How to design an AI marketing strategy

AI is experiencing rapid growth, transforming how businesses approach their marketing efforts. An effective AI marketing strategy can significantly enhance customer engagement and optimise campaigns.

The tech is evolving very quickly now.

But a consequence of all this AI growth, hyper-evolution and choice is one thing: inertia. I’ve felt it here. There are so many AI tools and not enough time to explore them all. To streamline your efforts, consider looking into 5 next-gen AI marketing tools you need to use that can enhance your strategy and effectiveness. Where do you even start?

They say life is a series of choices, big and small. I can’t help you figure out 99% of them, but I’m going to help you choose the right AI tools. And I’m going to do that by showing you how to create an AI marketing strategy for your business.

Crafting an AI marketing strategy that works

With any strategy, you need to start by imagining the end result. So, first question: what do you want to achieve?

Let’s say you’re the CMO of a tech company. Your goal for Q1 2025 is lead capture. You want to increase lead capture by 25% using AI.

Working backwards, you can map out the specific steps you need. Where does lead capture happen for you? Online forms? Blogs? Webinars? How manual is the production process of these assets, and can AI be used in some way?

Take webinars as an example. Without AI, the process might look something like this:

• Brainstorm topics that interest your audience
• Create promotional content (emails, social posts)
• Send reminders and manage sign-ups
• Host and record the webinar
• Follow up with a thank you email to all attendees

It’s then worth breaking down those five parts of the process - to see how AI can enhance each step. There are tools like Perplexity that can help you compile your webinar research. Or tools like Podcastle that can mimic human voiceovers very realistically - saving someone in your team the effort of voicing it themselves.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. When used across the whole webinar process, you can save time, be innovative with your content creation, and see a significant return on investment.

Reimagining marketing processes with AI

Refreshing marketing processes with AI isn’t just about optimisation. It’s about unlocking potential.

AI brings a new lens through which marketers can view familiar tasks.

Let’s take the webinar example once again. You might have earmarked tools like Perplexity for research, Podcastle for voiceover, and perhaps Midjourney for ad image generation to promote your tool.

The next question to ask yourself: how can I take this further?

AI potential relies on the current technology. But (luckily) AI is evolving fast, and new capabilities are emerging every day. Going back to the webinar, Podcastle’s technology (for example) can generate over 20 different voices. This feature opens possibilities like:

• A/B testing webinars with different voices (does your audience prefer male or female? Low pitch or high?)
• Turning your webinars into debates, with different contributors
• Increasing the output of your webinars, using Perplexity to quickly research the topics, ChatGPT to write the scripts, and Podcastle to push out voiceover content

With this one feature of Podcastle, you could A/B test webinars and find the optimal voice to host them. Or push out webinars every week, OR create lively discussions that bring alive the stories in your field of expertise. With AI, the possibilities are starting to look endless.

Right now, it’s up to you to find them.

Find new possibilities of AI in marketing.

Beyond ChatGPT… AI tools in marketing

Just under 60,000 AI companies operate around the world.

The range of AI tools available is huge, which makes choosing the right tool difficult.

In marketing, a lot has been said about ChatGPT. As the flagship generative AI tool, it’s become a frontrunner for content creation - and it does this well. But whilst ChatGPT sets a high standard, it can’t meet every marketing need. Beyond ChatGPT, different stages of your marketing workflow demand different tools, like:

Compass for content strategy

Alongside ChatGPT, Compass can help you build out comprehensive content plans.

Compass is aligned with SEO strategies and can suggest headlines, keywords, and content outlines for different audience segments.

Canva’s AI design suite

Canva’s AI design suite helps you create professional, on-brand content very quickly.

It simplifies the visual production process and provides a good starting point for designers.

Heygen for video content

Heygen lets you develop realistic video avatars, customise facial expressions, and produce multilingual video outputs.

You can create videos without the high studio overhead - saving both time and production costs.

Persado

Words matter to Persado . Specifically, the emotive weight of words.

This AI tool analyses content messaging and provides variations, aiming for the most persuasive and emotive form possible.

Drift

Drift’s AI chatbot simulates and plays out conversations with customers.

The AI qualifies leads, answers questions, and drives customers through the sales funnel.

Measuring success and iterating your AI marketing strategy

You have already envisioned the ideal result of your AI strategy. In this case:

You want to increase lead capture by 25% using AI.

Looping back, you should aim to measure this. If you meet your KPIs, you can look at replicating and scaling your strategy across other initiatives. Failure to meet your KPI could mean adjusting various elements (AI tool, messaging, audience targeting).

KPIs and metrics could be:

• Conversion rates, from blogs or landing pages
• Engagement metrics, such as click-through-rates (CTR) or session duration
• Lead quality scoring, taking assets as benchmarks to evaluate how well leads align with your target audience
• Time savings achieved with AI tools, contributing to overall productivity

Your long-term AI marketing strategy

AI is on a growth trajectory in every industry. But in marketing, 71.7% of non-adopters say lack of understanding is the main barrier.

Knowledge about AI tools, and their capabilities, is a real power. Especially now, when marketers are in the discovery stage - looking at the potential these tools hold.

AI learning, experimentation, and adaptation are important right now but will become vital as time goes on. Building a long-term AI marketing strategy won’t happen overnight. And, of course, with any strategy comes trial and error. So, the sooner you get started, the better.

Here’s a handy wall chart summary you can post in the office kitchen.

In conclusion, implementing an effective AI marketing strategy involves several critical steps. Firstly, define clear goals by establishing specific objectives that AI can help achieve, such as increasing lead capture by 25% for Q1 2025. Next, map AI tools to workflows by analysing each stage to identify where AI can add value, using tools like ChatGPT for scriptwriting and Podcastle for voiceover. Optimise existing processes by leveraging AI for efficiency, quality, and innovation, such as A/B testing webinar voiceovers to discover the most appealing formats. Encourage experimentation with new applications to explore AI’s full potential across varied marketing scenarios, including transforming webinars into debate formats with AI-generated voices. It’s essential to measure and adjust your approach by setting KPIs to track AI’s effectiveness in engagement, conversion rates, and productivity, monitoring metrics like CTR, session duration, and lead quality scoring. Finally, adopt a long-term vision, treating AI integration as an evolving journey that adapts based on learnings and regularly reviewing advancements to refine your AI marketing strategy.

Frequently asked questions