No matter where you are in your marketing career, as a professional, you’ll know that technology is reshaping the industry and our roles within it. These advancements, whether significant or subtle, are undeniably changing the way we work. The value they bring, whether through resource optimisation or streamlining processes, has become impossible for business owners to ignore. In our fast-paced, attention-scarce digital era, change isn’t just inevitable; it’s essential. It’s like natural selection – embrace the evolution and thrive, or resist it and risk redundancy. Yet, I see many marketers hesitant to fully embrace it – some limit it to casual chats, others stick to basic research, and a few, especially senior pros, dismiss it as “not for them.” In this article, I’ll explore AI in marketing through my own workflow journey. If you’re an advanced AI user or have a team handling your workload, this might not be for you. But if you’re a resource-strapped marketer curious about AI’s potential, these insights from my journey could help you get started.
My AI Evolution Journey
Back in 2021, I dove into AI in marketing with apps like Jasper, powered by GPT-3, for AI-driven copywriting, and tools like Lumen5 for quick video content. The technology wasn’t flawless. Outputs often needed 30-40% tweaking, but the productivity boost was clear compared to starting from scratch. Researching content, which once took hours, began shrinking thanks to AI’s ability to summarise and suggest. By 2023, with GPT-4’s arrival, the game changed. Given the right prompts, AI could produce marketing materials needing just 10% refinement. Today, it’s woven into my daily workflows, saving astonishing amounts of time and resources.
Why AI Needs Your Expertise
There’s a lingering fear that AI will replace marketers entirely, and it’s easy to see why. AI can whip up articles, ads, or images in seconds, tasks that once took hours or days. But this oversimplifies things, especially if you’re aiming to maximise results. Having worked with agencies and creative teams, I’ve learned that quality output depends on quality input. A sloppy brief means endless revisions; a sharp one delivers results. AI is no different – it’s like your 24/7 personal creative agency, complete with ultra-fast writers and illustrators. To make it work with minimal trial and error, your prompts need to be precise.
Think of it as briefing a clever teammate who’s always available to brainstorm and execute. You don’t need the exhaustive detail of an agency brief, but clarity is key – outline your product’s unique selling points, your audience’s pain points, and your goals. A vague prompt like “You’re now a creative director and write ad copy for a soft drink” will leave you sifting through mediocre drafts for hours. Instead, do some prior thinking and provide critical information that would steer your results in the right direction, such as your product’s USP (unique selling point), the challenges it solves for customers, your positioning and competitive landscape, target audience profile, which platform the copy will appear on, a single CTA (call to action), and samples of high-performing similar copy. This approach will save time dramatically. AI won’t replace marketers; it’ll replace the lazy ones. Senior pros, this is where your briefing skills shine. Pair them with AI, and you’ve got an efficient, creative assistant that amplifies your strategic edge.
Stop Repeating Yourself with Smart Setups
If you often tackle similar projects like discussing different topics within the same campaign or repeatedly providing company context, retyping details gets old fast. AI can streamline this. I use Perplexity and its “Spaces” feature, which includes “Custom Instructions.” There, I input project background, tone of voice, and expected outcomes upfront. It’s a lifesaver for repetitive tasks like editing blog posts or crafting product descriptions for a consistent brand. For instance, when researching blockchain subtopics, I set my knowledge level, technical focus, and preferred format, saving me from re-explaining each time.
Not every tool offers this natively, though. With Grok by xAI, which doesn’t retain past chats, you can work around it by asking it to generate reusable prompts containing all the necessary details for starting a new conversation. These might include essential background information you need to repeatedly provide and highlights of previous discussions that you find useful for future conversations. It spits out a custom starter you can tweak later. You can store these in a prompts database (I usually just use Notion), refining them as you go. When a similar task pops up, you can just pull out the prompt that works, quickly modify it, and you’ll know you’ll get reliable results fast. In my experience, this small habit pays off tremendously.
Putting AI in Marketing to Work
Managing AI as part of your team can be as structured as managing human colleagues. Whether you’re planning a campaign, drafting a blog post, or creating ad copy for a product launch, AI can assist at every stage of your workflow. Treat it as a team member and ask specific questions at each step of your process. Here’s how AI can fit into a typical workflow:
- Research: Start with broad questions and gradually narrow your focus. For example, you might ask AI to gather competitor insights, analyse industry trends, or highlight customer pain points. To ensure accuracy, request citations and verify sources before using the information.
- Brainstorming: Provide detailed background information about your product, campaign goals, and target audience. Specify what you want and what you don’t want. Samples can also be helpful. Request multiple creative directions – 5-10 options are usually enough to find a promising starting point without feeling overwhelmed.
- Execution: Once you’ve settled on an idea, ask AI to produce the required output. This could be copy, blog posts, or execution plans. Providing your requirement for pre-set output formats cuts manual fiddling later.
- Analysis: Post-campaign, share reports with AI and ask it to organise the data, interpret results, and prepare insights. Tools with reasoning features, like Perplexity’s Reasoning mode, DeepSeek R1, or Grok 3’s “Think” capabilities, could be effective during your discussion to help uncover insights that you might otherwise miss.
Level Up with Advanced Tools
If you’re a Notion user like me, take it further. I’ve built workflows linking databases including brand guidelines, product specs, media assets requirements to AI prompts. For an e-commerce client, I tied product data to blog and newsletter templates, letting AI churn out consistent content with minimal tweaks. It’s less about replacing effort and more about amplifying it. AI’s versatility thrives when paired with your expertise, not as a standalone fix.
AI as Your Always-On Collaborator
The bottom line? AI in marketing is a game-changer when you steer it. From crafting sharper prompts to building smarter systems, it’s a collaboration that elevates your role. I’d love to hear your own AI tips – drop them below, and let’s learn together. Ready to revolutionise how you work? Start small, experiment, and watch your efficiency climb. With the right approach, AI becomes your most reliable teammate yet.
