These days, there are hundreds of AI tools designed to be used by marketers and other business professionals. But is AI truly worth using in marketing? And if so, how do you use AI to maximize your results without exposing yourself to critical new vulnerabilities?
Appointing a Leader
When it comes to these decisions, it pays to have a dedicated leader in place. A strong marketing leader, such as a chief marketing officer (CMO), can lead due diligence and tech product selection while outlining policies and procedures for using such tools.
You can also choose to work with a fractional CMO company or another marketing consultant. A fractional CMO functions like a temporary traditional CMO for hire, and can help you find the best AI tools for your marketing needs or assess the tools you already have in your workplace.
The Power of AI
AI can help you in many different respects in your marketing department.
Research: AI is an incredible tool for researching topics. You can gather relatively recent information, simplify complex topics, and produce reports on almost any subject you can imagine. From better understanding your demographics to becoming more acquainted with competitor products, AI can greatly accelerate your research.
Automation: Automation is arguably the greatest material benefit of AI in marketing. With the help of AI-powered tools, you can automate anything that's sufficiently repetitive and predictable. You can use it to automate various tasks in your daily workflows as well as drip email campaigns and other material aspects of your marketing campaigns.
Drafting: Although reception for the content quality produced by AI is mixed, there's no question that AI can be a powerful tool when it comes to content drafting. It can help you organize your materials, rewrite certain phrases, outline pieces of content, and in some cases, even produce solid first drafts. Just make sure you have a competent human reviewer check for inaccuracies and mistakes.
Personalization: Many marketers also love AI for its ability to personalize pretty much anything. You can use it to make sure every email subscriber on your list gets an individualized email, and respond to customer service inquiries at that same individual level.
Ultimately, AI is beneficial in marketing for:
Saving time: When used appropriately, AI can save you a lot of time and marketing, automating hours' worth of tasks and preventing mistakes and hiccups. At scale, it can save you even more time, and it can do so across many individuals and specializations.
Saving money: The ROI of the average marketing AI tool is considerable. AI is relatively inexpensive, and it can save you money in many areas.
Improving consistency: Some marketers especially value AI for its ability to improve consistency. If you're concerned about closely adhering to brand standards, or if you just want to make sure all of your workflows are executed properly every time, AI can help you make massive strides.
Boosting reach/potential: When used in the right applications, AI can also boost your reach and potential, multiplying your output without multiplying your expenses.
The Drawbacks of AI
There are some drawbacks to AI, too.
Inaccuracies: AI hallucinations are still very common. AI is neither a perfect research tool nor is it a perfect generative tool, and users should exercise caution when using it to create content or form the basis of strategic initiatives. AI has been known to totally fabricate details, and it doesn't have access to real time information in all cases, so the best approach is to exercise caution when using it for anything important.
Repetitiveness: At its core, AI is a sophisticated pattern recognition engine, and it replicates those patterns in its output. Unfortunately, this means AI output is sometimes very repetitive and predictable, which is unsuitable for many types of marketing applications.
Lack of personality: Similarly, although it does a decent enough job replicating emotional tones, AI doesn't have a personality and can't engage with people on a genuinely human level. If your brand depends on connecting with others, AI will have to take a back seat to human representatives at least some of the time.
Costs: Although there are some free AI tools, if you want the best tools for your marketing department, you're going to need to pay for them. The best AI tools on the market aren't cheap, and you need to factor this into your budgeting.
So is AI worth using in marketing? The answer is, resoundingly, yes. However, it's important not to overstate the potential of AI, and it's even more important to acknowledge its weaknesses and limitations.
Only once you've done your thorough due diligence should you make any major decisions with respect to using AI in your marketing strategies.
