From the obvious tools like ChatGPT and Google Gemini to the less obvious like Perplexity, Pi, Poe and more!

As you'll know, 'GenAI' rose to prominence with the launch of ChatGPT from OpenAI in late 2022. Since then, many other less well-known tools have been released that have some advantages over ChatGPT, so should be considered by any 'AI-assisted marketer'. In this article, I will recommend 10 plus tools to consider, looking in particular at how marketers can use them for writing marketing plans, such as annual marketing plans or campaign plans. We will also look at how many marketers are using generative AI for writing plans and caution against being overly dependant on AI for planning. To be the 'devil's advocate', I will ask should we be using these tools at all?! How widely is generative AI and ChatGPT used in marketing?

ChatGPT has been widely adopted…

Actionable steps across the pillars of digital marketing from our recent report

Digital marketing today is complex and it’s inevitable it will get more complex in the future as new technologies and platforms emerge. Take the huge adoption and interest in Open AI ChatGPT, as an example. Marketers also have to contend with the complexity of the many channels we need to track in our analytics such as organic and paid search, social media, display, and email marketing.

March 2024 update

Here we'll update readers on the latest developments in digital marketing relevant to marketers.

The best AI tools for marketers?

At the end of the article, I recommend different Generative AI tools beyond ChatGPT and show how widely they have been adopted. I have recently written a new update asking Which are the best Generative AI tools for writing marketing plans and strategies? It's shocking how widely Gen AI is being used for…
What are the most popular free and paid marketing writing assistant tools using generative AI for creating content? 2023 was a rare year in marketing, where the latest martech innovations we discuss crossed over into the mainstream. Of course, this has been prompted by the huge interest in ChatGPT, not only for marketing, but in many other applications. For 'hands-on' marketers seeking to take advantage of the latest AI-based tools for generating content and copywriting, there are now quite a few options which I'll recommend at the end of the post. In previous posts, I have reviewed how to use the free version of ChatGPT for marketing  and covered the latest updates to ChatGPT relevant for marketers. Smart Insights Business Members can also read more about how to start use ChatGPT collaboratively in our new Quick Win: How to use ChatGPT for marketing, covering AI marketing planning, strengths and weaknesses of…

15 practical examples of GPT-3/GPT-4 prompts to support content marketing, email marketing, search and social media marketing

In Part 1, of my review of marketing applications of Chat GPT,  I reviewed the quality of output and interactions of the GPT-3 Large Language Model (LLM) on which ChatGPT is trained by asking: How can I use ChatGPT for marketing? I showed how you can use ChatGPT for learning more about digital marketing and marketing planning by creating plans. In this article, I will explain some practical use cases of how marketers can use Chat GPT for content marketing to support different digital marketing channels. We'll see that knowing how to Prompt ChatGPT will be a key skill, so I'll show different Prompting techniques before reviewing specific applications for the different digital marketing channels. Some of the key digital marketing channels that I'll describe are summarised in this visual from my book Digital marketing:…

My example dialogues and use cases show the amazing opportunities for marketers from ChatGPT and other generative AI tools

I’ve been advising on digital marketing and new innovations for over 25 years. Since it was called Internet Marketing… This tends to make you super cynical as to new claims about marketing innovations. Over this time, many of the techniques for digital marketing and approaches to planning digital marketing strategies and campaigns have remained similar. Much Martech now promises to be be ‘AI-powered’ while still relying on manual analysis and customizations. In fact, I’d say that it’s the development of search and social media platforms that have been the main drivers of change. Until now, that is... Having tested ChatGPT, I believe it will spark mainstream adoption of AI amongst marketers, since it will be used as a practical tool to support creative development to help marketers working on search, email and social media…

How do the latest updates to ChatGPT including GPT–4, AutoGPT, Plug-ins and ChatGPT Plus boost its potential for marketers?

Since I originally wrote an article on Using ChatGPT for marketing just after ChatGPT launched, there has been a whirlwind of developments from OpenAI and their partners. For marketers who are busy with their day job, this can be bewildering and you can miss some of the key developments, so here I’ll summarise some of the main developments in a brief timeline and how significant I see them to be. Members can read about other ‘need-to-know’ key digital marketing developments in our regularly updated latest Digital Media updates tracker. The main developments since the launch of ChatGPT relevant to marketers and businesses have been:

1 ChatGPT features integrated into Microsoft Bing

This originally occurred in February 2023. In late 2023 Microsoft renamed this service to Co-Pilot in line with it's branding of Microsoft AI-assistant…

Why agreeing on a policy for how AI is used in marketing is an essential part of the future marketing playbook for all businesses

ChatGPT has thrust Generative AI into prominence for marketers and many others whose activities involve content creation. Many have been ‘wowed’ by the power of this and similar tools for the speed of generating copy and content to save time. Yet time to produce content is only one part of effective content marketing. Without a policy for managing how AI is used by marketers within a business, we'll see that there are many risks that need to be controlled. It reminds me of a similar situation to fifteen plus years ago when social media marketing was first widely adopted. As its use evolved, it was often used on an ad hoc basis in different parts of a business and often by junior marketers or interns without the oversight…

What AI-based tools and digital marketing techniques should businesses from small to large be considering?

I’ve been fortunate to be involved in digital marketing for over 25 years now. The opportunities presented by AI recently are the most exciting developments that I have seen in this time, since the early days, where everything from organic search, a website and email marketing seemed a similarly huge opportunity. This range of projections of advancement in AI presented at Technology for Marketing by Implement AI highlights that we are at a relatively early stage of adoption of AI, with the biggest advancements yet to come recently hinted by the rapid adoption of ChatGPT. In this post, I’ll summarize trends in real-world applications of AI and tools to consider in each of these categories of AI that are open to any business from small to large. Some of the…

Benchmark your use of AI with other businesses

Despite the recent hype around ChatGPT, the opportunities for using AI in marketing are far from new. We have been advising on using AI for marketing since at least 2017 when we first recommended businesses consider these 15 use-cases of AI in marketing. Yet before 2023, I have been surprised by relatively low levels of interest and use of AI by marketers and within businesses when we have asked in our surveys. Typically in-house use of AI had been at the level of 10-15% of respondents since it seems only the largest brands with Business Intelligence teams could work on their own AI applications. Of course, levels of use are much higher if you include AI in paid media such as Google Ads, LinkedIn or Meta Advertising. However, with the growth of interest in using…