How to Start Building an AI-Powered Marketing Strategy

Generative AI in particular—ChatGPT, Google Bard, Adobe Firefly and far too many more to list—is set to transform expectations, because “big idea” marketing can no longer compete with the relentless pace at which AI churns out new, ever more optimized creative iterations. This sparks an imperative for marketing teams to identify the most immediate ways that AI can elevate their own business—and the quickest way to realize those gains.

In fact, there’s a lot you can do now to lay the foundation for AI-powered growth, particularly in the realm of martech, the intersection between technology and marketing that plays a crucial role in helping teams become agile and more precise in their work.

Almost one third of the CMO’s budget goes toward martech, and for good measure: it blends data collection, analytics, internal processes and automation to significantly optimize campaigns and reduce wastage, all while freeing up professionals to dedicate themselves to tasks like improving customer loyalty. Here are some ways your team can begin building its own AI-powered marketing strategy with AI-infused martech

Identify easy productivity gains.

Some of the examples above hint at how automation and artificial intelligence can achieve optimization and growth, not just in marketing but also in other areas of the business. Below are three key areas where brands have the most to gain from applying AI to their strategies:

People. Automation can enhance experiences like onboarding, giving new employees a more personalized and dynamic journey from their first day onward. People and IT teams could save dozens of hours that could be dedicated elsewhere.

Processes. There are many ways AI can ease friction across many different processes: reducing human error, optimizing resources, improving performance and more.

Creativity. Artificial intelligence makes building thousands of assets as easy as typing a prompt into a text field—and that’s already having enormous implications for human creativity. AI is helping people discover new insights, collaborate in the creative process and begin new ways of creating, elevating brand experiences in the process.

Learn from others’ success in implementing AI in marketing and beyond.

80% of executives believe that automation can be employed in any decision, according to data from Gartner. That’s no surprise to us, as more than 40% of Brazilian companies already use AI at some level during their commercial processes, and 34% are still experimenting with its use.

And the growth is constant! IBM's 2022 report, Global AI Adoption Index, also shows that more than 70% of IT professionals stated that their employers have increased their investments in artificial intelligence in recent years—and that was before the AI boom we’re in now.

Early adopters of AI have focused on lead qualification, productivity improvement, data-driven management and marketing, task and process automation, and, amazingly enough, even sustainability: 66% of Brazilian IT pros said they have been working on accelerating ESG initiatives by implementing artificial intelligence, or at least plans to do so.

At Media.Monks, we’ve been experimenting heavily with AI ourselves, with one result being Turing.Monk: a chatbot that works as a marketing assistant capable of creating lists, charts and summaries of various materials to help marketers better understand their marketing data in plain language.

Monitor AI investments for continued success.

Like any significant innovation, implementing automation and artificial intelligence in your business requires strategy and constant monitoring; considering that these technologies are not yet widely used, it is essential to have specialized support to be able to validate each step of the application and face the possible challenges of this journey.

In addition, be prepared to follow and monitor your AI implementation in real time. The technology is always evolving (and quickly), so it is essential to follow up to ensure that your actions continue to meet the needs of the business. We have a quick guide to help marketers navigate their implementation of AI.

Eager to get started on your AI journey? It's worth noting that each step can be assigned to a team and/or implementation phase; when it comes to optimizing the content creation process, for example, there are a few steps you can consider: 

• Identify opportunities where AI and automation will be useful, feasible, and facilitative.
• Start testing and bet on pilot projects to explore possibilities and identify what the best uses will be.
• Invest in data quality across all processes and consider enriching and qualifying it where possible. 
• Make choices! There are hundreds of artificial intelligences, automations and tools. Which ones are the most interesting for your business model?

Remember that AI is highly adaptable and constantly evolving, so you must keep up with its evolution for continued success. It’s also important to realize AI’s impact is here already—and by getting your martech stack set up for the technology, you will have built the potential to elevate your business with AI.