AI has taken over the world. BIG NEWS. Tell us something new. Along with all other fields, AI marketing is also spreading like wildfire. Be it OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Google’s new Bard project, AI tools are everywhere. 

However, you must use AI in marketing very carefully if you want to give your business a fighting chance. Google is still the dominating search engine and it’s not ready to give up that place, anytime soon. 

In today’s post, we’re looking at how AI Marketing started and how it’s evolving. We’ll also share insights about whether you should use it in your marketing or not. 

AI in Marketing: An Overview

Marketing is a broad term that covers anything from a Facebook post to a billboard you spend thousands of dollars on. Artificial intelligence, however, will only work with digital marketing as it has no business roaming around in the real world. 

Let’s address one of the core principles. Content marketing. Content for SEO largely means long-form content you publish on your website. 

Now, I get it if you want to cut costs from your marketing budget and put it into operations. In fact, 42% of businesses are doing AI marketing to reduce costs. 

The smart(!) thing for you to do would be to use ChatGPT to write your posts instead of hiring a writer. Or, you can spend a little bit more and get Jasper AI to get more refined results. 

But here is the burning question. Have you read AI-generated posts? Are you sure you want to publish whatever it spits out within 5 minutes? 

If you have read them, you know how much editing the piece requires before it can go live on your site. Not only that but you also have to check it with a plethora of tools for plagiarism and AI.

Now, put your hands on your head and tell us it’s more efficient than hiring an actual writer. 

Yeah, we didn’t think so. Whether you’re ready to accept it or not, the fact doesn’t change that you can’t replace human marketers with AI. In fact, the only stakeholders in the process benefitting from AI are the marketers. 

How Marketers Benefit from AI Marketing

Do you know how many marketers are using generative AI these days? According to a report by Influencer Marketing Hub, 69.1% of marketers use AI in some way. The top 3 use cases are: 

1. Data analysis
2. Research
3. Content creation

Now, when it says content creation, it doesn’t mean giving ChatGPT a 3-line prompt to churn out a 1,000-word post. You can try doing AI marketing this way but it’ll only end in misery. 

The simple fact that the use of AI has dropped to 35.1% from 44% in 2024 compared to 2023 shows how it’s not working as well as many of us had thought.  

For us, we’ve been able to make our content creation process more efficient but it still requires human ingenuity. For instance, we can give it a 50-word prompt to write a 200-word section of a long-form post. That too after setting ground rules. 

It’s a lot of work. 

As a business, do you really want to take things into your own hands instead of focusing on operations? 

See, AI writing tools are actually targeted at creators. Creators who understand content marketing and all its nuances, who can actually use generative AI to craft even better messaging for your business, in less time, hopefully. 

But as we all know, every coin has two sides. Just like AI writing cannot pass as human writing, many human writers will get flagged as AI!

We’ve seen it happen. This is where the distinction between marketing writers and GOOD marketing writers comes into play. A seasoned writer understands the emotion behind the business.

In sales, emotion is everything. No matter what type of marketing funnel you use, they’re all designed to intrigue very specific emotions in the audience.

AI tools are excellent. But they’re missing the most important factor that goes into a content strategy. Emotions.

Until we have sentient AI writers, you can’t do AI marketing for your business. At least not in a successful way.

Human Writers Can Use AI to Supercharge Your Marketing, Let Us Prove It

For the sake of argument, let’s imagine you’re a marketing executive at a fast-paced, modern agency. Your job is to collaborate with both in-house teams and freelancers to generate content for a multitude of media.

In 2024, you have 2 options.

1. You can look for job boards to hire writers or go through your email inbox to find good pitches.
2. You can opt for an AI writing tool, such as Jasper AI.

Unless you’re an active journalist or a professional writer, the content Jasper generates will seem fine to you.

And they ARE fine. But that’s just what they are. Fine. And they’re too perfect. 

Your audience will read the content. Your Google Analytics dashboard will show lots of page views. But it’s unlikely for them to take action. And without action, there are no sales.

For a creator, however, Jasper AI is a magic lamp. They don’t use it to generate content. Instead, they brainstorm with it. Without AI, you may get the 5th idea that comes to the writer’s mind. With AI, you can go as far as you want. In essence, the brainstorming session is much deeper and shorter. 

Then the creator gets to what they do best. Creating. ChatGPT can be a virtual assistant during the process too. As a result, you get better quality content, for the same deadline.

The Pros and Cons of AI Marketing

Should You Use AI in Marketing?

The short answer is no, you shouldn’t. In fact, you have no business doing your own marketing. You either hire employees to do it for you or outsource it to professionals like us. 

At the end of the day, you’re a business owner and you should act like one. Don’t try to cut corners or save a few bucks using AI without understanding how to use it. You’ll only hurt your business in the long run. 

Let Outlawed Narratives Help

To be honest, we’re not big fans of AI marketing. Apparently, it’s going to take our jobs someday. Until that happens, we’ll keep using it to streamline our processes. If you want to know how we use AI in the process, hit us up.