Marketing funnels are no longer enough, and you’ve probably felt it in the form of declining traffic, scattered buyer journeys, and tactics that worked last year and are failing today. That’s why HubSpot introduced the Loop Marketing tactic, a four-step framework designed to help you adapt and grow in the AI era.
Unlike traditional funnels that assume buyers follow a linear path, loop marketing creates continuous learning and optimization cycles that become more acute with each use.
In this guide, I’ll explain exactly what loop marketing tactics are, why they outperform funnels, and how to implement them step by step, even if you’re still running funnel-based campaigns. Let’s dive in.
Table of contents
What is Loop Marketing?
Loop Marketing is a four-step playbook that combines artificial intelligence with human strategy to drive growth. The Loop Marketing Playbook relies on teams of humans and AI working together to reach and delight consumers in a world where AI answers questions before potential buyers have the opportunity to click on a website for answers.
The four phases of loop marketing are as follows, and I will discuss them in more detail later in this post:
- Express
- Tailor
- Strengthen
- Evolve
Why Loop Marketing Tactics Beat Funnel Marketing Tactics in the AI Age
While funnel marketing was once a proven method, the marketing landscape has changed and what worked a few years ago no longer works today. Here are the facts:
Funnels take on linear, predictable paths
The classic funnel represents the stages from awareness to consideration to decision and assumes that buyers follow a set journey that business owners can control. However, these days the path to purchase is no longer as linear; Instead, they hop between channels, ask AI assistants questions, browse Reddit threads, watch YouTube reviews, and text friends with recommendations.
Your audience might discover you on TikTok or do some research on ChatGPT before they’re ready to make a purchase.
Funnels are static
Traditional funnels typically run on quarterly or semi-annual cycles. Typically, you plan a campaign, run it, and wait for results before analyzing and adjusting it months later. In the age of AI, this is far too slow. Customer preferences change quickly and competitors can use AI tools to launch campaigns within days.
Now you know why the funnel model is outdated. Here’s how loop marketing helps you win in the age of AI.
Loop marketing meets buyers where they actually are
Loop marketing Strengthen stage explicitly addresses the multichannel reality. Instead of directing everyone to your website, optimize for:
- AI search engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude)
- YouTube and TikTok for video discovery
- Community platforms, forums and Reddit where buyers get authentic opinions
- LinkedIn for B2B decision-makers
By optimizing for multi-channel discovery, you make your brand visible in all the places your audience naturally searches and explores.
Loop marketing uses AI for speed and scalability
The Express And Tailor Stages use AI to:
- Generate personalized content variations for different segments in hours, not weeks
- Analyze customer data to automatically identify audiences with high purchase intent
- Create multi-format content (articles, videos, carousels, ads) from a single campaign brief
- Personalize at scale by customizing every email, landing page, and CTA
Loop Marketing continually learns and improves
The Evolve This phase is where loop marketing becomes truly effective. Instead of waiting for quarterly reviews:
- AI monitors performance in real time and reports anomalies
- You can run quick A/B tests on headlines, offers, and audiences
- Each campaign immediately informs the next, creating composite learning
- Predictions help you optimize before Start campaigns, not just afterwards
This creates a Compound interest advantage: Each cycle makes your marketing sharper, faster and more efficient.
Loop marketing creates self-reinforcing growth
Unlike funnels where customers “exit” after purchasing, loop marketing uses each customer interaction as fuel for the next cycle:
- Customer feedback improves your brand expression
- Purchase data refines your personalization
- Engagement patterns influence your reinforcement strategy
- The results continuously optimize your development speed
We call it a “loop” because it gains momentum with each completion, rather than starting from scratch with each new campaign.
Implement marketing tactics gradually
Stage 1: Express (Define your brand identity)
Create your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)
Identify exactly who you are targeting by learning about their goals, challenges, needs and the language they use. Use AI to efficiently analyze reviews, customer calls, comments and community discussions and extract patterns.
Create your style guide
Define your brand’s unique value proposition, mission, tone, do’s and don’ts, and non-negotiables. This becomes the instruction manual to ensure AI-generated content sounds authentic and not generic.
Generate campaign concepts
Develop creative campaign ideas based on your style guide that clearly explain why buyers should choose you over the competition. Claim your distinctive part of the market.
Important tools: Breeze Assistant (for ICP analysis), Brand Identity (for creating style guides), Marketing Studio (for generating campaign assets)
Level 2: Tailored (Personalize your messages)
Enrich your data
Collect behavioral signals, intent data, firmographic data, and contextual information from your CRM, call logs, and website behavior. Fill gaps in customer records to understand exactly where each buyer is in their journey.
Create audience segments
Leverage enriched data and intent signals – such as: B. Pricing page visits or email engagement – to create targeted customer segments based on behavior, industry, role and purchase stage.
Make content personal
Create customized content that meets the unique needs and interests of each segment. Create landing pages, emails, ads, and CTAs that dynamically adapt based on your industry, role, stage, and even time of day.
Ensure human quality controls
Overlay human review with AI-generated personalization to maintain accuracy and ensure content feels genuinely helpful and not creepily automated.
Important tools: AI-powered contact enrichment, AI segmentation, personalization agent, AI-powered email
Stage 3: Amplify (Expand Your Reach)
Create your content strategy
Plan how your campaign will come to life across different formats (articles, videos, carousels, podcasts) and channels (owned, earned, paid).
Optimize your channel mix
Diversify your presence to reach new customers and create competitive advantage. Prioritize:
- LLMs and AI Search (ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity)
- Video platforms (YouTube, TikTok)
- Community platforms and forums (Reddit, G2)
- Professional networks (LinkedIn)
Extract more format and channel value
Mix any content into multiple formats optimized for each channel – turn a blog post into an AEO-optimized article for ChatGPT, a vertical video for TikTok, a carousel for LinkedIn, and a podcast script.
Enable targeted ads and creators
Combine smart ad targeting with partnerships from subject matter experts and developers your audience already trusts. Ads get you in the right feed; YouTubers get you in the right conversation.
Use AI to scale content creation
Use AI tools to automate the production and reuse of promotional materials at scale, turning hours of manual work into minutes.
Optimize each channel for conversion
Design every touchpoint with clear, contextualized CTAs and smooth flows so that every click feels like the natural next step.
Important tools: Marketing Studio (for multi-channel planning), Customer Agent (for 24/7 engagement), AEO Grader (for AI search optimization)
Stage 4: Develop (continuously optimize)
Predict before you publish
Use AI to predict which customers and campaigns are most likely to convert and identify potential issues or pain points before campaigns go live.
Monitor performance in real time
Track engagement and conversion signals as they occur. Let AI highlight anomalies and patterns so you can spend more time adjusting your strategy instead of wading through data.
Conduct quick experiments
Run quick A/B tests on headlines, offers, CTAs, audience segments, and creative assets. Test multiple variables at once to learn faster.
Never stop optimizing
Instantly apply insights from each experiment to your creative, targeting, and budget allocations. Each optimization makes your next campaign sharper, faster, more economical and harder for the competition to imitate.
Important tools: Marketing Analytics (for performance dashboards), ChatGPT Deep Research Connector (for pattern analysis), Email Engagement Optimization (for predictive sending)
Frequently asked questions about loop marketing tactics
How do I start loop marketing if I’m still using funnels?
Luckily, you don’t have to give up on your funnel to start loop marketing.
Pick the phase that solves your biggest problem—be it inconsistent messaging (Express), generic content (Tailor), declining traffic (Amplify), or slow optimization cycles (Evolve)—and overlay it with what you’re already doing.
Your existing CRM data, email sequences, and content library are integrated directly into the loop, and most teams see improvements within 30 to 60 days of implementing their first phase.
Do I need consistent data for personalization at scale?
Yes, consistent data is essential for personalization at scale, but “good enough” is always better than perfect. Here you can find out what is important when it comes to uniform data sets:
When customer data is scattered across your CRM, email tool, and analytics platform, you risk awkwardly welcoming long-time customers or promoting products they already own. A unified data set creates a source of truth so you actually know if, for example, someone visited your pricing page twice and opened every email that month. Consistent data takes the guesswork out of personalization.
First, connect your three core systems:
- CRM (customer information)
- Marketing automation (campaigns)
- Website analytics (behavioral tracking).
These three give you enough data to create segments, personalize emails, and create landing pages that indicate where customers actually are in their journey. Add sales platforms, support tickets, and purchase history as you grow.
Don’t worry too much about perfection when starting out, because the goal is to have enough consistent data to prevent the wrong message from being sent to the right person.
What is AEO in Loop Marketing?
AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) is a method that allows you to mention your brand when people ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Claude a question instead of searching for it on Google.
This is an important part of the Amplify phase as almost 60% of searches now end without a click. People get their answers directly from the AI. So if you’re not optimized for these tools, you’re invisible.
To appear in AI Answers, structure your content with clear question-and-answer sections that directly answer frequently asked questions, use consistent language that matches your customers’ actual language, and make it easy for AI engines to retrieve and cite your information.
Think of it this way: SEO gets you ranked on Google, but AEO gets you recommended by AI.
How is loop marketing different from flywheel marketing?
The Flywheel is a growth philosophy that illustrates how customer dynamics drive business growth through the Attract, Engage, and Delight process. Loop marketing is the tactical operating system that makes the flywheel turn faster.
Basically the flywheel tells you Why Customer success creates more customers, that’s what Loop Marketing tells you How to actually do this in four continuous phases (Express, Tailor, Amplify, Evolve).
The loop provides a practical framework for creating content, personalizing it on demand, distributing it across channels, and optimizing it in real time. These are not competing strategies; Rather, loop marketing is how you operationalize the flywheel in the AI era, adding speed and AI-powered efficiency to your growth engine.
Which phase should I prioritize first?
Start with the phase that addresses your biggest pain point. There is no “correct” order here.
If your brand messaging feels inconsistent or AI tools like ChatGPT are misrepresenting you, start with Express to refine your voice and ideal customer profile. If your brand is solid but everything you send feels generic and engagement is decreasing, consider using it Tailor to create segments and personalize at scale.
Are you struggling with declining traffic or are your customers not seeing where they’re actually looking? Strengthen helps you diversify your channels and optimize for AI search engines. And if you are already seeing success, but your optimization cycles are taking forever, Evolve allows you to test, learn and adapt in days, not quarters.
Most teams see improvements within 30 to 60 days of completing their first phase. So pick the gap that’s costing you the most right now and start there. You can add the additional phases at any time as soon as you have the necessary momentum, because Loop Marketing is modular.
Loop marketing is a modern, AI-powered approach that replaces linear funnels with a continuous cycle of four phases: Express, Tailor, Amplify and Evolve. Unlike traditional funnels, loops learn and improve with each cycle, increasing results over time.
Each phase has specific tactics: define your brand voice and ICPs, personalize with unified data, diversify and optimize sales for AI engines, and test and adapt quickly.
Start by identifying your biggest bottleneck and applying the right phasing tactics using tools like Smart CRM from HubSpot and Breeze AI. Are you ready to create your loop? Get started with the Loop Marketing Playbook for free.


