Marketing Funnel Strategy (Not the Funnel You Think)
Everyone talks about funnels.
“Top, middle, bottom.”
“TOFU, MOFU, BOFU.”
But most of those are clichés.
A marketing funnel isn’t a machine you fill. It’s a map you guide.
If your funnel’s broken, it isn’t because your tools are weak — it’s because your strategy is missing.
Here’s how I think about funnels now — and how LiftKit builds them from the ground up.
Funnels don’t convert leads. They manage beliefs
Traffic is noise. Conversions happen when beliefs shift.
A funnel’s job isn’t to push people down. It’s to carry them through a sequence of beliefs:
I belong here
This solves my problem
It’s believable
It’s the easiest path forward
Most “funnels” reverse that order: you present features first, then “prove” later. That’s why people drop.
Instead, design for belief — structure your funnel around psychological transitions, not channel buckets.
If that idea hits, you’ll probably like the thinking behind ChatGPT for Lead Generation — it’s the same logic, upstream.
The LiftKit funnel architecture (simplified)
LiftKit’s funnel model isn’t sexy. It’s surgical.
It’s built on four stages, but they’re not “stage = page.” They’re stage = belief shift.
Awareness Phase
You spark a question, not a solution.
The job: get the right eyes wondering.
(More on this in the AI Marketing Tools post — attention ≠ awareness.)Engagement Phase
You show understanding. You start proving.
The job: move someone from curiosity to mild trust.Conversion Phase
You deliver clarity, proof, and the least-friction action.
The job: remove excuses before “Buy” ever appears.
(If you’ve read AI Landing Page Generator, this is where your message stack comes alive.)Retention / Expansion Phase
You prove asymmetry — the follow-up is obvious.
The job: make the next step feel like the only step.
Everything else hangs off this. Channels, offers, messaging — they bend to these logical transitions.
Stripped-down LiftKit prompts to build your funnel logic
The real power in a funnel is in the logic you force yourself to clarify.
These prompts are lifted from LiftKit’s Funnel & Launch chapters — lightweight versions you can test yourself.
1. Belief Bridge Prompt
“List the beliefs someone holds before your funnel — then list what they must believe afterward.
Use those to name the stages.”
2. Doubt Sequence Prompt
“For each transition (Awareness → Engagement, Engagement → Conversion, etc.), list three micro-doubts or objections.
Write one sentence to address each above.”
3. Offer Frame Prompt
“Describe your offer in terms of the shift it enables. Then write the entry offer that’s so low-risk they’d say yes before thinking.”
4. Flow Map Prompt
“Map your funnel stage to content assets, proof types, CTA types, and internal links.
For each stage, define the next logical move you want the audience to take.”
That last one ties directly into your SEO Keyword Strategy — internal linking should read like narrative, not navigation.
Why most funnels fail (and how to stop)
They skip engagement. Too many founders try to convert in one step.
They start with “offer” before proof — like asking someone to marry you on the first date.
They ignore retention. Funnel collapse is what happens after “Convert.”
They build standalone pages and forget the handoff — the next button’s promise must be baked into the previous page.
Your funnel isn’t part of marketing. It is marketing.
If it doesn’t match your positioning, your content, or your GTM mode (see GTM Strategy Framework), it will betray everything you built upstream.
How this fits inside the full system
The funnel layers in LiftKit are the mortar between strategy and execution.
After the GTM Mode and Messaging chapters, you already know how your funnel should move.
By Content & Channels, each asset plugs into your funnel logic.
During Launch, the funnel becomes the skeleton; you flesh it out with timing, scarcity, and proof.
Later, Analytics & Refinement (see AI Marketing Analytics) helps identify which belief bridges fail.
If your funnel logic is tight, every campaign feels like a rerun of competence — same system, new subject.
That’s what LiftKit exists for: not to do marketing faster, but to make it inevitable.
Example: a funnel built in one afternoon
Let’s say your product helps founders use AI to build a marketing engine.
Awareness stage:
Post: “Why your ChatGPT prompts die where strategy begins.”
CTA: “See the breakdown” (links to AI Marketing Playbook)
Engagement stage:
Asset: short case study or teardown.
CTA: “Try the reasoning prompts yourself.”
Conversion stage:
Landing page built with your own AI Landing Page Generator logic.
CTA: “Run your first system with LiftKit.”
Retention stage:
Email or guide linking to ChatGPT for Lead Generation.
It’s the same playbook in motion: strategy → content → funnel → feedback.
If you want to build it properly
You can run the prompts above manually — they’ll sharpen your reasoning.
Or you can see how the full 80-prompt funnel engine does it automatically inside LiftKit.
No fluff, no upsell. Just clarity that compounds.
Key Takeaways
A funnel is a belief map, not a sequence of pages.
Build funnel logic before you build pages.
Use AI for reasoning, not repetition.
Don’t skip retention — it’s where growth compounds.
Every LiftKit module feeds into funnel logic — from SEO Keyword Strategy to AI Marketing Analytics.
