Tofu, Mofu & Bofu: The 3 Ingredients To Craft The Sales Funnel!

Consumers today are flooded with options. If there’s one thing that has changed when it comes to the nature of buyers, it’s that they are more inquisitive than ever.

Consumers are keen on the product they will purchase and every step of the buying journey. This is why professionals in the sales and marketing spheres have to step up their game to provide relevant information to all possible queries.

Marketers for the longest time have used acronyms for convenience, but for people not involved in the field, it can sound like made-up jargon.

Words such as ‘Mofu’ and ‘Bofu’ sound like the names of cartoon characters, and it’s impossible to not think of the square-shaped edible bean curd when you see the word ‘Tofu’. But these acronyms are staples in marketing language.

In this blog, we will help break down these terms for you, and by the end, you’ll agree that they are not quite as silly as they sound.

What is a Sales Funnel?

You might be surprised why we are starting with explaining what a funnel is, but you have to understand what it means in marketing before we can explain the meaning of the other acronyms. Consumers go through a process before a purchase is made. Whether it’s a spontaneous decision or a planned purchase, the customer experiences a series of events before choosing a product or service.

In the sphere of marketing, this journey and its relation to marketing efforts are what is called a ‘funnel’. It is also interchangeably referred to as ‘marketing funnel’, ’purchase funnel’, ‘sales funnel’, and ‘conversion funnel’. So, to explain it, to navigate the regions of this funnel, marketers came up with the terms ‘MoFu’, ‘BoFu’ and ‘Tofu”.

Importance of ToFu, MoFu, and BoFu!

As mentioned before, the funnel describes the buyer’s journey from start to finish, i.e., from the moment they start browsing till they finally click “buy now”. This journey is not as simple as it sounds. This digital funnel comprises the entirety of the customer’s journey and is composed of different stages. The crucial role that ToFu, MoFu, and BoFu play is that they describe these different stages of the digital marketing funnel.

This is important because consumers have different needs, and businesses can curate their content to produce the best engagement with potential customers. Proper optimization of these acronyms can help increase website traffic, expand brand recognition, boost click-through rate, and, most importantly, rise sales and conversions.

ToFu – What is it?

ToFu translates to ‘Top of the Funnel’ and refers to the beginning of the digital marketing funnel. This is the stage where potential customers browse and explore before deciding if they want or need to purchase a product or service. This ToFu stage in the funnel carries a lot of weight because this is where brands or companies make their first impression on potential consumers.

The main objective for marketers here is to make sure their products are visible to potential buyers and make their brands known to the consumers. So, this brings us to the question of how? The most commonly used tool is keywords. Marketers need to focus on specific keywords so that their products can appear in product searches.

An important tip to remember is the content for this ToFu stage should be only educational. By this, we mean that as a marketer, this is not a stage in the funnel where you should push brand recognition blatantly. Rather, the focus should be laid on providing relevant information and leaving hints to garner potential customers’ interest.

Some examples of the ToFu stage are:

Blog Posts – Blog Posts can be extremely helpful in generating leads. Whether it’s for a service offered by a company, a new product launched by a brand, or a new business that is opened up; blog posts, if crafted with the right keywords and curated with the right information, can help generate leads as these blog posts will show up in the search engine results page (SERP).
E-books – They can be used as a way to demonstrate expertise as well as answer questions that potential consumers have. E-books are great because they can do the aforementioned functions in a relatable manner as information is provided in simple text format. However, a catchy title is needed to grab attention, and the writing style must also captivate readers.
E-mail sequences – When any potential customer reads about a product or service being offered, he or she might not immediately follow up by taking action and purchasing. With everyone’s busy schedules, it’s easy to forget about something we read online. This is where Emails come in handy because they can be used as reminders with the added perk that can be stretched over long periods.

MoFu – What is it?

The ‘Middle of the Funnel‘ is what is referred to as MoFu. This stage is called the ‘uncertain stage’ of the tunnel because this is where you’re either chosen or not.

All the efforts and strategies employed by marketers in the initial ‘ToFu’ stage will either be successful or fall flat during this MoFu stage. Sometimes, even when leads convert, it does not mean marketers will necessarily get value for the money invested.

Therefore, this MoFu stage is tricky, and the main objective to focus on is the retention of leads. Let’s picture the best-case scenario and assume that the efforts put in the ToFu stage have kept potential customers engaged and interested.

The main goal is to retain these potential buyers then. Strategies that can be used to retain leads are best explained through MoFu examples. These will be listed underneath:

White Papers – A whitepaper means a collection of detailed information about any topic. Although it sounds like it might be lengthy and boring if the content is written in a persuasive and professional tone but with a light conversational style, whitepapers can be a great tool to showcase your top-notch solutions to any problems or queries leads may have.
Case Studies – These are great because they provide readers with a detailed presentation of the initial problems that arise and how they are tackled and solved. Case studies must show why and how a product or service is better than everything offered. You should note that a case study should not be as long as a whitepaper; touching on the success points is enough.
Webinars and Social Media Posts – brands can utilize Webinars (live online events) and social media posts to convince potential consumers by engaging directly with them. In the case of a webinar, you should leave enough time for a question and answers session so that any and every query is answered. Social media posts should be used considering the target audience’s age group.

BoFu – What is it?

BoFu is the last stage of the digital funnel and means ‘Bottom of the Funnel’. This is the stage where leads are close to the finish line, i.e., a decision is almost made. So, it’s pretty apparent just how important this last stage is to marketers because a lot is at stake. The objective is not just to convince a lead to make a purchase, but this stage also determines the relationship a brand or company will have with the consumer.

The content for BoFu should be curated carefully and crafted with purpose. The possible ways to accomplish BoFu objectives will be made clear by examples:

Consultations – This is where salespersons can make or break the deal. Customers are likely going to have a lot of options as well as questions. So, it’s wise for companies to invest in resourcing and training their personnel so that salespersons are skilled and competent.
Events – Companies can conduct events to showcase their products or services. These events can be strategically used to engage with potential consumers and provide options for pre-booking products.
Live Demos – Given the many options available to today’s buyers, it’s only fair that they want to see and even try out the product or service before deciding to purchase. Live demos are great for this because they do the dual work of aiding customers to learn more about the product and building rapport with them.

How Do They Work Together?

Given that ToFu, Mofu, and BoFu are the three stages of the sales funnel, they work together in cohesion to guarantee the success of sales. Each stage is codependent on the other because every stage of the customer’s journey is crucial in helping them decide to go through with the final purchase.

ToFu strategy sparks interest in potential customers and makes them want to know more. MoFu ensures that such leads are retained and engaged so that consumers can proceed to the last Bofu stage, where buyers will be inclined to make the final decision and establish further relationships with brands and companies. Marketers must strategize strongly and effortlessly for all three stages to guarantee success.

Here’s an example to help paint a better picture. Let’s say you are head of the marketing team for a company, and a product you just launched is not doing well. Statistics show a steady decline in sales for the particular product, and you are baffled at what to do. You and your team do your research and find out that the problem is generating leads. This is where the ToFu stage comes in handy. Your next step would be to direct efforts toward making sure your product pops up in more searches etc.

On the other hand, if your research shows that potential leads are being generated, but sales are not going through, then the problem is lead retention or the MoFu stage, and you and your team can then focus on how to retain more leads. Likewise, if research shows that potential buyers frequent your websites but do not go through with the purchase after asking questions and interacting with salespersons, the funnel BoFu stage needs attention. Investing in training and recruitment of better salespersons should be your next step.