Why AI Is a Marketing Tool, Not a Solution

by Joe Hochgreve, Director of Digital Technology

More and more, our clients are asking us to help them incorporate Artificial Intelligence (AI) into their digital marketing strategy. While we can do that, it’s important to ensure our clients understand that AI isn’t a catchall solution for digital marketing.

Be Careful with AI-Generated Content

While AI can create copy and images, it’s far from perfect. Quality marketing content still requires the eye of a skilled copywriter or designer to cultivate memorable user experiences and make a lasting impression. AI can provide broad general content suggestions, proofread and edit, but it can’t produce original content. Here’s why:

Regardless of its learning algorithms, AI is only as good as the sources it references.
AI typically doesn’t produce the same copy or image twice, which can affect your ability to produce organic content that consistently reflects your brand voice.

How Can I Use AI for Marketing?

AI excels at analyzing data, identifying trends and automating repetitive processes, which can save you time. So, while it shouldn’t be relied on to produce content that’s ready to publish, it can enhance your productivity.

Use it Strategically to Optimize Your Marketing Efforts

Some questions to consider:

How often do you turn to Google for a quick answer?
How many websites do you visit before you find the information you need?
Have those online results ever been incorrect or insufficient?

While it isn’t foolproof, AI can act as a search engine that combs through multiple online data sources to provide you with general information. Instead of having to read through many articles and websites, AI gathers relevant information and produces a thorough response.

You can customize each query and use the programming to generate a variety of responses, so the more specific you are, the better your results are likely to be.

AI is also useful for completing mundane tasks. For example, your web developer is creating a drop-down list based on a spreadsheet. She knows the cell values but coding them into the system can be tedious and time-consuming. Your web developer could upload the spreadsheet into an AI program and ask it to produce the necessary code to design the drop-down list. That simplifies the process and boosts efficiency, allowing your web developer to move on to other tasks.

AI and Chatbots

Website chatbots are another area in which AI excels. You can employ an AI chatbot for situations that require interactive online communication chat programs. Chatbots can answer basic questions about your business based on parameters you set and that can help convert a user into a potential lead. Quality design, content and imagery are crucial for an effective chatbot, so it’s important to consider those factors when using AI to implement the feature.

The AI Bottom Line

AI will continue to progress, offering new ways to approach marketing, but that doesn’t mean you should eliminate your staff. It’s best leveraged as a tool for idea generation and, at times, as a search engine.

Take Your Digital Marketing Strategy to the Next Level

Whether you’re new to the realm of digital marketing or you’d like to find a way to step up your strategy, TouchStone Digital can help. We offer buildable services that can be scaled to suit your needs, including digital strategy, marketing, web design and development, content creation and more.

Call 419-299-9000 or send an email to schedule a consultation.