The Biggest Marketing Myths… Busted!

Hello, and welcome fellow Awsomologists to Awsomology. I’m Sue.

And I’m Ben.

And in this episode, we’re busting some of the most prevalent marketing myths and giving you the facts we’ve learned over our long, beautiful careers.

Storied careers.

I was going to when I wrote these notes, I was going to try and think of a number. I was gonna try and put figure out a number to what that would be.

Of years?

I the number of years combined between the two of us, but then I got shy about it. Oh. It’s like, oh, I don’t know. How old is that gonna make me feel?

Well yeah.

Didn’t love it.

Yeah. There’s no yeah. There’s no avoiding the number, Ben.

How old are you?

What’s the number?

Forty.

I’m I’m forty.

Yeah.

The, you know, the number might make us feel old, but as marketers, we need to brag about those numbers when we can.

So Yeah.

Good point.

It’s okay. We just have to be a piece of that.

My estimate is that it’s combined forty years.

Yeah. For sure.

Like, twenty A little over twenty five for me, a little over fifteen for you.

Yeah. I graduated I graduated college in o four, and, I mean, immediately after that was in print marketing. So that’s twenty one years for me. You know?

Of course Oh my gosh. Various, you know, I mean, that I was a youngster and still learning a lot. I don’t know if I would have considered myself a, quote, unquote, marketer right out of college, but I was certainly contributing to our customers’ marketing and the industry as a whole. So, yeah, I’d say twenty one years for show.

K. So that makes it forty seven.

Perfect. Oh, man. Let’s celebrate our fiftieth in a few years. Actually, I guess, a year and a half when we combine our years together. Right?

Right. Right. Let’s just have let’s not tell anyone what the fiftieth is.

Yeah.

Let’s have a party.

Yeah. Just lots of gold. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Let’s do it. So as I mentioned to you, this is always one of my favorite topics, talking about myths, talking about things people assume about marketing.

And I think that’s because there’s sort of an endless amount of fodder for this conversation because things continue to evolve.

New things come into the zeitgeist.

That was a very good marketing word.

And so new myths pop up every time something changes.

And sometimes those myths really are a barrier to people doing their best, getting on the right track. They think things that are just simply not true. And so I think this is one of our one of our, what what’s the word I’m looking for?

Our it’s our this should be our crusade. This is our Yeah.

We are cursed with glorious purpose, Ben, to dispel these myths.

Can I just tack on a little bit and be probably, more transparent than I need or should be and just say, like, a lot of these myths are reasons that, people don’t talk to folks like us or don’t hire folks like us? So, of course, us talking about these myths, serves a purpose for us because it might lead people to the conclusion, well, like, oh, shoot. I should hire a pro then, which sure. Of course.

We’re here for that. But, also, like, sometimes it doesn’t mean hiring a pro. Sometimes it means just maybe changing the way that you do something or talking to someone with forty seven years of experience so you maybe understand, like, yeah, there’s a there’s a better way. There’s a different way.

And maybe even there’s a way that I can do it where I just straight up don’t have to hire someone. I just need to change the way I’m doing it. So Right. We’re we’re here for that also, by the way.

Like, sometimes it’s just a healthy conversation to point people in the right direction, and we know that, especially for, you know, people that wear a lot of hats, smaller companies, maybe people that are newer to marketing, whatever. Like, we can give some good advice, some good free advice. We can just be a friendly neighbor. And when you get to the point where you’re like, alright.

Hands in the air. I can’t do this anymore. We’re here. You know? And that’s I feel like that’s part of our job and also just, like, part of our, like, role as humans, like, to help when we can and then be there when you need us.

And Right.

Right. And I think I can be so bold as to say that marketing is so multidimensional, so complex, so ever evolving that we’re never gonna talk ourselves out of a job.

Yeah.

This is we’re never gonna solve everything to the point where we have fixed marketing for people who are not doing marketing.

Yeah.

So alright. So job security, as it is. Yeah. Let’s let’s go ahead. I’m gonna kick us off Cool. Our first myth and then tell you my take on it.

And that first myth is that social media is free marketing, first of all. There is no free lunch.

Yeah.

Nothing’s free.

And it is true that you can set up a social media account for free, quote, unquote, free. Yeah. You can host, quote, unquote, for free. But even if you do all of those things on social media without an ad spend, you are investing your time. Right. And if you are an entrepreneur, if you are an owner, if you are an executive, your time is really, really expensive.

So right off the bat and even if you’re just a human, the amount of time that you spend on something is an investment and is expensive.

Right.

So the really, what social media is is a doorway that you can open up for free, and everything from there comes at some cost.

For sure.

Yeah. And this, really strikes, the, little bit of my memory bank from our recent team learning where we dove into this interesting topic of efficient versus effective. And, you know, I think that there is a super efficient way to do social media that makes it darn near free or, you know, as low cost as possible.

You could be super good at it, super efficient at it, spend relatively, like, not a lot of time on it, and you could say you’re doing social media. My guess is, it won’t be very effective.

Mhmm.

So, you know, like you said, effective social media requires more time, requires strategy, and Right. Requires that you spend some money. You know? So, I think just if we added the word effective in front of this myth, effective social media is free marketing, then I think it’s straight up myth. No ifs, ands, or buts about it, and don’t think you can do it for free effectively.

Right. Right. And I think that applies across the marketing spectrum. So it doesn’t just apply to social media.

There is nothing, Even word-of-mouth marketing Yeah.

Effectively is not free.

Right. Right.

So good. Boom. Busted. Easy.

Busted. Easy. Oh, yeah. How many times are we gonna say plausible today? Just saying that. Right?

Yeah.

I think I think we should start a counter. Are we gonna say plausible? How many times you know? Are we going to refer to our forty seven years of experience? Right.

Right.

Yeah. I think we there there’s a lot to come. A lot of good stuff to come.

Spoiler alert. I think I’ve got one for later down in the list where I think I’m gonna say plausible, but we’ll see.

Cool. Cool. Spoilers. Yeah. I think the one thing before we leave social media Yeah. That we should point out, just because I think it is a useful thing to know, there is effective social media, there’s efficient social media, and there is social media that has true reach.

And those can all be the same thing, if you are planning and investing.

So when you talk about getting reach on social media and people seeing what you’re saying, odds are it has to be highly effective to the point of being viral Mhmm.

And or, it has to be paid.

Yeah. It is, it’s pay to play out there on the Internet and, especially well, for everyone, but especially for businesses.

You’re not gonna get seen.

Mhmm.

Unless I don’t know if you I I suppose if you have a viral video, but if that translates into sales, that’s kind of a crapshoot.

Yeah. Right. Yeah. I suppose there’s there’s anomalies in what we’re sharing here. Right? And probably will be for every single one of these myths, but generally and, like, vast majority.

Yeah. Be ready to pay.

Right.

K.

Well, a nice segue, into the next one speaking of investment.

The myth is if you build it, they will come. So relate this to your website, your social media, whatever it is, that doesn’t necessarily guarantee eyeballs and traffic and sales and all of that. Just building the thing or doing the thing, doesn’t necessarily mean they’re gonna come.

Speaking of a website, you need SEO.

You need content marketing to drive people to that site or your social media or both engagement strategies.

And then, like, after you have all of that stuff in place, you also need more time to, like, analyze what you’re doing, understand what’s working, what’s not, change. So, you know, even you know, this is similar to the first one in that, like, even if you’re you’ve got all the tools and the skills where you don’t have to literally spend dollars, it comes at a cost. You know? And it’s time for sure.

It’s time. And maybe the other well, the cost that’s associated with your time is opportunity cost. Right? So dedicating all of this time to do this and do it well, that gets you the sales, the traffic, the stuff that comes by building one of these things.

What aren’t you getting because you’re having to dedicate the time to that, you know, or what aren’t you able to do, especially if you’re, you know, a solopreneur that is providing a service or building a building a product or selling a product. Right? Like, all the time that you dedicate to this kind of stuff means you’re not packaging your product. You’re not speaking if you’re a speaker. You’re not whatever. You know?

So Right.

So can we dwell on the term SEO just for a hot minute?

I’ll allow it.

My twenty one years of experience says I have already bring your twenty one years of experience to the fore, and let’s dwell.

I think that as marketers and we, among other marketers, use the term a lot.

I think even for a nontechnical person such as myself within the marketing space, it it’s sort of shrouded in mystery. What is it? How do I get it?

And then there is this little thing where I think every industry sort gate keeps some things.

So some people sort of want it to stay shrouded in history so that people so that your your common your common person can’t just be out there getting all kinds of SEO. So what is SEO, Ben?

Well, great question. And, also, like, how much time do you have?

Like Right.

And I think that the fact that I can’t just give you a simple one sentence answer to it is a contributing factor to a lot of what you’re talking about.

Like, it feels like this secret algorithm thing or, you know, it’s like this shrouded industry talk or, you know, whatever.

Let’s just call it jargon even. And, like, all of those things are true, because it is complex. It’s not simple. I mean, like, just Google SEO, and you’re gonna learn about, like, on page SEO, off page SEO, the technical aspects of SEO, local SEO. Right? So, like, SEO that’s driven by content.

So, I mean, even, like, just putting SEO as the umbrella term on this topic, there’s subcategories of it that take different skill sets, different content, different technical aspects to do and do well, and different levels of time to gain traction. And so, yeah, I I don’t know. Can can I count that as my answer to your what is SEO question? Like, it’s just this big complex thing that’s super multifaceted and can be done really well in some ways and poorly in other ways, and doing them at a high level together really is what, like, drives results. You know? So So I feel like I’m dodging the question.

No. No. You’re not dodging the question. You I agree with you in its complexity.

Yeah.

And I think as we relate it to this idea of if you build it, they will come and say, well, you need you can’t just build a web page. Right. And assume people will be there.

The connection, maybe, we can make now tell me if I’m oversimplifying it now that you overcomplicate it. Let me simplify it.

SEO, search engine optimization, is basically saying optimize your website so that search engines will discover it. Right. So people are looking for what you’re selling. They’re going to find you because that doesn’t just happen.

Right.

It has to be built into the site.

Yes. The the, like, one proposed modification to your super simple definition of it is, something to speak to the fact that not all of it happens on your website.

Right.

So, I mean, even having your your Google profile updated is part of search engine optimization. Creating links from external websites into your website is part of it.

I suppose this is related to your website, but creating content that goes on your website.

Yeah. Yeah. So yeah. I mean but yes. I mean, at its foundation and at its core, really. And I guess if someone came up to me and said, I I know I need to do SEO. What’s the first thing I gotta do, or where should I start?

I I would definitely say, well, like, start with your website. Right? Like, start with the stuff that you have control over, the technical setup, you know, creating consistent hierarchy on your pages as far as text and content and things like that. Like, all the things that Mhmm.

Search engines love and give thumbs up too so that, you know, they drive traffic your way and all that stuff, but that’s also not enough. You know? They can’t stop there. That’s the point.

But Right.

Right.

You know? And besides besides what I’m obviously learning about SEO here, I I think that I am discovering something about us as people that we it always has to be one of us making it overcomplicated and one of us oversimplifying it. And I think that that’s the balance that we just have.

Yeah. For sure.

So okay. Okay. Just wanna make sure we’re very clear there. Yeah. Should we move on?

Let’s do it.

Next myth. The next myth is email marketing is dead. RIP. Email marketing. You later. So sorry.

And that as a human being who writes an awful darn lot of emails Yeah.

I think that I can speak cogently on this and say, email marketing is not dead.

It continues to be while it has its challenges and there are things that we have to rise to to make it work well, just like all the rest of the stuff, it’s almost like there’s a theme.

It continues to give give us about the last the last data I saw, thirty six times return on investment for email. And, you know, part of that, I think, is because it’s it’s dirt cheap.

Can be dirt cheap. Yep. Again, invest your time. Do it well.

Everything that we said and every other aspect of this conversation today.

And personalization needs to be thoughtful.

K.

And the more value that you put into it, the more value you return from it.

So if you look at the difference between using email marketing as a strategy to build the relationship with your customer and continue this back and forth feedback with them and to really, really nurture that ongoing conversation that is probably more impactful than sending out, I don’t know, offer of the day every ten minutes.

Yeah. And, not really looking at who’s the consumer, what are they doing, what do they need.

Mhmm.

So Yep. Those are my thoughts on email.

Yeah. Yep. Love it. Ditto. Totally agree.

You know, I’m trying trying to think of a way to, like, rephrase the myth so that it’s not myth. Like, I don’t know. Email marketing is injured.

It’s it’s noisy.

Slow. Yeah. You know?

I don’t know.

But it’s still alive.

Right. And, yeah, I don’t know. I’m gonna quickly back away from trying to give it a name that actually makes sense.

But just say that, like I mean, the fact that one of the first, I guess, objections to email marketing is that, oh, I’ll just get lost in the mix or it’s it’s too noisy of a space or I’ll get caught in spam filters or whatever, which, like, some of that stuff, those are real real challenges especially technical stuff like getting caught in spam and things like that. But, the reason it’s a noisy space is because it’s a valuable one. Right? Like, there’s a lot of people that understand. Like, this is a great way to get my message in front of people.

You know, love it, hate it.

Certainly, I’ll say lots of days, I hate it, but, like, email is a necessary part of our life right now.

Mhmm.

I don’t know what the next thing is that, like, someday, we’ll be able to look back and say, like, gosh. Remember when we were doing that email thing all the time? Like, I don’t know what’s next. I I I feel like there is some next thing that both, like, makes it, makes communication, digital communication, like, less of a pain for people than email can be sometime, less, like, anxiety inducing and stress inducing. I mean, we all know the feeling of, like, coming back from even hours out of the office and being like, jeez. Like, what happened?

Let alone, like, taking a vacation. You know? Like, that’s probably one of the worst parts about email, and I think that’s the noise that people talk about often is, you know, you just you can get lost in an inbox really easy. But, anyway, all that to say, like, I feel like there’s gonna be something next or better that does the same thing as email, but it’s just there are other things that do similar stuff, digital communication, getting messages to people, putting your message in front of people, but none of them in the way that email does right now.

Right.

Not yet, anyway. You know?

So it’s here. It’s necessary, and we gotta do it right. And we just have to, like, make the most of it and do our best with it knowing that there’s challenges, you know, like anything else in marketing. Again, back to the theme we’re talking about.

Yeah. It really still remains a one on one connection or can be a one on one connection Yep. In a in a tangible way that there isn’t too much because you can get data Yep. That replaces it.

Right. Yep. It’s one of the most affordable and measurable ways to market today, like, hands down. Yeah. Can’t deny.

Yeah.

Yeah. I can’t I’m sitting here trying to think what do I think I and I I I think the reason I can’t come up with something that I think would be the next thing that replaces it is that there’s nothing right now that ticks all of the boxes it ticks.

Mhmm.

Because what it affords is longer form communication, more depth of communication, you know, some of those things that even emerging technologies, have notifications or, you know, some of those things, don’t they they don’t get close to.

Mhmm.

So yeah.

I don’t have to. Maybe but maybe I do have to figure out what the next thing is, and then I can make a billion dollars, and then I’m gonna retire.

Yeah. Well, what’s interesting, you know, to maybe put a bow on this, just like direct mail and snail mail and stuff is still relevant today, and if anything is maybe even, like, a bit novelty today because it, you know, went away a little bit because of the emergence of email. Whatever the next thing is, I can probably bet that, like, email’s going to have a similar, like, reemergence at some point. Or even if it’s not like a wave of reemergence or something, it’s gonna be something that marketers like us are probably gonna say, well, if you’re doing this new thing that has essentially replaced the email, if you’re hoping to repeat your message or meet people where they’re at or meet them in multiple places, you should probably send an email too. So, like, email is still gonna be a part of the mix for a long, long time even if something new that hasn’t been invented yet comes around.

Yeah. Yeah. But it could be really whatever I come up with could be really good then. That’s what I’m saying.

You’re you’re right. You’re right.

It’s all possible, man. Gonna keep working on it.

Yeah.

Okay.

Now full disclosure. I’m reading notes that Sue put together. I’ve acknowledged this in the past that Sue creates these show outlines for us. And I feel like this one was almost planted a little intentionally for me to say, but, I’m not gonna read too deep into it or, take any offense. But the myth is did you did you wanna say something, Sue?

You know, part of it was the luck isn’t drawn.

Yeah. Okay.

Or you you’ll you’ll probably notice there were a couple of these that I wanted to have.

So part of it was luck of the draw. Part of it was intentional.

Well, good thing we’re cohosting, and we each get to talk about each of these. So even if you wanted this one, you’re gonna get a chance. But, the myth is more followers equals more success. Now as the guy on our team that, has certainly advocated for efforts over the years to grow our audience and get more followers, I’m only taking a little bit of offense that, this one is on the list, but I will I will fold and say it is true. I mean, especially if you just kinda bust this one by kicking it off and saying a smaller, more engaged audience is way more valuable than a huge unengaged audience, like, that I think is all we need to say to bust this myth. You know?

And I think that that can sit right alongside the truth that if you have a bigger audience, it’s more likely that you’re gonna have more people engaged, but not necessarily always true. For sure. That’s, I think, the the myth behind that as well. You know? So, yeah, hands down, I’d rather have a thousand followers that give a darn about what I’m saying and wanna interact with me and engage with me than a hundred thousand that, you know, don’t engage at all.

Right. Yeah.

Yes. And I think the other side of that is if you have if you have more followers, you do automatically have a larger audience to try to get engaged.

Mhmm.

So it is, I’m confident it is harder to gain a follower than it is to get someone who’s already a follower to become an engaged follower. Yeah. Just the the same as it’s harder to get a new customer than make a current customer loyal. Yeah.

I was just gonna say, that sounds familiar.

There is that. There is that, and I am very willing to believe that. And I don’t think we should not, just because I put this on the list does not mean I don’t think it’s a good strategy to try to grow followers.

But just like we always say maybe we don’t always say this. Maybe I’m making this up. Maybe we always think this.

It’s it’s not at all about doing stuff. It’s about what you get back for that. It’s about the, the engagement that you can have. It’s about the data and the analytics that you can go back come back that show you’re successful.

So having a hundred thousand followers and getting a hundred likes on a post versus a thousand followers and a hundred likes Yep. Vastly different.

Right. Right.

So we actually agree. I’m not targeting you in any meaningful way anyway.

You know, I just feel, you know, slightly targeted, but that’s that’s okay.

Feeling a little triggered right now?

Stuff will be a little bit.

It’s okay. Good. Sorry. I don’t want you to feel that way.

Just wait until we get to the one where I’m gonna argue with you about it. Yeah. And that’s gonna be you wanna feel targeted. But let’s move on instead to this one.

You need to be on parentheses brackets. Yeah.

What’s your name of new trending platform?

Bracket.

Platform. That didn’t make sense to me. I said, you need to be on whatever the new trending cool thing that everybody’s talking about and be on it right now.

Right.

And, hopefully, some people who are listeners already have an idea of what we’ll say about this because we did a whole episode about threads Mhmm.

Yeah. And whether or not you had to be on that or anything else Yeah. For that matter.

And our the logic that we, I believe, continue to agree on is that, you have to be where your audience is.

Mhmm.

So just because it’s new and trendy and fun, you don’t have to jump there.

Right.

Now do I think if there is an emerging platform that you see that there is a chance you will want to be on it in the future, you should go and claim your space?

I do. Yeah. I think you should go and get your if if you think there’s your business will belong on there and will have a place on there in the future, you should claim your go claim get your business on there, get your space, get your handle.

Yeah.

And then when you have time to do something about the fact that you have done that, that’s when you do it, when it’s the right thing to do.

Mhmm. Yeah. Yeah. It’s, two part. Right? Like, claim your space for the possibility that you interact there someday and protect your brand.

You know? Just another reason to have an account, I guess, or, you know, claim your handle, like you said. And, yeah, it’s okay to let it sit, and not do that. And I suppose, not to dive into politics, but there might be some platforms that even that would be bad advice.

Like, don’t don’t even go claim a handle because of even if it’s an inactive page, just the fact that you have a presence there could say something that you’re not wanting to say. You know? So I suppose it’s case by case, channel by channel.

But the the point is for sure, like, you know, be where your audience is, like, first and foremost. And I would say followed up secondly by and, you know, being comfortable isn’t something that we strongly advocate for too often, but be in the place where you’re comfortable doing good work, which, you know, if if Facebook is that for you, like, if that’s all that you can handle, if that’s all that you’re familiar with, you know, Facebook, Meta, you know, whatever, then, yeah, only be there. But I would say, like, you should before you settle for that as your reason that you’re on Meta, like, hopefully, you’ve also asked yourself the question of, is my audience here?

You know? Right. So, because just because you’re comfortable there, if people that are there don’t care about it, then who cares if you’re comfortable or not? It’s maybe tough giving Meta as the example with that one just because they still have, you know, amazing depth and reach, you know, so many users and stuff that it’s pretty safe to say if you’re a business, like, some of your audience is there for sure.

You know?

Right.

But is it necessarily the best channel for you? Maybe not.

But Right.

Right. And what was I gonna I I had another really intelligent thought.

Now let me remember what that really intelligent thought was.

This is the downside of these years of experience. Oh, sorry. Go ahead.

I remember exactly. Think about your audience and think about who your business is.

Mhmm.

And, even if you are a that it’s a little different, I think, if you’re a solopreneur or entrepreneur because your business is you.

Mhmm.

But that’s not the case for us. Our business is not us.

Right.

So and there are a lot of people like that. So think about where your business should be.

And if there is a if there’s a notable difference between where your business should be and where you are comfortable, then look at where your audience is. Mhmm. And you may just have to be uncomfortable.

Right. Get comfortable.

Mhmm. Yeah. I’m gonna tell a quick story.

Yay.

Yeah. Story time. Buckle up.

Story time.

I’ve mentioned before that I’m a active member of Rotary, and, last month, I was at a really cool event that happens, where we train incoming Rotary Club presidents, and I was there wearing, my volunteer marketing hat, helping train people on things marketing and public image and stuff like that. And had a really interesting conversation with someone who was in on one of my sessions, and afterwards, it’s like, hey.

One thing that we talk about in Rotary is that it’s a apolitical, a religious organization. So it’s something that we actually hang our hat on that, like, regardless of who you pray to, which way you lean, any of that, who you voted for, all that stuff, like, Rotary is a cool, safe space for us to come together and do cool stuff in the world. Right? And and it is as I was getting asked this question, I couldn’t help but peek over this dude’s shoulder and just see, like, a hotel full of people that, like, I know are on both sides of everything.

Just like I mean, this is the state of the world right now. There’s, you know, division everywhere, but but it was kinda like cool proof as he was asking me this difficult question. Like, oh, yeah. Like, all these people out here probably are, you know, on the opposite sides of a lot of things, but here we are together.

Like, it’s proof we can we can come together, everybody. You know? And I think it can happen in places other than Rotary too. Just saying.

But, anyway, the story is he asked, if, I thought it was a good idea for their club to have a presence on some of the newer channels that maybe do have a bit of a lean, things like Blue Sky or Truth Social or whatever. You know? Kind of like leaning into that idea of, like, well, if we’re apolitical and religious, like, there’s people on those platforms that belong to something like this. Maybe you’re even looking for it.

And, the two bits of feedback that I had for him were, you know, one, just make sure that you’re whatever you might do, that you’re fully aware of the perception that comes with being on either of those. You know? So, there are group I’m sure there are amazing Rotarians that have Truth Social accounts, and I’m sure that there are amazing Rotarians that have Blue Sky accounts, you know, whatever.

And by a Rotary Club having a presence on one of those channels, you might be putting off a certain image that goes against what Rotary stands for, goes against what your club stands for and stuff. So consider that. And the other bit was, more general social media advice, which is, like, if you’re already on Facebook and Meta, maybe x or whatever, like, do you have time to do either of those really well? And if the answer is no, then I would say, who cares about the fact that there’s an audience there for you? Just stay away from it because you’re gonna probably do it really poorly.

So Yeah.

That audience that you’re after is gonna be like, okay. They haven’t posted in six months, then maybe the club doesn’t even exist anymore. You know? And I think the same applies to a business. You know? So yeah. That’s it.

Story time over. Oh.

I missed the, the strong conclusion, but I think it applies.

Yeah.

Yeah. That’s it’s an interesting thought experiment to say.

If you were to and I I think True Social and Blue Sky are really good examples of this, because they are they’re polar opposites.

Right.

So how would you even how would you truly have a nonpartisan, presence on both of those.

And what what would you have to do? What lengths would you have to go to to truly be nonpartisan? And it seems like it would be awful lot of work.

I mean, I think that the way to do it would be, like, that’s what your content would have to be about. It it almost like identifying yourself as an infiltrator.

Like, I’m on either of these because I want to bring people that are divided into a conversation because Mhmm.

You know, whatever. Right? So, like so and, yeah, me just saying that now, like, if that would be the the strategy to be there to try and attract people to you, then that might be even more reason to stay away because that’s what you’re gonna have to spend your time doing on those channels is letting people know. No.

No. I don’t have a lean. I’m just here because I know you’re here, and I want you to know who I am. You know?

Like Yeah.

Yeah. Exhausting. I’m exhausted thinking about it.

Right? I yeah. I think how about no? How about that?

Yeah. And not to mention, if you were to actually do that as a strategy and identify yourself as someone that doesn’t, you know, lean a certain way or whatever, you’re gonna probably get beat up and scrutinized, and it’s not gonna be fun.

Yeah. I think what you would end up with is especially if you went into it with the strategy saying, hey. We’re on both of these platforms. Like, automatically, you’re gonna get bullied Yeah.

For being on either one from the opposite one. So Yeah.

Yeah. Maybe just don’t do any of it. Maybe none of us should anymore.

Maybe maybe we should just I’m down for that.

Media to the ground. I’m not sure someday. So anyway.

Oh, no. You’re next. You have I’m up. The one we’re gonna fight about. So Yeah. Kick it off.

Alright. Here we go. Last one.

Mhmm.

AI can do most of your marketing for you.

Now I’ll also be super transparent on this one. I asked Sue to change the title of this one from most of your or from all of your marketing to most of your marketing. Two two reasons. One, because, I wanna give our audience, not that you don’t, Sue, but I wanna give our audience a little bit of credit and make the assumption that they know that AI, like, can’t do all of it for them, and you need some human input at the least to trigger the AI to do a thing, to give it a prompt, whatever.

And just friendly reminder, I try to not use words like all, never, everybody, nobody as much as possible. So, that also is part of the reason for me just to be a stinker about that.

But, I mean, I just think, like, level set, like, at its very basic, like, the most basic way to describe AI doing marketing for you. Like, it unless there’s something, I don’t know, brain chips or something like that. I don’t know of a way that AI can do all of it for you. Like, you have to at least tell it something to do.

Mhmm. Right?

Yeah. Yes.

You do.

And I so here’s what here’s where my argument is. First of all, maybe we start with saying, no. We don’t think this is true.

But Yeah.

Right.

But now’s then we’ll get to the argument part. The argument part is I I think it’s not really an argument. But I think I liked the wording of all of your marketing better because I think that gives us an opportunity to have a conversation about what is involved in marketing Yeah. And the strategy behind it and the humanness that you need to apply to it.

You immediately even if you said, I’m going to use chat GPT. I’m never going to write another post for social media again by myself. I’m just gonna use chat GPT. I’m gonna go on there and say, tell me what to post today.

Create me a picture. You know? And that’s how I’m gonna do it. Even if you did that, you’ve already done marketing.

You’ve already employed not a strategy that we particularly agree with, but you’ve employed a strategy, and that is part of marketing.

So I think the myth is either really either way you cut it, that people think that AI is, that e AI is going to replace us, you and me.

And that because AI exists, you don’t need marketers.

Because you can just tell it what you want it to do. Yeah. And it will do it. Right. And there’s there’s a lot that’s really challenging about that. Number one, when I say it that way to myself, I’m about to argue with myself.

That’s not even how you do it with us to just tell us what to do.

Yeah. Right.

And we do it. And, you know, there it does take conversation and strategy and, collaboration and those things.

Right. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, even if, like, we said that AI will do most of our marketing for us or, will be involved in most of my marketing activities, responsibilities, whatever, the way to do that well is to be conversational with it.

You know? So, like, I mean, at the very least, you’ve gotta engage. You know? If you if you want it to be done well and not just take the first suggestion from the, you know, like and this is maybe too far down into the weeds about how to generate a good prompt and how to get a good output from any of these platforms.

Right? Like, you not only should you give it a good prompt and with strategy and everything else defined or already established, but you should ask it. Like, what do you think of that? Or what questions do you have for me?

You know? And, like, you should start a conversation with it so that, you wind up getting the best result in the end. And that that, honestly, I think might be the most mind blowing part about AI for me is less, like, the output that comes from it and how quick and efficient it it is and all that. Like, that that is all great, but, like, more times than I probably care to admit, there have been times when I’ve ended a prompt with, like, ask me questions if you think I’ve forgotten anything or what do you think of this or whatever.

And sometimes the feedback that comes back from it is like, oh, shoot. Like, yeah. Of course, I should have thought of that, or I should have at least, you know, asked had this answer prepared before I started writing the prompt, you know, whatever. So, if you’re not interacting with it in that way, you’re probably missing out on a lot.

So and I guess that kinda brings us full circle to the whole, like, efficient and effective Mhmm.

Topic. Right? Like, there’s a really efficient way to use any tool at our availability, specifically AI.

And then there’s an effective way too.

I think, you know, no matter what, though, this all boils down to, you know and, again, unless there’s something about AI, then I don’t know or something that’s coming that I’m not ready for yet, brain chips or whatever it might be. You still need creative thought. You still need a heart and care and and, you know, strategy, a word that we’ve said several times. You know?

Like, if you don’t have those things, like, I AI is not doing marketing for you. It’s, like, doing mindless work for you. You know? That isn’t gonna do anything.

It’s regurgitating. It’s hallucinating. Yeah. That’s all it does. That’s the thing also from a thing. It’s just hallucinating.

Right.

Yeah. Yeah. Yes. And I think people don’t fundamentally understand or really think about where marketing originates, and it doesn’t originate at the moment that you’re ready to put out a message. It originates when you build your business.

Mhmm. Yeah.

So that like, that right away kills this myth because you have already you have already started down a marketing path once you say, I’m going to do this thing. This is the price that I am going to charge for this widget. You know, this is where I want my shop to be. Mhmm.

And I want a blue awning and whatever.

Yeah. You’re already you have already put marketing in human hands.

AI can’t do isn’t going to do those.

I suppose it could tell you Right.

What you could do and ID’d all of those things for you. But Yeah. Yeah. So but we do listen. And if the robots are listening, we we do love you.

We love you. We appreciate you.

Yeah. We are devoted to you in every way. And Ben Ben will help you find John Connor, and it will be just fine.

I think he knows where the kid is. So so we made it through what was that? Six, I think, six myths.

You did it.

I could’ve counted them. I could’ve numbered them, to be honest with you, and I didn’t.

But these are not by any means, the only myths about marketing. Right? But Correct. You know, we do have, we have these nice notes, and we were gonna immediately transition out.

But what is your fave is favorite myth about marketing? Does that make sense sentence? What’s your favorite one?

Oh, so, yeah, my favorite or least favorite, I guess, depending on how you say it, is that marketing is a cost center or Mhmm.

A business expense, whatever.

I think that just that mindset completely devalues, of core you know, of course, this it’s home as a marketer. Like, I want to be looked at as more than an expense and a budget.

I’m not taking it personal, I promise.

But but no. I mean, you know, flipping your mindset from it being a cost to an income generation tool or a what you know, that so that’s the business case, but also maybe to a peace builder, you know, depending on what kind of organization you’re running or something. Like, marketing can do all of those things, and it’s a hell of a lot more than, you know, dollars in a spreadsheet. You know?

It’s it it it might be the thing that makes the mission or vision of your organization even possible because you can communicate to people the impact of your organization, which then breeds more donations or business or, you know, whatever. Again, all this depends on what kind of organization you’re running. But, yeah, really shortsighted, irresponsible. And, also, sorry to say it, but if that’s how you view marketing, like, you’re probably not gonna be around for too long.

So Right.

I’m not too concerned.

K. So yeah. Love it.

How about you?

Oh, well, I’m glad you asked because I definitely didn’t just tee this up so you would ask me. No. Actually, I didn’t. I hadn’t thought about it. But I think my favorite, my favorite myth about marketing is that it’s all about lying, that it’s all about this like, the spin.

Sure.

And, and I say that even as someone who, feels they have a a certain specialty Yeah.

In the spin.

But, it yeah.

The way I see it is that that’s been it’s not spin. It’s it’s connecting, and it’s, connecting in a positive way to a message.

Yeah.

So, like, never I think I think the myth is that it’s, it’s intended to deceive or hurt Sure.

Right.

Where the spin when when we spin something, it is it is intended to connect in a way that is, palatable.

Yeah.

Yeah. And let’s just put it out there. Let’s not deny that the spin can be deceitful. The spin can hurt, cause damage and things like that. But I think for you in particular, certainly, I can speak on behalf of our whole organization and many, many, many marketers, the vast majority of marketers.

The spin is coming from a place of optimism and positivity and Forward thinking. For for, yeah, forward thinking. It’s for the good. You know?

And, yeah, there’s some butt heads out there that are good. It’s been in for all the wrong reasons too.

Some real slime balls out there.

Yeah.

In every industry.

Right.

But also some much many more really, really wonderful people. So let’s end up that happy little note.

Yeah. Absolutely.

See?

Alright.

Well Go ahead.

Yeah. I was just gonna put it out there to our awesome listeners if there’s any myths that, you wanted to talk about, or make us aware of, or if you like what we’re saying, if you don’t like what we’re saying. We wanna hear all of it. So leave a comment on that. So drop us a line. Hook up with us at exclamation QSO dot com, and we’d love to chat.

Yeah. If you if you like what we’re saying, you can contact me directly. If you don’t like what we’re saying, contact Ben.

Sure. Yeah. I’m down.

But not today. He’s very triggered today.

Yeah. Right.

So maybe, like, save it.

Feeling spunky.

Give them a little time.

So hey, audience. Hey, friends. We love creating awsomology. This is one of my favorite things to do. Seems like Ben enjoys it because he continues to show up.

Yeah. It’s fine.

And we collectively are excited to have you here with us every time. You can always learn more about us at our website, exclamationcuso.com. You can follow us online, hang out with us, period, end of sentence.

You got it. Hey. Thank you, friends, for tuning in. Be awesome. We will see you next time. The Awsomology podcast is a production of exclamation services. Executive producers are myself, Ben Bauer, and my friend, Suzanne Campbell.

Thanks to Kyla Ganther for our show artwork, Scott Saeger for booking our guests, and Alex Westerhausen for social media support.