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
• ​Focusing in on one or two metrics like conversions or audience growth means you’ll miss out on some pretty big opportunities
• Building out a strategy that allows for the chaotic nature of humanity is hard but necessary work
• You can start that strategy by understanding how long your sales cycle is and what channels you should be active on

At this point in the series you’re probably thinking ok but what do I actually do?

The answer isn’t another simplified framework to replace the marketing funnel.

If you noticed in the last installment, I asked you to start by thinking about sales cycles and channels.

Yeah, friends.

The answer to your marketing woes isn’t another system you can plug into.

The answer is a diagnostic that tells you where you actually are.

The thing with marketing funnels and their ilk is that they allow you to skip the audit part of the process.

They say “do this!” and voila, the marketing plan is done!

What they don’t do is make you take a closer look at your own, unique ecosystem.

And that’s where they truly fail.

Sorry if this feels like a bait and switch?

I bet some of you were hoping I was going to end this series with a silver bullet of 🤑HERE IS THE MAGIC SAUCE TO GROWTH🤑

I mean, I kind of am?

The magic sauce is in the slowing down, the deepening of your understanding of your customers and your team’s capacities, and making the right decisions to move your business forward.

We've been working with a client who is a seasoned service provider with an excellent reputation, strong referral network, and clients who deeply value working with her.

Despite that, growth felt random and luck-dependent. She couldn't figure out why.

We ran her business through our NEST system.

Sustainable, long-lasting organizations rely on one simple principle: people taking action.

There are four main actions people need to take to ensure your organization thrives:

1. Noticing you
2. Engaging with you
3. Staying with you
4. Telling others about you

The N.E.S.T. system lays it all out for you: every channel all in one spot so you can understand how they all fit together, quickly spot the gaps, and make informed decisions on where you need to focus next in your marketing and communication efforts.

We like the NEST system not just because it’s a great acronym and we’re proud of the birdiness of it, but because it helps account for the chaotic nature of humanity in your growth efforts.

People interact with your brand in various ways.

It's never as clean as a 'funnel.'

With NEST, you can clearly see all of the different touch points a stakeholder might have with your brand, as well as how much engagement you should expect from them.

For example, if a stakeholder is at "Stay," then you can confidently assume they are also receiving pieces of content that fall under the "Engage" and "Notice" circles too.

No one piece of content has to do all of the work, ever.

Let me say that again.

No one piece of content has to be Atlas for your business, carrying the entire load.

So please, post that post to LinkedIn. Send the newsletter.

Unless you’re saying something completely unhinged, it will NOT break your business.

When we finished part one of the NEST system for our client—diagnostics—the gap was immediately obvious.

Her Notice layer was almost nonexistent.

Her best thinking never made it into public-facing language.

The funnel instinct would have been: BUILD EVERYTHING.

Rebuild the website, start a community, get on all the channels.

Instead, sequencing discipline said: prove your positioning at one layer first — we chose LinkedIn — before touching anything else. Website and community building were deliberately deferred.

The work isn't done yet, but the diagnostic alone changed what decisions she was making and why.

NEST sees where you are, which in turn tells you what work to do first.

It's about SEQUENCING, and also telling you what NOT to build yet. And it’s all built on the fact that people can enter your system at any layer -- not just top to bottom (like a funnel).

You’ve already done a part of the first step of NEST: diagnostic.

The last installment of this series had you lay out your channels and decide where to focus your energy.

Now, I am asking you to be ruthless.

What can you cut?

What can you defer, deliberately, and say “not right now”?

What ONE action will get the ball rolling in the right direction?

And when I say ruthless, I mean it.

Don’t fall prey to the marketing bros out there who will tell you that if you aren’t doing abc and xyz you aren’t doing it right.

Sequencing is way more important than throwing a bunch of spaghetti at the wall.

Plus, it’s a giant waste of spaghetti. (spaghetti = your time, money, and effort)

Choose ONE thing to focus on.

(and don’t think you have to choose something in Notice aka outreach, maybe the right thing to keep your business growing is actually in Tell, like building out a referral engine)

Test out your new idea there.

Iron out the kinks.

THEN expand to other layers of your NEST.

You’ve got this.

Take the time to audit and diagnose what’s ailing your business growth.

Save your spaghetti!

If you want us to build your NEST for you, we’ve got space for two lucky ducks.

NEST takes about two weeks, start to finish.

Fast, focused, and fun because it’s with us and we’re super weird.

And that's all folks!

Thanks for sticking with me on this series!

Going forward, Tuesday emails will no longer be every Tuesday.

We’re switching to a more relaxed schedule, only sending out emails when they are super salient and/or we want to do another series.

Cheers,

Anna (they/them)

🏳️‍⚧️✊🏳️‍🌈✊🇵🇸

What I'm reading

​The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch​

Janel told me to read this book so I'm reading it and I'M SO GLAD THEY DID BECAUSE IT'S FUN. Easy to get into, classic light fantasy read, interesting characters. Yup. This is a good one so far.

A podcast about rethinking how business works - and who it should work for.

Episode 15 features Meg Rye, a one-of-a-kind recruiter and coach.

​If you want a different take on how to build a business, listen to this episode.​

Next episode drops Thursday!