Last week was crazy!
I spent most of the week with my own mastermind group in Manchester, getting the input and face-time with my own coach and fellow mastermind members. Then Friday saw me host the fiorst Online Biz Meet Up of 2025. Lots of people, lots of travel, but I love it!
This meant that I hadn't written this week's newsletter, so it was my No.1 task for today.
After last week's newsletter was all about how to simplify anything in your funnel that was too complex, I was able to follow on from this theme as I presented for around 90-minutes to my mastermind group.
I also had a few questions sent to me by DM over on Instagram that I want to pull together a little here for you today.
The reality is that the questions I have been asked, in person and online, are all reinforcing the truth I already know… business owners are drowning in complexity, thinking more systems equal better results.
As a focus this week, I want to share why complexity is killing your funnels. And then what you can do to start to look at bringing simplicity into it all.
Why Do Complex Funnels Fail?
While writing my book Simplify The Funnel, I looked back at some o the total failures in my agency days (yes, I got some things very wrong… as well as getting some things very right) and I am going to give you the top five reasons why complexity is the kryptonite for a success marketing funnel.
Complex Funnels Are Difficult to Implement
I can't count the number of times I've seen clients fall into "analysis paralysis," endlessly planning and tweaking their funnels but never fully launching them.
The more stages, technology integrations, and touchpoints we add, the more overwhelming it becomes - not just for us, but for our audience too.
Looking back, for many clients, a streamlined funnel would have been launched far sooner and would have allowed optimisation through real-world feedback rather than endless pre-launch fine-tuning.
The ease of implmentation means a faster time to get to market and often a cheaper way to get there too.
Complex Funnels Are Expensive to Maintain
I've seen clients who felt they needed to subscribe to a CRM, an email marketing platform, a video hosting service, a landing page builder, a webinar service, and several third-party integrations just to get a single funnel running.
This didn't just increase costs - it made troubleshooting a nightmare. Every time something broke, whether it was an API integration failure or a payment gateway glitch, it caused delays, frustration, and additional costs.
Many clients abandoned their funnels after realising the cost-to-reward ratio just wasn't there.
Complex Funnels Confuse Customers
"Complexity often leads to confusion, and confusion kills conversions."
I've watched clients build funnels with multiple upsell pages, down-sell offers, follow-up sequences, and retargeting ads, thinking more options meant more sales.
The opposite happened most of the time. Their customers became confused, not knowing what the next step was or why they were being offered another product when they hadn't even decided on the first one.When your customers are presented with too many options or steps, they get overwhelmed, lose trust, and are more likely to drop out entirely.
Complex Funnels Are Hard to Optimise
When we used to build grand, multi-layered funnels, pinpointing what was working and what wasn't became our biggest headache.
Was the problem with the landing page? The email sequence? The pricing? The upsell offer?
With too many variables, it's nearly impossible to find where the issue lies. When we implemented simpler funnels with fewer stages, we could clearly see where leads were falling off and make data-driven adjustments quickly.
Complex Funnels Are Inflexible
The business world evolves quickly. The online world even more so. Complex funnels tend to be rigid, making it difficult to pivot when market trends change or new opportunities arise.
Even a small change could require hours of reworking multiple sequences, landing pages, and ad sets. The inflexibility of overly complex systems led to missed opportunities, as businesses were too bogged down in details to adapt when needed.
The Power of Simplicity
One of my clients, Tom, came to me after spending over £8,000 on a "complete marketing system" from a well-known guru. The funnel had 14 different email sequences and required 7 different software subscriptions to run.
After three months of struggling to implement this system, Tom had generated exactly two sales totalling £594.
We scrapped everything and started fresh with a simple three-step funnel:
- A targeted Facebook ad leading to...
- A £37 quick-start Career Switching guide that led to...
- A single sales page for his £997 Career Coaching program (with a one time or a 3 part payment option)
Within the first month of launching this simplified approach, he enrolled 9 new clients in his coaching program - generating £8,973 in revenue with less than £1,200 in ad spend.
The difference? Clarity and simplicity.
Your customers don't want complexity. They want clarity. They want to understand exactly what you're offering and how it will help them.
Your Action Steps This Week
1 - The Tech Stack Audit
- List every marketing tool you're paying for monthly
- Calculate your total monthly tech cost
- Identify which tools are essential vs. "nice to have"
- Look for overlap in features
2 - The Funnel Streamlining Challenge
- Map your current customer journey
- Eliminate any step that doesn't directly move people toward a purchase
- Reduce your customer journey to maximum 3-5 steps
- Make sure each step has one clear call to action
3 - The Clarity Check
- Have someone unfamiliar with your business review your funnel
- Ask them to explain back to you what you're selling
- Note where they get confused or hesitate
- Simplify those areas immediately
A Personal Note
This past week, I was speaking with a new implementation client who was convinced they needed a complex marketing machine to compete in their industry.
"Everyone else has fancy funnels with all these bells and whistles," they said. "Don't I need that too?"
I showed them three of my client case studies where simpler funnels outperformed complex ones by 300% or more.
Then I asked them one question that changed everything...
"Would you rather have an impressive marketing system or impressive sales numbers?"
The truth is, you don't need complexity to succeed.
You need clarity.
After almoset two decades of building funnels for clients across dozens of industries, I've never seen a complex funnel consistently outperform a simple one.
Never.
Simple wins. Every time.
Speak soon,
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