Down with the Tyranny of “OR” — Let’s Live in the Land of “AND”

“Forms are dead. It’s all about conversation and chatbots.”

“We have to abandon ads. It’s all about organic.”

In the marketing world where I spend most of my time, we’re falling into the trap of OR, just as we seem to be doing in the world at large.

But sometimes… often, in fact… there is beauty and power in the AND.

You can write a blog post and create a Tik Tok video to promote the idea. Plus you could have someone talk about it on a podcast (and also a live audio stream).

Your website can (and should) have a chat function, even offering premium content via a chatbot conversation, while also including traditional landing pages with forms.

Why do we want to live in the scarcity mindset of OR? It’s time to move into the abundant and collaborative mindset of AND.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. For me, it started with my personal life. There’s so much “this or that,” “for or against,” binary thinking out in the world. Yes, sometimes it has to be one or the other. But so often, we open our options by setting aside our bias and our preconceived notions, and opening up to the “yes and” mentality.

This is especially true in the business world. How many marketers in this HubSpot community have said that ads are dead and “if you build great content, they will come” as it relates to the inbound strategy?

I know I have. When I first fell in love with the HubSpot way, I put on my blinders to any reason to pay to reach an audience. After all, no TV or radio ad has ever moved me to action.

But then a funny thing happened. Facebook and Instagram Ads, tailored to my interests, did actually move me to take action. Whether it was a local live theatre production for my family, or a “Be Kind” shirt, social media ads have called me as a consumer to action.

So I recognize that earned and owned media can work in conjunction with paid media to broaden one’s reach — when done well. It’s not good to live in the OR.

What about the amazing world of conversational marketing and chat? Has that replaced good old-fashioned landing pages and forms? If you listen to some in our industry, yes.

However… rather than living in the Tyranny of OR, let’s look at the Land of AND.

Sure, a chatbot can ask for a name and an email, and even conversationally ask for other pertinent information. But a form can have progressive fields where a returning visitor answers deeper questions. Or dependent fields where the question is directed by their previous answer. And consumers are comfortable with forms — there just has to be a payoff for what we’re asking.

So yes, your website can use chatbots for gated content, but it can also put forms to work. It doesn’t have to be a binary decision.

And what about content delivery and distribution? How many marketers suffer from Shiny Object Syndrome (me)? Whether it’s TikTok, Fireside, Twitter Spaces, the new LinkedIn audio feature, or some other new idea, we love to dive in headfirst and say the last iteration of content delivery is dead.

How often do we hear that blogging is dead because no one reads? Or that longer videos are worthless because no one watches video?

The real answer is that no one has time for bad content, regardless of the medium. We go to Marvel movies and binge-watch full seasons of Ted Lasso. And as Reading on the Rise: A New Chapter in American Literacy shows, “For the first time in over a quarter-century, our survey shows that literary reading has risen among adult Americans. After decades of declining trends, there has been a decisive and unambiguous increase among virtually every group measured in this comprehensive national survey.”

Instead of abandoning what we’ve done in lieu of the new thing (again, the Swamp of OR), what if we think about adding to what we do (the Land of AND) and using multi-channel content distribution as a strategy?

For example, your subject matter expert in your company could do an interview for a podcast, including live streaming it on social channels, then repurpose the video on YouTube, use clips from it in social and then use the transcript for long-form writing like blogs and short quotes for social media.

Isn’t the Land of AND a beautiful place?

The lesson I’m choosing to learn and live in this year? Evolve my thinking, test my ideas, operate in an abundant mindset and live in the Land of AND. Will you join me?

Originally published at https://community.hubspot.com on February 10, 2022.