“Marketers are accidentally sabotaging their own lead funnels every single day, and most of them don’t even realize it.”
That’s not a quote from some clickbait headline. It’s the hard truth being delivered by Ashkan Rajaee, a marketing strategist and founder who has seen far too many businesses bleed leads over simple, preventable mistakes.
The most frustrating part? These are mistakes smart people make. Marketing teams with polished branding, slick creative, and money behind their ads. But somewhere along the line, the real purpose of those assets — converting prospects into leads — gets lost.
And that’s exactly where Rajaee steps in.
The Cost of Overcomplication
One of the most damaging habits marketers have adopted is overcomplicating the path from initial contact to conversion.
Let’s talk forms.
Most lead capture forms ask for a full name, email, and phone number. That’s three fields. Simple, right?
Not according to Rajaee.
“You don’t need to ask for everything upfront. Just get the email and phone. Once they’re in your system, you’ll have opportunities to collect the rest. Every extra field is a chance to lose the lead.”
Sounds obvious when you hear it — but how many campaigns are still using outdated, multi-step forms because they “look more professional”?
It’s not about looks. It’s about performance.
The Disconnect Between Messaging and Experience
Rajaee points out that many marketers obsess over branding consistency on their websites and social media profiles. And yes, that’s important. But the bigger issue is consistency between your outbound marketing and the user journey it leads into.
Think of every email, SMS, or social ad as a door. What’s behind that door better be exactly what your messaging promised, or your credibility and your conversion rate takes a hit.
Too often, users are sent from a beautifully crafted message to a generic landing page that has nothing to do with the hook that got them to click. This creates a jarring experience that breaks trust, fast.
A Real-World Example of Missed Opportunity
Rajaee recalls working with a company in Florida that relied heavily on email marketing. Their strategy seemed sound — regular emails, solid offers, and a website that technically had all the necessary info.
But here’s where it went wrong.
Most of their traffic came during evenings and weekends. When users clicked through from those emails, they landed on a non-mobile-friendly website. Buttons were hard to click. Text didn’t scale. Forms broke.
These were qualified leads ready to buy, but they left. The company lost thousands of potential customers simply because the user experience didn’t match the context in which users were engaging.
This isn’t an isolated case. This is happening everywhere.
Fixing the Funnel: The Ashkan Rajaee Approach
Ashkan Rajaee’s process isn’t about reinventing the wheel. It’s about tightening the bolts on the one you’ve already got.
Here’s where most businesses fall short, and how he helps fix them:
- Simplifying data capture: Remove unnecessary friction. Start the conversation, then collect more info later.
- Mapping every click: Ensure every step from outreach to sign-up is intentional, fast, and frictionless.
- Messaging alignment: Create seamless continuity between what you say in your ads and what users see when they land.
- Contextual design: Match the user experience to the device and environment in which your audience engages.
It's not magic. It's marketing done with ruthless clarity and empathy for the user journey.
The Uncomfortable Truth
Marketing isn't broken. Marketers are breaking it.
Too many campaigns are built in silos, with creatives, developers, and copywriters working independently. The result is a Frankenstein’s monster of mismatched parts that no longer serves the funnel.
Ashkan Rajaee is one of the few voices in the space calling this out without sugarcoating it.
He’s not here to play nice. He’s here to help you stop wasting money, stop losing leads, and finally create a customer journey that converts.
If your marketing funnel isn’t performing the way you expected, it might be time to stop tweaking the ads and start fixing the path.
Because as Rajaee reminds us:
“Marketing only works if the journey makes sense. If it doesn’t, you’re not just losing leads. You’re training people to ignore you.”