Leveraging generative AI, once considered a mere novelty, has become almost a necessity in marketing in 2023. There are already plenty of tools available on the market that can generate text, images, create voice-overs, and make videos within minutes, and more! Such impressive features enable brands to brainstorm ideas and deliver highly personalized marketing content that aligns with the brand’s style. This branch of AI technology is growing too rapidly to be dismissed as just another buzzword.
We decided to research this topic in-depth and evaluate the use and impact of generative AI tools on marketing and how you can effectively utilize them.
A report by MarketsandMarkets suggests that AI in marketing could be valued at over $40 Billion by 2025! Marketers can add convenience to their profession while increasing work efficiency by using these generative AI apps that are often free to start. Let’s explore the practical applications of these tools in various digital marketing and content creation areas:
Generating text content was one of the earliest use cases of AI ever since OpenAI introduced the first few GPT models. Companies like Jarvis (now Jasper) and Copysmith are household names among high-quality AI content writing tools for marketing and content generation.
These tools can be highly beneficial to generate an initial draft on a subject matter within seconds. AI text generators can significantly reduce time spent on creativity and brainstorming, helping to eliminate writer’s block. However, there should always be a human marketer to review the copy and draft the content to fit the desired context perfectly.
In addition to suggesting different tones of voice, tools like CopySmith can host a custom-made AI model trained on your writing style. It’s like teaching a computer to think like you!
While creating factual content is still challenging for these AI models, as they often get their facts wrong, remember that they will only get better here.
AI image generation has become mainstream over the past few months. Platforms like Midjourney and StableDiffusion have made this astonishing technology accessible to everyone.
All you need to do is describe your desired image result in simple sentences called prompts, and you can instantly generate stunning images in varying art styles.
However, it is still a work in progress for the AI images to look perfect. AI models can’t reliably develop all elements, such as human hands, due to the complex anatomy and lack of sufficient reference material for training. But they’re competent in creating unique, high-quality images for portraits, artistic designs, landscapes, scenic backgrounds, etc.
Specialized AI tools, such as DupDub and Synthesia, can help you in audio and video creation using text input. Upload your script and wait for these tools to create an incredible voice-over audio or a complete video with a virtual presenter!
Just like content writing tools, these can create voice or video models using your resemblance, enabling you to create practically large volumes of content without the need to follow the typically lengthy content generation process! These AI capabilities can be a game changer for a long-term, video-first marketing approach.
Natural Language AI tools, like ChatGPT, can help you with SEO, market research, summarizing extensive text data, and finding trends. Many browser extensions, like ReaderGPT, can summarize any article you read with one click. This extension helps you save lots of time on content research. Others, like Merlin, can intelligently suggest text content for social posts and email replies using your text selection as context.
Building on the content generation feature, platforms like Typli have many such features. It can generate text content, suggest images, and even perform intermediate-level SEO checks on your work!
While these AI recommendations often need further refinements, they save substantial time otherwise spent on tedious SEO and research tasks.
You may have noticed a recurring theme here. Generative AI is good at understanding a generic context and responding accordingly. They’re ideal for being the first point of contact in customer support to address any immediate concerns your clients may have.
While chatbots aren’t directly related to marketing, they can substantially improve customer experience on your website and social media business pages, leading to positive brand recognition.
Even if you don’t wish to integrate chatbots natively, you can still use tools like ChatGPT to generate catchy responses for DMs on social media pages. Can you tell us one good reason not to use AI for this purpose? We can’t think of any…
As described above, AI tools are valuable assets to marketing and branding activities. But AI-generated content, as of today, still lacks the human element of emotional intelligence. Some existing algorithms might still be operating on older data that is obsolete or proven inaccurate. Using these tools to create final versions of content may not be the best idea for now. A human editor is essential for the final touches and approval.
There’s a significant reputation risk involved with generative AI, especially interactive chatbots. If the integrated AI does not behave as expected from your brand, it could be a PR disaster. For instance, when Google’s Bard chatbot gave a blatantly wrong answer to a question on the James Webb space telescope, it caused their stock prices to plummet!
Easy access to such potent technologies raises an ethical concern as well. As of today, this space has very little regulation, so anyone could deepfake a notable person’s appearance, voice, and mannerisms to create a fake video promoting their agenda.
We find this to be the same case as any great power. It levies its users a great deal of responsibility to stay on the light side and exercise good ethics.
Generative AI will likely take on a more prominent role in marketing, enabling innovation and growth as technology progresses. While there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with the current marketing methods, this technology will be a significant part of our future, relieving human efforts. We better get on board and leverage its skills before AI rapidly evolves and becomes as good as human marketers, if not better.
If you would like to leverage next-generation marketing strategy for your organization, we would love to help. Get in touch for a free consultation with our team.