How to Create an AI-Driven Marketing Strategy in 8 Steps

Most business owners I know are using ChatGPT lightly for quick questions here and there, or have started relying on an LLM for specific tasks in limited areas of their business.

But the truth is, AI has grown far beyond that.

The real results come when you stop dabbling and start building an AI-driven marketing strategy that actually supports your business goals.

Here are 8 key steps to help you create an AI-Driven Marketing strategy:

Step 1: AI Marketing Mindset & Strategy

Develop and establish your approach to AI implementation and create a strategic framework for all your marketing efforts. This is where you come up with your AI philosophy and your dos and don’ts when it comes to authenticity and ethical uses of AI in your own and your clients’ work.

Recently, a member of my team brought the term AI-forward instead of AI-first to my attention, and I thought that summed up my stance pretty well. It keeps customers and their brands first while using AI as a tool in our work.

Step 2: Tools, Setup & Brand-Specific GPT

Configure the optimal AI toolkit and build custom models that understand your unique brand voice and positioning.

There are countless AI tools out there being advertised and suggested to you, but there should only be a chosen few that make it into your AI toolbox. It takes time to learn which ones are worth it and which ones aren’t. Be picky.

Put together a Brand Bible of your best thought leadership and content pieces to create one, or a few, custom GPTs that really operate within your brand voice.

Step 3: Mastering AI Prompts That Perform

Craft powerful, nuanced prompts that generate exactly the marketing content you need on the first try.

Be specific about constraints, your expected outcome, and who your audience is or what you want to use the information for. You can even explore prompting in different ways, such as speaking to your LLM instead of typing out a prompt.

Step 4: AI-Enhanced Content Creation

Produce compelling blog posts, emails, social media, ad copy, graphics, videos, and stories that resonate with your audience.

Chances are, you can take content you’ve already created and turn it into new pieces of content optimized for different platforms.

Step 5: Research & Insights

Leverage AI for deep research to uncover valuable market insights.

Instead of spending hours searching for information about your ideal client with a specific budget, AI can do that research for you and save you that time.

Step 6: AI-Driven Search

Optimize content for modern search algorithms without SEO suffering.

Have your content work for both strategies, SEO and AI-driven search, in order to work in partnership, not isolation.

Step 7: Planning, Campaigns & Content Suites

Orchestrate comprehensive, integrated marketing campaigns with AI assistance at every stage.

Let AI help you plan long-term campaigns that keep you consistently selling, nurturing, and finding leads instead of yo-yoing from feast or famine.

Step 8: Measurement, Testing & Iteration

Implement data-driven optimization processes to continuously improve your AI marketing results.

One of my favorite sayings is to inspect what you expect. These indicators will let you know what to change and what to leave.

And one last thing to keep in mind: This is not an AI strategy. This is a marketing strategy, and you’re using AI to help you deploy that strategy.

The business world we know is changing, but the basic business strategies aren’t. The tools are evolving to carry out those basics in a fast, efficient, and scalable way.