Latest / The Marketing Funnel Podcast with Fexingo: Awareness, Interest, Decision, and Action Stages / How Marketers Are Rethinking the Awareness Stage
Transcript
- Lucas: So the awareness stage is in trouble. And I don't mean that in the vague 'everything is broken' way marketers love to say. I mean the numbers are getting worse across the board — cost per thousand impressions up, click-through rates down, and the average person now sees somewhere between four and ten thousand ad impressions a day. People are just not noticing. Luna: Right. And the platforms aren't helping. Meta's algorithm has been squeezing organic reach for years, and even paid reach is getting noisier. So what do you actually do when the top of the funnel is clogged? Lucas: That's exactly the question. And I want to talk about a specific brand that tried something that — on paper — sounds almost retro. It's a mid-market outdoor gear company called Sisu Gear. Not a household name, but they've got a loyal following in the Pacific Northwest. They make hiking backpacks, cook kits, that kind of thing. Luna: I know Sisu. They're the ones with the lifetime warranty on their tent poles, right? Good brand. But what did they do that was retro? Lucas: They pulled most of their budget out of Facebook and Instagram awareness campaigns. And they put it into — wait for it — local public library partnerships and in-person gear workshops. Luna: Libraries? Like, where you borrow books? Lucas: Exactly. And community centers, and a few REI co-op classrooms. The idea was: instead of trying to interrupt people while they scroll, they'd create a reason for people to come to them. So Sisu Gear approached ten library systems around the Portland and Seattle metro areas and offered to run free, two-hour Saturday workshops on things like 'how to pack a 40-liter backpack' or 'three-season tent setup in under ten minutes.' Luna: And the libraries said yes? Lucas: Most of them did, because they're always looking for free programming that gets people in the door. Sisu provided the instructor — usually a local outdoor enthusiast who already used their gear — and a small kit of demo products. The library handled promotion through their own email lists and flyers. Luna: So the library essentially becomes the awareness channel. That's clever because you're inheriting their trust. But does it actually move the needle? I mean, how many people show up to a Saturday workshop at a library? Lucas: They tracked it carefully over six months. Average attendance was about 22 people per session. That doesn't sound like much, but they ran 48 workshops total, so we're talking roughly 1,050 in-person attendees. But here's the key: they also captured email addresses from every attendee — 94 percent opt-in rate because people who come to a workshop are already interested. And then they measured what those people did next. Luna: I'm guessing the conversion rate was good. Lucas: Better than good. The cost per first website visit from a workshop attendee was about one dollar and forty cents. Their average cost per visit from their old Facebook awareness campaigns was two dollars and thirty cents. So a 40 percent reduction. And the workshop cohort's email capture rate? Twenty-three percent higher than their best-performing lead magnet — and that was a 15 percent off coupon. Luna: That's really specific. And the quality of those customers? Lucas: That's where it gets interesting. Average order value for customers who came through the workshop funnel was 18 percent higher than customers acquired through paid social in the same period. And the return rate within 90 days was lower — 12 percent versus 21 percent. So these are genuinely more engaged buyers who are less likely to return a backpack because they actually know how to use it. Luna: So the workshop isn't just an awareness play — it's also doing some of the work of the interest and decision stages. They're pre-educating people before they even hit the website. Lucas: Exactly. Sisu's CMO told a trade publication that they basically compressed the top three funnel stages into a single two-hour experience. The awareness happens when someone sees the library flyer. The interest builds during the workshop. And the decision is shaped by the hands-on interaction with the gear. By the time someone lands on sisugear.com, they're already 80 percent of the way to a purchase. Luna: But I have to push back a little. This worked for a niche outdoor brand in a region with a strong outdoor culture. Can this scale? Can you do a library workshop for, say, a software as a service product? Or a snack brand? Lucas: Fair question. I don't think the literal 'library workshop' translates to every category. But the principle does. The principle is: find a trusted intermediary that already has the attention of your target audience, and create a low-friction, high-value in-person or live event that lets people experience your product in context. For a SaaS company, that might be a co-working space lunch and learn. For a snack brand, it could be a free tasting at a farmers market. The key is that you're not paying for attention per impression. You're paying for relevance per person. Luna: That makes sense. And I think the timing is right for this. There's a real fatigue with performance marketing. I've seen data from a few agencies showing that cost per lead on Meta has gone up something like 30 percent year-over-year for the past two quarters. Marketers are desperate for alternatives. Lucas: Exactly. And the Sisu Gear case is compelling because it's not about abandoning digital — they still run search ads and a modest email program. But they fundamentally changed where awareness comes from. Instead of trying to capture demand, they're creating it. Luna: And this is a marketing show, so if these conversations about rethinking funnels have sparked something you've actually tried at work, or even just a new way of thinking about your own buying habits — a couple of dollars a month genuinely makes a difference in keeping these episodes ad-free and coming out every week. That's at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Lucas: Yeah, it really does. Every little bit helps us keep the research time and the editing time sustainable without having to jam in sponsorship spots. So thank you to anyone who's chipped in. Luna: Alright. Back to the funnel. So, Lucas, one thing I'm curious about: Sisu Gear's workshop model — is there any data on how the attendees found out about the workshops? Was it mainly the library's email list, or did Sisu drive any traffic themselves? Lucas: They tracked that. About 40 percent came from the library's own promotional channels — email newsletters, website calendars, posters inside the library. Another 30 percent came from word of mouth — attendees telling friends. And the remaining 30 percent came from Sisu's own social media posts about the workshops, which they did run, but at very low spend — maybe a hundred dollars per workshop city for a local geo-targeted boost. So the library basically did the heavy lifting. Luna: That's a beautiful arrangement. The library gets free programming, Sisu gets warm leads. And the attendee gets a free class. It's a genuine win win win. Lucas: Right. And it signals something bigger, which is that the awareness stage in 2026 might need to look less like a broadcast and more like a series of micro-communities. The brands that are going to win top of funnel are the ones that stop trying to be everywhere and start trying to be somewhere — somewhere specific, trusted, and relevant. Luna: I think that's a really good way to frame it. So the question for marketers listening is: where is your version of the library? What existing trusted space — physical or virtual — already holds the attention of the people you want to reach? Lucas: That's exactly the question. And if you find it, the cost per awareness might be lower than you think. I'll be curious to see if more brands try this in the next year. Luna: Me too. I think we'll see a lot more in-person, community-rooted awareness plays. The digital ad market is just too saturated. Lucas: Alright. That's Sisu Gear and the library workshop funnel. Thanks for listening.