5Jul2019
This is Why You’re Doing Marketing Wrong
by: Nordic Business Forum
The marketing funnel is obsolete. If you use it and aren’t seeing results, that may be the root cause of your stress. At least, that is according to Avinash Kaushik who claims that the funnel is one of the biggest problems with marketing today.
If you know one thing about Avinash, it should be that he doesn’t beat around the bush. He bravely calls out the marketing funnel as an outdated and useless tool that should not be the foundation of any company’s marketing strategy. Why? Because it doesn’t make sense. Customers don’t wake up feeling aware, and marketers don’t jump out of bed to push their customers down the funnel. Smart marketers need to realize that the funnel is ineffective at best and counterproductive at worst.
The reason for Avinash’s strong claim is simply because the funnel is linear but people are not. As such, the model on which marketing strategies are based does not represent the buying process. When the funnel was created, companies and strategists didn’t have as much data readily available as they do today. Consequently, they simplified complex decision-making processes into four short, straightforward steps and created a one-size-fits-all model.
“Understand the expressed #behavior, to understand peoples #intent. That’s what matters.” – Avinash Kaushik, NBFSweden 2019.
The problem is that one size does not fit all. What you should be doing as a business leader is digging into your data and basing your strategy on real customers that are relevant to you. Unlike traditional marketing models, Avinash urges leaders to leverage their products and/or services to actually respond to the intent demonstrated by customers instead of just interrupting their lives with loud messages and hoping for the best.
To learn more from Avinash about crafting an intent-centric business framework around four main clusters, download our free Executive Summary from our Sweden and Norway events.
