Is artificial intelligence a threat or a tool for the marketing function, and how can we harness its superpowers?
/Artificial Intelligence (AI)/: The theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been centre stage in current discussions on what the future of the working world looks like. Due to its advancements and continuous evolution, society is becoming threatened with its capabilities as it may be removing the need for the current job roles. But is it really stealing our jobs, or is it a catalyst for efficiently, productivity and creative inception?
Let’s find out!
The ChatGPT takeover
ChatGPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) is an advanced natural language production and processing software developed by OpenAI, trained on an extensive list of topics (which is only continuously evolving) and can generate human-like responses. ChatGPT is revolutionising business activities by generating ideas, analysing data, and conducting research, almost instantly. For more information on how AI has transformed the tech industry specifically find out more, here.
Today, let’s explore the power of AI through the lens of the marketing function – a fundamental part of business workings – and discover how AI can revolutionise everything it entails.
Friend or foe?
The simple answer – friend, as it is revolutionising how we operate as function. However, the fear of the disappearance of human work is apparent, commonly referred to as AI anxiety.
/AI anxiety/: anxiousness caused by the acceleration of artificial intelligence (AI) and the rate of development.
This anxiety stems from the fact that AI can generate topic ideas for content – including marketing copy, conducting market research and data analysis – the list is extensive! It’s not surprising that this powerhouse is creating anxiety and with it only growing in intelligence, it makes us question if there’s still a need for us marketers…
That said, on the other hand we can perceive AI as a tool for our work, as it has many advantageous factors. As marketing is a versatile role (and AI could be seen to condense this), AI can simplify strategic planning, maximise customer engagement and increase reach with its power of automation. In a recent HubSpot report, 80% of industry experts say they are integrating and collaborating with some form of AI in their digital marketing activities and presence – a clear bandwagon effect.
So, if artificial intelligence is a change agent for marketers, how can we use it to our benefit?
How to employ the magic of ChatGPT in marketing
In a recent LinkedIn survey, respondents stated the most valuable ways in which marketing can be supported by ChatGPT is:
- Content and creative idea generation (45%),
- Copywriting (21%),
- As a tool for planning (17%)
- Analysing data (14%).
Let’s dive deeper into some of the areas in which we, as marketers, can harness the magic of AI and some of the prompts that could transform our practice:
Content creation and copywriting
AI can be used as an aid for our content creation and copywriting by scanning for relevant images or generating copy on certain subjects with certain actions – the definition of efficiency. This, in practice, could look like:
- “Rephrase the following copy”
- “Generate a twitter thread about [topic]”
- “Generate a simple, high-quality image for social media for a [type] company. The goal of the image must be to acquire new leads”.
Discover more on the integration of content creation and AI here.
Above: screenshot showing command to create twitter thread on ChatGPT.
Social media management
ChatGPT can help us come up with new ideas as keeping social media posts fresh, engaging and interesting can sometimes be a challenging task. In practice, this could look like prompting ChatGPT to:
- “Generate social media content related to [topic]”
- “List five topics related to [industry] that would be interesting to our social media followers”
- “Generate three social media post ideas that will create a buzz around our [product/service]”.
SEO
ChatGPT can be an aid for the realm of SEO, from suggesting keywords and research to generating meta descriptions. This can be useful in ensuring SEO is optimised, increasing the chances of webpages/content to be seen by customers. By asking ChatGPT to:
- “Identify long tail keyword for ‘’tech” and add everything in a table for UK domain”
- “Generate a list of related keywords for [topic]”.
Above: screenshot showing keyword research command on ChatGPT.
Market research
ChatGPT has not been heavily adopted for market research purposes as of yet – however its ability to analyse and synthesis data to undertake sentiment analysis could make it an extremely purposeful tool. It can identify and research competitors, organise data and create customer personas, reducing the lengthy curation time when searching for insights. In practice, suggested prompts could be:
- “Give me insights on how to best segment the [type] market in order to better target customers”.
Email marketing
ChatGPT can enable us marketers to drive leads through supercharging our email marketing efforts by enhancing campaigns, boosting open rates and carrying out automated testing. AI enables marketers to simply generate email drafts, personalised to business offerings or customers, to analyse past email campaigns and undertake A/B testing. This could look like prompting the bot to:
- “Write copy for a promotional email with the subject line: [Your subject line]”
- “Generate 5 subject lines relating to [topic]”.
That’s a wrap!
There we have it, AI in marketing is definitely our friend, due to its ability to undertake tasks with ease making our jobs easier – but also our foe due to AI anxiety. That said, don’t panic! AI is not going to replace your job role any time soon, however those marketers applying AI technology will! Due to the ever-evolving nature of technology, we can only imagine where we will be a few years’ time. Now with AI, the capabilities are only growing, as we can now prompt a bot to do almost everything to make our day jobs that bit easier and more efficient.
Discover more on the AI influx and read the benefits that ChatGPT can produce for the Financial Services sector here.