AI is reshaping how businesses attract, engage, and retain customers, and HubSpot’s Loop Marketing playbook builds directly on this shift. Instead of linear funnels that often leave prospects behind, the loop is powered by AI-driven insights, automation, and personalisation, which helps businesses create an ongoing cycle of connection. From identifying the right audience to deepening loyalty, AI tools embedded in platforms like HubSpot ensure that each stage of the loop is data-informed, responsive, and scalable. For businesses, this means marketing strategies that not only reach customers more effectively but also continuously improve with every interaction.
HubSpot recently unveiled its Loop Marketing playbook at Inbound 2025, introducing a fresh way for businesses to think about customer engagement. The Loop is not just a rebranding of the funnel; it represents a significant shift in how marketing can drive growth at a time when buyer behaviour is unpredictable and AI-driven tools shape discovery.
For years, the funnel has guided marketers, but cracks have been showing. Customers rarely move from awareness to decision in a straight line anymore. They enter at odd points, leave midway, return after months, and often make decisions with the help of AI-powered recommendations rather than just your sales team. A linear model doesn’t capture this.
The Loop does. It recognises that marketing is continuous, circular, and adaptive. Businesses don’t just push customers down a path; they create cycles of expression, personalisation, amplification, and refinement that keep spinning. Each stage on the loop makes the next one smarter.
In an earlier Loop Marketing article, we explored why this shift matters. This article looks at the how: practical ways businesses can apply the Loop, where to start, and what success looks like in action.
What Makes the Loop Different?
The funnel was useful when marketing moved in predictable stages. You attracted attention, nurtured leads, and closed deals. Once done, you started over. The funnel was linear, measurable, and easy to plan.
But today, journeys are nonlinear. A prospect might follow you on LinkedIn for a year before engaging. Another may discover you through an AI-generated search snippet, compare you instantly with competitors, and drop off because they didn’t see a tailored message. Someone else may only interact with you after a peer’s recommendation.
The Loop accounts for this fluidity. It’s built around four connected stages - Express, Tailor, Amplify, and Evolve. Instead of an “endpoint,” each stage feeds into the next, creating a cycle of improvement. The Loop goes beyond campaigns with start and end dates, and builds a living system that keeps learning.
Can You Start at Any Stage of the Loop?
Yes, and this flexibility is one of its biggest strengths. Businesses don’t need to enter at the “top” like with the funnel. They can begin at the stage that best addresses their immediate need.
Express: Define your voice and value
The Express stage is where you sharpen your identity. Too often, businesses rush into campaigns without first clarifying what they stand for. If your brand voice is inconsistent, if your team can’t agree on what makes you different, or if your messaging confuses rather than connects, Express is where you start.
Here, businesses create a unified narrative that reflects both who they are and who they serve. This can include building tone guidelines, refining your ICP (ideal customer profile), and testing messages against real customer feedback. AI tools can help by simulating responses from different buyer personas or analysing which words resonate most in your market.
The stronger your expression, the easier it becomes to tailor and amplify later on.
Tailor: Create relevance for each audience
Even strong brands lose impact if they speak in generalities. Tailor moves from “one size fits all” to personalised communication. This doesn’t mean writing a different email for every prospect; it means segmenting smartly and using AI to scale personalisation.
In practice, this might involve identifying key personas (CFOs vs CIOs, for example) and shaping content around their priorities. For the CFO, focus on ROI and cost efficiency; for the CIO, highlight scalability and integration. Tailoring also extends to channels. While some personas respond to in-depth whitepapers, others prefer short videos or quick comparison charts.
By tailoring well, businesses ensure that their marketing feels relevant rather than intrusive. It creates trust and improves engagement, making Amplify more effective.
Amplify: Extend your reach and visibility
Content without reach is wasted effort. Amplify ensures your message travels further and lands where it matters. We are not talking about publishing more. Instead, we need to distribute smartly and optimise for discovery in the age of AI-driven search.
That means creating content formats that can be repurposed across channels. Think about a webinar that can become a blog, a blog that becomes a series of short LinkedIn posts, and a LinkedIn post that sparks a podcast topic. It also means optimising for AI search engines like Google SGE or Perplexity, where users may never visit your website but will still encounter your brand through answers.
Amplification requires experimentation with platforms, influencers, and even timing. Done well, it ensures your tailored content actually reaches the right audiences.
Evolve: Optimise and improve continuously
This stage is where the Loop’s circular nature comes alive. Instead of campaigns that end with a final report, Evolve builds measurement and learning into the system. It involves asking: What worked? What didn’t? What can we predict next time?
Businesses here use analytics and AI models to track performance across touchpoints - not just clicks, but engagement depth, sentiment, and buying signals. These insights aren’t stored in a quarterly report; they’re fed back into Express, Tailor, and Amplify almost instantly.
Over time, Evolve makes marketing smarter. So a campaign that underperforms isn’t a failure; it’s data that sharpens the next loop.
What’s the Best Way to Use the Loop?
The Loop does not require following the steps in order. It supports building a system. Here’s how businesses can make it work.
Step 1 — Understand the principles
The Loop is built on three guiding principles:
- Human + AI balance: AI can test, predict, and scale, but it can’t replace human creativity. A brand’s strongest expression still comes from people.
- Continuous learning: Unlike the funnel, there’s no “end.” The loop keeps spinning, and each pass makes the system stronger.
- Customer-first: The loop only works if every stage is tied to customer needs. Internal vanity metrics won’t sustain it.
Understanding these principles ensures businesses don’t treat the Loop as just another campaign template.
Step 2 — Pick your starting point
The best entry is where your gap is widest.
- If your voice is unclear → Express.
- If your engagement feels flat → Tailor.
- If your reach is limited → Amplify.
- If your reporting feels reactive → Evolve.
This step avoids paralysis. Instead of waiting to “do everything,” you start where impact is most immediate.
Step 3 — Apply AI within each stage
AI is the enabler that makes the Loop scalable. Here’s how it can be applied:
- Express: Use AI-powered sentiment analysis to see how prospects perceive your messaging. Generate brand tone variations and test them.
- Tailor: Create content variations for each persona at scale. AI can generate 10 versions of an email while keeping core messaging consistent.
- Amplify: Optimise for AI search. Ensure your answers appear in AI assistants that summarise web content. Use AI to schedule and repurpose posts automatically.
- Evolve: Run predictive models that highlight which campaigns are likely to generate conversions next quarter. Use AI to flag underperforming segments in real-time.
AI doesn’t replace marketers here, but powers speed, scale, and precision.
Step 4 — Build the right foundation
The Loop thrives on integration. Without connected data and tools, insights get stuck in silos. Businesses need:
- Clean data: Consistent, reliable customer information across systems.
- Connected platforms: CRM, automation, and analytics tools that talk to each other.
- Agile teams: Marketers who can act quickly on insights, not wait for quarterly reviews.
Practical tip: audit your tech stack and workflows. If your CRM isn’t synced with marketing automation or sales reporting, the loop will stall at Evolve.
Example: An IT Services Company Launching a New B2B Line
Let’s see the Loop in action. Imagine an IT services company launching a new cloud migration service for mid-sized firms.
Express
- Define ICP: mid-market IT leaders, CFOs, and operations heads.
- Build a messaging guide: “confidently technical, approachable, results-driven.”
- Test positioning statements with AI surveys to see which resonate.
Tailor
- Segment audiences into IT leaders (security, uptime), CFOs (cost savings, ROI), and operations (business continuity).
- Develop tailored assets: whitepapers for IT leaders, ROI calculators for CFOs, and checklists for operations.
- Personalise outreach emails using AI-driven variations.
Amplify
- Turn the ROI calculator into a LinkedIn carousel.
- Repurpose a technical whitepaper into a video explainer.
- Optimise content for AI search queries like “best cloud migration for mid-sized businesses.”
- Partner with a well-known CIO blogger for reach.
Evolve
- Track engagement: which persona downloaded the most assets?
- Use AI analytics to predict industries most likely to convert.
- Refine messaging weekly, dropping underperforming themes and doubling down on winners.
Instead of a one-off campaign, the company now has a living system of expression, tailoring, amplification, and evolution that keeps strengthening.
Why the Loop Matters for Your Business
The Loop is more than a framework. It’s a mindset shift. Businesses that adopt it gain:
- Adaptability: They can pivot quickly when customer behaviour changes.
- Efficiency: AI reduces manual load, freeing teams for strategy.
- Resonance: Customers see content that feels made for them.
- Compounding growth: Each cycle adds to the last, building momentum.
In fast-moving markets, these aren’t advantages; they’re essentials.
Conclusion
Loop Marketing reflects how customers truly engage with brands - in cycles, not straight lines. By applying its four stages, businesses can create marketing that learns, adapts, and improves with every turn.
Start where your need is greatest, use AI to make each stage more effective, and let insights flow forward. Over time, your marketing will go beyond campaigns and start to run itself as a living, learning system.
That’s the promise of the Loop. It’s a framework that works with the way people actually buy today.
Authors
Ganapathy Sankarabaaham
CEO & Founder
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Swetha Sitaraman
Lead - Thought Leadership
