Welcome back to Marketing Qualified! Here’s what we’re talking about this week:
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Skip funnels. Build a magnetic field instead.
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The one question you need for better positioning. Follow this easy framework.
🧲 Skip funnels. Build a magnetic field instead.
Here’s the lie we all nodded along with for years:
“First, they see a blog post. Then they download the ebook. Then they attend a webinar. Then they book a call.”
Neat. Clean. Linear.
Also, completely disconnected from how B2B buying actually works.
It usually goes something more like this:
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The CTO finds your product in a Reddit thread about a competitor’s outage.
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A junior marketer downloads your case study and forgets about it for two months.
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A CMO sees a question about your product in a Slack group.
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Three different people separately Google you and land on different pages of your site.
Here’s the truth: By the time someone books a call, they’ve already built their case, with or without your help.
So, stop building funnels. Start building a magnetic field.
Here’s how
The best B2B brands don’t try to control the buyer’s path.
They know buyers aren’t politely starting at the homepage. They’re dropping in from all over the place.
And every person on the buying committee is asking a different question when they land.
Some are trying to figure out if they even have a real problem.
Others are comparing you to a competitor.
One is already sold — they just need ammo to pitch internally.
Another’s trying to prove you won’t break their tech stack.
So instead of trying to force all buyers through a pre-set funnel, smart marketers publish content that matches each type of intent wherever it shows up:
Problem recognition → cost calculators, diagnostic tools, research reports, etc.
“Is this worth solving?”
Solution validation → case studies, walkthroughs, playbooks, etc.
“Will this actually work?”
Risk mitigation → integration docs, security FAQs, migration guides, etc.
“How painful is this going to be?”
Buying readiness → ROI calculators, evaluation frameworks, stakeholder decks, etc.
“How do I get everyone else to say yes?”
If all you’ve got is a gated whitepaper and a nurture flow, you’re not aligned with how B2B buying actually happens.
Funnels try to push buyers step by step. Magnetic fields pull them in from every angle, no matter where they start.
Your job isn’t to control the journey. It’s to create enough surface area, signal, and evidence that every path leads back to you.
📰 In the news this week.
🥇 Claude Sonnet 3.7 is the leading LLM for AI SEO.
🤫 Launch secrets: Expert tips for maximum impact.
💸 Why every team should know its earned media value.
🚀 LinkedIn’s new audience insights & media planning APIs.
🏆 The brands and campaigns that won Webby Awards this year.
❓The one question you need for better positioning.
If you want to tighten your positioning without guessing, do this:
Go to Reddit, LinkedIn, or any forum where your buyers hang out.
Search: “why I stopped using [competitor]”
Then shut up and take notes.
What to do with what you find.
Look for patterns — “It was a pain to implement,” “support was trash,” “we outgrew it.”
Congrats, those are your new headlines and hooks.
Messaging → “Finally, a tool that doesn’t take 6 weeks to onboard.”
Content → “Why Teams Outgrow [Competitor]: 3 Triggers to Watch For”
Sales Enablement → “How we migrate teams off [Competitor] in under a week”
Product Strategy → Literally forward the threads you find to your product manager.
This strategy is stupid simple, and it works better than most paid research.
Because when people walk away from a product, they’re honest. Painfully honest.
You’ll get the real reasons they left. You’ll learn exactly where things are broken.
Then you get to position your product as the better way.
😂 Marketing meme of the week.
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