Unleashing AI’s Potential: A Year in Review of AI in Xander Marketing

How We’ve Embraced AI in the Past Year: Insights and Innovations

As we approach the first anniversary of AI’s surge into the mainstream, marked by the release of ChatGPT on November 30, 2022, we take a moment to reflect on how AI tools have revolutionised our workflows over the past year. Here are our experiences, and they may spark some inspiration for you.

AI in Marketing Strategy

ChatGPT has been like another consultant at our fingertips, aiding in critical discussions about strategy and innovative ideas. When engaged in a lengthy conversation, this tool often leads us down unexpected paths, acting as a brainstorming partner. It’s like having a quick-witted teammate on call, ready to formulate specific strategies, generate marketing ideas or even draft an email marketing test plan. This includes:

• Brainstorming and developing specific strategies. Probing questions like, “What have I overlooked?” or “Can you create an email marketing test plan with supporting notes?” have opened new opportunities.
• Generating marketing ideas could start by feeding a website URL to ChatGPT and seeking tailored marketing strategies.
• Tip: Use voice commands for quicker interactions when working with ChatGPT like this.

Content Marketing: Revolutionised

Content marketing, the original playground for generative AI, has seen a significant transformation. ChatGPT has been instrumental in generating content ideas, creating outlines, and drafting initial copy. It has also proven beneficial in improving existing content, SEO-ing content, and creating social updates. We use it to:

• Generate content ideas and detailed outlines.
• Craft initial drafts and enhance existing content.
• Implement SEO strategies within the content.
• Create initial drafts for social media updates, adapting blog content for social media platforms.
• Use Grammarly for refining and editing content.

For example, this blog started with a list of bullets (AI isn’t that good yet to read our minds) and then used ChatGPT and Jasper to re-write and edit it. From there, we can step back in and take the best bits from each AI platform to bring the blog together. Finally, we used Grammarly to review it. This has likely saved 50% of the time it would have taken without these tools.

AI in PPC

AI tools like Opteo have been beneficial in giving insights into Google Ads campaigns, whilst ChatGPT has assisted with ad content and keyword research. In addition, we’ve leveraged ChatGPT to create comprehensive ad briefs, streamlining our advertising efforts. This includes:

• Using Opteo to assist with campaign management.
• Writing and improving ad content.
• Drafting social PPC content and creating detailed ad briefs.
• Working with AI tools natively built into these platforms, particularly Google Ads.

AI in Website Services

AI has provided us with objective feedback on websites, assisted with coding, and helped with debugging code.

• Any website review undertaken by a human is subjective. AI isn’t subjective. Therefore, to support our work or to get an ‘objective’ view, we may use AI to review websites, providing non-subjective feedback. ChatGPT Pro’s ability to ‘see’ now, via the upload of images, means we can take a website screenshot and ask for specific feedback.
• Assisting with coding changes. This has included copying and pasting code and asking for a change, to sharing screenshots, and asking for the code to fix the issue.
• ChatGPT can quickly create and edit HTML. No more using HTML to create a table for a blog, for example. Share the table in a Word Doc and ask for the HTML.

AI in Graphic Design

With tools like DALL-E 3 to create images and Canva and Photoshop’s new AI tools to edit photos, AI has made creating and editing images easier. Whether removing or adding items, expanding backgrounds, or generating unique images, AI reshapes how we approach graphic design. This includes:

• Using DALL-E 3 for creating compelling images.
• Using AI tools to develop logo concepts as inspiration.
• Leveraging AI features in Canva and Photoshop for AI-powered image editing, such as object removal or expanded backgrounds.
• The image in this blog was created on DALL-E 3, which was square. Then we used Canva’s Magic Expand tool to resize it.

AI in Email Outreach

AI has evolved our approach to email outreach through:

• Targeting specific companies by generating a table of names, website URLs, and summaries from a list of logos, for example.
• Assisting in data collection and outreach strategy formulation.
• Crafting and refining initial email drafts.

AI for Data Analysis

Code Interpreter from ChatGPT has enabled deeper and quicker insights from data; what may have taken hours or days can now be done in seconds, for example:

• Analysing survey responses to quickly summarise questions like ‘Why did you sign up for our product?’
• Interpreting complex data sets for actionable insights.

AI for General Productivity

From taking meeting notes to reviewing legal contracts, AI has been a game-changer. With tools like Grammarly and Claude, mundane tasks have become more manageable, freeing up time for more strategic initiatives, for example:

• We use Grammarly for text editing and refinement.
• We use Claude to create meeting notes from transcripts. Questioning the notes (‘What did our client say about their website’, for example) and creating first drafts of follow-up emails.
• Utilising Zoom’s AI features for meeting notes.
• Reviewing and improving legal contracts (‘What should I be aware of in this contract’ is a good question to ask).
• Using ChatGPT’s photo uploads to troubleshoot, for example, here’s an error message in HubSpot; how do I fix it?

The Future of AI in Xander Marketing

This is just the beginning. With recent releases of GPTs and tech giants like Microsoft 365 and Google Workplace integrating AI features into everyday products, the capabilities of AI tools are expanding exponentially.

While AI may not replace us, it certainly enhances our efficiency, productivity, and creativity. A frequently quoted thought this year has been: “AI won’t replace marketers, but marketers who use AI will replace those who don’t.” This statement resonates profoundly with our experience over the past year, as AI has become indispensable to our work.

AI, with Xander Marketing

If you need help with AI in your business or marketing in general, partner with Xander Marketing, the SaaS marketing agency that has worked with over 200 SaaS businesses since 2009.

Scale MRR, demos, and trials with outsourced marketing. We’re a perfect fit for B2B SaaS businesses with no in-house marketing or marketing managers who need a delivery partner.

Get started with a free 30-minute marketing consultation.