Welcome to the Unclucked Series.

There will (probably) be 6 emails over 6 weeks of us going deep behind the scenes to show you how we knew we had a messaging problem, what we did to fix it, why that failed, and how we ultimately fixed it.

Why are we doing an email series, something we’ve never really done before?

1. We get to use the title “Unclucked” and that’s pretty hilarious
2. We figured out our messaging, so now we have better focus
3. We’re taking our newsletter more seriously. Lucky you!
4. Why not? It’s always worth trying something new

You ready Reader?

Cool cool cool because it’s happening whether you’re ready or not.

And because we think this will be wildly helpful to all of you who have been in our shoes. (maybe even right this very minute)

Part One:

Hey Doc, I don’t feel too good

aka symptoms of the problem

In my experience, businesses go through big changes every two to five years. It’s a dependable cycle.

It seems to be when things need to shift majorly, when all of the good planning you did two years ago is no longer serving you, and you’re forcing a square peg into a round hole.

Markets change.

Offers and products adapt.

The last thing to adapt?

Messaging and brand.

Welp.

About two years ago, Janel joined the Strange Birds flock, which means Strange Birds was hitting upon that two-year road bump.

But for us, the two-year road bump was more like a cliff we were about to drive off.

We were crystal clear on the kind of work we did.

But.

BUT!

We had a massive marketing problem.

Which was super embarrassing because we’re marketing experts.

That’s what our clients hire US to do.

Yikes.

How did we know we had a marketing problem?

Let me break it down for you.

1️⃣ When someone asked me who Strange Birds served, I would tuck my shoulders into my ears, wince my eyes, and say softly, “Kind of everyone?”

And then mumble something about “we don’t serve an industry, we serve a moment in time - when growth isn’t happening, when you hit a ceiling you can’t seem to break through, when you feel like you’re spinning your wheels.”

Which sounds cool!

But dang that’s vague as hell.

And doesn’t help anyone refer clients to us OR help us land clients.

2️⃣ When someone asked me what Strange Birds was, I’d turn my head to the left in a thoughtful stare, think for a bit, then choose between these three concepts:

1. We’re a marketing agency
2. We’re a marketing cooperative
3. We’re specialists who come at your feathery problem from two angles: marketing and retention

Um, hello incredibly vague. That’s two for two in the “vague as hell” category.

3️⃣ Janel spent longer than 30 minutes writing a single LinkedIn post. Every single time they tried to write one.

4️⃣ I had zero strategy with LinkedIn. I just posted what came to mind. Which was fun! But ultimately pointless.

5️⃣ It took us forever to write up pitches to potential clients. Forever. It should’ve taken less than one hour. It should’ve been easy. We should’ve been able to copy/paste and tweak just a few things to make it really sing.

6️⃣ Our win rate of projects was dropping dramatically. We were losing bids to projects a year ago we would’ve won without blinking. Our “vague as hell” meant we were getting lots of “nopes.”

7️⃣ We really liked HOW we worked, but couldn’t really translate the value of the ‘how’ into the ‘why.’ In other words, we had built an amazing offer but made it stupidly hard to understand. And we’re conversion copywriters. We should know better! But alas. We did not.

After a few months of WHY IS THIS SO HARD WHY ISN’T THE BUSINESS GROWING LIKE WE PLANNED I MEAN WE’RE SO COOL AND OUR CLIENTS LOVE US, we came to this conclusion:

Stay tuned for why that was the completely wrong conclusion.

Coming at you next week.

Cheers,

Anna (they/them)

🏳️‍⚧️✊🏳️‍🌈✊🇵🇸

What I'm reading

​The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson​

Janel told me to read this so I'm reading it. Holy imperialism, Batman! This is deep dive into the mind, body, and spiritual f-ed up control of empires. It's intense. But so good so far. I'm about 3/4 of the way and can confidently recommend. Also who knew a book about an accountant would be so compelling?