Marketing Hourglass: A Solo System for Repeat Sales

Most solopreneurs don’t have a marketing problem—they have a follow-through problem.

You post consistently for a month, get a few leads, close a couple of clients… and then everything resets. The pipeline goes quiet. So you go back to “more content,” “more networking,” “more ads,” or whatever tactic is trending in SMB marketing circles.

Here’s the stance I’ll defend: funnels are a bad mental model for one-person businesses because they train you to stop at the sale. And for a solopreneur, the sale is the beginning of profit, not the finish line.

A better model is the Marketing Hourglass framework—a customer journey system that goes past purchase into retention and referrals. It’s especially useful in the SMB Content Marketing United States world, where budgets are tight, attention is fragmented, and you need content marketing to do more than “generate awareness.”

Why funnels fail solopreneurs (and what to use instead)

Funnels assume a straight line: awareness → consideration → purchase. Then marketing hands off to “customer success,” “account management,” or “community.”

If you’re solo, that handoff doesn’t exist. You are the marketing department and the retention department. When your funnel stops at “Buy,” your system silently tells you: go hunt again. That’s expensive in time, money, and emotional energy.

The Marketing Hourglass flips the priority:

• It treats repeat business as the primary growth engine.
• It builds trust before contact (because buyers research long before they DM you).
• It operationalizes referrals so they happen on purpose, not by luck.

There’s also a hard-numbers reason this matters. Research frequently cited in retention strategy shows that a 5% increase in retention can increase profits by 25%+ (Harvard Business Review, 2014). For a solopreneur, that’s not a “nice to have.” That’s the difference between stable revenue and constant scrambling.

The Marketing Hourglass stages (Know → Refer) in plain English

The Marketing Hourglass is a seven-stage customer journey: Know, Like, Trust, Try, Buy, Repeat, Refer. Each stage corresponds to a question your customer is asking.

The value for solopreneurs: it gives you a content marketing map so you’re not randomly posting. Every piece of content and every touchpoint has a job.

1) Know: “Who are you?”

Answer-first: Your job is to be findable for the problems you solve.

For US-based SMB content marketing, this often looks like:

• Search-friendly blog posts targeting specific intents (e.g., “CPA for Shopify sellers in Texas”)
• A tight Google Business Profile if you serve a region
• Short social posts that name the problem clearly (not your service list)

Solopreneur move I like: pick one channel to be your “home base” (often your blog) and repurpose out to social. That keeps content production manageable.

2) Like: “Do I like your style?”

Answer-first: People choose the pro they feel comfortable with.

This is where personality and positioning show up—without becoming performative:

• A newsletter that sounds like a human wrote it
• Behind-the-scenes decision-making (“why I don’t offer hourly rates”)
• A simple origin story on your About page that connects to customer outcomes

If you’ve ever lost a deal to someone less skilled, it was probably a “Like” gap.

3) Trust: “Can you actually deliver?”

Answer-first: Trust is proof, not promises.

For solo service businesses, the highest-ROI trust assets are:

• Case studies with numbers (even small ones)
• Testimonials that mention a specific transformation
• Reviews that are recent and consistent

Practical tip: build a “proof library.” After every win, capture:

• What the client had before
• What you did
• What changed (metric, timeline, emotional relief)

Then reuse those proof snippets across your site, proposals, and social.

4) Try: “What’s the risk?”

Answer-first: A low-risk next step converts indecision into momentum.

A “Try” offer is not “book a call.” It’s something that reduces uncertainty:

• A 15-minute fit check (not a full consult)
• A paid mini-audit with a fixed scope
• A template/checklist that demonstrates how you think

Solopreneur lens: your “Try” should protect your calendar. The best Try offers are bounded (clear time limits, clear outputs).

5) Buy: “Is this right for me?”

Answer-first: Make the buying decision easy and the onboarding fast.

Common solo bottlenecks:

• Confusing packages
• Too many options
• Slow follow-up because you’re busy doing client work

What works:

• One flagship offer (plus 1–2 add-ons)
• A simple purchase path (invoice/checkout, intake form, kickoff)
• “Early win” onboarding: deliver something useful in the first 7 days

Early wins reduce refunds, ghosting, and buyer’s remorse.

6) Repeat: “Should I stay?”

Answer-first: Retention is a content marketing strategy.

This is the stage most SMBs ignore, and it’s the one that makes solo growth sustainable.

Simple repeat drivers you can run without a team:

• A monthly “what to do next” email to customers
• A quarterly check-in (templated agenda, 30 minutes)
• A client-only resource hub (FAQs, recordings, SOPs, templates)

If you sell projects (websites, branding, consulting), build a “next logical step” ladder:

• Project → maintenance plan
• Audit → implementation sprint
• Setup → optimization retainer

You’re not forcing upsells. You’re preventing customers from falling back into the same mess.

7) Refer: “Who else needs this?”

Answer-first: Referrals don’t happen because you ‘did a great job.’ They happen because you made them easy.

A lightweight referral system for solopreneurs:

1. Pick one referral trigger moment (e.g., after a milestone or positive feedback email)
2. Ask with specificity: “If you know 1–2 founders who need X, can you intro us?”
3. Provide a copy-paste blurb they can forward
4. Acknowledge advocates publicly or with a small thank-you

Also: build shareable assets—short case studies, a simple “who I help” page, or a one-page PDF overview.

Memorable truth: A funnel ends at revenue. An hourglass ends at reputation.

A one-person implementation plan (that won’t blow up your week)

Answer-first: You don’t implement the whole hourglass at once. You patch the biggest leak first.

Here’s a realistic approach I’ve found works for solo operators running US SMB content marketing on limited time.

Step 1: Map your current touchpoints (60 minutes)

Open a doc or spreadsheet and list every touchpoint you have:

• Blog, homepage, landing pages
• Social profiles
• Newsletter
• Sales call process
• Proposal template
• Onboarding emails
• Offboarding process
• Review/referral ask

Label each as Know/Like/Trust/Try/Buy/Repeat/Refer.

You’ll spot gaps fast. Most solopreneurs are heavy on Know and Buy, light on Try, and almost nonexistent on Repeat/Refer.

Step 2: Add one asset per stage (over 30 days)

Make it small and shippable. Examples:

• Know: 1 SEO blog post targeting a high-intent keyword in your niche
• Like: 1 “how I work” newsletter issue + consistent cadence (weekly or biweekly)
• Trust: 1 case study page (even if it’s short)
• Try: 1 bounded offer (mini-audit, assessment, starter kit)
• Buy: 1 simplified package page + onboarding checklist
• Repeat: 1 monthly customer email template
• Refer: 1 referral request script + copy-paste intro text

Do not attempt daily content. Systems beat volume.

Step 3: Measure what actually predicts growth

Answer-first: Track the metrics that make solo businesses calmer: retention and referral volume.

Start with:

• Repeat purchase rate (or renewal rate)
• Referral leads per month
• Customer lifetime value (even a rough estimate)
• Time-to-first-value (days from purchase to first meaningful result)

If your analytics only measure impressions and clicks, you’ll keep optimizing for attention instead of revenue.

What the hourglass looks like in the real world (quick case example)

One of the clearest illustrations of the hourglass model in action is a dental practice case study shared by Duct Tape Marketing: after adopting the hourglass approach—improving awareness and trust assets, adding low-risk entry points, streamlining the buying experience, and nurturing patients after visits—the practice reported:

• 1,287% increase in website traffic
• 659% increase in Google Business Profile views
• 300% overall practice growth

The numbers are dramatic, but the mechanism is simple: the business stopped treating marketing as “get a lead” and started treating it as “guide a relationship.”

Solopreneurs can apply the same logic without the same scale:

• Make it easy to sample your thinking (Try)
• Deliver a clean onboarding (Buy)
• Stay useful after delivery (Repeat)
• Ask for intros at the right moment (Refer)

“People also ask” (solopreneur edition)

Is the Marketing Hourglass only for local businesses?

No. It works for consultants, freelancers, creators, e-commerce brands, and B2B services. The stages are about buyer behavior, not geography.

What if my business is mostly one-off projects?

Then Repeat becomes “next best step.” Package a follow-on offer: maintenance, optimization, training, refresh cycles, or quarterly strategy.

What’s the fastest stage to improve when you need leads now?

Usually Try and Trust. A bounded trial offer plus stronger proof often increases conversions without increasing traffic.

Your next move: build the system that runs when you’re busy

The Marketing Hourglass framework is a practical way to make SMB content marketing in the United States feel less like roulette and more like operations. It doesn’t ask you to post everywhere. It asks you to cover the full customer journey, especially the part after people pay you.

If you want a simple starting point, do this this week: write down your last 10 customers and identify how many came from Repeat or Refer. If the answer is “almost none,” you’re not behind—you’ve just found your highest-leverage improvement.

When you stop treating the sale as the finish line, your marketing gets easier to run solo. What would change in your business if 30% of next quarter’s revenue came from existing customers and referrals instead of brand-new leads?