Let’s be honest: if you’re still talking about the marketing funnel in 2025, you might as well be faxing your leads. Or at the very least, it’s wildly unhelpful. Today’s marketing landscape is less like a linear slide into conversion and more like an ecosystem, a buzzing, interconnected system that only produces honey (aka revenue) when every part is functioning in harmony.

Buzzkill: The 95/5 Rule CEOs need to wake up to

Here’s the stat that should shake the boardroom: Only 5% of your potential market is actively looking to buy right now. That’s it. The other 95%? They’re not ignoring you, they’re just not ready. Yet.

This is where most growth strategies fall flat. If your marketing is only geared towards chasing in-market buyers, you’re playing the world’s most expensive and exhausting game of whack-a-mole. You need a system that attracts, nurtures, and activates future buyers before they’re ready to talk to sales.

Enter: The B2B Marketing Ecosystem™

Imagine your marketing organisation as an ecosystem. Not a hierarchy. Not a pipeline. A living, breathing, collaborative system.

Each component has a job:

• Strategy – The ecosystem’s compass. Guides where to play, how to win, and how to align teams, channels, and messages. Without strategy, it’s just noise.

• Brand and Awareness – Plants seeds in the minds of the 95%. Memory. Emotion. Distinctiveness. This is the foundation that sustains future growth.

• Performance and Demand Capture – Targets the 5% who are actually shopping. PPC, ABM, SEO. Essential, but not sufficient.

• Customer Marketing and Advocacy – Post-sale is where the real magic happens. Advocates amplify your message with trust. Referrals reduce CAC. Retention boosts LTV.

• Technology and Data Infrastructure – CRMs, automations, dashboards. Not glamorous, but without this, your ecosystem collapses. 

• People and Capabilities – The operators. Strategists, content creators, ops legends. You need both thinkers and doers.

• Investment and Budget – Let’s get real: no resources, no results. Underfund your ecosystem, and don’t act surprised when it produces nothing.

CEOs, here’s your wake-up call

Modern marketing isn’t a department, it’s a revenue-driving operating system. It’s accountable, it’s technical, and yes, it needs proper investment. You wouldn’t expect your sales team to close deals without a CRM, or your product team to ship without engineers. So why treat marketing like a cost centre instead of a growth engine?

This isn’t about vanity metrics or fluffy campaigns. It’s about building sustainable, compounding revenue. One component at a time.

Final word

Stop thinking in funnels. Start thinking in ecosystems. The future of marketing belongs to those who build systems, not just sprints.

Want to see how the B2B Marketing Ecosystem could transform your growth strategy? Let’s talk.