Executing a digital marketing strategy using AI - Blog

Will Francis isn't just another marketing guru jumping on the AI bandwagon. With over two decades of experience, including a stint at MySpace and running his own agency, Will has seen the digital landscape evolve firsthand. Now, he's leveraging AI to power marketing strategies in ways that might surprise you.

In our latest live workshop, Will pulled back the curtain on how he's using AI tools like ChatGPT to enhance every aspect of the marketing process, from crafting objectives to creating content plans. But don't expect any "magic button" solutions here – Will's approach is all about using AI as a collaborative tool to amplify human creativity and strategic thinking.

The workshop is a must-watch for anyone looking to:

integrate AI into their marketing efforts
streamline their workflows
or gain deeper insights from their data

Here's a taste of what Will uncovered in the workshop:

What a good digital marketing strategy actually looks like

Will started by laying the groundwork for the rest of the session, walking us through the key components of a comprehensive digital marketing strategy. “I think everyone could do with a bit of a better handle on what goes into an effective strategy,” he said. “Because you know what? So many people don't know that and it's actually very, very simple.”

The key elements of a solid marketing strategy, according to Will, are:

Objectives
Research
Personas
Overarching strategy
Channel plan
Content plan
Paid media plan
Roadmap

He then did a fascinating dive into how he uses AI to enhance each of these elements, starting with…

AI-powered SMART objectives (and competitor analysis)

Will showed on screen how he uses ChatGPT to craft SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) objectives. But he doesn't just rely on AI's training data – he pushes it to do real research:

"You need to explicitly, verbosely tell it to search Google for benchmark engagement rates in this industry," he advised. "ChatGPT usually just pulls stuff out of its training data, so you need to get it to research actively. Doing this will make all subsequent conversation and output better."

What I love about this is that any AI-generated objectives are grounded in current industry standards, not just historical data.

For competitor analysis, Will revealed he uses a combo of TokBackup + ChatGPT and SimilarWeb + ChatGPT. Again, any data he pulls using these tools, he chucks back into ChatGPT to keep its data mine growing and up-to-date.

Personas: Going beyond surface-level insights

Personas are a useful technique in marketing. “If you’re not in marketing, creating personas might seem a bit academic. But honestly, they’re so useful because they are a generalised, fictionalised representation of your target audience. You create them then realise there's a lot more you could and should know about your ideal customers.”

Will walked us through a typical prompt he’d use to generate personas in ChatGPT. “It helps you work out things like their pain points, goals, ambitions, fears, what keeps them up at night, what they hate and love and all that kind of stuff.”

Back to ChatGPT Will went, where he then demo’d a technique he uses involving "injecting" the AI-generated persona with a "truth serum", then asking it to give honest feedback about his company/brand. I love seeing how people go a step further with AI assistants like ChatGPT to help them get the most effective responses instead of just the blank, surface-level stuff.

Using AI to create content pillars and help with keyword research

Moving on, Will showed us how he uses ChatGPT combined with Globe Explorer (explorer.globe.engineer) and good old Google searches to build out his content pillars and keywords to target.

"Whilst things like SEMrush and Ahrefs and all the expensive SEO tools can do that keyword research, what I find personally is that the 'people also ask' feature in Google search results is a bit more creative. It's a bit more liberal. It's not so literal... and also it's from the horse's mouth. So like on some level, maybe I trust this information a bit more."

Rapid AI-assisted content planning

The next thing Will walked us through is simple yet genius. He shared his personal Google Sheet for planning long-form content and how he uses a plugin called GPT For Work:

"I populate my sheet with my content pillars and my target keywords. Then using GPT for Work, I only need to type a formula and prompt the AI within the sheet and it generates stuff for me right here in the cells. It will draft an article title, then in the next column a whole article outline," Will demonstrated. "Then in the next column, a meta title and meta description (how it will appear in search results). Then next some LinkedIn ideas based on that article... then some ideas for a lead magnet that I can include in the article. It goes on and on.”

And all he then needs to do is pull the column down and replicate that for all the hundreds (or even thousands) of other keywords/rows in the sheet. It lets him generate tons of content ideas and supporting materials in a matter of seconds.

The human touch in an AI world

Throughout the session, Will reminded us that while AI is a powerful tool, it's not a replacement for human creativity and strategic thinking:

"If you're just using ChatGPT to phone it in because you can't be bothered using your brain - no," he warned. "If you're using it to create all this sort of new research and thinking and synthesise information from multiple sources to help you think and stimulate your thoughts and get over that blank page, but also get deeper insights. Yeah, that's how you use a tool."

There are lots more nuggets Will shared in the session too, but we’ll save something for you to watch in the recording!

Will's workshop provided a wealth of practical insights into how marketers can leverage AI to enhance their strategies and workflows. From crafting objectives to creating comprehensive content plans, he demonstrated how AI can be a powerful ally in the marketing process.

Don't miss out on the full recording (you need to be a paying subscriber) to get all of Will's invaluable tips and strategies - and copy the resources he shared, including:

slides
digital marketing strategy prompt cheat sheet
persona template
Google Sheets keyword/content plan

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