_{Day 102/100}

Hey—It's Tim. 

I planned this issue out a couple of weeks ago.

Then Google dropped its AI Overviews on us.

Suddenly, every top-of-funnel query you’ve ever ranked for is now getting summarized, hallucinated, and shoved into a weird little box above your link - if your link even makes the page.

It’s funny.

Every time I sit down to write something I already believe in, Google makes it more important.

And today’s is no exception.
The best content strategy is the one everyone ignores.
Why you should start your content strategy at the bottom of the funnel.

Especially now.

The classic mistake

Most marketers start at the top.

They say things like:

• “Let’s rank for ‘what is influencer marketing?’”

• “We’ll build authority first.”

• “Then people will find us!”

Which sounds great - until you realize:

• The traffic is garbage.

• There’s no next step.

• And you just became Wikipedia’s understudy.

If you’re writing ToFu first, but you’ve got

No pricing page,
No product comparisons,
No “why choose us” —

You’re not building a funnel. You’re building a museum.

Nice to walk through. No one buys anything.

My strategy: Start at the bottom.

The first time I tried this was working with pre-seed startups.

They didn’t have time to wait for a blog to build up traffic.

They needed leads. Demos. Wins.

They needed content that could pull double shifts:

• Rank on Google

• Help close a deal the founder was running manually over email

We’d publish a competitor comparison.
Or a “best tools for X” list with their tool inside.
Or a pricing page that actually sold the product.

And weirdly, they’d start ranking. Fast.

Why?

Because no one else was writing it.
There was no competition for it.

Everyone was chasing big traffic.
We were chasing buyers.

Definitions, my way

I’ve seen a hundred definitions for funnel stages.

Honestly? Most are unusable.

Too vague.
Too abstract.
Or just plain wrong.

Here’s how I define them.
How it helps define the funnel too.
And how we build content around them at Penfriend:

BoFu - Bottom of the Funnel

💸 Ready to buy. You just need to help them say yes.

People comparing tools. Pricing things up. Talking to sales.

This is where you write:

• Comparison posts (X vs Y)

• Pricing pages

• “Why choose us?” content

• Product pages that don’t suck

• Case studies that actually tell a story

This is where I start.

Because this is where sales happen.

ToFu - Top of the Funnel

🧠 They just realized they have a problem. They don’t know about you yet.

This is where most people start - and get stuck.

ToFu content is educational, evergreen, and usually non-committal.
It’s there to attract new eyes. Not convert.

Examples:

• “Why SEO still matters in 2025”

• “The 7 deadly sins of content marketing”

• “What is programmatic SEO?”

Useful? Yes.
Foundational? Yes.
Conversion-driven? Nope.

MoFu - Middle of the Funnel

🌀 They know the problem. They want a solution. You need to earn the click.

Otherwise known as anything that isn’t ToFu or BoFu

This is the sweet spot for most SaaS.

Examples:

• “How to build a content calendar (with Notion)”

• “5 ways to improve keyword research using [Tool]”

• “Best frameworks for launching a SaaS product”

It’s where your content plays matchmaker between pain and product.

Pre-Funnel - The new kid on the block

👀 People aren’t even looking for help yet. But they’re watching.

Pre-funnel is the weird stuff:

• Tweets

• Podcast clips

• Your CEO ranting on LinkedIn

• Trend jacking

• Industry gossip in blog form

It’s audience-building.
Attention-grabbing.
And honestly, not a bad place to play once your BoFu is sorted.

But it won’t pay the bills. Not directly.

AoFU - All of the Funnel

🎯 One blog post. From curious to customer.

This is hybrid content that captures readers wherever they are.

It’s long.
It’s detailed.
It doesn’t shy away from CTAs.

Think:

• “Everything you need to know about building a B2B content engine”

• “How we rank blog posts in 45 days — with our tool”

This is especially important in the age of AI Overviews, where Google’s favoring comprehensive answers over tidy little blurbs.

If you’re not sure where someone’s entering the funnel, AoFU is your catch-all.

OK, but why does this matter?

Because BoFu gets ignored.

Everyone wants traffic. But traffic without direction is noise.

When you start at the bottom:

• You write content that has an obvious next step (Book a demo, start a trial, download a template)

• You can use that content in sales convos, nurture emails, onboarding flows

• You start converting before you start scaling

Here’s how I do it:

1. Start with BoFu.
   Create 5-10 pieces that support your product directly.

2. Build out MoFu.
   Think use cases, objections, implementation, proof.

3. Add AoFU.
   Anchor content that does it all in one go.

4. Then play with ToFu and Pre-Funnel.
   Once you’ve got traffic that converts, feel free to chase traffic for fun.

TL;DR

• Don’t start at the top.

• Start where money changes hands.

• Build out from there.

Start at the bottom.
If you need a hand?

See you tomorrow.

✌️ Tim "I asked for Funnel Cake for my birthday" Hanson
CMO @Penfriend.ai

Same brain, different platforms: X, Threads, LinkedIn.

P.S. No one asked me about the new Penfriend things yet. Makes me think you don’t want to write good content.

That’s fine. More for me.

Penfriend.ai
Made by content marketers. Used by better ones.