How to use AI in marketing (with caution)

The use of AI (artificial intelligence) tools has been growing over the past several years and has become a hot topic across several industries, especially since the release of ChatGPT in late 2022.

You may already be using AI in your marketing, or you may be wondering how you can incorporate it into your marketing or if you should even begin to use it.

Like everything, there are pros and cons to using AI, so let’s talk about how you can use AI in marketing (with caution).

How does it work? 

Since we mentioned ChatGPT, let’s start there. In case you aren’t familiar with it, ChatGPT is a language based tool that can answer questions and help you write things such as emails, essays, and more. In terms of marketing, users may use it to write marketing emails, website copy, social media captions, blogs and articles, and more. 

Users write prompts, which ChatGPT then analyzes for keywords, from there it grabs data from the web and creates a “humanlike” response. Of course, having a program to write your content can be super helpful, especially If you have limited time to create or if you have writer's block. But you may want to proceed with caution.

Caution about AI use

There are a few cons to using AI in marketing. For one, content written by AI may still have spelling or grammatical errors. Worse though, are the legal and plagiarism issues that could come up. ChatGPT scans the web and existing data to create content, so it may reuse content that is already published, leading to plagiarism. Many academics already consider the use of AI a form of plagiarism. If you do want to use ChatGPT or other AI, we suggest scanning for any errors and changing up the content so it’s more in your words. If you see AI more as a way to help generate ideas if you're stuck, you’ll avoid plagiarism issues altogether.

Ways to integrate AI into your marketing strategy

Many online platforms are integrating AI into daily use and to optimize your content.  Later, for example, has several AI integrations. 

• Its AI Caption Writer allowsyou to create content quickly and, like ChatGPT, can help if you have writer's block. Again, it may be best to use it more as inspiration to help you create your own captions, since it’s fairly new and AI text could prove troublesome in the future.

• The Hashtag suggestions feature will generate a list of hashtags based on your caption and you can also search specific hashtags to generate similar hashtags. These lists will also share how frequently each hashtag is used (high, moderate, low). This can be really helpful if you’re trying to generate relevant hashtags for your content.

• Lastly, there is an AI tool that suggests the best times to post on Instagram. While this can help you find the best time to post, it may still take a bit of time and experimentation to find the best time to post. This is certainly a great place to start!

Another way to use AI in marketing is to use a chatbot. A chatbot is a computer program that mimics human conversation to provide real people with assistance. In terms of marketing, it can be used to provide support, like answering questions, and more. While this is a great way to provide quick assistance, real human connections are valuable, so having a real person who can provide support when needed is helpful and suggested as well.

Who’s already using AI?

Brands like IKEA and Sephora are using AI in helpful (and fun) ways to help consumers make their purchasing decisions. Through the AI tool, IKEA Kreativ, consumers can take photos of their space, which are then processed into an online and interactive replica of the space. From there, users can design their space with various IKEA products to perfect and personalize the design! 

In 2016, Sephora launched their Virtual Artist feature, allowing users to “try on” products such as lipstick and eyeliner with AR, later they expanded the feature to include Colour Match, an AI tool that can help consumers choose their perfect foundation shades. Both of these examples show how AI can be used to elevate the shopping experience. For some brands, this may provide a bit of inspiration on how to integrate AI into their consumer’s shopping experience.

Overall, if you do decide to use AI in marketing, carefully consider how you want to use it, and while AI continues to develop, use it with caution.