The AI Revolution in Marketing: From Curiosity to Necessity

November 30, 2022 – ChatGPT launched, and the world shifted.

I vividly remember sitting in a client meeting only days after ChatGPT launched when the CEO said, "Did you hear ChatGPT reached a million users?" Honestly, at that point, I barely knew what it was—I'd heard whispers online but hadn't paid much attention.

Yet suddenly, the whole meeting paused. We stopped our discussion and spent the next hour experimenting. It was mind-blowing. Within days, I found myself using ChatGPT for everything from brainstorming to drafting emails to filing in recipe gaps in the kitchen. My productivity felt like it was doubling every few weeks. Naturally, I upgraded to the paid version to deepen my commitment to pushing my own boundaries around this new technology.

The New Essential Skill

Early on, I realized a critical truth: mastering AI wasn't going to be optional—it would be essential. Not just casually using AI, but deeply understanding its strategic application would become a core skill for not just marketers and business leaders, but everyone.

Today, whenever someone mentions AI, my ears perk up:

• If they haven't tried it yet, we talk about it.
• If they've experimented a little, we explore possibilities that make sense for them.
• If they're already deep into it, we swap stories (and I usually learn something new)

It's critical for marketing teams to embrace AI, whether for day-to-day tasks or strategic growth initiatives.

The Two Types of Companies in the AI Landscape

Currently, I see two types of companies in their approach to AI (relating to the entire business):

Companies already using AI: If your team is tech-savvy and curious, some of these methods may already be part of your workflow—great! Keep expanding your capabilities. Embrace AI openly and make it part of your conversations, standard operating procedures, and documented processes.

Companies unsure or lagging behind: If you're not certain about your team's AI engagement, it's important to start the conversation. Begin small—one use case, once a week—and you'll soon see significant time savings and efficiency gains in your marketing (or other area) efforts.

Real-World Impact: What AI Is Actually Changing

Beyond the hype, I've seen AI transform marketing operations in tangible ways:

1. Content creation acceleration - What once took days now takes hours or minutes, allowing teams to produce more content with the same resources
2. Data-driven decision making - Marketers are spotting trends and opportunities that would have been buried in spreadsheets
3. Personalization at scale - Creating truly individualized experiences without needing an army of marketers (or sales people)

The ROI is becoming increasingly clear: Teams that embrace AI are doing more with less, responding faster to market changes, and delivering more relevant messaging to their audiences.

Your AI Implementation Roadmap

To make it easier, here's a starting-point guide, organized into easy, medium, and advanced uses of AI in marketing and sales:

Easy to Implement

• Predictive analytics (basic): Keyword trends and customer insights.
• AI-driven content generation: Blog drafts, emails, and social media posts.
• Social listening & sentiment analysis: Monitor brand mentions and customer feedback.
• Chatbots for customer support: Provide immediate assistance and capture leads.

Medium Complexity

• Predictive lead scoring: Prioritize leads based on behavior and data.
• Dynamic creative optimization: Personalize ads in real-time.
• Behavioral analytics & advanced segmentation: Tailor customer experiences more deeply.
• Social ad targeting: Create hyper-targeted ads based on detailed user data.
• Workflow automation: Streamline repetitive marketing tasks.

Advanced Implementation

• Advanced customer journey personalization: Tailor experiences seamlessly across multiple channels.
• Visual and video AI content generation: Create sophisticated visual assets quickly.
• Churn prediction & intervention: Identify customers at risk of leaving and proactively engage.
• AI-driven competitor intelligence: Gain real-time insights into competitors' strategies.
• Voice assistants and smart-device marketing: Integrate into platforms like Alexa and Google Assistant.

Tools in my Stack

Here are the top four most common tools I use and what for:

1. ChatGPT - My go-to for nearly everything and anything I can think of, literally (ask me about my "side-vet" custom GPT I made). I even use ChatGPT to help me figure out what to do with other AI tools. Within ChatGPT, there are different models that can do different things; in reality, this would have to be its own post to appreciate the breadth of what's possible. 
2. Claude - For a much smoother and nicer copy refinement phase when I'm getting ready to produce a solid piece of content.
3. Make - For when you want to get really crazy and start stitching operations together and truly automate manual repetitive tasks.
4. Clay - A sales intel ninja is really the only way to frame this tool.

Getting Started: Practical First Steps

If you're just beginning your AI journey, here are three concrete actions you can take this week:

1. Start with one specific task - Choose a recurring, time-consuming activity like drafting social posts or analyzing campaign data
2. Experiment with free tools first - Before investing in enterprise solutions, master the basics with accessible platforms
3. Create an AI learning circle - Gather colleagues for a weekly 30-minute session to share discoveries and applications

Real Success Story: Rapid Response Marketing With AI

Let me share how AI revolutionized our approach to crisis communication:

When a significant market event occurred in one industry (I'm intentionally keeping this industry-agnostic since the lessons apply universally), traditional response time would have been days or weeks. Instead:

1. I quickly interviewed company leaders and gathered relevant news articles

2. Fed all context to ChatGPT and requested:

   • Three podcast/webinar discussion topics with conversation flows
   • Five blog article titles with descriptions and essential questions needing answers to build the full piece
   • An outline for a prevention and response guide to the situation that would target 3,000 words in the final piece

3. Within just 5 hours of the event, we had comprehensive content frameworks

4. Leaders reviewed and edited first drafts within 24 hours

5. While designers created visual assets, ChatGPT helped develop social media content and email campaigns

6. The entire campaign was live within 48 hours, generating hundreds of views and solid engagement

The ROI? A response that would typically take over a week to pull together was deployed in days, positioning our client as a thought leader when their audience needed guidance most.

Addressing Common AI Adoption Concerns

The biggest hesitations I hear from marketing teams typically stem from leadership concerns about privacy and security—and rightfully so. Here's how to address them:

1. For sensitive data handling: Consider paid enterprise tiers of AI tools that offer enhanced security protocols and data containment
2. For initial testing: Begin with non-sensitive data and anonymize any information before processing
3. For implementation: Develop clear standard operating procedures around what data can be used with which AI tools

Maintaining Brand Authenticity in the Age of AI

Think of AI like a new team member, it needs proper training. To maintain your authentic brand voice:

1. Use platform-specific features like ChatGPT's "Custom GPTs" or Claude's "Projects" to create AI profiles aligned with your brand
2. Program your AI tools with context about your brand voice, target market, products, and objectives
3. Provide clear examples of desired outputs and establish review processes

Remember, AI should amplify your human creativity, not replace it. The best results come from using AI to handle the repetitive elements while your team focuses on strategic creative direction.

The Future Belongs to the Adaptable

Wherever you stand, talk about AI. The companies that leverage AI thoughtfully today will become tomorrow's leaders. And those individuals that are pushing the envelope for themselves will see their professional performance make strides, and in turn, their organizations will move farther, faster.

If you're curious about how you can implement AI in your business, it shouldn't be a surprise that the sky is the limit. And there are very safe, smart and secure ways to do it. To be totally honest, I'm not even an AI consultant and don't claim to be - but if you or your business isn't dipping the toe into this work, let's catch up for a phone call and let me answer any of the questions you have about this world.

Remember when the internet came out? This is bigger than that.