Part five: conclusion Y’all ready for the final installment of marketing funnels are silly? I am! This one has been fun to write. I do apologize for it coming out with long breaks between installments. Life got in the way, but that happens! And ironically, something a lot of funnel tactics don’t account for. (I’m looking at you, countdown timers) What we’ve learned so far: Balancing company- and customer-centered needs when you make sales and marketing decisions is critically important...
7 months ago • 4 min read
Part four: creating a system that works for you Cool. So. So! So far in this series, you have seen the light about marketing funnels. They are nice and pretty BUT they are a failed attempt to simplify something deeply complex. They force organizations to make company-centered instead of customer-centered decisions. They create tunnel vision, causing people to miss or flat-out ignore signals customers are sending that say WE WANT THIS. All of this is because humans are chaotic. Your job in all...
7 months ago • 3 min read
Part three: why the chaotic nature of being a human makes everything really hard The topic of today’s installment of marketing funnels are silly series: HOOOMANS ARE CHAOS MACHINES In the first installment, I broke down why marketing funnels encourage company-centered decisions instead of customer-centered ones. The second one, I showed y’all how marketing funnels create tunnel vision, leaving companies sans happy customers and/or fewer customers overall. The thesis throughout this series is...
7 months ago • 2 min read
Welcome to part two of marketing funnels are silly. What you've missed so far: a fun pithy intro a deep dive into the difference between company- and customer-centered strategies and decisions And now... we’re talking about funnel tunnel vision! Part two: funnel vision The main concept of a marketing funnel is that a customer moves down a rung step by step. And most importantly, once they move down a step, they never (or rarely) engage with the stuff above anymore. That’s… not how humans...
8 months ago • 3 min read
Hey Reader, it’s time for part one of the email series marketing funnels are silly! If you missed the intro, go have a read. It’s a quick one. And now, on to the good stuff. Part one: Company or customer? In our opinion at Strange Birds, there are two main lenses to look through when it comes to marketing, growth, and retention: company- or customer-centered. If we went on the far end of the spectrum for a company-centered lens, we’d see decisions based on solely on profit. This lens...
8 months ago • 3 min read
Welcome to the first newsletter series of 2026: marketing funnels are silly! Ok, but, not to be click-baity about it, we don't think they are super dumb and totally unhelpful and a scam. We DO think they can hinder more than help. And that's what this whole series is about, Reader. Let's start with some 101: what is a marketing funnel? It is a "formula for people’s path to purchase." While I like this word "formula," I would push back on it. It's more like a nifty visualization tool to help...
9 months ago • 1 min read
In two weeks, on 26 November, we’re going to delist our podcast Flying the Coop from Spotify. It'll still be available on just about every other podcast platform, plus streaming on our own website. I wanted to lead with that so you’d know what I’m on about from the get-go. The rest of this email is about why. Breaking news, Spotify has blown up the moon!! Just kidding. But barely. The straw that actually broke this camel’s back is that they’re currently airing recruitment ads for ICE. There...
11 months ago • 5 min read
Y’all, we’ve MADE IT. The last email in the Reasons to Believe series is here!! Before getting into a bit of context around the template, a quick reflection on what it’s been like to write this series: I really enjoyed getting to break down one of my favorite things I do at work step-by-step!Creating RTB libraries is something that comes “naturally” to me; writing a whole series on it meant slowing waaaaay down and asking myself, “Why DO I do it that way? Is that the right way, or would there...
about 1 year ago • 4 min read
Welcome to part five of Sell the Why: Reasons to Believe. We’re aiming towards creating a Reasons to Believe library, a copy-paste compendium of proof to back up your story with data, written so it resonates with humans. We’ve come a long way to get here. In vol. 1, we set the stage: positioning gives you clarity, but outcomes are what make it land. In vol. 2, we mapped your stakeholders and asked the key Q: what do they need to believe to take action? In vol. 3, we sourced proof straight...
about 1 year ago • 5 min read
