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For years, I've had to convince CEOs to do “leap of faith marketing” on LinkedIn.
I KNOW LinkedIn is the right move, buuut it was impossible to see how engagement impacts pipeline.
But not anymore. Dreamdata just integrated with LinkedIn’s Company Intelligence API.
So for the first time ever, Dreamdata pulls organic impressions and engagement directly from LinkedIn and maps it into the customer journey.
Meaning: Organic impact is now fully visible — paid + organic in one view.
And they didn’t stop there.
They used this data to analyze how B2B teams are actually performing on LinkedIn.
So if you want to see what your strategy is really doing — and how it stacks up…
Check out their new LinkedIn Benchmarks Report.
A couple years ago, I presented my content strategy to the C-suite at Clari.
I opened in an unexpected way:
"Before we dive in, I want to be honest. There is no such thing as a funnel."
The room froze (and not because we were on Zoom).
Because they think marketing = funnels. And that's a big friggin' problem.
But here's the thing:
Top-of-funnel, middle-funnel, etc... that's marketing talk. Buyers don't think that way.
I've bought plenty of software in my career. Not once did I wake up thinking "you know what, I'm feeling pretty middle-funnel today."
And I've sold even more software. No buyer has ever identified as a funnel stage. I've never heard someone say "we're top of funnel on this purchase" or "we're BOFU-ready."
Why TOFU/MOFU/BOFU doesn't work
Aside from being gross acronyms that make me cringe when said aloud...
Most marketing teams don’t even agree on what they mean.
It's become vague shorthand for "not ready yet" (TOFU) or "super ready to buy" (BOFU).
And middle funnel? Good luck getting three marketers to agree on what that means.
But it’s based on how buyers actually think.
And luckily, there's a better way.
One that focuses on mindset and behavior, not arbitrary stages.
The 5 Stages of Awareness
In 1966, legendary copywriter Eugene Schwartz published Breakthrough Advertising, which would become one of the most influential marketing books ever written.
In it, he introduced the 5 Stages of Buyer Awareness:
Forget the funnel. This is how buyers actually move.
If you've ever heard (or said) "we need to meet buyers where they're at" — this is how.
It also helps you market with crisp intention and defend your decisions.
For example:
We don't write thought leadership to sound smart — we do it to make unaware buyers aware of the problem you solve.
We don't create comparison pages because "everyone has them" — we create them for solution-aware buyers who are evaluating categories and need to understand how we're different.
We don't offer tailored demos and ROI calculators for fun — we build them for product-aware buyers who are saying, "convince me you're right for us."
This framework gave me — and the teams I led — more clarity and conviction in our decisions.
Very helpful when sales, CEO, and non-marketing stakeholders are slacking you non-stop with another "great campaign idea."
Here's your new filter for content creation
Now when you're creating content, you have a new filter: who is this really for?
Not just "VP of Operations."
But: VP of Operations who is stuck running forecast calls with stale data and manually updating spreadsheets — and I want to make it clear that's not just "the way it is." There's a better way.
What you need to know
For each awareness stage, you need to understand four things:
- The awareness stage itself - Where are they in their journey?
- Buyer mindset - What are they actually thinking?
- Message needed - What narrative moves them forward?
- Content type - What should you create and/or send them?
But here's what I'm seeing with most marketing teams:
You probably have content heavily weighted toward one or two stages, then completely missing in others.
Maybe you've got tons of "thought leadership" (Stage 1-2), but nothing for Stage 3 buyers who are actively comparing solutions.
Or you've got great demo content (Stage 4), but nothing that makes unaware buyers realize they even have a problem.
So if your content isn't converting...
You might be marketing to a funnel instead of a person.
Want to know where your content is quietly leaking pipeline?
I'm taking on three content audit clients through the end of the year.
I'll review your content, map it against all five awareness stages, then identify gaps.
You’ll go into 2026 knowing exactly what to build — and what to stop doing.
Schedule time here to get started.
Holler at you later,
Devin
Pen by Devin Reed
Founder, The Reeder
Follow me on LinkedIn | YouTube | TikTok | Instagram
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