AI: Tool or Crutch

Much to the chagrin of my kids, I use AI most every day. 

I find it a useful tool for researching things for my marketing clients and providing ideas and such for content. I’ve recently starting playing around with ChatGPT and Gemini’s Nano Banana to create some graphics for a food donation program we’re going to run in January for one of my clients.

Again, I find it to be a useful tool.

But, It’s Not a Crutch

Unfortunately, I find some of my clients use it as a crutch. They seemingly rely on it to do their work for them. They submit a prompt and cut and paste the results without checking AI’s work.

For example, for the aforementioned food drive program, I asked Nano Banana to create some graphics based on various parameters. It did a decent job but AI, in particular, seems to stumble over text in graphics.  The theme for the program is “SOUPerBowl” and it created a graphic with a scoreboard that read “Home” and “Code.” Not sure where “Code” came from and repeatedly I asked it to fix that. Repeatedly it regenerated the graphic with the same error. I finally had to fix it myself in another graphics program. Still, it saved me a bunch of time and provided me with content I would have struggled to create on my own.

Point is, I used it as a tool.

Don’t Let AI Plan Your Marketing

I have, unfortunately, worked with clients to ask AI to do their job for them. Come up with a business plan? Who are my competitors? What marketing campaigns should I run?

These are all legit questions to ask AI. But then the responses need to be vetted and evaluated. Are there good points? Are there flaws? How can its responses be improved?

Even worse, rather than working with AI to refine the responses, such as by asking it questions or – better yet – asking AI to ask YOU questions so it can better learn about what you’re trying to solve for, clients keep starting over with new prompts and new answers. The result? A dozen marketing plans to try to evaluate and make sense out of.

Start with a Template and a Plan

Before you start working with AI, come up with a plan about what your business is, what pain or problem it solves and how your business solves it. Then work on a template that asks questions like:

·         Things AI can’t help you with:

o   What are your goals? (AI can’t answer that!)

o   What’s your unique value proposition? (AI can’t answer that either!)

o   What’s your marketing budget? (You can ask AI for what something might cost, like an ad campaign but don’t ask you what you should spend.)

·         Things AI can help with:

o   Who are your target customers? (Once you know the first two above, AI might be able to help with that.)

o   What marketing channels and campaigns should you use to promote your solution? (Again, AI can help with that.)

o   How will you measure your success? (AI may have suggestions.)

Remember the Basics      

I find the most common issue my clients struggle with is what I call “The Messaging Pyramid.” First, think in terms of your target customer’s perspective. What is their pain? What problem are they trying to solve. Then, explain how you solve that problem. Next, explain why they should work with you instead of someone else.

If clients keep that in mind, it usually guides them to developing a solid business and marketing strategy.