How to Use AI For Marketing: View’s Take

Saying that AI is all around us is an understatement - it has absolutely infiltrated all of the platforms, softwares, and tools we use on a day to day basis. Our team is constantly evaluating if AI tools can be of help to our team and our clients, or if they simply de-humanize marketing efforts and lead to lackluster results. 

‍

We have met people who come to us with the question “Couldn’t I just have AI do my marketing?” and we’ve even had people who turn down our quotes in favor of an AI option. Go for it! We aren’t going to stop you from doing so, and we’ve found that AI can actually work for people in certain use cases. What we’ve noticed, however, is that AI doesn’t usually work for the long term growth and scaling of a company.

‍

For example, an AI-generated logo isn’t going to be vector-based, meaning that if a startup wants to use it in their website nav bar or social media profile picture, no issues. When they scale, and need it on a trade show booth, in a print ad, and blown up for a presentation file, the logo is going to be fuzzy and pixelated - not ideal, and will require a professional to either vectorize or re-design the logo. 

‍

An AI-generated website might work perfectly fine for a small company’s 3-page site, but when they’re scaling to 10 locations with 5 different services and team members are joining rapidly, the non-CMS based website that wasn’t designed for future growth won’t be able to handle the changes. The website will need a professional to re-organize and re-design with the needs of a growing company in mind. 

We believe that quality marketing & design ultimately requires human touch to really resonate with other humans. Any marketing & design project not only necessitates an understanding of the client’s “prompt,” but also is highly dependent on knowledge of:

‍

• The current market climate
• The client’s fears and dreams for the project
• How to future-proof the project
• The cultural and visual trends shaping the category
• What success actually looks like for the client beyond the numbers
• The practical constraints and opportunities surrounding the project
• What the audience may not be saying outright
• Past trials and successes in the market category

‍

Balancing all of these gracefully is simply not a job for AI - it requires a perfect synthesis of empathy, reasoning, design knowledge, and human connection to create the kind of output that will make a mark.

‍

In an AI-saturated world, consumers are craving real human content, whether that means intelligently beautiful design, clever and creative concepts, or simply something that was unmistakably made by a human. According to Clutch, 53% of consumers are less likely to purchase from brands they know use AI in social media content. Not to mention, because AI is simply an average of all of the knowledge that’s out there, using it as an off-the-shelf solution risks a company looking like everyone else.

So, that leaves us with the question of how to use AI for marketing in a way that’s successful and retains consumer trust. Our team prefers to view it as a tool that helps us, the human brains behind the marketing strategy, to work more efficiently and give our clients the best possible product. It’s not a tool that can just be put on autopilot and used to replace an entire marketing department.

‍

For example, if we use AI to help us refine our writing, we’re making 100% sure it reads in the brand’s voice and has a human tone. If we use it to help us with strategy ideation, we’re taking the initial thoughts it gives us and developing them within the unique environment and constraints of the project, and pruning it based on past successes and failures. AI can be a fantastic starting point or polishing tool, but is a hard pass as a deliverable. 

‍

Here are some of our favorite applications of AI that preserve the human experience in the work that we do: 

‍

• Content Refinement: Improving clarity while keeping the brand’s voice and personality intact
• Market Research: Summarizing industry trends and gathering background information to support strategic decisions
• Administrative Support: Summarizing notes, organizing information, and streamlining laborious manual tasks 
• Troubleshooting: Identifying potential causes of technical issues and exploring solutions

‍

We like to be proud of the work that we do over here at View, and we’re sure you feel the same! For us, that means the question of how to use AI in marketing is simple: in the most human way possible. As a tool, rather than a replace-all. 

‍

Interested in working with a team that is passionate about brain-first marketing and human-centered results? Let’s connect! 

‍