I’m going to go out on a limb here. I want to introduce you to a new way to think about marketing — but to do that, I’m going to have to dis everyone’s favorite strategy.
Here goes…
Funnels aren’t the solution.
They’re a strategy, and a darn good one. But they aren’t the end-all of marketing.
You know this. There’s no such a thing as an “end-all” in marketing. As soon as we find something that works, everyone jumps on board, which means…
We’re all doing the same thing…
Our audience figures out what we’re doing…
And it loses its effectiveness.
Funnels have definitely been through that cycle. They still work, sure. But they aren’t working as well as they once did.
It’s NOT the Future of Marketing
To fully understand where I’m coming from, let’s look at what a funnel is.
A funnel is a campaign that deeply compresses the stages of the customer journey, turning cold traffic into subscribers and customers through a sequence of transactions that happen one after another.
For some products, this works.
For many, it doesn’t.
Enterprise software solutions are a good example of something that can’t be sold in a funnel. Prospects need a lot of hand-holding. Questions need to be answered. And in many cases, custom solutions need to be engineered.
But that’s not the biggest reason I see funnels falling short.
Funnels work passably well if:
- Your customer already knows they need or want a product like yours.
- You can create a hook that makes yours stand out from the competition.
- You can overcome all objections in one message, delivered as a video, sales page, or landing page.
That’s hard to do, which means funnels can’t be your one and only marketing strategy.
Instead, they’re one piece of a bigger plan.
Introducing the Growth ARC
The concept behind funnels is good. But in many cases, if you want to turn cold contacts into customers, you need more than one interaction to do that.
You need to help them know, like, and trust you — which takes more time than a funnel allows.
So you play the long game. And that’s what the Growth ARC allows you to do.
The Growth ARC focuses on four key drivers for growth and profits:
- Authority – Build trust.
- Attention – Be visible. Get eyeballs on your message.
- Relationship – Keep piling on the value until you win the hearts of your target audience.
- Conversion – Offer the solutions your audience is looking for.
If you want to drive growth, this is how you do it.
Step One: Build Your brand’s Authority
This works for individuals and companies. It’s as easy as generously sharing your knowledge and experience.
For example: write a book, speak at events, offer free training, publish a blog or newsletter.
Your goal is to become a leader in your industry. In this article on the Authority Journey, I explain what it takes to be seen as the go-to leader for your audience.
Step Two: ARC activities
These are your marketing and sales activities.
But you need to make sure you’re doing activities in each category — getting your audience’s Attention, building Relationship with them, and ultimately Converting them.
You need to do all of these activities consistently.
Most brands are strong in a couple of areas and want to push those buttons every day. But they’re weak in other areas and let them slide.
But without marketing and sales activities in all three ARC categories, your results will suffer. You must help your audience know, like, and trust you, and it takes the entire Growth Arc for that to happen.
