Tom Wozniak heads up Marketing and Communications as the COO for OPTIZMO Technologies.
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There is no hotter topic in marketing right now than artificial intelligence (AI) and specifically, ChatGPT. At a recent digital marketing conference I attended, the topic came up repeatedly in presentations and casual conversations among attendees. The majority of attendees I spoke with are already at least testing tools like ChatGPT, and many are becoming power users, typically using it to exponentially increase content creation while reducing time and effort.
While most marketers are becoming well versed in using AI in the content creation process, that is just scratching the surface of what these tools can bring to the table for the industry. With that in mind, here are five outside-the-box ways marketers can use AI in their marketing programs right now. While not all of these use cases will make sense to your specific marketing program, they should begin to give you ideas about the wide variety of ways AI can impact your marketing efforts.
For each of the examples below, I suggest using ChatGPT as the AI platform. However, they may also be possible with other AI platforms or chatbots (Google’s Bard, etc.). The only way to find out is to test different AI tools and discover their capabilities and limitations. One important thing to note about ChatGPT: As of writing, ChatGPT’s database only runs up to September 2021. So it will not be able to reference data more recent than that date, until the database is updated. Once that happens, use cases should expand significantly.
1. Creating Content In A Particular Voice
Using AI to help create content is a logical starting point for marketers. Whether it’s writing content for marketing emails, blog posts, articles or other types of content, the tool has proven itself very capable of creating comparatively high-quality content, with the proper prompting. Many marketers stop their refinement of the marketing content at this point, but the platform is capable of much more from a content-generation standpoint.
With effective prompting, AI can not only write in a wide variety of tones (casual, technical, serious, playful, humorous, all-business, etc.) but also imitate the writing style of a particular content creator. I tested this by using myself as the author to be imitated. I had ChatGPT search the internet for articles and content that I had already written (prior to September 2021) and then describe the voice that I typically wrote with. It nailed the descriptions of my writing style. Then, I asked it to use this same voice to create some new content. It was unquestionably successful in producing content that was eerily similar to my style.
2. Multilingual Marketing
Creating marketing content in multiple languages is always a challenge. ChatGPT can translate content into dozens of languages beyond English. Options include Spanish, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Arabic and Japanese, as well as many less common languages (Bengali, Marathi, Estonian, Uzbek and Icelandic, among quite a few more).
It’s important to note that generative AI tools are not dedicated translation tools, so for more complex translations, it would likely be advisable to use a more advanced language translation program. However, their simple interface and quick response time can make it a helpful option in some cases.
3. Marketing Scenario Simulations
Generative AI can be used to create simulations of various marketing scenarios, describe potential situations, facilitate role-playing exercises and generate responses to different challenges. By carefully defining an objective, setting the context, specifying roles and then creating a storyline, you can prompt AI to generate responses and actions based on all of the information you provided. It can be used to let the AI tool suggest ways to respond to various marketing or communications situations and then evaluate them based on your company’s needs and unique situation.
This is obviously a more complex process than simply asking the AI tool to write content for a marketing email, so the results will depend on how well you provide input and prompts along with refining steps based on the responses that are initially generated.
4. Brainstorming Sessions
Sometimes simply coming up with marketing ideas can be a challenge. We’ve all had moments when inspiration seems to have left the building with Elvis. These are great times to kick off brainstorming sessions. You may be used to having these types of ideation meetings with team members, but you might be surprised at how effective AI can be when it comes to brainstorming new marketing and campaign ideas.
Think of the tool as a conversation starter for these sessions. Ask it to come up with a number of novel marketing ideas based on your brand’s positioning and customer base. As previously noted, the key is to be as clear as possible in your prompts, describing exactly what you want from the AI tool. From there, your biggest limitation is your own imagination. Tag lines, product names, campaign ideas, channels to test, elevator pitches and so many other ideas could be perfect for this scenario. You can also incorporate the tool into a live team brainstorming meeting by asking it to contribute suggestions or refine ideas the team has come up with. Get creative and you will appreciate the results.
5. Marketing Plan Development
I wanted to save this one for last since it’s the most complex project for a marketing team. Looking at a blank marketing plan, you may wonder exactly how generative AI can help you actually develop a full strategic plan. As with all complex queries for AI, it can be helpful to break it down into more definable steps and then leverage the AI tool in each phase. Here are just a few key aspects of marketing plan development that AI can help generate.
• Defining your marketing objectives.
• Identifying target audiences.
• Creating a content plan.
• Designing specific campaigns.
• Allocating budgets.
• Setting key performance indicators (KPIs) and success metrics.
• Creating an implementation plan.
• Result analysis and optimization.
By using generative AI in each of these areas, you can compile the information it generates and essentially have the framework for a workable marketing plan.
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