Does your head spin when somebody mentions synthetic intelligence? It’s comprehensible. LinkedIn and Twitter (superb…X) are rife with newly minted AI consultants and tech bros sharing their newest 27-step course of for gaming algorithms and automating complete advertising and marketing applications.
That’s not helpful for many ground-level entrepreneurs.
What can assist? Understanding which on a regular basis advertising and marketing challenges the know-how can resolve for us proper now is a superb begin. So, I reached out to a number of entrepreneurs I like to see how they’re utilizing AI in advertising and marketing.
The response was excellent. They shared particular, tactical examples, plus the prompts and AI instruments they use—every part you want to repeat their processes.
Contents
💡 Obtain this helpful, free Guide to AI in Marketing for extra ideas and techniques.
14 methods the professionals use AI in Advertising and marketing
Curiously, nobody stated they have been utilizing AI to spin up complete ready-to-publish articles. However they’re utilizing AI instruments to get out of writing ruts, analyze information, inform technique, and automate advertising and marketing flows. The use cases have been far more numerous than I imagined.
1. Pull insights from previous campaigns for future technique
Understanding which advert or weblog submit generated probably the most leads is simple. It’s more durable to study why they labored so you may double down on their success. Curt Woodward, Director of Content material at ZoomInfo, devised a genius option to get Jasper, a generative AI copywriting tool, to assist him determine it out.
Curt began by rating an inventory of ZoomInfo’s content material titles by a “energy rating” comprised of three weighted KPIs. Right here’s a mockup of that checklist with pretend information he makes use of for demonstration functions.
Subsequent, he fed the checklist to Jasper, together with a immediate asking the AI to establish commonalities that might inform future content material marketing campaign decisions.
His prompts regarded like this:
“Act as a advertising and marketing analyst. I’m going to provide you an inventory of content material titles with corresponding numbers, which characterize a price rating we use to find out prime content material. Increased scores are higher.”
“Evaluate the content material titles to search out frequent themes, key phrases, concepts, and approaches among the many top-scoring titles. Counsel methods to copy profitable content material packages.”
“Jasper, as a software, typically asks for extra details about what you need the output of your immediate to seem like,” Curt defined. “On this case, I gave it directions about format, use of the memo, and many others.”
Right here’s the follow-up immediate Curt gave Jasper:
“I need to come away with a memo that summarizes our greatest themes, codecs, and ideas for our future advertising and marketing content material campaigns. Give us concepts and frameworks to make use of going ahead.”
Based mostly on the info and prompts Curt gave it, Jasper created an inventory of suggestions with detailed concepts for future content material.
Curt certified the pretty apparent outcomes from this instance by stating that it was fictitious information. He stated you get a extra insightful evaluation once you feed it correct data. Subsequent up, he plans to get Jasper to proactively rank and kind the content material property by the ability rating, which is able to make the method even sooner.
However for now, Curt suggests making an attempt this tactic with different advertising and marketing copy. “You possibly can simply adapt this for any measurable advertising and marketing asset. Advert and touchdown web page copy involves thoughts. Simply rank them by no matter KPIs are necessary, and ask the AI to search out themes you need to use in future campaigns.”
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2. Full aggressive analyses
Finishing a competitive analysis is a core operate for nearly each marketer. The onerous half is synthesizing aggressive product options and model positioning for a number of rivals.
Celia Quillian is an MBA and product advertising and marketing chief who’s additionally an influential voice within the synthetic intelligence house by her channel @smartworkai on TikTok and Instagram. She makes use of ChatGPT Plus (the paid model) to shortly curate aggressive intel.
“ChatGPT Plus’ net shopping function is fabulous for aggressive evaluation,” she stated. “In my prompts, I present the hyperlinks to competitor web sites, asking that it solely supply from these websites for its aggressive intel, and have it craft a desk evaluating the options of various market rivals.”
The free model of ChatGPT can’t surf the net. I attempted a fast model of the request on perplexity AI utilizing three HR software program rivals.
Clearly, this would want some extra prompts to make it helpful. However Celia stated AI is absolutely good at that. “Generative AI fashions like GP-4 have prolonged ‘context home windows,’ that means I can regularly ask follow-up questions,” she stated. “My mixed prompts and solutions solely construct on one another, serving to me to study, brainstorm, and discover solutions extra effectively.”
For context, Celia stated ChatGPT Plus can “keep in mind” the context of about 100 pages of written textual content.
3. Roleplay for buyer sentiment
AI can’t exchange people, however it will probably faux to be one. Celia stated that’s a precious function of the know-how. “ChatGPT is nice at taking part in faux, so in relation to considering of how I would resolve an issue for a buyer, I can ask ChatGPT to roleplay as my ideal customer persona.”
I gave this a attempt with the free model of ChatGPT. I fed the AI an outline of a backpacking tent that targeted on its weight, then entered this immediate:
“Fake you’re the goal buyer for an organization that sells out of doors tenting gear. You’re very involved in regards to the sturdiness and weight of the following backpacking tent you purchase. How would you’re feeling about this product description.”
Right here’s what I acquired again.
This was a easy instance, however ChatGPT noticed the sturdiness hole and steered we add extra specificity. Not unhealthy.
“It’s by no means pretty much as good as speaking with an actual buyer,” Celia added. “However it will probably make for an incredible stand-in after I’m within the early phases of analysis and ideation.”
4. Produce inner undertaking administration property
Probably the greatest functions of AI is to automate repetitive advertising and marketing duties. That’s a standard method Alaura Weaver, Content material Advertising and marketing & Neighborhood Chief at Writer, makes use of it.
“I take advantage of Author to spin up inner undertaking administration property immediately—stuff like writing briefs, enhancing checklists, and creating content material promotion plans,” she stated. “That method, I don’t have to begin from scratch with routine duties.”
Alaura detailed how she creates briefs since that’s a standard process for a lot of advertising and marketing staff leaders and people who work with freelancers.
“I constructed a customized ‘transient generator’ app in our no-code Author App Studio,” she defined. “All I’ve to do is give a working title, point out what viewers the piece is for, and paste or add supply materials (like an government LinkedIn submit, analysis article, or dev documentation). The app generates content material briefs that align with our enterprise targets and content material technique (which I baked into the immediate that powers the generator).”
Alaura stated that utilizing AI this manner accelerates the whole editorial course of, liberating up bandwidth for high-level duties.
“The output follows a constant format, so I can simply plug it into docs with out a lot enhancing,” she stated. “It implies that my writers have what they should get began on assignments loads sooner, and it means I’ve extra time to concentrate on enjoyable, inventive, strategic work like producing our Humans of AI podcast.”
5. Discover considering fashions for thought management content material
The very best thought management content material has a singular, private, and fascinating standpoint. It’s not the everyday wheelhouse for robotic writing.
However Anjana Vasan, a Senior Copywriter and Content material Strategist at Block Club, discovered an surprising method to enhance thought management content material with AI. She asks ChatGPT for considering fashions or educational ideas associated to her matter.
“Utilizing AI this manner, I can develop a singular standpoint or consider an fascinating metaphor and join the dots to the subject or the individual I’m writing for,” Anjana stated. “All whereas nonetheless holding their expertise and experience in thoughts.”
The wonderful thing about this tactic is that it really works with nearly any AI writing assistant and even generative search platforms like Perplexity AI.
6. Analyze information for website positioning audits
Anjana confirmed us one other method AI might help analyze massive blocks of information—this time for SEO audits.
Right here, she requested ChatGPT to overview a spreadsheet of content material hyperlinks.
“Often, I dig in additional with extra questions or prompts to attract the insights I’m on the lookout for,” she stated. “Or I ask ChatGPT to arrange the info so I don’t spend my time on administrative duties.”
Listed here are among the follow-up prompts Anjana makes use of:
- “Based mostly on the accessible information, are you able to establish the highest 10 items of content material?”
- “Have you ever seen any themes or overarching matter classes in all of the content material?”
- “Are you able to edit the spreadsheet to incorporate solely the URL, date of publication, title, meta description, and phrase rely and take away the opposite columns?”
She warned that this tactic solely works with the proper data and that any AI output ought to be double-checked.
“The outcomes are solely pretty much as good as the standard of your information, so make sure you embrace the proper forms of data in your file,” she stated “And keep in mind to validate the data since you could not at all times get the proper insights should you rely utterly on ChatGPT.”
7. Hyperlink concepts whilst you write routinely
When you’ve got folders filled with half-complete concepts and intelligent copy which can be onerous to search out once you want them, Anna Burgess Yang feels your ache. “I publish lots of work on-line and have 1000’s of notes from articles I’ve learn, podcasts I’ve listened to, and even my very own writing. Prior to now, I’ve relied on tags or categorization in note-taking apps to attach matters or concepts.”
Anna is a prolific freelance content marketer and a self-described workflow automation geek. She makes use of an AI software referred to as Reflect to floor associated notes based mostly on the textual content she’s writing. So, mid-draft, Anna will see categorized recommendations from her community of paperwork.
Our human brains are fantastic, however they’re not at all times nice at shortly recalling a selected level buried amongst 1000’s of others. AI is ideally suited to the job. “This has grow to be a useful a part of my note-taking since AI can pull concepts collectively that I could have missed or not thought-about,” Anna stated.
8. Repurpose long-form content material for social media posts
Social media marketing is without doubt one of the finest channels for brand awareness and lead generation. However it’s additionally a endless grind that requires a relentless movement of content ideas to remain related.
Anna got here by with one other AI tip: a option to pull social media posts from the content material she beforehand produced. “I’ve already executed the onerous work by crafting long-form content material. Why not use AI to hurry up the method of making social posts?”
Anna makes use of a content material summarization function within the generative AI platform Author to do that.
After dropping within the URL of her supply article, Author comes again with a short synopsis of three key takeaways.
Subsequent, she pastes the takeaways into Trello, the software she makes use of for content material planning. These snippets encourage social posts when she’s prepared to write down them.
Why not simply ask AI to write down the posts? “You possibly can attempt to use AI to write down social posts for you, however I’ve discovered that it by no means seems like me,” Anna stated. “I’d somewhat use key takeaways as a launching pad and write my very own social posts.”
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9. Create personalized SMS and e mail advertising and marketing campaigns
Buyer journeys are like choose-your-own-adventure tales with dozens or a whole bunch of potential flows. Personalizing these journeys requires lots of guide work.
Angela Rollins, an ecommerce-focused content material marketer and strategist, steered a software referred to as Attentive AI as an answer. “As a substitute of manually creating all of the completely different flows a model usually would and layering on segments, Attentive AI mainly personalizes SMS and e mail messages at scale based mostly on all the info a model has on its prospects,” Angela defined.
This screenshot from Attentive AI’s web site exhibits the marketing campaign creation workflow.
The software regularly learns from the highest-performing advertising and marketing interactions to create multi-channel campaigns. It will possibly additionally construct refined segments out of your pool of subscribers and dial in the most effective time to ship messages for the best price of response.
By utilizing AI, you may “ship every individual the proper message on the proper time relying on the place they’re at of their relationship with the model,” Angela stated.
10. Put together an interview query checklist
Right here’s an thrilling use of AI’s means to riff off an current textual content. Angela offers the AI assistant Claude outlines and asks it to fill out query lists for subject material skilled interviews.
Right here’s an anonymized model of a dialog Angela lately had with Claude.
Claude replied with some fairly insightful new questions so as to add to the checklist. It even categorized them like Angela did within the authentic construction.
As soon as the interview is over, Angela goes again to Claude to assist pull out probably the most fascinating bits. “It’s so useful to simply plug massive quantities of content material into Claude and ask it to summarize for me. That helps me discover particular solutions from a protracted interview.”
11. Enhance design components in e mail headers
Entrepreneurs who aren’t essentially graphic designers are sometimes referred to as on to supply visuals for the property they handle. When Ceillie Clark-Keene, Head of Advertising and marketing & Communications at Building Ventures, finds herself on this place, she turns to AI.
“I’m not a designer, however I do put collectively the occasional e mail header,” she stated. “I’ve began experimenting with the AI options in Canva and Designs.ai to enhance design components or generate graphics.”
I gave it a attempt on Canva. I had hassle creating a brand new e-newsletter design (I discovered loads of pre-made templates), however with just a few clicks, I acquired a handful of submit designs that were properly sized for Instagram.
“These instruments assist me create higher graphics for these instances when outsourcing an expert isn’t within the finances or timeline,” Ceillie stated.
A phrase of warning is warranted. Evaluate AI picture mills carefully. They’ll typically go off the rails and create less-than-ideal visuals.
12. Construct article outlines shortly
I’ve written a whole bunch of articles, and with out fail, creating the preliminary construction is the toughest step. After you have the logic and framework down, it’s only a matter of filling within the clean spots.
Will Ruzvidzo is a seasoned B2B SaaS content material marketer who’s labored with world manufacturers for over 10 years. Will defined how he makes use of Author to beat outlining obstacles.
He begins by getting into an easy headline. “With just some clicks, I can generate a well-structured define for my weblog submit, full with related subheadings, key factors, and supporting examples.”
With the “bones” in place, Will customizes the define to “add my very own voice, insights, and creativity into the weblog submit.” Author additionally offers Will AI-powered copy recommendations as he writes.
He stated the time saved lets him concentrate on crafting fascinating introductions and compelling arguments—the forms of issues that make human-written content material stand out.
13. Write craftier subheadings
Subheadings are among the many most necessary features of a weblog web page. They assist readers skim and engines like google crawl articles extra successfully. That’s why Hsing Tseng, a contract content material author, editor, and strategist, makes use of ChatGPT as a sounding board when she writes subheadings.
“AI instruments can brainstorm a lot sooner and extra imaginatively (typically) than I’ve the inventive bandwidth to do,” she stated.
Right here’s an example prompt Hsing shared.
Discover how she provides tone and construction directions to the immediate, like “don’t be too flowery” and “hold H2s concise.” Hsing stated the extra particular you might be, the higher your output can be.
It’s not nearly banging out higher part titles, although. The AI recommendations Hsing will get incite new instructions for a submit she hadn’t thought-about but. “I’m in a position to discover a broader vary of angles, choosing and selecting wording which may align higher with the framing of my article,” she famous.
14. Scale product descriptions and advert copy
A single ecommerce web site can have a whole bunch of merchandise, every needing a concise description and advertising copy.
Gordon Donnelly, a multi-discipline marketer and website positioning skilled, stated that’s one in every of his favourite use cases for AI. “I’ve a few affiliate/dropshipping websites, and ChatGPT is nice for creating product descriptions and advertisements.”
Right here’s an instance of how Gordon prompts ChatGPT to zhuzh up a bland product description.
The important thing, stated Gordon, is that you want to coach your AI software with the proper prompts to get it to say one thing fascinating and helpful. As he previously wrote, when prompting an AI software, it’s best to:
- Be particular
- Present all of the related data
- Observe up
The way forward for AI in advertising and marketing
We’re simply scratching the floor of what AI can do for entrepreneurs. Present trends appear to be headed in the direction of extra automation, extra complicated customer-facing AI instruments, and analytics that predict in addition to overview.
Celia additionally sees a comeuppance on the horizon for entrepreneurs making an attempt to recreation the system with AI.
“There’s an moral difficulty behind passing off AI-generated writing as your personal, which is sadly rising in popularity a pastime as individuals chase a fast buck or a shortcut,” she stated. “In case you have been to ask ChatGPT to generate the content material of a weblog submit full of website positioning key phrases, it might definitely be attainable. However you threat not solely false data making it in, however ethically not flagging the content material as AI generated is by most thought-about plagiarism.”
Does that basically matter to less-ethical entrepreneurs who solely care about driving site visitors? Celia stated it ought to, in gentle of the current volatility of Google SERPs.
“Nicely, it would find yourself doing extra hurt than good on your web site’s website positioning,” Celia warned. “Google recently announced updates to its algorithm that may make it extra vigilant at eradicating low-quality content material like a lot of what AI produces with out human refinement. So, if ethics aren’t as a lot of a priority for you, a drop in your web site’s rankings is perhaps!”
