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It’s so easy. AI can do everything you want it to nowadays. It can plan, strategize, and – with the right tools – even execute your marketing tasks.
You can have AI plan your content, generate the content, and – with the right systems in place – even post or schedule it for you. AI can generate your business plan, and offer ideas on how to attract clients or customers.
Of course, it can do all this while saving you plenty of money.
Sounds perfect, doesn’t it?
Maybe, or maybe not.
There are three major flaws in using AI for marketing:
1. It probably gave your competitors the same advice.
When we asked ChatGPT specifically whether it would, given the same question, offer the same answer, its answer was “yes, it would be similar”.
What does that mean for you, and your quest to get your small business seen?
a. Your “unique” value proposition may not be unique.
b. Your unique content ideas may not be unique.
c. Your conveniently auto-generated social media posts, articles and videos may not be unique either.
d. Your whole business plan – if generated by AI – might not be unique.
Fair enough, the more specific you get with your prompts, the more unique the answer that you will get. But…
In order to make that prompt unique, you first have to know some things about what you want to achieve – things that you would have asked the AI to come up with, but which you now have to supply.
And no, using someone else’s hyper-specific prompt doesn’t count, because there will be many others using the same prompt too.
By all means, use AI to come up with some ideas – in order to get your mind going with other ideas. And yes, you can use AI to generate a basic plan – whether it is a marketing plan or a business plan – but for goodness’ sake, don’t stop working on it just because AI finished generating it.
Use it as a starting point.
2. It’s not you, and it’s not human.
In a world increasingly inundated by AI generated content, more and more people are shying away from it. Humans want to connect with humans – it’s hard-wired into our brains.
Why else do you think that social media algorithms are going out of their way to bury AI content? After all, much of it is quite good.
Because, aside from often being repetitive (because it isn’t unique), it just doesn’t get the engagement – or watch time on videos – that human-generated content gets.
The bottom line is that people are catching on to AI content – and it seems it just isn’t what they want. Yes, you can use it, but it will only get you so far.
In addition to that, the rise of personal brands have made it difficult to generate AI personas which will actually stand the test of time. Yes, AI will eventually get to the point where it is indistinguishable from human personality, but we aren’t there yet.
Your personality, however awkward it may be, is what makes you, YOU. It is what makes you stand out from the crowd – or in this case, makes you stand out from the sea of AI generated content.
Find your voice. Your own voice. Even if it sounds simple and crude to you, there will be people out there who appreciate the authenticity.
3. AI content is everywhere.
Due to how easy it is to generate AI content, the internet was flooded with it. People generated boatloads of articles, social media posts, videos and even ebooks using tools like Claude, Copilot and ChatGPT.
AI content is “smooth”. It is – if given the right prompt – perfect and professional.
There is no emotion. Even if you read between the lines, you won’t find any undertones of disappointment or resentment. You won’t find any signs of vulnerability.
Since the internet was flooded with all of this, it has become easier to note the opposite: real, human content. Relatable content. Content created by a real, imperfect human being.
Ironically, amidst a sea of AI-generated content, you can now stand out – because your own voice will inevitably be different.
In conclusion:
By all means, make use of AI. But, like many professionals have been saying right from the start, don’t treat anything from AI as a “finished product”.
Use it as a foundation for something better – something unique. Something that will work for you, and show the unique side of YOU.
So, where do you take it from here?
Well, talk to someone who understands people. Someone who understands marketing to people. Someone who understand the value of human communication.
Just talk to someone who has been around since before the advent of AI marketing.
If you don’t know where to start, talk to us. If you will allow us, we can help you find your way forward, and – if you need it – assist in executing your marketing plan.
It’s up to you who you talk to – but we are here if you need someone – someone human – to talk to.