the leap and buy now. It does this because it answers their questions, addresses their objections, and gives them a good reason not to put this off until later.

How Does BoFu Content Fit into the Buyer’s Journey

BoFu prospects are comparing the possible solutions to their problem or the action to take on their current situation or idea.

At this point in the buyer’s journey, they need reliable answers to some pretty specific questions before they are ready to take the next step with your brand. 

Some of the questions or objections you need to answer for BoFu leads are:

  • How much is it?
  • Are there any other companies or individuals offering something comparable for less?
  • How are you or your product any better than your competitors?
  • What benefits am I going to see by giving you my money and trusting your expertise?
  • How long is it going to take before I see a result?
  • What happens if I’m not satisfied or don’t experience the benefits promised and I want my money back?
  • Is it really going to help me?
  • Has anyone else had success with it?

Now let’s take a look at some of the ways you can answer their questions and provide them with all the information they need to feel good about committing to do business with you.

Examples of BoFu Content

BoFu content can come in several different forms. 

You can create blog articles, videos, private Facebook groups, email newsletter campaigns, and much more.

Blog Articles

Blogging is one of the quickest and easiest ways to answer your BoFu prospect’s questions—especially if you already have an existing blog.

Create different blog articles that focus on questions that your potential customers are asking as they are coming closer to making a decision about your services.

For example, if your prospect wants to know how much it costs, then at least give them a typical range and explain factors that can impact the cost.

Let’s take a look at a great example of a brand that does this type of article well.

EXAMPLE:
Growth Force Accounting Software Company

Growth Force takes the pricing question by the reins and delivers a clear picture of what it could cost your business to purchase their software—or accounting software in general.

They provide a range of costs for their services, and they give the average price of their software compared to their competitors.

To help you figure out where you might fall in that range, they tell you all the different features accounting software can include, and that they could cost more or less depending on the company.

Check out their article on their website here.


Videos

Engage your BoFu prospects and earn their trust by creating video content to answer their questions.

Use video content to:

  • Showcase your product or service.
  • Demonstrate your expertise and show them the benefits of doing business with you.
  • Compare your services or products with your competitors.
  • Show them case studies of other happy clients who have benefitted from your products and services.

Always use a welcoming posture by squaring your shoulders and leaning in if you’re sitting. Standing will naturally put you in this position.

Use open hands to show you’re not a threat, and you’re someone that the viewer can trust. Maintain eye contact with the camera just like you would do if you were talking to them in real life—but don’t make it awkward.

If you’re doing something that would naturally cause you to look away in person, it’s ok to do it in the video too.

Let’s take a look at an example of a video where the instructor does this really well.

EXAMPLE:

Shane Melaugh From Thrive Themes

Shane Melaugh is a genius with video marketing, so his videos are always formatted exceptionally well, and he has mastered the best practices for body language.

In one of his recent articles, he gives his audience advice on how the best practices and basics for recording professional videos for businesses.

You get to see his professional set up and how he makes his videos look impressive.

You can watch this video here.


Private Facebook Groups

Allow BoFu prospects to enter a private group and engage with your marketing and sales teams to get their answers quickly.

If you don't happen to respond right away, you’ll likely have other members in the group answer a prospect’s questions before you even see their post. 

Just make sure to add your input the second you see it, you'll want to confirm for the prospect that the answer they received from the group member is correct. 

Getting feedback like this from group members is excellent for social proof. This allows them to engage with other people who have interacted with your company and possibly even purchased your products or services.

Over time, you’ll have an active group of brand promoters to welcome BoFu prospects and get them excited about what your business has to offer.

EXAMPLE:

Digital Marketer

Digital Marketer has a private Facebook group for customers who purchase a membership to their digital marketing courses.

One thing they could have done to leverage their group for nurturing on-the-fence BoFu prospects is to make their group open to all of their email subscribers vs. only paying customers.

Most of the posts in the group from members are people who have completed a course and earned a certificate they can proudly share.

I think this is a missed opportunity for them. This is such a powerful form of social proof that they could leverage if they made that slight change in membership criteria.

You can’t see the group posts without becoming a member, but you can see the member count and about info for their group here


Email Newsletter Campaigns

Creating a newsletter series is excellent for indoctrinating BoFu prospects to your brand and nurturing them until they become paying customers.

Do this by sending them content (related to your business) that helps them learn more about their problem, situation, or idea.  

Make your newsletter campaign a five email series:

  1. Welcome Email: tell them what they’re going to get by being on your list. What’s the benefit? Why should they click and read your emails or listen to you?
  2. Send Them a Gift: offer them a free guide, white paper, worksheet, or other useful content they can quickly consume, take action on, and receive a benefit as a result. Let them know you’ll have another gift for them in the next email.
  3. Send Them Another Gift: repeat what you did in the last email, but with a different content gift. Let them know they’ll receive their final gift in the next email, and that you have something awesome to share with them.
  4. Send the Last Gift and Reveal the Surprise: show your product or service and give them all the reasons they have to have it or try it, but don’t tell them how much or how to buy it just yet. Tell them that you’ll give them the information to purchase it in the next email.
  5. Send Your Offer: make the pitch. Remind them of everything they’ll get by taking this risky step with your brand, and reassure them that if they aren’t satisfied, they’ll get their money back. 

Your next question is probably about how close together these emails should be sent out. I recommend sending them out daily for five days.

EXAMPLE:

Jeff Walker and the Product Launch Formula

The product launch formula is a step-by-step strategy for creating and sending email newsletter campaigns that get your subscribers to open their wallets and buy.

Jeff Walker perfected his launch strategy and used it to successfully launch his online businesses, as well as those of his clients and his followers.

His version of the email newsletter series is a little different than mine, and that’s because I combine a little bit of his strategy with Digital Marketer’s to get the best of both tactics.

By giving your subscribers free gifts, you trigger their psychological response for reciprocity.

When you receive an unexpected gift from someone, it makes you like them more and feel like you owe them something in return, even more so if the gift meant a lot to you or helped you in some substantial way.

By giving your subscribers these valuable gifts, they are more likely to give you a chance and purchase a low ticket product or service because they feel a moral obligation.

After all, you did give them something awesome or help them in some way.


Now that you know more about how to answer your customer’s questions with different types of content let’s talk about how the content you create is going to convert your BoFu prospects into paying customers.

How BoFu Content Creates Customers

When you answer the questions and objections of your BoFu prospects, it establishes your place as an authority in the industry and as someone who has the required expertise to help them.

And as a bonus, they trust you more because you gave them the information they needed, no strings attached.

Being honest about how your business stacks up against your competitors will help you weed out the clients who wouldn’t be a good fit for you—resulting in better quality leads.

The better the lead, the better your conversion rates are going to be.

Let’s do a quick recap of what we learned about BoFu content and how to use it.

Quick Recap

BoFu content answers the questions and objections a prospect has when they’re ready to pay money for a solution.

Actions these prospects could take are subscribing to your list, requesting a quote, downloading a guide about your products or services, talking to your chatbot, or purchasing your solution.

Four types of content you can create for these prospects are:

  1. Blog Articles: publish articles on your site that answer the specific questions your BoFu prospects are going to have before they feel informed and confident enough to give you their money.
  2. Videos: quickly establish trust and authority and relate to BoFu prospects by creating video content so that they can see and hear you.
  3. Private Facebook Groups: encourage BoFu prospects to subscribe to your newsletter to get access to a private Facebook group. Over time, your group will be full of brand promoters that have been following you and doing business with you for years that can reassure BoFu prospects that they need to do business with your brand.
  4. Email Newsletter Campaigns: create campaigns to indoctrinate BoFu prospects with your brand and nurture them into paying customers.

Now that you’re ready to get out there and create some BoFu content, grab your free marketing strategy and get to it!

P.S. Don’t feel confident enough to do it on your own? Ask our experts for help by scheduling your free phone call.

Get Your 5-Step Marketing Strategy

Don’t waste any more time on random acts of marketing in the hopes that something will work to convert more leads to customers.

Our experts have been helping professional services firms like yours for over a decade. We know just about all there is to know when it comes to marketing, and we want to help you achieve your goals.

That’s why our experts created this free guide for you so that you could create and implement an effective marketing strategy in 5 easy-to-follow steps.

Use our proven strategy to convert more of your BoFu leads into paying customers.

Get your free guide now: Fast Track Your Business: The 5-Step Marketing Plan for Professional Services Firms.

FREE BOOK: 
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As a professional services provider, your billable time is valuable. You don't want to waste it on bad marketing tactics that won't yield the results you're looking for.

This article is part of the Series: ToFu, MoFu, BoFu Content for B2B Professional Services Firms.

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