Dos & Don’ts: Using AI in your Business’s Marketing
Explore how your business can be use AI as a tool to grow & streamline your processes.
Within the last two years, AI, or artificial intelligence, has taken the world by storm, and in some industries, changed the entire business landscape. AI is often regarded as the future of business, leaving many users feeling like they’ll get left behind if they don’t adopt the new tech. While AI is rather new in the scheme of its development, many platforms like ChatGPT or Google Gemini assist users each day. All of this being said, it’s important to differentiate how AI can help you and your growing business…and how it can hurt. Let’s dive in.
AI Capabilities + Dos & Don’ts
AI is undoubtably powerful, and continuing to grow in its capabilities, so it’s crucial to understand how some of the major platforms are intended to be used and how they can help you make running your business that much easier.
What To Do
Expand your Creativity with Idea Generation & Outlines: Coming up with exactly what to say and what to do in response to hard questions or daunting tasks is real. Using AI as a tool to help generate additional ideas or even to help create an outline in which you can place your thoughts can be a great way to begin what might be an overwhelming project.
Perfect Your First Drafts: Using AI to correct or clean up what you have already written is a great way to save time and energy. If you are unsure about an important email or specific copy, a quick chat AI chat prompt can fix that!
What Not To Do
Rely on the First AI Response: AI is not perfect, and it surely doesn’t know everything about you or your businesses. Many users often copy and paste exactly what AI creates, on the first attempt. This can leave you with inaccuracies and generic content that won’t help you stand out.
What To Do Instead: Take what AI provides and add your own spin! Correct simply mistakes, and rewrite certain sections to be more applicable to your business.
Ask ‘Should I’ Questions: AI, in most cases, is designed to be an unbiased source of information or task assistance. This means that AI, even when trained by your specific prompts, will have a hard time giving an opinion - it’s a machine after all. Avoid asking ‘Should I’ quetsions if you are looking for specific answers.
What To Do Instead: Give context for a situation in your prompt and ask for the most efficient/lawful/common solution. While this may not give you a specific ‘Do This’ answer, you’ll be presented with great options.
Copy & Paste Specific Data: Many AI models are trained on previously-published material across the internet, but there is no way to guarantee that its sources are the most current and correct.
What To Do Instead: Fact check your data with a quick Google search!
Use AI as Your Creative Director: Remember, AI is a tool! Many users unfortunately look to AI platforms to create their social content, act as a graphic designer, and create their brand. This will often leave with you inconsistent images and elements of your brand can confuse the audience. Many image & video generation tools are still being developed to better meet these needs.
What To Do Instead: If you are looking for a quick solution to create content, consider working with a local social media manager or content creator! Design platforms like Canva can also provide quick and easy graphic templates that can be utilized for your business. Just remember: if you can tell it was created by AI, so can your audience!
Plagiarize via AI: This is definitely a big no-no. Make sure you don’t copy other’s work via AI. This may include situations where you wish to copy someone’s work, paste it into AI, and create an indistinguishable change.
What To Do Instead: If you are inspired by another designer or creator’s work, but can’t afford to use their work, design platforms like Canva are sure to provide similar templates and assets. You can also check for cheaper paid assets/photography through Adobe stock or image platforms.