From Funnel to Ferris Wheel | The New Sales Model

From Marketing Profs Customer Advocacy and the New Purchase Funnel

Marketers and brand managers spend a lot of time, energy, resources, and budget trying to understand what messaging via traditional media will resonate with their target audiences (which calls to action will spark the most clicks, conversations, etc.).

Millions of dollars are spent on media that aim to create marketing messages in each of the phases—awareness, consideration, preference, purchase, and loyalty. And smart marketers also create metrics models for each phase of the purchase funnel to measure the effectiveness of those messages.

However, the purchase funnel is no longer a funnel. Customer advocacy is at the center of the model. It's meant to illustrate the power of social and how advocates are aiding and influencing their micro communities down the purchase funnel via authentic messages (or everyday conversation).

The model is now circular: As a brand invests and drives formal customer advocacy programs, they will in turn influence others at various phases of the purchase funnel—creating a cycle of influence and advocacy that the brand is facilitating.

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