Top of the Funnel Content: What it Is and Why You Need it

For content marketing to be successful, it’s imperative to first have a deep understanding of your audience. As a Montessori school, you are very familiar with your avatar, i.e. parents and families who are your target audience.

However, it’s important to also know where each individual prospect is in your sales funnel.

Here’s what I mean:

There are three levels of commitment and interest when it comes to families who visit your Montessori website.

1. Top of the Funnel = Awareness
2. Middle of the Funnel = Evaluation
3. Bottom of the Funnel = Conversion

So, this means the content on your Montessori site not only caters to your avatar, but also to each level of interest.

Today, we’ll discuss top of the funnel content.

Top of the Funnel Content Goals

When a parent or family is at the “top of the funnel,” this means they are a cold prospect.

They probably don’t know anything about you—or even about Montessori.

So, the content on your site geared toward these families should:

1. Increase Awareness

The parent or family may not even be aware that their child’s current school or daycare is not fulfilling their needs, that Montessori can drastically improve their child’s educational experience, or that Montessori is an option at all.

The content on your site should raise awareness of Montessori’s benefits for parents who perhaps never considered it before.

2. Grow Retargeting Lists

You know when you view a product online and suddenly their ads follow you to every other website you visit? These retargeting ads—driven by cookies—are effective at bringing past visitors back to your site.

3. Increase Engagement

Yes, even in the world of academia, social engagement matters.

This means the more followers on Twitter that retweet your photo and the more likes you get on Facebook all boost your visibility and trustworthiness. Engagement is important—but remember it’s not the only metric that matters.

4. Grow Website Traffic

With engaging, informative content, this should be easy enough.

Top of the Funnel Content Types

Now that we understand the goals of top of the funnel content, let’s review the different types of content that engages prospective families at the top of the funnel:

• Blogs
• Social media updates
• Infographics
• Photos
• Digital magazine
• Audio podcasts
• Video/video podcasts

Think of it this way—your Montessori site should become a “home base;” this means content that lives on your website that you own.

Then, this content should be shared it to “outposts” (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest—essentially platforms you don’t own) to draw in prospects.

Most parents and families are already on social media platforms; so, posting your content to social media (where there is already a full audience) will bring them to your home base (website).

Easy Enough, Right?

…Well, until it comes to planning, creating, posting, sharing, and measuring the content performance.

But did you know Nido Marketing specializes in digital marketing and content creation for Montessori schools?

That means we know all about the Montessori method and what prospective families are looking for when they land on your website. 

While digital marketing, and content marketing specifically, will raise awareness of your school and bring prospective families to your doors—it takes a lot of work.

As a community of dedicated teachers, administrators, and lovers of learning, we can help. Become a member and start seeing growth in your school.