Stop Building Funnels. Start Building Loyalty Loops.

You've been told to build a marketing funnel. And you did. But here's what nobody mentioned: funnels are designed to end at the purchase. Your customer relationships are just beginning.

It's not that you're being lied to. You're just not being given the whole picture.

And that incomplete picture is costing you customers—not because your marketing isn't reaching people, but because it's only designed to get them at a single moment in their buying journey.

If you've been following our recent blogs, you've learned to plan strategically across five quarters rather than scrambling every 90 days. You've discovered why customer-centric trust matters even more in times of uncertainty. And you've mapped when your customers' needs become more intense throughout the year.

But now you need to understand something fundamental that changes how you'll use all of that: your customers aren't following a straight line to purchase. They're on a circular journey. And most of them aren't even at the stage you're marketing to.

What Most CEOs Don't Understand About How Customers Actually Buy

Here's what typically happens when CEOs think about customer buying behavior: the customer has a need, the customer buys the solution, the company delivers the solution exceptionally well, and the customer becomes loyal. Four simple steps.

Except that's not what actually happens.

McKinsey research from 2009—updated in 2017 and confirmed through multiple studies into 2024—reveals something that should fundamentally change how you approach marketing: the buying process isn't linear. It's circular, with four distinct phases that customers move through, and, critically, they loop back.¹

The four phases are:

Initial Consideration – Customers start with a limited set of brands they're already aware of

Active Evaluation – They research and compare options (and can actually ADD brands here, not just narrow down)

Purchase – They make the buying decision

Post-Purchase Experience – Their experience creates a "loyalty loop" that influences whether they come back to your brand for the next purchase or enter someone else's initial consideration set

Here's what makes this circular rather than linear: the fourth phase doesn't end. It feeds directly back into the first phase for the following buying cycle. Your customer's experience after the purchase determines whether they think of you first next time—or whether they start their next journey considering your competitors.

But here's where it gets more complex: even customers who had excellent experiences with you can be influenced by outside information. A competitor's ad catches their attention. A peer recommends a different solution. A new option enters the market that promises something your solution doesn't. Suddenly, even your most satisfied customers are adding other brands to their consideration set for the next purchase cycle.

Think about what that means for your business. Even after someone buys from you, even after you've "won" them as a customer, the odds are against them buying from you again unless you're actively marketing to keep them in that loyalty loop.

Why This Matters Even More Now

If the circular buying journey was important in 2009, it's absolutely critical in 2025. Because something significant has changed in how customers approach purchases: trust has collapsed, and skepticism has become the default setting.

Research from Qualtrics in 2024 found that only 50% of consumers trust the brands they do business with—trust levels not seen since 2016. Among Gen Z consumers, only 28% trust brands.³

A 2024 global study revealed that 71% of consumers agreed with the statement: "I trust companies less than I did a year ago."⁴

According to Edelman's Trust Barometer research, trust in businesses declined during the pandemic, leading consumers to rely more heavily on peer recommendations and expert opinions when making decisions.⁵ As one Forrester analyst described it, there's now a "watchdog effect" where customers are "sufficiently cynical"—they check claims. When they find any problems, they both act on it themselves and amplify their disappointment through social channels.⁶

NIQ's 2023 Consumer Outlook study put it bluntly: "Consumers are in a constant state of skepticism."⁷

What does this mean for buying cycles? Research time is getting longer. Evaluation is getting more thorough. And customers are spending more time in that Active Evaluation phase, checking and double-checking before they'll trust anyone enough to make a purchase.

In an environment where customers trust you less and check everything more carefully, you can't afford to have marketing that only focuses on getting the first sale.

The Trap Most CEOs Fall Into

Here's where things go wrong for most businesses: they try to market only to people who are almost ready to buy.

It makes sense, right? Why waste resources on people who aren't ready to purchase? Focus on the prospects at the end of the cycle, the ones about to make a decision. That's where you'll see immediate return on your marketing investment.

But here's the problem with that thinking: you're ignoring everyone else in their buying journey. And those people? They're your future customers—if you nurture them. Or they're your competitors' future customers—if you don't.

If your marketing only speaks to people ready to buy right now, you're not in the consideration set when someone starts their journey. You're not building awareness. You're not establishing trust during their research phase. You're not creating the experiences that put you in their loyalty loop.

You're fishing only in the one small spot where fish are jumping, while ignoring the entire rest of the lake where tomorrow's catch is swimming.

Understanding Where Prospects Enter Your Marketing Sphere

Here's the insight that changes everything: prospective customers enter your marketing sphere at different stages in their buying cycle.

Unless you sell a very specific product tied to a particular time of year or event, it's rare for everyone to be at the same stage at the same time. Some people are just becoming aware that they have a problem. Others are deep in research, comparing options. Some are ready to buy today. And some bought from you six months ago and are deciding whether to come back.

All of these people could be seeing your marketing at the same time. Your LinkedIn post, your website, your email campaign—they're all reaching people at different points in their journey.

And here's what makes this both challenging and powerful: that's actually good.

Because it means you have the opportunity to serve customers wherever they are, instead of only connecting with the small percentage who happen to be at the "ready to buy" stage right now.

How Your 5-Quarter Plan Serves All Buying Stages

This is where everything we've discussed in previous blogs comes together.

You're planning across five quarters rather than scrambling every 90 days. You've committed to customer-centric trust building regardless of market uncertainty. You've mapped when your customers' needs become more intense throughout the year.

Now you need to ensure that your marketing serves prospects at all stages of the buying cycle, with emphasis shifting based on those seasonal intensity patterns.

Here's how this works:

Every quarter, your marketing should include:

Content for Initial Consideration (Awareness Stage)

Address the problems customers are experiencing before they know your solution exists

Use the AI search questions people actually ask when they first recognize they have a problem

Focus on being discovered when someone starts looking for answers

Build brand awareness with people who will need you eventually, even if not today

Content for Active Evaluation (Research Stage)

Provide the information prospects need to understand their options

Demonstrate that you understand their world and their challenges

Share concrete examples of how you've helped others (without fake statistics or invented case studies)

Answer the deeper questions people ask when they're comparing alternatives

Content for Purchase Decision (Buying Stage)

Make it easy for ready-to-buy prospects to take the next step

Remove friction from the buying process

Provide confidence that they're making the right choice

Ensure your "Is this about us or about them?" test still passes—even at this stage

Content for Post-Purchase Experience (Loyalty Loop Stage)

Continue marketing to existing customers (this is where marketing really kicks in)

Reinforce that they made the right decision

Provide value beyond what they paid for

Turn customers into loyalists who recommend you to others

Notice what this isn't: it's not creating four separate campaigns that each focus on one stage. It's creating an integrated marketing approach where different pieces serve different stages, and they all work together to move people through the circular journey.

Adjusting Emphasis Based on Seasonal Intensity

Remember what you mapped in our last blog: when do your customers' needs become more intense? When do they feel the problem you solve most acutely?

That intensity mapping doesn't mean you only market during high-intensity quarters. It means you adjust your emphasis.

In quarters when customer need intensity is higher:

Increase the portion of marketing focused on Purchase Decision and Post-Purchase stages

More prospects will be ready to buy, so ensure you're there when they're making decisions

Focus more resources on converting evaluation into purchase

Double down on post-purchase marketing to capture loyalty during the peak season

In quarters when customer need intensity is lower:

Increase the portion of marketing focused on Initial Consideration and Active Evaluation

Build awareness with people who will need you later

Invest in the research and education that positions you as the obvious choice when they're ready

Nurture existing relationships so customers think of you first when their need intensifies again

The key insight: you never abandon any stage. You're always serving prospects wherever they are in their journey. You're just shifting where you put more emphasis based on seasonal patterns.

This is what it means to align your 5-quarter plan with customer buying cycles. It's not about creating separate plans for each quarter. It's about creating a single, integrated, customer-centric approach that serves all stages, with strategic emphasis shifting as your customers' needs are most intense.

Your Next Step

Look at your current marketing plan. For every piece of content, every campaign, every initiative, ask yourself: What stage of the buying cycle does this serve?

If you find that most of your marketing focuses on the Purchase Decision stage—trying to convert people who are ready to buy right now—you've identified exactly why you're working harder on marketing but not seeing proportional business growth.

The good news? Now you understand how customers actually buy. You know it's circular, not linear. You know prospects enter at different stages. You know, the post-purchase experience is where loyalty really builds.

And you know how to align your 5-quarter plan to serve all of these stages strategically, with emphasis shifting based on your customers' seasonal intensity patterns.

The transformation begins when you stop building funnels and start building integrated marketing that serves the complete circular journey your customers are actually on.

Footnotes:

¹ McKinsey & Company. (2009). "The consumer decision journey." McKinsey Quarterly. Updated research published in 2017 showing 90% of categories studied had no customer loyalty and 58% of customers changed brands between purchases.

³ Qualtrics XM Institute. (2024). Consumer trust survey of 10,000 U.S. consumers.

⁴ Global consumer study. (2024). 71% of global consumers agreed with statement "I trust companies less than I did a year ago."

⁵ Edelman Trust Barometer. (2020). Research showing trust in businesses declined during pandemic, leading to increased reliance on peer recommendations.

⁶ Forrester Research. (2017). Tom Champion, Senior Analyst, on consumer skepticism and the "watchdog effect."

⁷ NielsenIQ. (2023). "Consumer Outlook 2023: The unsettled state of global consumers." Survey of nearly 16,000 online consumers in 23 countries.