Marketing Director at North Securityone of the leaders in providing digital security and privacy solutions for individuals and businesses.
Let’s face it: in the changing world of marketing, AI has become a buzzword. The topic dominates conversations, floods LinkedIn feeds, and appears in almost every technology webinar. With each new conversation, it becomes more and more clear that AI technology has the potential to significantly impact the future of marketing.
Over the years, I have seen machine learning develop and its potential made me believe in the prospects of AI early on. It seems that the explosion of large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and image generators like Midjourney and Dall-E have convinced other marketers as well.
A Mailchimp investigation found that almost 90% of marketers believe their organization needs to increase the use of AI to remain competitive. A survey from the Influencer Marketing Hub found that more than 60% of marketers have used AI in their marketing activities.
But here’s the thing: If you’re in the core of marketing, it becomes increasingly difficult to identify what AI could actually mean for you. How can we sift through the hype to find real-world uses of AI that can truly improve our marketing efforts? Let’s explore the practical side of AI in marketing to cut past the buzz and discover where technology and creativity can meet.
Expand marketing horizons
For the majority of businesses, the golden rule is to do more with less, and AI tools play an essential role in achieving this, especially in marketing. Fortunately, some AI concepts are not just buzzwords but practical applications that expand the potential of marketing.
Consider image building, an essential part of digital marketing. AI tools like Midjourney or Dall-E transform this task. Instead of spending countless hours or a large budget on custom visuals, organizations can now generate a multitude of accurate images quickly and efficiently. This is a game changer for marketing campaigns, where visual uniqueness often drives engagement.
However, not everything goes smoothly. AI-generated images sometimes require fine-tuning to meet specific standards, but the speed and customization offered by the tools often makes up for this. This is especially true when conventional stock footage is not applicable.
Beyond image creation, AI tools like Pencil And MarketMuse are reshaping market research and content strategy. Crayon tracks market trends and competitor activities, providing insights that can shape more effective marketing strategies. MarketMuse, on the other hand, uses AI to optimize content for SEO, ensuring that your content ranks higher and reaches a wider audience.
Streamlining marketing processes
In the fast-paced world of marketing, efficiency is essential and AI tools play a crucial role in streamlining marketing tasks. Let’s take a look at how these tools make a difference in the day-to-day operations of marketing teams.
Let’s first consider the task of preparing visuals, a basic activity in marketing. Tools like Delete.bg And Lets improve.io transform this space:
• Remove.bg automates the background removal process, a task that typically requires hours of manual effort. Reducing this task to a few seconds per image saved our team approximately 30 hours per month.
• LetsEnhance.io improves image resolution using AI. This means that images that were previously unusable due to poor quality can now be brought up to standard. In a world dominated by smartphones with crisp resolutions, high-quality visuals are the default expectation, which is why my team has found this tool invaluable.
Moving on to content creation, AI tools like ChatGPT help in generating content ideas and writing outlines. This capability helps marketing teams overcome the dreaded blank page syndrome. It is particularly useful for creating SEO-optimized content, helping authors ensure that content not only resonates with audiences, but also performs well in search engine rankings.
Integrating these AI tools into marketing workflows creates a more efficient and productive environment. They allow teams to focus on creative and strategic tasks by taking care of the repetitive and time-consuming parts of the work.
Practical tools complement marketing
The future of AI promises extraordinary advancements in marketing. This is evident even at the current stage of early adoption. Currently, marketers can choose from many different AIs, but tools and software are only one side of the coin.
Before marketing teams tackle AI technology, there is a lot of work to be done. Whether or not you use AI software, it’s a good idea to audit your internal marketing processes and identify any tasks that can be automated. However, this does not mean that all tasks will be monotonous. Still, it’s a good start to improving efficiency and ensuring that creative resources are happily spent on creative challenges.
It might also be a good idea to track the effectiveness of automated tasks from different angles. For example, some visual automation processes can significantly reduce the time it takes to produce an illustration, but if dedicated illustrators still need to check for visual artifacts, it might be possible to find a better way to optimize.
AI tools offer tremendous value for streamlining processes and expanding creativity. They allow marketers to focus on more strategic aspects of their work, leaving repetitive and time-consuming tasks to AI. As technology continues to evolve, the buzz is going to get louder and louder. But behind the noise lie practical AI tools that open new horizons and opportunities for marketers across all industries.
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