How to Create Your Full-Funnel Marketing Strategy

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Most B2B founders think the buyer journey starts when someone fills out a form. It doesn’t. It often started 90–180 days earlier. They were reading, clicking, lurking, comparing. But because there was no inquiry, the CRM stayed quiet. And that’s where most sales systems break down.

“Your funnel isn’t broken. Your process is. If leads are coming in but deals aren’t closing, it’s probably not your ads. It’s misalignment between sales and marketing.” – Miles Kailburn, CEO of OTM

This fundamental misunderstanding of how B2B buyers actually behave is why so many companies struggle with lead generation and conversion.

 The Reality of Modern B2B Buyer Behavior

The customer journey has evolved far beyond the linear path of yesterday. In our interconnected world, potential clients navigate a complex maze of touchpoints before making purchasing decisions. This isn’t the straightforward sales funnel of the past—it demands a full-funnel approach that addresses customers at every stage of their journey.

The most successful B2B companies understand that their buyers are already deep into their decision-making process before they ever raise their hand. They’ve been researching solutions, comparing alternatives, and building internal consensus long before that first form fill or sales conversation.

Understanding the Complete Marketing Funnel

A full funnel marketing strategy represents the different stages a buyer goes through when making a purchase decision.

Here’s how each stage works:

Awareness (Top of Funnel)
This is where the funnel is largest—you can reach the most people, even those who aren’t actively looking for your product or services. Some call this brand marketing, but it’s really about positioning your company as a thought leader when prospects are first identifying their challenges.

Consideration (Middle of Funnel)
The funnel begins to narrow here. There are fewer people in the consideration stage, and this is where they start comparing you to your competition. This is where you want to hone in on your messaging and make sure you can win in your market through differentiated positioning and proof points.

Conversion (Bottom of Funnel)
This is when your audience is ready to make a purchasing decision. It’s largely intent-driven and somewhat transactional, but the foundation for success here was built in the earlier stages.

Retention and Loyalty (Post-Purchase)
This stage focuses on how you engage with customers after they convert. A strong approach here increases retention and turns converted clients into loyal brand ambassadors through exceptional client experiences.

 Why Most B2B Companies Get Full Funnel Marketing Wrong

“One of the biggest mistakes we see business owners make when it comes to their marketing is that they allocate all of their resources to just one stage of the marketing funnel.” – Kerrie, Chief Growth Officer at OTM

This creates several critical problems that compound over time:

  • Short-Term Attribution Obsession: Companies overinvest in short-term attribution, missing the 90-180 day invisible buyer journey that precedes most B2B purchases.
  • Late-Stage Playbook Bias: Sales and marketing playbooks get built around late-stage buyers, leaving massive gaps in early-stage engagement and nurturing.
  • Premature Judgment: Leaders judge marketing effectiveness before campaigns have time to mature, not understanding that B2B buying cycles require longer attribution windows.
  • Process Misalignment: Founder-led firms often lack clear lead definitions, strong sales handoffs, and consistent messaging from first touch to close. More leads won’t fix this—better alignment will.

The Strategic Foundation: Rethinking Your Operating Model

The fix isn’t better copy or more ads. It’s rethinking the entire operating model around how your buyers actually behave.

If the typical B2B buyer journey is 120 days, your system needs to be designed around this reality, not the fantasy of immediate conversions.

This requires:

  • Engagement and Activity Tracking: Tools and systems that capture buyer behavior across the entire journey, not just form fills and demo requests.
  • Early Engagement Capabilities: SDRs or advisors who engage prospects early in their journey, not just when they’re ready to close.
  • Extended Attribution Windows: Attribution models that look backwards over 90-180 days, not just real-time activity.
  • Intent-Based CRM Strategy: A CRM system that measures both activity and intent, giving your sales team visibility into the invisible buyer journey.

Building Your Full Funnel Marketing Strategy: A Framework

Phase 1: Strategic Foundation and Market Positioning

Before tactics, you need strategic clarity. This is where The OTM Path to Growth® framework proves invaluable. Start with comprehensive market analysis, competitor research, and messaging refinement. This helps sharpen your value proposition and clarify your market positioning.

Many founders struggle with this transition from founder-led sales to scalable systems. If this sounds familiar, our guide on Breaking the Founder-Led Growth Ceiling provides a comprehensive roadmap for making this shift.

Key Activities:

  • Audit your complete customer journey, mapping all touchpoints a potential customer encounters
  • Segment your audience based on their funnel stage and buying behavior
  • Develop stage-specific messaging that guides prospects through their decision process

Phase 2: Infrastructure and Systems

Most scaling B2B companies lack the foundational systems to support full funnel marketing.

Address these gaps first:

  • Marketing and Sales Alignment: Create clear lead definitions, strong handoff processes, and unified messaging from first touch to close. Learn more about aligning sales and marketing for sustainable growth.
  • Technology Stack: Implement CRM systems, marketing automation, and analytics tools that support long buying cycles and complex decision processes. Rather than random tactical efforts, focus on building a sustainable B2B growth engine that works systematically.
  • Content Strategy: Develop content for each funnel stage, from awareness-building thought leadership to conversion-focused case studies and demos.

Phase 3: Execution and Optimization

With foundation and infrastructure in place, focus on execution across all funnel stages:

Top of Funnel: Brand Awareness and Thought Leadership

  • Content marketing that addresses early-stage buyer challenges
  • Social media thought leadership campaigns
  • SEO-optimized content that captures research-phase searches

Middle of Funnel: Consideration and Comparison

Bottom of Funnel: Conversion and Close

  • Intent-based outbound prospecting
  • Sales enablement content and tools
  • Conversion-optimized landing pages and calls-to-action

Post-Purchase: Retention and Advocacy

  • Client onboarding and engagement programs
  • Regular touchpoints that provide ongoing value
  • Referral and advocacy programs that turn clients into growth drivers

Real-World Results: The StaffScapes Case Study

StaffScapes, a Colorado-based PEO, exemplifies the power of full funnel marketing. Facing disjointed marketing efforts and lack of sales infrastructure, they implemented a comprehensive full funnel approach that included:

  • Strategic messaging and positioning refinement
  • Go-to-market planning and execution
  • Account-based marketing campaigns
  • Outbound prospecting and lead nurture programs
  • Targeted digital advertising with thought leadership focus

Results achieved:

  • 129% increase in form fills compared to the prior year
  • 36% increase in website conversion rate, reaching 3.97%
  • 2.33% CTR on LinkedIn thought leadership ads (vs. 0.44–0.65% industry average)
  • Stronger brand presence and internal alignment around unified strategy

The Flywheel Effect: Beyond Conversion to Advocacy

While the marketing funnel aims to convert leads into customers, a marketing flywheel focuses on retaining them. Having a strong flywheel increases retention and turns converted clients into loyal brand ambassadors.

The key is focusing on client needs and providing experiences that engage and delight them throughout their entire lifecycle. Here’s how Rachel, Senior Client Success Manager at OTM, explains:

“Through our client engagement model mapping, you’ll work directly with me to outline your onboarding process, regular client touch points, and find opportunities for you to continuously provide value to your clients.”

This means analyzing how you engage with clients once you’ve won them in the sales process and creating consistent, smooth, repeatable processes that every client-facing team member can follow.

Making It Actionable: Your Next Steps

Immediate Actions (Next 30 Days):

  1. Map your current customer journey and identify gaps in engagement
  2. Audit your attribution model (are you tracking the full 90-180 day buyer journey?)
  3. Assess alignment between your sales and marketing teams

Short-Term Strategy (Next 90 Days):

  1. Implement tracking systems that capture early-stage buyer behavior
  2. Develop stage-specific content for each part of your funnel
  3. Create lead scoring and nurturing workflows for long buying cycles

Long-Term Growth (Next 6-12 Months):

  1. Build account-based marketing programs for high-value prospects
  2. Develop client advocacy programs that turn customers into growth drivers
  3. Continuously optimize based on full-funnel performance data 

Need help mapping this out? Check out our free blueprint.  

 

The Bottom Line

Scaling sales isn’t just about hiring more reps or running more ads. It’s about giving your entire go-to-market team visibility into the invisible 90-180 day buyer journey where your next 10 clients are already making decisions.

A full funnel marketing strategy ensures no potential customer is overlooked by engaging prospects at every stage. This reduces missed opportunities, boosts conversions, and maximizes return on marketing investments. More importantly, it builds the trust and relationships that transform leads into loyal customers and brand advocates.

The companies that win in today’s B2B landscape aren’t those with the biggest ad budgets or the flashiest campaigns. They’re the ones that understand how their buyers actually behave and build their entire operating model around that reality.

“Scaling sales isn’t just about hiring reps. It’s about giving them visibility into the invisible. The dark side of the buyer journey is where your next 10 clients are already making decisions.” – Miles

Your buyers are already out there, 90-180 days into their journey. The question is: can you see them?

Ready to build a full funnel marketing strategy that actually works?

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