How to Fill Your Top-of-the-Funnel With Qualified Traffic

Inbound Marketing has to be a well-oiled machine for it to work properly.

However, for every company, business, or industry this machine is most likely different in some way, shape, or form.

No matter what service or product you might be offering, there is always a new part of the machine you can add-on, tweak, or even for better results.  

A part of this machine that is often overlooked is the generation of  your top-of-the-funnel traffic. It should be an important aspect for all Inbound Marketers to bring their attention to, as it is a great way to initially bring about highly qualified traffic to your site.

Why?

Because bringing in qualified top-of-the-funnel traffic sets you up for success. It’s as simple as that.

It happens to all of us where we stare with tunnel vision at what we believe to be our most important metrics (i.e. Demo Requests, Consultations, Free Trials) and as a result, we create a gap between the top and bottom and see lower conversion rates.

When focusing on your top-of-the-funnel traffic, it’s important not to forget about who your buyer personas are and who you want to capture.

By filling your funnel with these qualified people from the get-go, you will make your sales team’s job a whole lot easier and help align your marketing and sales efforts.

Note: Not sure if you have the right buyer personas or if you need to create another one? Check out IMPACT’s Buyer Persona Kit

Discovering your weakest traffic sources and where you need to improve

When looking for areas to capture qualified top-of-the-funnel traffic, it’s important to discover where you can improve.

It might be possible that your social media platforms have the highest visits to contact conversion rate, but your organic visitors don’t seem to be converting. It’s important for you to recognize the weak points and start adjusting accordingly.

Monitor your leads with KPIs – How many were qualified?

As you start developing campaigns, solutions, or web projects to drive more qualified traffic, it’s important to monitor the conversions by setting KPIs. How many more new contacts this month were qualified compared to last months? By doing this, you will know what is working and what is not.

Use the keyword tool to discover where you stand and where you want to rank organically 

The biggest opportunities for any company to start getting more qualified TOFU traffic is through organic search. 

If you’re optimizing your content (both premium and blog) around long-tail keywords that your buyer persona is actually searching then you will begin to see more qualified traffic relatively quickly depending on where you stand against your competitors.

Long tail keywords, however, will typically be easier to rank for because they are less competitive and will help you target your specific niche demographics

One of the best tools available through Hubspot is the Keyword Tool. After completing your initial keyword research, this tool will tell you which ones are your ranking opportunities.

In other words, it tells you which keywords you have the opportunity to hit the first page of a Google search based on your current rank, difficulty, and search volume. 

Build out your blog from your keyword research

Following your long-tail keyword research, you should incorporate this research into your blog editorial calendar as you start planning out more monthly blog topics and titles.

Moving forward, it will be important for you to monitor your keywords and create highly targeted blogs for your buyer persona around them. As a result, you will begin to see more qualified visitors converting on your site as you start ranking for these valuable keywords.