Jemicah Marasigan
Content Marketing Manager
Most marketing teams are great at starting conversations and great at closing them. The messy part in between is where things usually fall apart.
At the top of the funnel, everything feels exciting. You’re driving traffic, launching campaigns, and getting people in the door. At the bottom of the funnel, everything feels urgent. Deals are on the line, sales calls are booked, and everyone wants to know what’s going to close this quarter.
The middle of the funnel doesn’t get that same level of attention.
This is where people know who you are, remember why they showed up, and are quietly deciding whether they trust you enough to move forward. They aren’t asking for a demo yet, but they aren’t casually browsing either. They’re evaluating, comparing, and trying to picture what working with you would actually look like.
This is why marketing to the middle of the funnel matters so much. If you don’t guide people through this stage, they’ll still make a decision. You just won’t be part of it.
So what actually counts as the middle of the funnel?
Before you can do MOFU marketing well, you have to be clear on what lives in this stage.
The middle of the funnel includes people who have already raised their hand in some way. They’ve interacted with your brand more than once and have shown real intent, even if they haven’t said it out loud yet.
These are leads who are doing things like:
Downloading a resource and opening follow-up emails afterward
Clicking around your site, especially product and pricing pages
Attending webinars or watching product-focused videos
Reading comparison content or use-case stories
Sitting in an early pipeline stage without booking a demo
They aren’t cold leads, but they aren’t ready to buy either. Instead, they’re actively trying to decide if you’re worth choosing.
That’s exactly why MOFU marketing matters. This is the stage where good guidance keeps momentum going instead of letting interest fade.
6 practical ways to market to the middle of the funnel
When it comes to the middle of the funnel stage, people are trying to decide if this actually makes sense for them, which means clarity and real guidance matter more than clever messaging.
Tip 1: Pick up the conversation where people already are
If someone’s in the middle of your funnel, they already know who you are and what you do. They’ve read something, watched something, or followed you long enough to have context, so starting over with broad explanations just feels off.
At this stage, your content should feel like it’s picking up an ongoing conversation, not introducing itself again. Blogs, short videos, emails, and even a monthly newsletter all work well here when they’re grounded in what your audience is dealing with right now.
You don’t need long explainers. You need content that speaks to the moments where things stop feeling simple and start getting harder to manage.
Good middle-of-the-funnel topics often focus on:
When referrals pick up but follow-ups start slipping.
The first signs that client work is getting harder to track.
Why being busy suddenly feels different once things start scaling.
What breaks when more than one person touches the same relationship.
The moment your current setup technically works, but barely.
The goal isn’t to explain the basics or convince people they have a problem. It’s to help them recognize the stage they’re already in. When your content feels that relevant, people keep paying attention.
Tip 2: Answer the questions people don’t ask out loud
Most prospects are polite. They won’t say, “I’m worried this won’t be worth my time,” but that thought is absolutely there. They’re wondering what working together is really like, how experienced your team actually is, and whether your point of view lines up with how they think.
Middle-of-the-funnel marketing works best when it clears up those unspoken questions before they turn into hesitation or silence. The goal isn’t to convince anyone. It’s to make things feel clearer and more human.
This is a great place to go beyond standard marketing content and create spaces where your thinking shows up more naturally. You could:
Launch a Substack or monthly newsletter that highlights senior leaders on your team, sharing how they think about the industry, lessons they’ve learned, or patterns they’re seeing across clients.
Create a small, invite-only Slack or Discord community for prospective customers where you host AMAs, share commentary on current trends, or react to common challenges people bring up.
Run a recurring social series where different team members answer one real, slightly uncomfortable question each week, like where projects tend to stall or what clients usually underestimate.
This kind of content answers questions people are already asking themselves, just in a quieter way. When your marketing shows real people, real opinions, and real experience, it builds trust without feeling like a pitch.
Tip 3: Show how you think when things get messy
By the middle of the funnel, people aren’t judging you on perfect outcomes anymore. They’re trying to figure out how you think when things aren’t clear, when priorities collide, and when there isn’t an obvious right answer.
This is where a lot of service marketing falls flat. Everything looks clean and buttoned-up, even though real work rarely is. MOFU marketing is the place to show judgment, not just results.
Instead of only sharing finished work, let people see how you reason through the hard parts.
There are a few great ways to do this that go beyond the usual case study.
You could:
Run a recurring “how we’d approach this” series where you break down a messy, real-world scenario and talk through your thinking step by step, including what you’d do first and what you’d intentionally ignore.
Publish short Loom-style videos or blog posts where a senior team member reacts to a common client situation and explains how they’d prioritize when everything feels urgent.
Share anonymized stories about moments you pushed back on a request, changed direction mid-project, or said no, and walk through why that call mattered.
This kind of content gives people a feel for how you operate under pressure. It helps them picture what working with you would actually be like, which is exactly what they’re trying to decide at this stage.
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Tip 4: Help people self-select before they ever reach out
Not everyone is a good fit for your services, and that’s a good thing. The middle of the funnel is the right place to make that clear in a way that feels helpful, not dismissive.
When you try to appeal to everyone, you usually end up with more low-quality conversations and a lot of time spent explaining expectations later. MOFU marketing can do that work earlier by giving people clearer signals about whether it makes sense to keep going.
Instead of vague positioning, use content to help the right people recognize themselves and get what they need faster.
You can do this by:
Creating a clear “who this is for / who this isn’t for” page that spells out the types of teams, timelines, and situations you work best with, and just as importantly, the ones that usually aren’t a great fit.
Publishing honest breakdowns of past projects that didn’t go as planned, explaining what was missing or misaligned so prospects can recognize similar patterns early.
Sharing a short self-assessment or checklist prospects can run through on their own to see if they’re actually ready for your approach before ever booking a call.
Writing posts or recording short videos that walk through what successful clients typically have in place, such as internal ownership, clear goals, or a willingness to change how they work.
Building a resource hub organized by situations people are in (like “things feel messy,” “we’re growing fast,” or “we need more structure”) so prospects can quickly find what’s relevant without decoding marketing language.
This kind of clarity also makes things easier on your side. When someone does reach out, it helps to already have context around what they’ve read, what they’ve engaged with, and what stage they’re actually in.
A CRM like Copper is useful here because they give teams a shared place to keep notes and relationship context in one spot. Not because they magically know everything, but because they make it easy to add what matters and see the full picture instead of guessing.
When people opt in knowing what they’re signing up for, conversations move faster, feel easier, and lead to better work on both sides.
Tip 5: Stay useful even when you’re not actively selling
People in the middle of the funnel aren’t in a rush, but they are paying attention. They’re noticing whether your content helps them do their job a little better or just shows up when you want something.
This is the stage where usefulness matters more than promotion. You’re building a habit, not pushing a decision.
Some genuinely helpful ways to do that include:
Curating and sharing resources you didn’t create, with a short take on why they’re worth paying attention to or how you’d apply them differently.
Turning common questions you get over email or DMs into standalone posts or short threads that answer one specific thing clearly.
Sharing small process tweaks or rules of thumb your team uses that people can borrow immediately without changing their whole setup.
Publishing “things we’re seeing a lot lately” updates that help people feel less alone in the problems they’re dealing with.
Offering lightweight templates, prompts, or examples people can adapt to their own work without needing your help.
When people keep getting value from you without feeling sold to, they remember you when the timing finally feels right.
Tip 6: Make the next step feel easy and low-pressure
By the time someone’s close to hiring you or buying your product, they’re usually interested. What’s holding them back isn’t excitement, it’s friction. They’re wondering if reaching out is going to turn into a whole thing or take more energy than they have right now.
This is where your middle-of-the-funnel marketing can quietly do a lot of work. The goal is to make starting feel simple and safe, not like a commitment they have to brace themselves for.
Instead of pushing people toward a big decision, focus on making it clear, calm, and easy to keep the conversation going. That can look like:
Explaining your short, no-pressure intro call directly on your contact page, scheduling page, or in a pinned FAQ so people know it’s a conversation and not a pitch.
Laying out what actually happens after someone reaches out in a short blog post, Notion page, or follow-up email so there are no surprises.
Sharing quick “how it started” examples through short case snippets, newsletter blurbs, or social posts that focus on the first step, not the final outcome.
Offering multiple next-step options on your site or in emails, like “talk it through,” “see examples,” or “just follow along,” instead of one hard CTA.
Using curious, low-pressure language everywhere it matters most, especially on buttons, forms, and automated emails that usually sound the stiffest.
When the next step feels easy and clearly explained, people don’t overthink it. They just raise their hand and see where the conversation goes.
The takeaway
The middle of the funnel is where trust forms and decisions quietly take shape. It isn’t a waiting room, and it isn’t something you can afford to ignore.
Better conversions, smoother sales conversations, and more confident buyers come from showing up thoughtfully in this stage. This is where small details, good follow-ups, and real context make the difference between momentum and missed opportunities.
And, if you want help keeping track of those relationships as they unfold, Copper gives you one place to add notes, remember what matters, and see where people are getting stuck, so you can follow up with more intention and less guesswork.
Try Copper free for 14 days and see how much easier it is to keep the middle of the funnel moving.
