The concept of guiding customers from awareness to consideration, intention, purchase, loyalty and promotion is still valid. However, the emergence of e-commerce, social media, the culture of start-up companies, and the increasingly blurred lines between B2B and B2C have drastically changed the customer experience. So what does this mean for marketers? The customer's funnel and decision-making process are still useful models in certain contexts. But to navigate today's ever-changing landscape, a new mind map is needed to inform marketers on how to enable and empower customers, not just persuade and promote. Alternatives such as travel, orbit, relationship and experience models are gaining traction.
Arjan Dijk, vice president of global marketing for small businesses, believes that products should be designed to be marketed on their own. Recommendations from friends have always been important, but now they spread “faster and further” at every stage of the funnel. This is where the steering wheel approach comes into play, making marketing, sales and service perfect for both the company and its customers. Many CMOs devote too much of their marketing investment to attracting customers at the bottom of the funnel, in an easily justifiable way, at the expense of generating less tangible demand and customer attention at the peak. The marketing funnel model is evolving or being replaced by modified models derived from the original funnel model. B2B brand marketers must learn to play and win over the CFO if they want to grow their brand and their budget.
This is where the cash flow funnel comes into play. The new social currency shares what's hot right now, says Joel Lunenfeld, Twitter's vice president of global brand marketing. Marketers may need to rethink how they talk about funnels with the organization in general if they want to achieve the most success. When it comes to the marketing funnel, the goal is to convert a visitor into a potential customer and then into a customer. The traditional marketing funnel is a unique journey from broader, more generic potential customers to more limited and less specific buyers.
While it is still prevalent throughout the world of marketing and communication, it has been engulfed in some controversy. These options allow marketers much greater visibility of who sees their ads and allow them to show different ads to different households that are watching or listening to the same program. But after so many years and in an era of digital marketing, can it be safely said that the marketing funnel is dead or that it is still relevant to your content marketing plan?Promoting comprehensive marketing is especially necessary given the drastic changes in customer behavior that have occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. A marketing campaign designed with the AIDA model can simply publicize your product and may not be very segmented.
