5 Best Generative Use Cases for AI in Inbound Marketing

Have you ever wanted to clone yourself? You wished for five more minutes to finish that one task or another set of eyes to read through an email, but you know your colleagues are as busy as you are. With the introduction of Artificial Intelligence (AI), many marketers fear replacement. However, the best generative AI use cases mean support for marketers, freeing up time for you to spend on other tasks that require a human touch. 

Author and Keynote Speaker Andrew Davis recently addressed B2B forum attendees in Boston and likened his use of generative AI models to creating a digital doppelganger - a clone of sorts. For Davis, AI gives him the freedom to create a knowledgeable reference point and resource to generate text for a variety of situations. With the help of his doppelganger, repetitive tasks involving content creation or data compilation and those that used to require extended focus are handled effectively and on a compressed timeline. 

Inbound & Generative Use Cases: The 5 Best for Efficiency

Davis specifically noted that he creates different ChatGPT threads for different purposes, refining the doppelganger based on the task he needs help with at the time. We like to think of AI as potential support staff, with the understanding that ultimately we won’t be relying on it to complete any tasks solo. Human oversight is necessary for a variety of reasons, which we will discuss later. 

When it comes to real world use cases, we have found five of the best generative AI use cases for Inbound Marketing - each of which provides opportunities to redirect time to where it’s needed most:

1. Reliable intern
2. Insightful colleague
3. Coder
4. Data analyst
5. Wingman

1 - The Reliable Intern

Certain tasks can be handled by the less experienced. These tasks need a set of hands and someone who can follow directions to create a product showing a general understanding of the topic. When this is the case, AI provides an optimal user experience.

It can also be helpful when you look at the copy and decide it needs specific adjustments. AI is a good resource for an introductory outline, a refined edit of a piece you wrote, or to punch up the SEO to reach the target audience. 

In fact, Hubspot’s 2023 AI Trends for Marketers Report indicates that one-third of marketers are already taking advantage of AI to help with social media posts. Metas, subject lines for emails, and descriptions are also great places to let the AI do some of the baseline work. 

2 - The Insightful Colleague

Some marketers are lucky enough to be able to pop into a colleague’s office and bounce ideas off of them. However, not everyone has that luxury. AI brings in that additional resource without tying up another worker’s time. Plus, colleagues need to be brought up to speed on accounts they are not familiar with, and an AI can be trained to understand the specifics of each account and keep that info tucked away for the next time they are needed. 

Your AI doppelganger can be helpful for: 

• Brainstorming: Writing about the same brand can get stale on occasion. It happens to everyone. If you know what you want to say but not how to say it, AI can be helpful to come up with new alternatives to present that information and appeal to the audience.
• Audience research: Figuring out what the audience is looking for is important to strategy and content planning, among other things. AI can weigh in on what the audience needs and help you incorporate that information into future content. 
• Outside influences: No one can be dialed into all the various aspects of an industry. Collaborating helps because two minds can pull together information they may not have realized would even be helpful. One way to look at this is ‘We don’t know what we don’t know’ - but running a task through AI can help pick up an influence or two that you might otherwise miss. 

3 - The Coder

When it comes to coding, quality and security are key to success. For marketers who aren’t familiar with the various languages or processes, learning to code may seem like something no one has time to accomplish. However, AI can fill in the blanks for you. 

There are coding tools worth noting in today’s world of AI influence. These tools can auto-complete code generation for those who can start the process but not finish it. The tool can also make sure that the code is effective and clean - both for pros and those who aren’t as well-versed in the process. 

4 - The Data Analyst

Data needs to be gathered and compiled for reporting on a regular basis. When that gets tedious, let the AI take a turn. Having that help to gather the info for the report saves time you can better use elsewhere. The AI can be helpful in creating visuals to showcase that data in a useful way as well. 

AI can also be helpful in identifying areas where data is not being used to its full potential. This can be helpful in reporting and content strategy.

5 - The Wingman

As AI gains traction, the trend will be to rely more on AI to gather potential answers and less on general searching to find your own. With that in mind, your content needs to be consistent both in branding and message across platforms. This will increase the likelihood that the results will include your brand as a potential solution for users who make their buyer’s journey via AI search. AI can help you determine what currently meets criteria to show up in responses to a query of AI and make sure your branding is on point to be included. 

AI can also help ensure you are conveying the right sentiment through your tone and sentence structure when you create a response to an email or are crafting a policy that will go out to the entire company. AI is on your side - provided you outline your expectations and the intended result of your message. Your doppelganger can tweak the wording of your message to align with the overall intent. 

[Note: Visual images are a growing trend with AI. However, the visual medium is an arena that has a high level of controversy. With that in mind, we recognize the value of AI as an assistant to generate images beyond charts for data. However, we’ll leave that for a future blog.] 

Puppets Don’t Work Their Strings

When it comes to the application of generative AI, there are five ways we can put it to good use above. However, if you’re looking for personalized content - content with depth - you won’t get it from dropping info into AI and requesting results. 

Humans still have the advantage when it comes to providing content. Without a person to oversee the various AI threads and input the information needed to determine the best result, your content won’t have the ability to resonate with the audience.

Here are some of the things a human brings to your final product: 

• Nuance: Humans are the undisputed royalty of nuance. Other mammals may show a grasp of mourning or advanced communication, but the inclusion of subtle hints that provide the audience with an accurate picture belongs to humans alone.  
• Bias Avoidance: There are people in the world who operate with bias and don’t acknowledge it. These biases can be found all over the internet, and therefore have cropped up already within AI responses. This means a person is necessary to intervene and minimize the bias to help accurately represent marginalized people. 
• Quality and Context: When given the right parameters, AI is helpful with task completion. However, left to its own devices, it’s fair to assume that your doppelganger will be turning in high-level and repetitive content, which probably won’t be useful to the audience.  
• Humor: One area where AI is still lacking is the ability to instill humor into its responses. While it can help adjust the tone of an email or other communication, it can’t process effectively to produce the human connection with the audience that humor requires.
• Current Knowledge: Most AI is educated to a certain point in time. While some, like ChatGPT, are working to incorporate the most up-to-date information, others are limited in the information they can access when compiling an answer. Humans can remain up-to-date by researching their own topics as they need to.
• Strategic Thinking: This skill also remains the purview of the human running the interactions. Like a reliable intern, the process might be handled effectively by AI, but the reason for it and the future steps based on this task are best laid out by a human mind. 

Best Generative AI Use Cases & Your Business

Society emphasizes quality work and timely results. Having an extra “brain” to help with tasks can improve your productivity without taking away from anyone else’s results. With that in mind, AI can be the answer when you need to clone yourself. 

However, just like you can’t send the horse to the destination without a driver, AI won’t be replacing human insight and nuance anytime soon. 

Deep Dive Into AI Incorporation

Still not sure where AI can be helpful for your goals? We have additional resources to answer your questions:

Will Marketing Be Replaced by AI? Or Form a Marketing Dynamic Duo?

AI in Marketing for Content Creators: Generative AI

The State of AI for Q4 2023