The AI Playbook: A practical guide to AI for marketers
Go from generalist to guru with your AI knowledge, taking your marketing efforts to the next (superhuman) level - your team will thank you, your customers will love you, and your competitors won't know what hit 'em.
Table of contents
Introduction
Artificial intelligence has sparked a revolution in marketing, reshaping how we connect with our audiences and drive results. In fact, it lowkey changed everything about it.
And here's a secret: Only the best marketers will tap into the full potential of it.
From content creation to customer insights, AI empowers us to do more with less, acting as a tireless (literally, can we get some of that energy?) assistant that eliminates repetitive tasks and frees us to focus on creative, high-value work that makes the difference to your customer experience.
Buckle up, you're about to learn how to best implement AI into your marketing strategy, without the bot getting the better of you or your brand.
What you'll learn:
- The true impact of AI for marketer and customer experience
- What it takes to become an AI guru and get a leg up on competitors
- How we're helping marketers use AI for killer content
- Questions to ask to measure your organization's AI maturity
- How to efficiently implement AI with a 30-60-90 day action plan
Understanding AI in marketing
While many of us initially feared that AI was about to steal our jobs, the reality is way more exciting.
AI isn’t replacing marketers, it’s amplifying our capabilities. By integrating AI into our workflows and tech stacks, we’re unlocking unprecedented efficiency and effectiveness.
But to create something truly magical in marketing, you’ve got to consider two sides to the equation:
- Your marketers: How we can work more efficiently
- Your customers: How we can optimize customer engagement
Sure, AI can make your experience as a marketer a lot easier, allowing you to spend more time on the fun, creative stuff – but it can really benefit your customers too, and that should be important to anyone who wants to succeed in marketing.
If your customers aren’t at the forefront of your marketing strategies – buying behaviors, what they value, their pain points that you want to solve – your content is not going to hit, you're not going to WOW them, and you’re not going to see results.
It’s this depth of understanding about your target audience that allows for more personalization in your content... and your AI output.
The more research and data you have about your customers, the more practical and productive your AI usage will be, and the more likely it will inspire your creativity and get your job done (both quicker and more efficiently).
The better the input = the better the output
And don't you forget it
Practical applications of AI in marketing
Sure, AI can be seen (and used) as a member of the team who is happy to do the mindless, repetitive, boring, hit-your-head-against-the-desk kind of tasks. But there’s more to this robotic teammate, and it all rides on your organization’s AI maturity.
A few small steps to apply AI in a meaningful way = one giant leap for your MX and CX.
3 simple ways AI helps the marketer experience
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Use generative AI
Create basic content (eg. text, images, music) using standard prompts and open source LLM (large language model)
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Automate tasks
Expand the functions of AI beyond just "create" and into other actions such as recommendations (eg. actions to take) and analysis (eg. insights)
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Create brand-specific content at scale
Increase the quality of output by giving AI more specific content (eg. your brand data, industry benchmarking, etc.)
3 simple ways AI helps the customer experience
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Test variations
Generate additional headlines for every experiment and create more effective, winning tests
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Auto-suggest segments
Use AI to help define audiences using existing data (eg. "Here is an audience of high-spending customers with low engagement")
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Power 1-to-1 personalization
Allow AI to take user-level attributes into account (in real-time) and make decisions to personalize individual experiences
Yep, that’s right. AI can do — and will do — so much more than “write a blog”. It can analyze data; it can complete a task (or even anticipate a series of tasks); it can use that aforementioned data to personalize its output. It's all about getting the most out of your AI to give your marketing that superhuman edge.
📍 Next stop: Specialized AI agents, at your disposal.
AI agents: Everything you need to know
AI agents use context and instructions provided by you, the user, to perform a whole range of tasks, no humans necessary. The whole concept of AI agents is about to change the way you use AI and the way you do your marketing... for the better.
By incorporating AI agents into your marketing strategy, you'll see:
- Increased efficiency
- More productivity
- Enhanced creativity
- Data-driven insights
How? Because AI agents take on the (painfully) mundane tasks that you don't want to, offer new ideas and insights that align with your brand guidelines, and deliver quick data analysis whether it's campaign results or other performance metrics you want to dive into. Meanwhile, you won't break a sweat.
Now, we know what you're asking: how do you get your hands on them? Well, for one, AI agents are manifested via Opal, your AI sidekick across Optimizely's product suite.
Optimizely + AI
Given that AI and AI agents have revolutionized marketing, and marketing is *kinda* our thing, it felt natural – no, essential – that we not only talked the talk, but walked the walk.
We use it
We’re open about using it
We’re always keeping up to date with it
We created Optimizely Opal for customers to make the most of it
So, on that note: say hello to Opal – here to improve both marketer and customer experience.
How? Opal is embedded across our entire suite of products – also known as Optimizely One. See it as your smart AI assistant who can be by your (screen’s) side whenever you need it in the marketing lifecycle.
Ditch vs pitch: See how Optimizely Opal can relieve your day-to-day of inefficient processes and blockers. Find out more.
At the end of the day, Opal is designed to help us become next-level marketers. And it does so by delivering a suite of AI capabilities (including agents) that are fully unified across Optimizely One, in-context to your brand, and versatile spanning a wide range of marketing use cases.
Here are Opal's key use cases:
- Accelerate ideation and content creation: Plan and ideate with Opal chat and AI campaign kits, generate images and text (blog posts, outlines, titles), keep your assets organized with AI tagging, and auto-generate images in different file types and sizes with accurate cropping.
- Deliver personalized experiences: Make the most of our AI content intelligence, including predictive insights and product recommendations that can maximize customer value.
- Scale experimentation velocity: Remove the boring, repetitive tasks (that you never liked anyway) and make room for the more fun, creative side of your marketing role, using tools like the stats accelerator.
- Project management: Use Opal to not only take on tasks, but track tasks so you can keep your team's priorities in check and make sure they never (ever) miss a deadline again.
Made to help organizations like yours assess current marketing power, identify areas for improvement, develop roadmaps to success, and maximize output while aligning with your unique business goals, Optimizely One will keep you way ahead of the game.
Find out everything you need to know about AI agents + Optimizely.
Benchmark your organization's AI maturity
But how ready are YOU to leverage AI capabilities in your marketing? This is where we’d like to introduce the concept of AI maturity.
Recognizing the importance of understanding where a brand is at (and where it can be improved) is exactly why Optimizely has been busy developing an AI maturity model, to help brands assess and enhance their marketing capabilities in the age of AI. This allows them to see what can be improved, and spot the gaps in their existing processes and tech stacks.
Measuring your AI maturity: Questions to ask
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How does your marketing organization currently use AI?
Think about how marketers – in each area, like content marketing, event marketing, campaigns, etc – leverage AI right now... if at all. Is there a process in place or, at least, a recommended process on how to use it? Is it followed or do people do their own thing?
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What’s your data infrastructure looking like?
For quality output with AI, you need quality input. If you want things personalized and unique to your brand, data is the answer. So, what’s the level of quality and accessibility of data? Are there robust data management and governance practices in place? And are you taking advantage of that? You know, data analysis, segmentation, and insights – all that good stuff.
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Just how advanced are your team’s AI skills and knowledge?
If you’ve found people on your team are already using AI, how are they finding it? Look into the prompts they’re using, for example – are they pretty simple or more advanced?
By surveying your team, you’ll discover if they’re excited about AI and wanting to learn more. This should also influence your own research into the opportunity for further education – whether done by the ‘local’ AI expert on your team, or an external option.
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What tools are people using?
What tools are people using? Are people signing up to the free version with their own email addresses, or is there a paid-for company account people can really make the most of? This doesn’t just include separate chatbots or image generators – they're may be AI capabilities within tools that are already in your martech stack.
Assess what tools people are using, what they’re using them for, how they integrate with existing tools, and where the gaps are.
Your 30-60-90 day action plan for AI implementation
Here’s the thing: AI implementation and its killer results won’t happen overnight. Integrating it into your marketing strategy is a process that requires thoughtful planning and execution.
It’s a journey of continuous learning and adaption, and you’ll undoubtedly find new ways to leverage AI to drive efficiency and effectiveness along the way.
That’s why we’ve developed a 30-60-90 day action plan to help your integrate AI into your marketing operations in the most effective way. Let’s break it down.
30-60 days
Getting started
In the first 30-60 days, it’s all about assessment and planning to get ready for the more advanced stuff. This can look something like:
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Understand your current state of AI usage
Understand your current state by conducting a thorough audit of your existing marketing tools and processes. Identify areas where AI could add the most value. Is your content creation process bottlenecked? Are you struggling to clearly define your target ICP and segment your audiences? Also, assess your data readiness to ensure you have the quantity and quality of data needed to fuel AI algorithms effectively.
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Define clear goals for your AI implementation
Whether you're looking to increase content production, improve personalization, or enhance customer insights, set specific, measurable KPIs. For example, aim to increase content production by 50% or improve email open rates by 25% through AI-driven personalization.
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Build a strong team
AI implementation isn't just a marketing initiative - it requires collaboration across departments. Assemble a cross-functional team including finance, IT, marketing, and data science, with clearly defined roles and a common framework for collaboration.
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Research and choose your tools (wisely)
With your team in place, start exploring AI solutions that align with your needs. Consider factors such as integration capabilities with your existing martech stack, ease of use, and scalability.
90 days and beyond
Advanced implementation
You’ve set the foundations for efficient AI usage, building out an achievable roadmap and making sure your team is aligned. Now it’s time to get into the nitty gritty, and level up:
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Develop data-readiness strategies
As you move into more advanced implementation, data becomes crucial. Implement robust data governance policies to ensure data quality and accessibility.
Develop a data pipeline that can feed your AI models with fresh, relevant data. This might include setting up data lakes, implementing data cleansing initiatives, and integrating disparate data sources.
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Start with pilot projects in high impact areas
There's nothing like running a test program to gather real-time learnings to inform future projects. Launch pilot projects in areas where AI can make a significant impact. Continuously monitor these pilots against your KPIs and regularly share learnings across the business.
By following this structured approach, you'll be well on your way to successfully integrating AI into your marketing strategy, setting the stage for innovation and improved performance.
The power (ahem... *necessity*) of the human touch
No matter how impressive the next new AI technology may seem, the human touch remains crucial. The key is striking the right balance between AI and human creativity to master your marketing – and by that we mean, work at your most efficient, bad a$$ self to get your customers falling at your feet.
Make the most of AI having zero emotions and endless energy by letting it handle the boring, repetitive or data-processing tasks, but also tee it up with some extra juicy AI prompts. Free up your time to focus on strategic thinking, creative decision-making, and getting your customers actually interested with funkier, more personalized experiences.
Human input is essential to the quality of the AI output, helping you create effective campaigns faster. By removing human oversight before and after AI’s time to shine, you risk generic, already-done, skippable and quite frankly, robotic content. 🤖
Avoid making your job boring, turning off your audience (and not to mention, Google), and maintain your brand’s unique voice and authenticity in a sea of AI-produced material with human touch. Keep it real, folks.