Forget the funnel — try the marketing hourglass

I picked up a book about a month ago by John Jantsch called Duct Tape Marketing – The World’s Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide. I’d never heard of Jantsch, but as you can see from the photo (Sorry, you can’t look inside – obviously a borrowed Amazon graphic!) it has a big role of duct tape on the front cover so I figured it had to be half-decent.

Now that I’ve started reading, I’ve decided it’s not half-decent, it’s all-decent. Actually it’s all excellent. Very insightful. Very easy to read.

One of the concepts Jantsch uses is the Marketing Hourglass. It is similar to the sales/marketing funnel, but with a twist. Jantsch says that the funnel leaves out the important aspect of what you do with the client after they’ve made the purchase.

Here are the seven phases of the Hourglass:
1. Know – your ads, articles and related leads
2. Like – your Web site, reception, social media profiles, and email newsletter
3. Trust – your marketing kit, white papers, and sales presentations
4. Try – Webinars, evaluations and nurturing activities – the center of the hourglass
5. Buy – fulfillment, new customer kit, delivery and financial arrangements
6. Repeat – postal customer survey, cross-sell presentations, and quarterly events
7. Refer – results reviews, partner introductions, peer-to-peer Webinars and community building

I welcome feedback from other marketers who’ve employed the marketing hourglass technique.

Look for more blog posts from the book in the coming weeks.

Tags: Duct Tape Marketing, John Jantsch, Marketing Hourglass