Welcome back to Marketing Qualified! Here’s what we’re talking about this week:

• Why “good enough” wins the sale. How humans actually make buying decisions.

• From the swipe file. 3 interesting things to draw inspiration from.

⚖️ Why “good enough” wins the sale.

Most buyers aren’t looking for the best option.

They’re trying to find the first option that feels acceptable so they can stop thinking about it.

Back in the 1950s, a social scientist named Herbert A. Simon pointed out that humans don’t optimize decisions. We “satisfice.” (A combination of “satisfy” and “suffice.”)

That means we stop once the option in front of us clears a mental bar.

That bar is usually much lower than marketers think.

“Seems legit.”

“This won’t get me fired.”

“I can explain this choice to my boss.”

Why this matters for B2B.

A lot of B2B marketing assumes buyers are carefully comparing feature grids and reading every case study to rationally weigh long-term ROI.

The reality looks more like this:

• Skim the page.

• Look for signals of competence.

• Check if it feels safe enough.

• Move on.

It’s not that they don’t care. They just have 12 other decisions to make that day.

So when marketers add more options, more explanations, more nuance, more “just in case” details… they think they’re being helpful.

But what they’re often doing instead is raising the mental bar required to say yes.

So what actually moves things forward?

The best marketing tends to do a few boring but effective things:

• Make the default choice obvious.

• Reduce the number of meaningful decisions.

• Signal “people like you already picked this.”

• Remove reasons to second-guess.

A useful gut check.

Before you add anything to your content, ask yourself:

“Does this help someone confidently stop searching…or does it invite more comparison?”

📰  In the news this week.

📈  How to scale multi-channel content reach.

💼  Insights for B2B marketing on LinkedIn in 2026.

🤑  Brands spent more than $1B on celebrities in ads last year.

🛠  Generative engine optimization (GEO) tools explained.

😅  How brands can respond to misleading Google AI Overviews.

🗂  From the swipe file.

Our swipe file is getting full again. Time to pull out some recent favorites.

1) This retro headline that we can still learn from.

A perfect example of: don’t sell the product, sell the transformation.

And they only needed the headline to do it.

2) How to stop rumination in its tracks.

When you’re stuck in analysis paralysis or negative thought loops, the best cure is to grab a pen and paper. It’s a fast and simple way to get your mind in order.

3) This ad that speaks directly to the most common objection.

“LinkedIn Ads don’t work” is a widely held belief in B2B.

Instead of arguing, this ad starts there. It creates instant relevance to the people they’re targeting.

😂 Marketing meme of the week.

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