From Content to the Deal: How Marketing Today Shapes the Entire Customer Journey
Just a few years ago, the role of a digital marketer was often limited to managing social media, creating content, and running ads. Today, that’s no longer enough. Businesses increasingly need specialists capable of seeing the entire customer journey: from the first interaction with an ad to submitting an inquiry, communicating with a manager, and ultimately closing a deal.
This is precisely the approach to marketing that Anastasia Gutsalyuk is developing—a specialist with experience in content, PR, audience analysis, and CRM, who began working with the Polish real estate company HB Premium in 2022.
Before transitioning into this field, Anastasia worked for several years in the creative and music industries. This experience, she says, taught her to view marketing in a much broader context than just advertising.
“Content alone doesn’t sell anything. Someone might see a beautiful video, hit ‘like,’ and forget about it a minute later. It’s important for a business to understand what happens next: who this person is, why they became interested, whether they left their contact information, and whether they eventually spoke with a manager,” Anastasia explains.
Marketing Doesn’t Start with Advertising
According to the expert, one of the biggest mistakes is launching a campaign without understanding the prospective buyer.
This is especially noticeable in the real estate sector, where the decision to buy differs significantly from a typical online purchase. The client evaluates not only the visual appeal of the offer but also the price, location, their own financial capabilities, and dozens of other factors.
Therefore, before creating an ad, it’s essential to determine exactly who it’s intended for.
Anastasia analyzes the potential audience, their interests, and behavior; this information then influences the ad’s content, visual presentation, and campaign settings.
“I always try to put myself in the shoes of the person on the other side of the screen. What do they need to see to stop and take notice? What information do they need to take the next step? A marketer must think not only about what the company wants to say, but first and foremost about what the customer needs to hear.”
Content Is Just the First Point of Contact
In Anastasia’s work, content, advertising, and analytics don’t exist in isolation.
She works with visual materials, videos, and ad copy, helps set up campaigns on Facebook and Instagram, and tracks audience engagement.
However, obtaining a potential buyer’s contact information is not the ultimate goal.
The next step is to pass on the information for further work with the client. This is where, according to the expert, CRM systems and structured data management become particularly important.
CRM allows you to view each lead not as an isolated case, but as part of a sequence: where the person came from, which offer they were interested in, and what happened after the contact was handed off to a manager.
For a marketer, this creates an opportunity to evaluate advertising not only by the number of views or reactions.
A lead isn’t a result yet
Anastasia emphasizes: a large number of inquiries does not necessarily mean a successful campaign.
Ten people who truly match the buyer profile can be more valuable to the company than a hundred random leads.
That’s exactly why marketing must be integrated with the sales department.
“It’s important for me to know what happened to the leads after the ad. Do the people match the profile? Are they genuinely interested in the offer? Do they move on to the next stage? Without this, a marketer only sees half the picture.”
This kind of feedback allows us to refine the target audience, the advertising message, and the content itself.
According to the expert, one of the key changes in modern digital marketing lies precisely in the shift from evaluating individual metrics to analyzing the entire customer journey of a potential client.
From Creativity to Data
Anastasia Gutsalyuk’s professional experience has been shaped at the intersection of several fields. Working in the creative industry gave her experience in content creation, PR communications, coordination, and audience research. Her transition to real estate marketing added to this experience work with advertising campaigns, CRM, and the analysis of potential customers’ behavior.
She considers the combination of creative and analytical approaches to be one of the most important competencies for a modern marketer.
“You can’t just be a creative person and ignore the numbers. But it’s also not enough to simply open a spreadsheet and look at the metrics. You have to understand why people behave the way they do and what needs to be changed in your communication.”
This is changing the very role of the marketer. Marketers are increasingly working at the intersection of the roles of analyst, audience researcher, copywriter, content specialist, and liaison between marketing and sales.
A Complete Journey Instead of Isolated Ads
For Anastasia, an effective digital marketing model looks like a sequential process:
First comes audience analysis, then I move on to creating an advertising concept, followed by developing the content itself, and then I set up and run the ad campaign. Next, we receive a lead inquiry, which is routed to the CRM system, and a sales manager handles the lead. After guiding the client through to a purchase, I receive feedback and, of course, optimize and make adjustments—or leave things as they are, since the ad is generating good “hot leads.”
Each subsequent stage provides information for the previous one. If managers receive irrelevant inquiries, we need to review the target audience or the ad copy. If the ad attracts attention but people don’t leave their contact information, we need to look for the cause at a different stage.
That’s exactly why I don’t view marketing as a process that ends after clicking the “publish” button.
“For me, a good ad isn’t one that just looks nice or gets a lot of views. It must lead the right person to the next step. And what’s most valuable for a business is when that path ultimately leads to a deal.”
In 2023, this approach is becoming increasingly relevant for companies that strive not just to have a presence in the digital space, but to understand the economic impact of their marketing efforts.
Anastasia Gutsalyuk’s experience illustrates how the profession itself is evolving: from creating individual advertising materials to building an interconnected system in which content, data, CRM, advertising, and sales function as parts of a single customer journey.
