When To Use AI For Marketing
Before we get too far, you need to understand how AI works. That way you understand when to use it and when to leave it on the shelf.
At its core, AI is a method for manipulating info from large sets of data. AI especially excels at spotting patterns in data from multiple sources. It can then rearrange the pieces into different types of output. That output might be summaries, explanations, or even images.
This creates some natural limitations to consider. First, the quality and nature of the input affect the output. Secondly, no matter how creative it may seem, AI’s output is simply the answer to a math equation. It cannot replace the things that make you unique. That makes it great for planning or short pieces of content, but you do not want to count on AI for all of your content.
Which AI Model Works Best For Marketing?
You should also understand that not all AI models are equal. The source of their data, their algorithms, and processing power will affect your experience. For instance, the most popular AI model, ChatGPT, offers a well balanced experience in all three areas, and you can even use ChatGPT 4o mini for free for small tasks.
Google also offers its own AI model known as Gemini. This AI model has been in a race to catch up to ChatGPT, and at times it shows. The AI also appears to use a much wider swath of the internet to train its models which may affect the data quality, and it raises some ethical concerns about whether Google has the right to use this information.
At RefinerFire, we use Anthropic’s Claude AI for our Target Market Analysis Tool. Their latest Claude 3.0 models have outperformed other models on several key metrics, and they are trained on a closed set of information that gets updated at regular intervals. The ethical data sourcing and high performance make Claude a great choice to assist with marketing.
Using Prompts to Instruct the AI Tool
Regardless of the AI model you choose, the instructions you provide will greatly impact the output you receive. We’ll use the RAFT framework to make sure the AI has all the information it needs to create the response we want. This framework guides the instructions, or prompts, we enter into the AI tool
Each letter stands for an element that should be included in your prompts and the order you should provide them in.
- Role
- Action
- Format
- Tweaks
Role
The first part of your prompt should set up the role and expertise the AI will bring to the table. Providing specific details here will improve the results. For example, you might start with a prompt like:
You are a marketing expert who specializes in helping home services companies grow their business through digital channels.
The Role prompt can be entered on its own or bundled with the next two parts. Entering the prompt on its own does help you make sure the AI understands the role completely, so typically we will include enter this prompt right away.
Action
Next, you need to provide an action you’d like the AI model to take. In our case, we want to create a marketing persona for a specific use case, so we could tell the AI:
Create a marketing persona of the ideal customer for a commercial plumber in the Jacksonville, Florida metro area.
Notice again how we provided specific details such as the metro area and type of plumbing. This specific information will help eliminate irrelevant customer types, so we will get more useful results.
Format
Format refers to the way data should be organized, and it also includes the specific details that should be in the AI marketing persona. Usually, you will enter this information with the Action prompt to save some back and forth. So building on the prompt from a moment ago you would have:
Create a marketing persona of the ideal customer for a commercial plumber in the Jacksonville, Florida metro area. Include bulleted lists with 5 of their priorities, 5 of their fears in choosing a plumber, and 5 interests that can be used for targeting.
Once you enter the prompt, the AI will create your marketing persona. At this point, you will want to review it to make sure that it makes sense. Using AI for marketing personas can sometimes create unpredictable results, and you’ll want to take the information with a grain of salt.
Tweaks
Now that you’ve reviewed the marketing persona generated by the AI model, you will want to follow up. If the results are vague in one area, then you can instruct the AI to tell you more information about that point. You can also ask why it generated certain qualities in the persona.
It can also be useful to ask follow up questions to dig deeper into who the customer represented by the persona. For instance, you might ask about what types of businesses are most likely to need plumbing services. Or you can ask about the decision making process for the customer. Use the AI as if you were trying to get to know that person.
Using the AI Output In Your Marketing
By this point, the AI will have generated a full marketing persona for your ideal customer, but you should treat this more like a head start than a finished product. Using AI for marketing is an inexact science, and sometimes the AI model can get things wrong. Like Teddy Roosevelt advised, we should trust, but verify.
Like we mentioned in our article about personas, nothing can replace talking to your customers! Use these conversations to add more depth and richness to persona generated by the AI. Then as your created your marketing messages pretend as if you’re talking directly to the customer portrayed in your marketing persona.
Other Ways to Use AI for Marketing
This same advice applies to other ways you use AI for marketing. The RAFT framework can be used to generate everything from captions to emails with AI, but you should rarely use the AI output directly. Always fact check and revise to make it fit your voice and your brand.
AI promises to unleash a flood of new content on the web, and the only way to stand out will be to be uniquely you. This will improve the chances your content surfaces on digital platforms like social media and search engines who can detect content made with AI. More importantly, it will create trust with your potential customers.
You are the expert in your domain. You are the one with actual thoughts and opinions. You are a real person, and that’s something AI can never be.
Until next time, take care and God bless!
