Most marketers understand that the buyer’s journey isn’t linear, but many businesses still plan their acquisition strategies as if it is. The reality is far more complex. The path to purchase is unpredictable and unique to each customer, and is more like crossing a river than following a straight line.

Customers arrive at decisions on their own terms. Some move fast, some move slow. Some retrace their steps, others leap ahead. No two journeys look exactly alike, and trying to force every prospect through the same funnel risks missing opportunities.

That’s where the River Analogy comes in. Rather than viewing customer acquisition as a straight line, we reframe it as a crossing, where dozens of stepping stones represent the many ways someone might interact with your brand along the way. A YouTube ad, a retargeting campaign, an email, a testimonial, a landing page, all of these touchpoints help customers move from interest to action.

Conversion is about showing up along the path rather than attempting to control it. When brands focus less on attributing the exact step that led to a sale and more on placing helpful, timely content across the journey, they’re better equipped to guide more people across the metaphorical river.

In this video, Brolik CEO Jason Brewer explains how marketers and business owners can rethink attribution and build more adaptive acquisition strategies that meet today’s buyers where they are.

Video Transcript:

I think about the customer journey in not as much of a linear fashion as I used to.

Obviously, I think about the vertically-oriented customer acquisition funnel from awareness to consideration to conversion, and how we've had this methodical approach, and we bring customers through that in this very perfect and linear way.

And it's just not at all the truth. The truth is that the customer journey is scattered. It's inconsistent from one customer to the next. It could be totally different. For one, it could be a year-long sales cycle, and they touch your brand 15 times before they make a purchase.

For someone else, it could be a three week decision-making process where they see an awareness ad and go to your site, and then a few days later, make a purchase. So, I think understanding that there's such a variety, I like to think about this river analogy when I approach customer acquisition.

Fifty potential customers are on the other side of the river. We need to get them across this wide river to convert them. And there are dozens of scattered stones lifted just slightly above the river's surface, and those 50 customers potentially will take a slightly different route across that river. Some of them will skip across, take a few big leaps, and jump across to our side of the river and convert as a customer.

Now, I'm thinking of these stones as they see a YouTube ad. Initially, they step on that stone, and they have another touchpoint. Maybe it's a retargeting ad, or it's an email they see a promotion, or some sort of benefit of working with you, or buying your product. That's the last stone they step on, and they get across to our side of the river. They convert as a customer, but in truth, it could be a variety of different ways.

They get across the river and step on stones. They backtrack, they go sideways. One is very cautious and takes seven to nine touchpoints to get across. One is a quick mover and makes a buying decision very quickly. Jumps on two big leaps across the stones and makes it across. And this gets into attribution. It doesn't matter which ones they step on, or if they step on all of them to make it across the river.

If you hop across, touch two, and make it across quickly, fine. If it takes you a while and you take your time and you're very cautious, fine. As marketers, we just need to make sure we place our ads, our messaging, and our content in the right places in that journey so that they can make it across. It doesn't matter how they get across.

I think we fixate too much on that last stone. And as marketers, we can't be thinking about the acquisition funnel as this perfectly linear thing. We need to put the right content, the right ads, and the right messaging, and make it accessible to people so they can find us and hopefully decide to work with us at their own pace.

Helping Businesses Build Customer Acquisition Strategies

The traditional funnel model can’t keep up with the way today’s buyers make decisions. Customer journeys are fluid, nonlinear, and often unpredictable—more like a river than a straight line.

Adapting to this reality requires a shift in strategy. It means building marketing strategies that are flexible and designed to meet customers wherever they are in their journey.

This is where a thoughtful partner can make all the difference. At Brolik, we help businesses uncover the touchpoints that matter most, create meaningful content for each stage, and build acquisition strategies that reflect how people buy.

If you're ready to rethink your approach to customer acquisition, reach out to us—we’d love to help you get your customers across the river.