Short spoken reaction arguing that the marketing 'funnel' metaphor is misleading: customer acquisition is likened to popcorn—buyers convert at different times. The speaker advises marketers to maintain steady, persistent follow-up ('steady heat') rather than over-communicating (burning leads) or stopping follow-up (losing them to competitors).
I'm reacting to some of my most popular tweets. Everyone talks about building a funnel, but funnels are a lie. Customer acquisition is more like popcorn. Some buyers pop instantly. Some never pop. Most take time and steady heat. Your job isn't to force it. It's to keep the flame steady. It's a fact. The Internet has changed the way that marketing happens, and most marketers make one of two mistakes. They either crank up the heat too quickly and they wind up burning out the leads, or they turn the heat all the way off. They stop following up because they're afraid of people unsubscribing, or they're afraid of getting people getting upset. And when there is no heat, they don't pop at all. Or worse, they pop in a competitor's pot. So what do we need to do as marketers? We need to make sure that we're always there. We need to make sure there's a steady application of heat so that when they are ready to pop, they pop in your pot.
