The marketing funnel--popularly referred to as the “cockroach of marketing concepts” because it continues to survive and adapt to any environment--is becoming increasingly irrelevant. It’s a seismic shift that forces marketers to rethink what growth means and where they can find it. 

And it’s about time. 

Finally, marketers are beginning to acknowledge the three biggest flaws in the marketing funnel concept.  

• It works in one direction at a time when consumers gravitate to brands and businesses that engage in two-way conversations.

• It is built on the lop-sided logic that adding more to the top will grow wins at the bottom.

• It leads marketers into what research firm McKinsey calls the “acquisition trap.” That’s the vicious circle that emerges when marketers put too much effort into executing short-term UA campaigns and too little investment into developing strategies to reach long-term goals and win customers’ loyalty.

Of course, marketers didn’t wake up to the fallacy of the marketing funnel entirely on their own. Privacy changes put pressure on marketers to retire the funnel and accelerate the shift from spending on user acquisition to driving user actions that move the needle on engagement metrics.

Tear down the silos between product and marketing

Now it’s time for app marketers to take the next big step and reject the belief that marketing is somehow separate from product. After all, the separation of product and marketing is to blame for the silos in organizations. 

So, how do companies prepare to join up product and marketing and collaborate on strategies to drive sustainable and profitable growth?

The way forward is an approach that fuses product and marketing, allowing teams to make meaningful (and measurable) improvements informed by product analytics and the user flows they uncover.

Teams that combine product and marketing are well-positioned to distill user behavior data around how users navigate the app and identify ways to optimize the user experience. Even better, teams that harness product analytics to understand--and improve--the user experience can increase audiences and revenue based on data-driven feedback loops.

Unlocking the power of understanding the “in-between” steps

It’s critical to combine product and marketing. But the more significant wins come when teams pool their expertise to focus on the in-between steps and actions that users take that are strong indicators of high intent. 

This is where product analytics shines, which is why it is an essential component in a Sustainable Growth Stack.

Read more about the role of product analytics in a strategy to achieve profitable and sustainable growth in the full article on the Business of Apps.

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