FACT: Two Things Could Be True At Once

I truly believe the greatest philosopher of our times was a New York Yankee Baseball player named Yogi Berra:

“When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” – Yogi Berra

OK… maybe he is not the greatest philosopher of our times, but he's not wrong (and he is funny). When you come to a fork in the road, you have to take one of the two to keep moving forward, but you could also decide not to take the road and go off-road.

Another great philosopher I admire is Neil Peart (the drummer of the band RUSH).

“If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.” – Neil Peart

We, as humans, prefer to make binary choices. This is especially true in business:

1. Yes or No – The most basic binary choice for making decisions.
2. Accept or Reject – For proposals, offers, invitations, etc.
3. Now or Later – Timing decisions.
4. Win or Lose – In competitions and games.
5. Save or Spend – Financial decisions (...and the old but grayest of binary choices).
6. True or False – Often used in logic, testing, and evaluating statements.

It's much harder to choose from 3 or more answers:

1. More Complexity: Having 3 options generally introduces more complexity into the decision-making process compared to just 2 options. With 3 choices, there are more factors and tradeoffs to consider.
2. Cognitive Load: Evaluating 3 options typically requires more mental effort and cognitive resources than deciding between 2 alternatives. This can make the decision feel more challenging.
3. Avoiding False Dichotomies: Only considering 2 options can sometimes lead to an artificial “either/or” mentality. Having 3 choices helps avoid this trap.
4. Increased Decision Time: On average, it will likely take somewhat longer to decide between 3 options compared to 2, as there is more information to process.
5. Context-Dependent: The difficulty increases from 2 to 3 options can vary significantly based on the specific context and complexity of the decision at hand.

When you make binary choices, you decide that, at this specific point in time, in your specific circumstances, one choice is right for you, while the other is wrong.

Today I would like to discuss the fact that sometimes when faced with two choices, both can be true and right for you simultaneously.

AI vs Human Content Creation

There is a debate about whether and when AI content will be as good or better than human-generated content.

I believe that it will always be a mix of both.

Two Truths

The two lists above (the binary choices and 3 options) were generated by AI. I rearranged and edited them to my liking so they fit better with the concepts I am trying to get across today. Although there are people in marketing who will use AI to generate content and post that as humans, I believe that both are needed, necessary, and can co-exist in marketing to help create awareness, educate, and generate sales.

• Artificial Intelligence compiles content that was primarily generated by humans, so it is both computer and human content.
• You can use AI to rewrite your human-generated content and use your personality and experience to enhance and add your signature to it.
• You can use AI to generate ideas and concepts that you can use within your personally written content.

Website vs Social Media

It's a fact that websites are becoming less discoverable in today's internet world. The information on them is getting harder to find via search. This is because AI is being used to generate answers without attribution to its multiple sources and without linking back to them for a deeper dive and more content.

Social media is being seen as the place to post the content that used to be posted to your website (making some websites obsolete). Yet, social media platforms' algorithms may denigrate or hide posts with links to your source content. Without links, what and how will viewers and customers take action?

I believe that business marketing success will always be a mix of both.

Two Truths

In today's online marketing world, it is best when all aspects of online content work as an ecosystem, yet many try to create silos that are meant to attract different audiences.

In the B2b space, your best audience and your best content have an intimate relationship. The content should inspire those who know you to take action. That content can and should be housed on your website and then summarized and distributed on video, graphics, text and whatever the social media platform supports or specializes in.

Social media should drive traffic back to your website, and your website should make it easier for people to follow you on social media. Both should work in concert.

• Websites are great for longer-form content, while social media is better for short quips and concepts. Both can utilize the same content.
• Websites and social media will continue to make it harder to promote your ideas and concepts for free. The combination may simultaneously reach different audiences for different reasons.
• Websites and social media are best accessed by people who already know, like, and trust you and your business. The more personal the relationship, the more impactful your message will be to your audiences.

Sales vs Marketing for Business Generation

When I worked in bigger companies, sales and marketing were silos. These silos had teams, and often those teams were located on different floors or even different buildings. When it comes to small to mid-sized businesses, they may have separated teams, but they should not be thought of as separate silos. They should be unified in methods, messaging, and purpose.

I believe that business marketing promoting sales and sales promoting marketing are both possible and necessary simultaneously.

Two Truths

If your sales messages resonate with customers and generate sales, why would you not want to capture that and reinforce it to your current customer base? Also, if it resonates with current customers, would it make sense to see if it will resonate with future prospective customers?

This is why I feel so strongly about working hard to create conversations and synchronicity with your sales & marketing people, teams, processes, and messaging methodologies. Collaborative will consistently outperform competitive when it comes to growing your business sales.

• Marketing content should be developed and derived from trends, questions, and discussions between your sales team and customers.
• Sales promotions and presentations should be derived from and complementary to the marketing messages being promoted to customers.
• Sales and marketing should not only work from the same playbook but also write the plays together.

Closing Thought

Business is often portrayed in sports analogies. It's win or lose, offense or defense. So, do we have a Sales Playbook or a Marketing Plan?

If someone is an expert in websites or social media, they will argue that they are more important. Then, people who work in the AI world will say that AI is faster and more cost-efficient than the human version of content creation.

I prefer the musician metaphor. Music requires melody, harmony, rhythm, and structured chords, requiring multiple musicians and singers to make a song come alive. The bigger the group of musicians, the harder it is to get the perfect blend. Still, it is only through working together and listening to each other's skills and talents that you can turn multiple sound sources into a pleasing combination.

You can hold two truths at once. Sales and marketing will benefit from great human and AI-generated content and ideas that can be distributed to your website and social media by collaborating with your sales and marketing teams.

To quote Yogi again…

“If you don’t know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.”