Is your funnel really a Sieve?

Is Your Marketing Funnel Stuck in the Past?

You remember the classic marketing funnel, right?

The one where customers move neatly from awareness → interest → decision → loyalty?

It used to work—until consumer behaviour decided to rewrite the rules.

These days, people bounce between screens, compare products, ask friends, then check reviews, then bounce again. Couple that with an expectation for personalised experiences, and a linear funnel starts to feel about as outdated as dial‑up internet.

The Funnel’s Limitations

• It treats buying as a rational, step‑by‑step journey—and that just doesn’t hold up anymore.

• It often ends at the sale, missing out on advocacy and the golden opportunity of turning happy customers into word‑of‑mouth champions.

Meet the Flywheel

Imagine ditching the funnel for a circle—keeping your customers front and centre through phases of attract, engage, and delight. Happy customers spin the wheel forward by recommending you, sharing, and staying loyal.

Best part? It keeps things friction‑free—no awkward handovers between marketing, sales, and service. Everyone stays aligned, customer‑first, with chatbots, CRMs, and feedback loops helping to keep the momentum going.

Welcome to the “Messy Middle”

Turns out, decision‑making is messy. People jump between exploring and evaluating—googling blog posts, cross‑checking reviews, maybe waiting for a sale, scrolling socials...

If your strategy leans on cognitive shortcuts, you can move customers through that mess without forcing them into a neat funnel:

• Category cues (“this is typical for your industry”),

• Urgency tools (“limited time!”),

• Social proof (“look at these happy people”),

• Scarcity (“only a few left”),

• Authority signals (“trusted by experts”),

• Or even freebies (“who doesn’t love free?”).

Why It’s Time to Ditch the Old Funnel

Clinging to the old model risks:

• Missing where your customers actually are,

• Wasting budget where they aren’t looking,

• Giving them a disconnected experience,

• And seeing fewer conversions.

  
  

Whereas shifting to more modern models—flywheel or messy middle—you align with how people truly behave. It’s about personalisation, seamless experience, and turning customers into advocates.

Ready to Update Your Funnel? Try These Moves:

1. Audit your actual customer journey

   Map where people dip out, loop back, or linger—across all your touchpoints.

   
   

2. Bring teams together

   Ditch siloed handoffs—get marketing, sales, and support collaborating.

   
   

3. Use automation wisely

   Let tech personalise at scale and keep the energy up at every touch.

   
   

4. Listen, then optimise

   Let data and feedback guide you on what’s working—and what’s not.

   
   

5. Sprinkle in some psychology

   Try social proof, scarcity, authority, or freebies to nudge without nagging.

Not sure where your funnel stands? Let’s have a stickybeak.

We’ll help you map your real customer journey, uncover missed opportunities, and modernise your approach without the fluff.