Your Customer Isn’t in a Funnel. She’s Everywhere, and Your Messaging Has to Keep Up

Jason John’s Ad Age DigitalNext piece, “In Today’s Digital World, the Sales Funnel Is Dead,” describes the modern buyer as a “pinball” bouncing across devices and channels before purchasing. That is exactly what happens in the online course space. Someone watches a Reel, clicks a landing page, disappears, comes back through Google, then finally buys after an email or DM answers one last question.

In that kind of journey, integrated marketing communication is not extra. It improves efficiency. One core promise should show up everywhere, just adapted to the channel. The same value proposition should appear in the ad hook, the landing-page headline, the email subject line, and the checkout reassurance. When those touchpoints feel disconnected, you pay twice. First in wasted impressions, then in lost trust.

A practical playbook for course creators:

1. Write a one-sentence “message spine” (who it’s for + outcome).
2. Build a mini message kit (3 proof points, 1 objection answer, 1 CTA).
3. Track drop-offs by touchpoint so you fix the biggest leak first.

Source: https://adage.com/article/digitalnext/today-s-digital-world-sales-funnel-dead/303301/