January 5, 2026
The Marketing Funnel Is Dead (And Honestly, It Never Worked That Well Anyway)
People don't shop in neat funnels—they zig-zag, bounce, and buy on their own messy timeline. Here's why traditional marketing funnels don't reflect real life and what to do instead.
Marketers love their funnels. Awareness → Consideration → Decision. Neat little arrows that make everything look under control.
But let's be real: people don't shop like that.
They scroll TikTok, get distracted, ghost your emails, forget you exist, then suddenly buy after seeing your product in a friend's story. They're not sliding smoothly through a funnel — they're zig-zagging, bouncing, and making decisions on their own messy timeline.
Funnels look great in decks. They just don't reflect real life.
Why Funnels Don't Work (And What to Do Instead)
1. Start With the Spark, Not the Stage
Forget "top of funnel" and "bottom of funnel." The magic happens at the spark — the moment someone thinks: "I need this now."
That spark could be:
- A problem that finally became unbearable.
- A little envy of someone else's glow-up.
- A random reel that hit just right.
Your job isn't to push people through steps. It's to reverse-engineer from those sparks and show up right when they need you.
2. Empathy > Endless Email Drips
Funnels assume customers care enough to open every email, click every CTA, and politely move to the "next stage." Spoiler: they don't.
Instead, ask: What was happening in their world when they last bought something?
Design your campaigns to fit into their life, not your CRM calendar. Walk in their shoes. Think like a human, not a funnel.
3. Be Everywhere (Especially in the Weird Places)
Purchases happen in the most random moments. That podcast on a Monday commute. That meme in the group chat. That quick WhatsApp recommendation from a friend.
That's where decisions are really made. Not in your funnel diagram.
Your strategy? Be ready to show up in those moments — quick, memorable, and human.
A Smarter Marketing Playbook
Check off each strategy as you implement it in your marketing.
Move away from scheduled email blasts and create campaigns that activate based on customer behavior and real-time triggers. When someone shows intent, that's your moment to engage—not next Tuesday at 10am.
Not every conversion comes from your planned journey. Start tracking those "weird" wins—the podcast mention, the Instagram Story share, the group chat recommendation. These unplanned moments often drive more sales than your carefully crafted funnel.
The best marketing moments are often unplanned. Build flexibility into your strategy to jump on trends, respond to cultural moments, and try spontaneous ideas. Rigid annual plans kill creativity and relevance.
Because growth doesn't come from a perfect funnel. It comes from showing up where life actually happens.
The Bottom Line
Funnels are just a map. But your customers? They're not following it.
They're messy, unpredictable, and wonderfully human.
Your job isn't to herd them into stages — it's to build marketing that adapts, flexes, and sparks action at the right moment.
That's how you stop losing people in a funnel… and start creating marketing that truly sticks.
💬 Ready to rethink your marketing strategy? Let's chat about building campaigns that work with human behavior, not against it.