Using AI? Don’t Leave This Out of Your Marketing Strategy

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, AI is everywhere.

 
It’s found in our phones, apps, cars, and even household appliances.

 
So, it’s safe to say, it’s not going anywhere. And that’s especially true if your job is tied to marketing or you work in a marketing field.

 
Now, don’t get me wrong – it’s easy to see how AI has made life easy for marketers. Not to mention how it’s helped businesses tighten their marketing budgets while still getting the same volume of work done (or more, in some cases).

 
But is this necessarily a good thing?

 
In a way, yes. But when you do a deep dive into how some marketers are using AI, there’s a key element that’s being left out. And it’s likely impacting results in a negative way.

 
According to the Marketing AI Institute, 81% of marketing teams don’t have an AI roadmap or strategy, or aren’t aware of whether their company has one.

 
So, while companies are enjoying how AI is helping them to reduce manual tasks and associated costs, most haven’t taken the time to plan out how they can fully implement it to their advantage.

 
That’s why it’s more important than ever to build out a marketing strategy that includes using AI.

A marketing strategy is where a business details a comprehensive plan that reflects how it will reach prospective customers and transform them into paying customers.

 
When you create your marketing strategy, it should include:

 
- Identifying goals
- Creating an ideal customer profile
- Messaging that reflects customer pain points and how your product or service solves them
- Defining a budget
- Choosing the best channels for your messaging
- Tracking results against established benchmarks

Let’s take a deep dive into two elements that should be a part of your marketing strategy – messaging and tracking results.

Messaging is where most marketers are seeing AI take over.

 
Businesses are using it for most or all their marketing content – web pages, blog posts, sales pages, email campaigns, and more.

 
Is that a good thing?

From what I’m seeing – no.

I admit that, given what I do for a living, I’m biased. But to be honest, I’ve seen copy and content created from AI, and it’s pretty impressive.

However, this is also where businesses are making a fatal error. I’m starting to see it pop up frequently, along with the problems it’s creating.

It’s not the fact that AI is being used to create content or copy. It’s that there’s no plan behind it! AI is the latest shiny new object. And yes, it can produce great copy, but it’s missing a key element.

YOUR customer’s specific needs and pain points.

I recently had a prospective client who wanted to know if I could help them improve conversions. I said, sure, let’s set up a time to chat about what’s going on.

During our meeting, he told me he had recently revamped his company’s website, yet no one was converting. He was sending out emails, but no one was converting. He had videos on YouTube, and yep, you guessed it, no one was converting.

During the discovery phase of the call, he told me he used AI to write his site copy. He used AI to write his YouTube scripts. And he not only bought a list for lead generation, but he also used AI to write the email campaign.

I looked at his site and social platforms while on the call, and let’s just say the copy was nowhere near what it should have been. The YouTube video was more like a blog post instead of an opportunity for promotion. The site pages were written in a similar manner. There was no messaging on how his business helped prospective customers or encouraged them to get more details about his services.

I asked about his unique selling proposition, ideal customer profiles, and his customers’ pain points. He didn’t have an answer. And that’s perfectly ok! But it shows how just because you can use AI, it’s cheap, and does a relatively good job, doesn’t mean it will get you the results you want to achieve your marketing benchmarks. Especially, if you don’t have a plan.

Like the prospective client I just mentioned, some businesses think great copy automatically equals great results.

 
It doesn’t.

Great results come with creating a marketing strategy as detailed above, so you know what to say to customers and how to say it. It also requires careful monitoring and tracking to continually improve results.

A client I’ve been working with for about six months sends me AI-generated copy and then asks me to enhance it with her customers’ voice and pain points.

Why has this significantly improved her conversions?

Because before we even looked at copy, we worked together to determine her ideal customer profile, what pains they were facing, and how her courses solved them. And now, she’s seeing more sales in the last few months than she did all last year!

Part of tracking results also involves monitoring any changes to the copy or campaigns. It’s how you know if you’re hitting the mark with customers or completely off base. The more you test, adjust, and monitor campaign metrics, the more easily you can meet your marketing benchmarks.

According to Salesforce, marketers still need help with the data they collect about prospects and customers. In fact, 59% of marketers need assistance with segmenting their audience as well as with executing their campaigns. And 56% need help with getting performance analytics.

 
Whether marketers don’t have the expertise to analyze the data or staffing constraints come into play, this type of data can be crucial to tracking and monitoring. When this data is ignored, it means marketing efforts are based on outdated insights. And your results will suffer for it.

So, what do marketers need to have a successful AI marketing strategy?

You still need a conversion copywriter on your team!

Again, I’m fully aware that I’m biased.

But there’s nothing more frustrating than seeing businesses ignore proven conversion strategies because they’ve got a free tool at their disposal. Sure, it’s quick. Of course, it provides good content or copy.

But at what cost?

If you’re not utilizing the data you’ve worked so hard to collect to maximize results, is it worth it?

If you’re ignoring expert advice from trained professionals to reach your benchmarks, is it really a “free” tool?

I get it. It’s fun to get results so quickly without having to pay or wait to get copy from a copywriter.

But copywriting isn’t something that gives you “get rich quick” results. And our role is so much more than just writing pretty words.

In addition to writing copy, a conversion copywriter does the following:

 
- In-depth research
- Captures and analyzes voice of customer data
- Understands levels of awareness
- Optimizes copy to match customer emotions
- Conducts competitor analysis
- And a ton of other proven conversion strategies

It’s like when a prospective client comes to me because their email copy isn’t converting. Well, most of the time, the copy isn’t the problem. It’s that they wanted to send out emails fast, so they bought a list to “save time” and skipped proven lead generation processes.

Conversion copy doesn’t work that way.

That’s why 60% of marketers state that inbound marketing is the best method for generating high-quality leads.

It’s because it works.

 
Conversion copywriters are trained to optimize results through proven marketing techniques. It’s not about who can send the fastest email or write copy in a matter of seconds. It’s about gaining insights and applying them to copy in order to attract and engage customers who want to do business with you.

 
Of course, AI can help you write copy faster. It can also capture a prospect’s attention and identify buying potential. And when you combine those tactics with copy optimized to reflect your customers’ pain points and your unique voice, you’re more likely to reach your marketing benchmarks.

By all means, use AI when and where you need to. Just don’t forget to keep your favorite conversion copywriter on your marketing team to ensure you get the results you want.

 
If you're interested in seeing how I can help you optimize your results, let me know all your details here.