What Are Advertorials: 6 Steps To Write Bottom Of Funnel Demand Capture Articles That Actually Converts Paying Visitors Into Paying Customers.

Advertorials are sneaky advertisements disguised as informative articles but are paid content designed to promote a product, service, or brand.  They exist in print and online, mimicking the style of whatever publication they appear in. 

The idea of a funnel is that at the top, you have a wide opening where many website visitors come in. These are people who might be interested in what you offer, but they aren't quite ready to buy. However, as they move down the funnel, they learn more and become more qualified leads. By reaching the bottom, they are high-intent visitors ready to convert into paying customers.

This is where advertorials take the lead. Because advertorials are designed to look like objective content, they can be highly persuasive at the bottom of the funnel. They can address lingering doubts, showcase the product's benefits in the real world, and convince website visitors to take the plunge and become paying customers.

In all of these, with this article, we will provide you with the step-by-step process of writing quality bottom-funnel content and the best practices you should take note of when writing advertorials. Let us begin.

‍

Understanding Advertorials

Advertorials easily blend marketing with informative content, and these are their key characteristics and how they achieve this smooth blending:

1. Informative Content: Advertorials prioritize providing valuable information relevant to the target audience's needs and interests. This could be industry trends, buying guides, or problem-solving tips.
2. Storytelling: Effective advertorials use compelling narratives to connect with the reader emotionally. This makes the content more engaging and memorable for the readers.
3. Brand Integration: The advertised product or service is subtly woven into the story. It is presented as the solution to the reader's problems, not a plain sales pitch.
4. Credibility and Trust: Advertorials often use expert opinions, data, or testimonials to build trust and establish the brand's authority.
5. Call to Action (CTA): While advertorials are subtle, a good advertorial will include a CTA that will nudge the reader towards the desired action, like visiting a website or requesting a free trial.
6. Disclosures: Reputable publications will disclose that the content is an advertorial. This can be done with a simple disclaimer like "Sponsored Content" or "Promotional Feature."

Advertorials are known to achieve a blend of quality content and marketing, and they do this by focusing on value-promoting products in hush tones, all the while using an educational approach. The information provided is helpful because it addresses the audience's pain points and offers solutions. The brand and product are placed as the natural answer to the presented problems of the readers, not a forced advertisement. Because Advertorials aim to educate the reader, this builds brand loyalty and trust between you and your customers.

‍

The Role of Bottom-of-Funnel Content

BoFu, or bottom-of-funnel, content is the marketing stage at the very last stage of a customer's journey – the point where they're seriously considering a purchase. This content is used to address any lingering doubts the consumers may have, show the value proposition in a clear light, and ultimately convert those high-intent visitors into paying customers.

The marketing funnel is in three stages:

1. Top-of-Funnel (ToFu) Content: This is where everything awareness takes place. It attracts a broad audience with informative content piques their interest in a general problem area.
2. Middle-of-Funnel (MoFu) Content: Here, you nurture leads already aware of the problem. MoFu content educates them about potential solutions and positions your brand as a knowledgeable authority.
3. BoFu Content: The BoFu content is the final push of the marketing funnels! The BoFu content targets those ready to buy. It focuses on the specific benefits of your product or service, directly channeling it to their pain points and showing them why yours is the best solution.

Some BoFu content examples with persuasive power include:

1. Problem-Specific How-To Guides: Having a guide with a title that clearly states steps to fix problems directly tackles a burning problem for website owners. This places your brand as the solution provider.
2. Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs): When you make available downloadable SOPs on specific tasks or analyses, it shows expertise and gives prospects a taste of the efficiency your product can bring.
3. Checklists, Worksheets, & Templates: These free resources can equip potential customers and help them tackle their challenges. This single act demonstrates the power of your tools or services in the process.
4. Expert Walkthroughs: Showing how an expert uses a specific tool of yours or a combination of tools to solve a common problem can help build trust and highlight the product's (s’) capabilities.
5. Mini-Tools: Offering free, bite-sized tools that manage a specific problem can allow customers to experience the value proposition firsthand, in the same vein, lowering the barrier to entry.
6. Calculators: Interactive calculators that answer specific questions or provide predictive insights can be highly engaging and help demonstrate your product's ability to solve real-world problems.
7. Case Studies: Showing real-world success stories of how your product or service has helped similar businesses solve their problems can build trust and social proof. This influences the buying decisions of customers.

‍

Step-by-Step Guide to Writing Effective BoFu Content

Here are steps that will guide you to writing effective BoFu content. These steps will outline the essential processes in marketing and sales— how to understand your target audience and craft a persuasive message to convert them into customers. Let's go into each step.

‍

Step 1: Identify Your Target Audience

This is the groundwork. You must identify the people most likely to benefit from your product or service. Conduct market research through surveys, competitor analysis, and social media listening to understand their demographics (age, location, income), interests, and online behavior. Equally important is pinpointing their pain points. These are the challenges, frustrations, or needs your target audience faces. By understanding these, you can tailor your message to resonate with them.

‍

Step 2: Create Compelling Offers

Now that you know who you're talking to and their problems, craft offers that directly address them. This could be a specific product or service, a discounted bundle, or a free trial. The key is demonstrating how your service solves their problems and improves their lives. Use clear, concise language that highlights the value proposition of your product—why your offer is better than the competition.

‍

Step 3: Use Strong Call-to-Actions (CTAs)

A call to action (CTA) tells your target audience what you want them to do next. It could be "Buy Now," "Download Now," or "Sign Up for a Free Trial." Effective CTAs are clear specific, and create a sense of urgency. Place CTAs prominently throughout your marketing materials, website, and social media posts. Consider using solid verbs and contrasting colors to make your CTAs stand out.

‍

Step 4: Focus on Benefits Over Features

People don't care about features; they care about the benefits those features provide. A feature is a technical detail of your product or service. For example, a smartphone camera might have a 12-megapixel sensor. A benefit is the positive outcome the customer gets from that feature. In this case, the benefit is capturing high-quality photos. Focus on how your product or service solves the customer's problems and improves their lives.

‍

Step 5: Use Testimonials and Success Stories

People are more likely to trust recommendations from others than marketing messages. Include testimonials from satisfied customers on your website, social media, and marketing materials. These testimonials should be authentic and should show the positive experiences your customers have had with your product or service. You can also use success stories that detail how your product or service helped a specific customer overcome a challenge.

‍

Step 6: Optimize for Conversion 

Conversion rate refers to the percentage of people who take the desired action after seeing your marketing message. Here are some tips to optimize your marketing materials for conversions:

1. Use a clear and concise layout that is easy to navigate.
2. Use high-quality visuals that are relevant to your target audience.
3. Place your CTAs strategically throughout your content.
4. A/B test different versions of your marketing materials to see which ones perform best.

Using tools like Deepbux that help you track conversion rate on your website will help you get ahead and try out different things among different demographics. This will help you improve on your overall service.

‍

Best Practices for Crafting Advertorials

Advertorials can be a powerful tool to convert readers into customers, but it is important to do so ethically and transparently. Here are some of the best practices for crafting Advertorials:

1. Sharing valuable content that genuinely fixes a visitors problem: Focus on value first, then address pain points. People are drawn to content that solves their problems or improves their lives. So, before promoting your product, establish yourself as a helpful resource. Identify the challenges your target audience faces and offer practical solutions. This builds trust and positions your product as the answer.
2. Align with Audience Expectations: Research the publication's tone and audience to ensure your advertorial seamlessly blends in. Dissonance will raise red flags for readers. Clearly disclose that the content is an advertorial. This fosters trust and avoids misleading readers.
3. Create a bridge transition from sharing information to selling a product: Weave a narrative that showcases your product as the solution to a relatable problem. Highlight how your product directly addresses the pain points you've established.Don't just list technical specifications. Instead of an abrupt sales pitch, create a natural progression where the value proposition of your product emerges organically from the problem-solving narrative.
4. Capture High-Intent Audiences with tools like Deepbux: Using a tool like Deepbux—which is a suite of tools used to oversee user activity on your website—will help you know what customer is truly interested in what you have to offer.

Use Deepbux to analyze your website traffic data to understand what kind of content your audience is already engaging with. This gives you insights into their interests and problems. Identify keywords with high commercial intent. These are terms people search for when they are closer to making a purchase decision. Segment your email list based on interests and needs to send highly relevant content that resonates with each segment.

Craft clear and concise calls to action (CTAs) that tell users what you want them to do next. Test different variations of your advertorials  and CTAs with Deepbux to see which ones convert better. This helps you refine your approach for maximum impact.

In addition to the tips we have given above, include quotes from satisfied customers to build trust and social proof. Back up your claims with relevant data and statistics to add credibility. Lastly, ensure your advertorial displays well on all devices, especially mobile phones.

‍

Conclusion

In this article, we have explored the power of advertorials for your BoFu (Bottom of the Funnel) marketing strategy. We unpacked key points like how advertorials provide informative and engaging content that builds trust and positions your brand as an expert. We listed steps to write effective advertorials, and emphasizied how reader value can be interwoven with a subtle promotional nudge.

Understanding what tone to use and the audience it is for ensures your advertorial seamlessly blends in. If you will go ahead to leverage this knowledge we have given in this article, then you will have to implement these strategies, and write your own advertorial. To do this, you will have to integrate advertorials into your BoFu content plan and challenge yourself to craft one using the steps we discussed. See how it can enhance your marketing efforts!

Are you ready to take your BoFu content to the next level? Visit the Deepbux website and sign up for a free forever Deepbux plan to have access to a variety of tools that will help you  create high-performing advertorials and dominate your marketing funnel. Thank you for reading!

‍