We know the marketing funnel analogy. It’s neat, simple, easy to understand. And it’s useful to explain the concept of volume. But when planning marketing actions I find that the funnel is limiting, we need something that clearly positions marketing activities and helps prioritize them in terms of resource investment. A scale where every activity in marketing can be placed somewhere along it.
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At the very top of the scale, we have pure brand-building. Think sponsorships, PR campaigns, events that don’t generate a single lead but leave a lasting impression. These are expensive, hard to measure in the short term, and vital for long-term growth. At the very bottom, we have sales. For e-commerce it is products sold or for B2B qualified leads, depending on the product. That’s the direct response end. And in between? Everything else.
Educational campaigns, influencer programs, press coverage, podcasts (include in there what was formerly known as webinars), native ads, email nurture flows, downloadable tools. Each one is either a little more brand or a little more performance. And here’s the kicker: you can plot them. Literally. Put them on a horizontal scale from brand to performance and see where they fall. Give each item a value between 1 (pure sales) and 1000 (pure brand). But don’t let anything sit at the same point. Force prioritization.
This view changes how you budget, how you prioritize, and how you justify marketing decisions. Need short-term growth? Slide down the scale. Want to become a category-defining brand? Head up. Most companies hover around the middle, unsure which way to lean. And then marketers invent concepts that there are two types of marketing “Brand marketing people” and “Performance marketing people”. It is one scale and two ends of it.
It’s not a revolutionary model. But it might be a more precise one. Funnels are a great visualization of volumes. A linear scale is a good way to show that we’re all on the same team. It forces us to look at trade-offs, understand investments, and stop pretending that every campaign can be everything. Or that one is more important than the other which seems to be the trend today.
Want to judge your next campaign? Don’t ask if it’s “top of funnel.” Ask where it sits on the scale. And depending on your priorities – you can see if it really fits in the budget right now.
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About me: I’m a fractional CMO for large travel technology companies helping turn them into industry leaders. I’m also the co-founder of 10minutes.news a hotel news media that is unsensational, factual and keeps hoteliers updated on the industry.
