Are Marketing and Sales Funnels Dead?
How to talk about a customer journey in a way that makes sense for customers.
I advise a founder who launched a new business after successfully launching, growing, and exiting multiple businesses. He’s wise, intelligent, focused, and committed to seeing his startup succeed. He willingly admits he doesn’t fully understand marketing and its workings (TBH, do any of us?).
He’s familiar with category design (a strategic approach to creating and dominating a new market category rather than just competing within an existing one). He understands how brand strategy creates the conditions for sustainable competitive advantage.
He knows why we’ve put a content flywheel strategy into action. His content is repurposed into multiple formats for every learner’s style and shared where we understand the audience gathers to help create community.
He shares his perspective and wisdom about business management through downloads and webinars. That allows his company to nurture, sustain, and engage in one-to-one sales conversations with the individuals who match their preferred customers.
We’ve had to share some new thinking to ensure he’s fully aligned with how customer-focused marketing and communications work. Here are a few diagrams and perspectives we shared to help align his thinking and expectations for curating a community of like-minded business owners.
P.S. (I just detailed a brand strategy and marketing plan for you).
But first…
Marketers Force Consumers into Funnels
I don’t understand why marketers think of people as objects to “funnel,” “target,” or “capture.”
Many marketers think of sales and marketing (two aspects of the same business function) as a journey. In theory, if they herd enough people into the top of the funnel, eventually, they’ll continue long enough to commit to a purchase.
Marketers label this customer experience journey a sequence, sales funnel, value journey, or funnel flow to “capture customers.” As for me, I prefer freedom. I don’t want to be captured or held hostage by a marketer’s self-serving attempt to transfer my wealth to them.
The Power of an Engagement Continuum
Considering all of the brand touchpoints small business consumers potentially encounter, is it surprising that getting their attention and calling them to commit is so challenging?
When marketing your business, you think, “I’ll guide the buyer through a funnel!”
The future customer doesn’t see a funnel. They see a cloud of things that interrupt their day. Multiply this cloud of touchpoints by the number of brands that attempt to gain a consumer’s attention, and you understand why they want to ignore you.
Communication is always contextual. People must be in the right mindset to be open to your offer. Sometimes, they want to research or learn. Sometimes, they want to browse; other times, they are ready to buy. A brand or business must understand how to deliver the right message to the right people at the right time in the right way. We call that contextual marketing.
Killing the Marketing Zombies
Professionals have talked about the death of the marketing funnel for years. Yet marketing funnels rise from the dead like desperate zombies hungry for consumer brains. Funnels end.
Category Pirates points out, “You have to go FROM capturing customers in a funnel TO attracting customers with a flywheel.” John Dick, SVP of Marketing at Hubspot, says, “Flywheels represent a circular process where customers feed growth.” Flywheels spin.
Marketing funnels are company-focused. Flywheels are customer-serving. The key here is attracting customers instead of forcing people into a confined space where their only companion is your brand, and their only choice is to buy or leave.
People don't like to be sold–but they love to buy.
I’ve found that an engagement continuum represents the best opportunity for customers to engage and for brands to delight. I wrote about it in my 2014 book, Raise Your Voice: A Marketing Communications Guide for Mission-Driven Brands. (Every direct-to-consumer or business-to-business brand can learn from the relational approach to marketing and branding).
Every interaction between your company and consumers occurs on a continuum. It happens everywhere, all at once, in different ways. People want to be free to enter and exit at their discretion. Customer-centered flywheels that attract, inform, inspire, delight, engage, retain, and call to action feed energy into the engagement continuum.
The beauty of a continuum is that consumers can enter and exit anywhere, anytime, and at their discretion. The customer’s journey will be unique to them. Your brand must be prepared to inform and delight at every point.
How Can You Win Trust and Earn Attention?
We live in an attention economy.* Our attention, like our time, is a fixed and diminishing commodity. That makes attention limited, scarce, and as valuable as the trust you win.
No matter what your company does or what category you compete in, it is surrounded by other companies and interests trying to get noticed and attract attention in a noisy marketplace. Your brand must consistently show up and in a relevant way along the consumer’s timeline to become familiar and trusted.
Consumers are the heroes in their journey. That doesn’t mean your brand can’t be a heroic character as a guide to the consumer.
It’s insufficient to “build a brand” or spend time branding your small business. That’s something consumers — a.k.a. your buying tribe — do (A buying tribe is a group of people who believe, behave, belong, and buy similarly).
You can gain people’s attention, win trust, and build familiarity in three ways:
Increase simplicity (i.e., reduce complexity). Your intended audience has a limited supply of attention and time. Simplicity and consistency are keys to creating a brand people remember.
Strive for clarity. Your intended audience encounters thousands of messages every day. Reach them where they are with clear and focused messaging and direction.
Amplify generously. Your intended audience is listening for a voice that touches their heart and speaks to their mind. Be sure your brand voice is generous, distinct, and memorable.
It’s a noisy world. You don’t have to raise your voice to get attention; instead, consider doing the opposite. Shut up and listen for the right moment to speak the words the consumer wants to hear.
Many consumers would prefer you whisper in their ears than shout in their faces.
* Nielsen Norman Group, “The Attention Economy.”
Goldhaber, Michael H. (1997) “Attention Shoppers!” Wired Magazine