What I talk about when I talk advocacy: Marketing funnel in beauty & advocacy rewrought

In contemporary marketing, Awareness is literal, but Advocacy is a euphemism. Most brands speak of advocacy, but actually mean referral. It’s a vulgar route in my mind, which assumes turning customers into ‘brand advocates’ (read brand referrers), a kind of non-transactional Multi-level Marketing. The approach has had its day, but today is not that day.

But true advocacy isn’t about rewarding customers for saying good things about you. It’s about standing for something real, and having customers align with that.

Especially in categories like beauty and wellness, where the consumer is already self-aware, if not self-absorbed—a brand can’t afford to be self-obsessed. I have always believed that advocacy must stem from what the brand believes in, not just what it sells, something that we advocate to the world to believe in too.

For us it is ‘the new beautiful’, which is woke, self-aware not self-obsessed, and firmly rooted in science and safety.    

We have to look beyond the classic AIDA model. People are better informed today, better connected, and rightly demanding. The brand’s success lies not just in how many it reaches, but in how many it converts, not just in terms of ‘clients’, but in terms of believers in what we advocate. The objective has to be three-fold.

We call this the 3C Advocacy Framework:

• Create the funnel with a clear belief system, not just an offer.
• Compress it through purpose, because a cause has the power to accelerate decision making.
• Confer agency to the consumer, allowing them to own the belief, carry it forward, and shape the conversation.

This isn’t just performance marketing. It’s belief-led brand building, where advocacy begins long before the testimonial and far beyond the transaction.

The lines between beauty and wellness are fluid now, and so are the rules of engagement. Consumers don’t just want to look good, they want to feel good, they want to define what that means too. This demands a marketing approach that’s not just full-funnel, but full-experience.

Beauty, not surprisingly, acts as a significantly stronger funnel for customer entry, driving over 2X of the conversion of wellness-led journeys. And it makes sense. Not just because beauty services often have lower barriers to entry, faster gratification, and more frequent touchpoints, but also because it is a more tangible and seductive outcome. It also serves as a ‘safe space’ for new consumers to engage with the brand, an accessible entry into a much deeper, better rounded wellness narrative.

Category journeys are now being designed basis this insight. Beauty campaigns are no longer standalone, the services and the narratives are strategically designed to seed deeper wellness conversations. When a consumer comes in for a beauty service as simple as a facial, it’s not just a one-off transaction. It’s the first moment in a relationship that might lead to holistic lifestyle guidance, fitness solutions, gut health support, or long-term skin therapy. That’s the funnel reimagined.

What truly powers this new funnel is customer ownership (not us owning the customer, which you never do, but the customer owning us) across the entire lifecycle, not just at the point of media acquisition. It is what turns a customer into a client.

CRM-led personalization is now being strengthened, partnering with consumers across what we call ‘moments of truth’. From the first appointment confirmation to treatment feedback, from post-service care tips to reminders for preventive check-ins, we’re not just chasing leads; we’re co-creating value at every step.

I’ve personally seen these efforts being paid off. At one point, I’ve seen a 100% growth in both reach and leads, and more importantly, over 50% growth in new client acquisition. But what excites me more is the quality of the client engagement. These were not one-time buyers. They entered structured journeys where content, service, and care build trust continuously.

Traditionally, we measured success at the point of conversion. But in today’s attention and experience economy, that’s only the midpoint. The true marker of brand love is advocacy, and not necessarily that of the brand, but of the ideal the brand stands for. It’s when consumers voluntarily talk about the shared belief system, their experience, and point the world in that direction, becoming co-creators of your brand narrative, that Advocacy can be said to have worked.

Have seen this clearly in organic social listening. Some of the most high-performing content isn't celebrity-driven, it’s stories shared by real people who saw real results. And that’s where beauty and wellness marketing converge with community. Such campaigns are not monologues; they’re public conversations, driven by ‘the zeal of the new convert’.

The beauty and wellness consumer today is not linear (and they probably never were). She’s not moving predictably from awareness to interest to purchase. The funnel is an analytical tool, and a tool for comprehension, which doesn’t necessarily reflect her journey. She’s exploring, doubting, checking reviews, asking friends, comparing prices, and repeating steps.

And what’s more, when you get it right, it’s like ‘love at first sight’, when the entire funnel, gets compressed to one point of experience and decision-making.

Because now, she’s more self-aware, more outcome-driven, more loyal to a ‘way of life’ than to brands.

Our job as marketers is not to force her through the funnel, but to meet her where she is, and to stay with her as she evolves.

In that sense, marketing in this category must mirror the wellness journey itself: personalized, patient, purpose-led, and evolving with life stages.

That’s the approach, we as marketers, need to build on - from awareness to advocacy, not as a linear path, but as a dynamic, ongoing relationship. Because what we’re really marketing isn’t just a service. It’s a belief. And done right, it is the most powerful funnel of all.