How do you create a digital marketing strategy that will actually get you results? The starting point is usually data. Data about your industry, data about your buyers, data about digital marketing efforts, data about data...you get the idea.
Data is great. But data is also time-consuming to find and sift through. And it's very easy to get caught in data analysis paralysis.
I've talked about using AI in content generation before, but AI is also an untapped powerhouse to reduce the amount of time spent finding, verifying and applying data. It can take a vast sea of information and analyze it in seconds. I can use AI tools to enhance my digital marketing strategies by optimizing data-driven decision-making, improving customer targeting and increasing campaign efficiency.
I've been experimenting with using AI tools to create better marketing strategies. After hours of experimentation, I have some concrete tips to pass along to you.
Related Content: Making a Marketing Plan for 2025
The Best AI Tools for Digital Marketing Strategies
There are dozens, if not hundreds, of AI tools popping up for marketers. So what are the best AI tools for marketing? I've tried quite a few, and these are my recommendations.
Free Tools
ChatGPT - An obvious pick, but it's a popular choice for a good reason. I've found that you get more out of the paid version, but even in the free version, you have access to a massive library of data and a powerful processing tool.
Perplexity AI - As an AI search engine, Perplexity plugs into the wider internet to pull data. I find that Perplexity works better with the more structured prompts like "compare [INSERT WEBSITE] against [INSERT WEBSITE]" vs. some of the more strategic prompts.
Related Content: AIO: How to Get Picked Up by AI Search
Paid Tools
Ella.Ai - This is a suite of AI tools designed specifically for marketers. Which means that a lot of the prompts I'll explore below are already steps in a part of Ella's built-in guided tour. (We believe in Ella so strongly that we're partners - let me know if you'd like a demo)
Ella also allows you to securely upload your existing marketing collateral, like branding guidelines, voice guidelines, ICPs, HR documents and more. This means that in addition to pulling in external data, it can tap into your internal data as well - making it a powerful tool for marketing strategies and tactics.
Breeze in HubSpot - For HubSpot users specifically, Breeze is a built-in suite of tools that work alongside your CRM to provide insights and data. If you're a HubSpot user who hasn't tried out Breeze yet, check out our guide for all the features Breeze offers.
No matter what tool you use, remember that AI tools can reference your past inputs. The more information you provide, the better your outputs will be. Just be cautious before uploading any sensitive company information - paid tools like Ella.Ai will only use your data to provide recommendations, but some free tools may take any information you input to use in their wider database.
How to Leverage AI in Digital Marketing Strategies
1. Gather Customer Insights
AI is a great way to discover your ideal customer profile (ICP) - sometimes also called your customer personas. These are semi-fictional representations of your ideal customer. From there, you can use AI to help unlock insights about your specific ideal customer. These can then be translated into concrete actions to use in your digital marketing strategy.
Recommended prompts:
- What information from me would you need to create an ideal customer profile for my brand?
- NOTE: As a follow-up to this prompt, you can input the required information with the prompt "use this data to create an ideal customer profile." Each AI tool is slightly different and may need different information.
- What factors do customers consider when choosing a solution?
- What is the typical buyer's journey from prospect to customer that this ICP takes?
- Why might a customer switch from a competitor to us?
- Where does our ICP go to learn about solutions like ours? (e.g. LinkedIn, YouTube, blogs, conferences).
- If you were me, what questions would you ask ChatGPT [OR AI TOOL YOU'RE USING] about my ICP?
I recommend using a combination of tools here and comparing results against each other. You may see some slight differences depending on the AI tool you use. What you want to pay attention to are the commonalities.
2. Speed Up and Synthesize Research
One of the biggest opportunities with AI is just how much time it can save you on research. This is easily one of the most time-consuming parts of developing a marketing strategy, and with AI it can be done in seconds.
Trust me - it's a lot less time-intensive to verify data from AI than to do the research yourself. Some of the ways I've used AI to amplify research are to investigate market conditions and analyze competitors.
Recommended prompts:
- Based on my ICP of [INSERT IDEAL CUSTOMER PROFILE HERE], what are the emerging trends in customer expectations or behavior for this niche? How is consumer spending behavior changing in this niche?
- Based on my industry of [INSERT INDUSTRY HERE], what external forces (e.g. geopolitical, social) are acting as barriers?
- Based on my industry of [INSERT INDUSTRY HERE] and my ICP of [INSERT IDEAL CUSTOMER PROFILE HERE], how can existing solutions be improved to address market gaps?
- Based on my industry of [INSERT INDUSTRY HERE], with a niche of [INSERT YOUR VALUE PROPOSITION HERE], and an ICP of [INSERT IDEAL CUSTOMER PROFILE HERE] what are the 3-5 competitors for my brand?
- Evaluate the following three competitors: [INSERT COMPETITOR 1 NAME AND WEBSITE URL], [INSERT COMPETITOR 2 NAME AND WEBSITE URL], and [INSERT COMPETITOR 3 NAME AND WEBSITE URL]. How are they positioning themselves in the market?
Once you're done with your prompts, you can also ask your tool to provide a competitive analysis summary based on your chat.
3. Create a Plan
Finally, use AI to help you take all this data and put it into action. I would try these prompts after you've already done previous research, so your AI tool can draw on the information you've already provided.
Recommended prompts:
- Based on the unique value proposition of my brand, our ideal customer profile, and my competitors, what are gaps in the market I should be addressing?
- Based on the information I've already given you about my ideal customer profile, is my website effectively addressing their pain points? [INSERT WEBSITE URL]
- What features are missing from our competitors that we can emphasize?
- Based on my brand, our ICP, our competitors and the general economic landscape for my industry, what digital marketing tactics would you recommend?
- Based on all the information I've given you, what are my biases I need to be aware of?
- Take all of the information from this chat and create a digital marketing plan that can be executed by a team of [INSERT DESCRIPTION OF TEAM: NUMBER OF FTEs, CONTRACTORS, AND PARTNERED MARKETING AGENCIES]
As always with anything AI - trust, but verify. Before you run off to start doing everything your new AI-powered digital marketing strategy is telling you, go old school and do a bit of research on your own to verify the information provided is generally accurate. This is still much less time-consuming than doing all the research on your own.
Another neat trick - try downloading the marketing strategy you end up with from one tool into another and ask it "based on the information I provided about my brand and ICP, is this an effective marketing strategy?
I hope these tips and prompts help you maximize your use of AI to level up your digital marketing efforts. AI is a powerful way to gather all of that existing data and translate it into actionable items you can actually use - without hours of your time spent reading and analyzing. I love working smarter, not harder.
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