Imagine a marketing team that is only responsible for driving traffic (that’s just the top of the funnel), and therefore has no influence on the landing page, blog, or lead nurturing email campaign . To be sure of the team’s effectiveness, you’ll need feedback from other departments, and collecting it can take some time. Now imagine the opposite, where the sales or support department is evaluated based on the quality of traffic, although they have no influence on it. That’s wrong.

On the left is a typical view of marketing, on the right is full-cycle marketing leading to growth
On the left is a typical view of marketing, on the right is full-cycle marketing leading to growth
Disadvantages of Full Funnel Marketing
The concept of a sales funnel has been around since the 1800s, so it’s no surprise that it’s not as popular as it once was.

Some marketing teams believe this approach is outdated and that the customer journey is no longer so linear . During their journey to purchase — which can take months or even years — a person can slip into lower levels of the funnel, then bounce back to the brand awareness stage and even fall out of the funnel.

In addition, now the buyer has an infinite number of information channels open to him, and he can instantly switch from one to another. One minute he is on social networks, the next minute he is reading an article on some blog, then he is searching on Yandex or Google.

There is an opinion among marketers that full-funnel marketing is an oversimplified representation of how sales occur in the modern world. But one can disagree with this statement.

Read also: Linear Funnel vs. Tornado Funnel: What’s the Difference?
Why does full funnel marketing work?
Yes, sales and marketing funnels have been around for a long time. And yet, this model is very valuable because the principles that underlie them remain the same to this day.

It is a conveyor that has been converting potential clients into real ones for many years. The funnel is like an algorithm, allowing you to effectively optimize all your marketing activities. And it significantly brings together the marketing, sales and management departments – what is called the “growth team” . Without such interaction, inefficiency grows, and valuable information is lost.