The impact of AI on the Marketing Industry (Featuring ChatGPT and DALL.E 2)
Hello and welcome to my blog feed. It’s been a while since I shared my perspective on MarTech, Digital Marketing and B2B marketing. I hope to do this more often 😊
The recent developments in Marketing AI intrigued me to share my perspective and the way I see it will impact the industry.
As we speak, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is evolving at a breakneck speed. No matter where you live or what you do, just have a look around. We are surrounded by AI and its applications. From smartphones, TVs, and washing machines to self-driven cars, AI is all around us.
Tech giants like Google, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, and Tesla rely on AI to deliver life-changing experiences every day. In the marketing world, the use of AI is at its tipping point. In fact, we will soon witness a huge change in how marketing services will be delivered and consumed.
Let’s deep dive into the world of AI and address the elephant in the room a.k.a. ChatGPT and other AI tools that will impact the marketing industry.
ChatGPT
ChatGPT, an AI technology based on NLP allows you to have conversations and get answers to your questions, the way you would do with an expert in a specific domain. The advantage here is you don’t need to limit the scope of your questions and get responses in real time.
Everyone is in awe of the possibilities offered by this new tech. From sales, marketing, content creation, and programming to round-the-clock customer support, ChatGPT can make an impact on key functions across the organization.
Think of it as an assistant who can find answers to your questions and actually do the work on your behalf. From crafting email copy and writing a blog to conducting market research and creating a business strategy, it can do it all. Well, it can be a hit-and-miss given that ChatGPT is still in its nascent stage, but the possibilities are not only exciting but also scary.
Think of what would happen to all those jobs involving research, writing, analysis, etc.
Content creators, copywriters, and a few leading brands are watching it closely. Their skills, knowledge, jobs, and their very existence could be at stake. Some sources even claim that ChatGPT will soon take over the market from Google.
But before we start mourning the downfall of Google or start rethinking our digital strategies, let us look at the limitations.
ChatGPT database is limited to 2021, so it cannot provide real time information. For instance, when I asked for the stock price of Microsoft today.
This is the response I got:
Whereas this is what I got on google for the same query.
You get the drift. It has a long way to go before it catches up. Hopefully, GPT4 will address this.
Now let us look at the brighter side. Here is a marketing strategy that was created by ChatGPT for an IT services company whose focus was North America.
“Certainly! Here’s a digital marketing strategy for an IT services company targeting North America:
1. Identify your target audience: Start by defining your ideal customer persona. For an IT services company targeting North America, your audience might include small to medium-sized businesses, startups, or enterprise-level organizations in industries such as healthcare, finance, or technology.
2. Set your marketing goals: Your marketing goals might include increasing website traffic, generating leads, increasing brand awareness, or improving customer retention.
3. Develop your brand: A strong brand is essential for building trust with potential customers. For an IT services company, focus on highlighting your expertise, experience, and the value you can provide to your clients. Consider creating case studies, whitepapers, or other types of content that demonstrate your knowledge and expertise.
4. Optimize your website: Your website is the foundation of your digital marketing efforts. Make sure it’s optimized for search engines, easy to navigate, and has clear calls-to-action that encourage visitors to take the next step.
5. Create content: Content marketing can help establish your company as a thought leader in the industry. For an IT services company, consider creating blog posts, eBooks, webinars, or other types of content that educate your audience about relevant topics and showcase your expertise.
6. Leverage social media: Social media platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook can be powerful tools for promoting your company and engaging with potential customers. For an IT services company targeting North America, focus on platforms that are popular among business professionals.
7. Run paid advertising campaigns: Paid advertising campaigns can help increase brand awareness and drive traffic to your website. Consider using Google Ads, social media advertising, or other forms of paid advertising to target your ideal customers.
8. Utilize email marketing: Email marketing is a great way to stay in touch with potential and existing customers. Consider creating a newsletter or other types of email campaigns that provide value to your audience and keep them informed about your company’s offerings.
9. Monitor and analyse your results: Use tools like Google Analytics, social media insights, or other analytics platforms to track your website traffic, engagement, and conversions. Use this data to refine your strategy over time and optimize your marketing efforts.
Remember that digital marketing is an ongoing process, and it’s important to continually test and refine your strategy over time to achieve the best results.”
I know, it’s pretty basic.
But hey, it saved you time on research and also identified the key channels and tactics you should employ.
Impact on the marketing industry
Whether it’s ChatGPT, Copy.ai, Rytr, or any other AI tool, they can assist us in writing better copy/content while saving research time and providing us with the necessary data to get started.
In my view, these tools are certainly not here to replace writers/marketers but to assist them so they can focus on their core skills i.e. Thinking, Innovating, Analysing, Planning, and Execution.
For the marketing industry, they are a big boon. We can now expedite generating SEO content, off-page content, ad copies, educational blogs, research documents, and more. The list can go on. It’s up to us to make the most of it.
Rather than resisting it, we should embrace tools like ChatGPT with open arms.
Now let us look at another AI tool that is gaining popularity.
DALL.E 2
A generative AI model was developed to generate images and art from a text prompt. DALL.E 2 uses word descriptions to generate images and is quite popular among non-artists. This tool can render images in different styles according to the specifications you provide.
Here are a few examples that demonstrate what it is capable of.
I asked DALL.E 2 to generate a banner for this blog – the specifications being “Human and AI’ and ‘create an image with text Marketing + AI’ respectively.
I will let you be the judge.
DALL.E 2 is seen as a threat to designers and artists. On paper, it could be the perfect alternative to the time-consuming and expensive process of designing. Having said that, where is the creativity and soul in these designs?
No amount of self-learning and intelligence can replace the creative process.
It cannot generate real human photos. It cannot make logos, business cards, catalogues, brochures, posters, or websites which a graphic designer usually does for a living. However, as the world is evolving around AI every day, we must know how to make these tools work for us.
Impact on the marketing industry
AI cannot imagine and visualize. But AI tools like DALL.E 2 can assist designers in creating graphic elements that they can use in their final deliverables. Whether it’s a landing page, a social post, a brochure, a whitepaper, or a presentation deck, AI tools can assist them to create icons, background images, and characters.
AI and Web Development
Web developers pride themselves in being the geeks they are given their profound understanding of machine language and their ability to write complex code and create beautiful UI/UX designs. Although it takes KLOC (thousands of lines of code) to build a web application, the arduous task is reduced just a little bit with AI tools such as GitHub Copilot.
GitHub Copilot is created by OpenAI and powered by Codex or OpenAI Codex. It translates natural language into code. It is proficient in more than a dozen programming languages drawing context from comments and code to suggest individual lines and whole functions instantly.
GitHub Copilot works wonders when code is divided into small functions.
Meaningful names are used for function parameters while good docstrings and comments are written along the way to refine it. What makes it a winner is its ability to navigate through unfamiliar libraries or frameworks.
No matter how revolutionary this technology may seem, GitHub Copilot cannot build the whole application for you. It is built to generate the best possible code according to the given context. It is possible that the code might not work or may be completely irrelevant. Like any other AI technology, this one too is based on a database and has limited context. It is advisable to review and test code generated by GitHub Copilot before running it into your actual application.
Impact on the marketing industry
Tools like GitHub Copilot can help developers create basic functions and modules without even knowing the syntax of the respective programming language. It can expedite the speed of delivery of complex websites and web development projects. Considering the fact that it is still at a nascent stage, developers should observe caution and not rely on it blindly.
Summing up
AI tools have surfaced at a time when marketers and agencies are going all out to explore new possibilities. They will help curtail redundancy and make our lives easier. But they are yet to evolve to a stage where they can shoulder the creative responsibilities of writers and designers. At the end of the day, they are just tools designed to empower not replace us.
What’s your view on these new developments?
