The Marketing Funnel Stage No One Talks About (But Everyone Trips On)

When your product is complex, category-defining, or behaviour-changing, your mid-funnel marketing needs to do more of the heavy lifting.

The reason is simple. When you’re asking people to think differently and change behaviour, it requires you to guide them through this change. It becomes your finest job to help customers become ready. And that readiness is built in the middle of the marketing funnel.

First, a Quick Funnel Refresher

You’ve probably seen the funnel diagrams; awareness at the top, engagement in the middle and conversion at the bottom. But let’s strip it back to something simpler.

• Top of funnel: people need to know you

• Middle of funnel: they need to like you

• Bottom of funnel: they need to trust you
  

That’s it. Know. Like. Trust.

The more complex the decision, the longer it takes to move through each stage and the more support you need to offer along the way.

From Coffee to Cloud Software: Why Some Decisions Need an Extra Dash of Trust

Let’s say you want a coffee. You’re not checking reviews or reading values statements, you just want to know where the nearest café is. Done.

Now you’re buying new runners. You’ll probably browse reviews, compare a couple of options, and pick the one that feels right for your style, and your values. Are you a Nike, a Brooks, or a New Balance kind of person?

Now imagine choosing a financial adviser or a mortgage broker. There’s more at stake; financially, emotionally, and reputationally. You’re not just buying a service you’re committing to a relationship, and the consequences of that choice will be felt over time.

Now apply that to the B2B world.

These aren’t casual decisions. They’re not just about what you want, they’re about what’s going to work, what others will get behind, and what you can stand behind, too. You’re factoring in cost, team impact, internal politics, onboarding time, future-proofing, and yes, how the choice reflects on you if it doesn’t go to plan (yikes).

But it’s not just about the risk of embarrassment. It’s about risk full stop. Budget risk. Implementation risk. Cultural risk. Strategic risk.

That’s the difference mid-funnel makes. It’s where all those unspoken questions: “Will this work here? Will my team adopt it? Will this make me look smart or short-sighted?” get answered. Or they don’t, and the sale stalls. 

A simple framework to determine your mid-funnel marketing efforts. Is your product or service simple or complex, or somewhere in between? This matters greatly when designing your marketing funnel strategy.

Not sure where you rank? Take the Mid-Funnel Marketing Quiz. And in B2B, complexity increases when:

• The product is expensive

• It’s technically unfamiliar

• There are multiple decision-makers involved

• It requires behaviour change or internal process change

• The ROI is long-term, not immediate

• It’s an entirely new solution that didn’t exist before! Now you’re not just competing with an incumbent, you’re creating a new category or reimagining an old one.
  

That last one is key.

Many founders I work with are building innovative solutions, not faster horses, but entirely different vehicles. That kind of innovation doesn’t just need explanation, it needs belief.

So What Does Mid-Funnel Look Like?

“Ah! I’ll just create MORE content”. Not so fast there. It’s not necessarily about throwing more information after your potential customers, it’s about smarter content. Supportive content. Credibility-building content.

Think:

• Case studies with real context & storyline (not just logos + a testimonial)

• Explainer content that shows how it works and why it matters (bridging the knowledge gap between problem and solution)

• Use-case driven videos and looms (built around real pain-points not technical features)

• Comparison guides and “why now” messaging

• Webinars, Q&As, and demos that don’t pitch but teach (be the go-to-expert, not the steak-knife sales rep…”but wait there’s more!”)

• Nurture emails that speak to different stakeholders in the decision
  

This is where you help people go from “this sounds interesting” to “this makes sense and I can explain it to my team.”

Behaviour Change Is a Bigger Ask Than We Think

Marketing Guru, Rory Sutherland puts it this way:

“It is much easier to be fired for being illogical than it is for being unimaginative. The fatal issue is that logic always gets you to exactly the same place as your competitors.”

In other words: when a buyer chooses the known option, they protect themselves. Even if your solution is better, it’s also riskier, unless you’ve done the work to shift their beliefs, de-risk the decision, and make that “trust fall” feel safe.

When people are being asked to try something new (especially in front of colleagues or higher-ups) they’re not just buying your product. They’re betting on your judgment. And they need to feel confident backing that bet.

Real-World B2B Examples

• Slack didn’t just demo their tool, they built libraries of onboarding content and examples so every buyer could imagine the rollout.

• On24 provides educational Webinars and resources on marketing, content strategy and audience engagement, not just platform demos and sales calls.

• Canva scaled enterprise adoption through tailored case studies and persona-specific education.
  

They all invested heavily in the middle because that’s where confidence is built.

Quiz Time - Want to See How Your Funnel Holds Up?

Take the Mid-Funnel Quiz. It’s a 2-minute check-up to see where your product sits on the complexity scale and consequently, how much effort you have to put into your mid-funnel. 

Try the Mid-Funnel Quiz

Final Word

If your solution is new, complex, or behaviour-changing, you’re not just marketing a product. You’re marketing a mindset shift and behaviour change.

That shift doesn’t happen at the top of the funnel. And it doesn’t happen in one sales call either. It happens in the middle of the marketing funnel through thoughtful, bold and consistent ways of showing your customers why you're the one who deserves their trust and business.

So don’t leave your mid-funnel to chance.

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