Have you ever looked at the traditional marketing funnel and thought, “there’s so much more to it than that”? I have! Who wants their customers to just drop out the bottom after a sale? Con artists, perhaps, but not real business owners.
I think of marketing more like a relationship, to be honest, but for the sake of putting it in a simple image I’m going to simply add a loop to the funnel image. (Now I’m wishing I had drawn this out somewhere. Ah well, you’ll just have to use your imagination.)
In your funnel, there’s Awareness, Interest, Desire and Action. I propose we add a slide with a closed loop under the funnel. After an individual takes “Action”, they are so delighted that they slllllliiiiide into a loop where they are now an engaged and returning customer. It’s a loop of loyalty!
With a simple Google search, I found some other great alternatives to the tired funnel:
- Campaign Monitor’s “New Marketing Funnel” that’s not a funnel or a loop, but based on a very flexible lifecycle
- “The Marketing Lifecycle” shared by Content Marketing Institute
- “The Flywheel” as explained by HubSpot
My point is that no customer should be dropped out of our attention after they’ve given us their business. These are the people we absolutely want to impress and keep them coming back, telling others, and so forth.
Amber Heiden's Marketing Services 