As someone who's always been drawn to cutting-edge technology (yes, I was one of those people standing in line for the first iPhone), I find myself at an exciting intersection of marketing and artificial intelligence. Working at Sentry, where innovation isn't just encouraged but expected, I've had the unique opportunity to explore and implement AI solutions that are revolutionizing how we serve our clients while they're also transforming how I approach my daily work. Some of you are reading this and still just want a hot cup of coffee and your laptop or a pad of paper, not all this AI business. I get it. I do love coffee. If that's you, this might push you a bit, but if you're open, I think you'll discover that leveraging AI doesn't take all the human out of the equation, it just makes what you do better. AI isn't a fad that's going to go away. If you don't read the rest of the article just remember this: Don't be Blockbuster. They could have been Netflix, but didn't think that streaming thing was going to stick around. Yikes.
Marketing was ripe to have some of the first AI impacts. A ton of what great marketing does is creating content. Using words, creating graphics, building websites, posting on social... all things that can easily be enhanced with AI. But AI is not just revolutionizing marketing; it's making waves across every industry, with marketing it just happened FAST. Regardless of your field or profession, there are AI tools available right now that you should use right now.
So let's get practical. Here's what I'm leveraging right now. Naturally, this list evolves rapidly, but as of late 2024, here's a glimpse into my current workflow.
One of my favorite tools has been HubSpot's Breeze AI tool. What sets it apart is it's not just generating content. It's producing content by understanding and maintaining brand voice, ideal customer profiles (ICPs), and industry-specific targeting. The way it guides you through the prompting process, suggesting keywords, showing you the impact of your titles for search, and helping you craft the perfect message, is nothing short of brilliant. When I need to create long-form content, it gets me to a solid first draft in a fraction of the time it used to take. But it's not the only AI tool I use for content. I often find myself using both Hubspot's Breeze Agent alongside Anthropic's Claude. I love the way Claude writes creatively and takes some liberties to add things that I didn't even think of. For example, this post was a combination of specific prompts in both Hubspot and Claude (followed by edits) and the final section you'll read below I didn't even prompt or think of, Claude just added it. It's great, so I took Claude's paragraph, re-wrote it a bit and what you see below is where it landed!
I should also mention some of Hubspot's AI powered features that are rolling out by the minute like Remix, are incredibly powerful. Remix takes a piece of content (like a blog) and "remix's" that content into whatever you want, a series of emails, multiple social posts, etc. After some tweaks, and graphic changes, what used to take quite some time now happens super fast.
For website content and social media posts, I've found Claude AI's latest model to be a game-changer. The quality and relevance of its outputs have significantly improved my efficiency in creating compelling, engaging copy that resonates with a specific audience. Again, I find Claude's writing to be a step above the other models, however for industry specific content (see #3 below) I leverage Copilot.
I'm in process of building a custom Copilot that serves as a personal writing knowledge base. By curating specific content and data (stored in Share Point) I've created a reliable source of technical information that's perfectly aligned with our client work and industry. The beauty of this is that it's both secure and private, ensuring our proprietary information stays protected. What I love most about Copilot, is that the content it creates is footnoted. It links the documents that it's pulling information from allowing me to check the work and confirm it's accurate.
As a one-person Marketing team, one of my biggest challenges can be brainstorming. I love the process of collaboration, and when led well, I really believe you can get better and more creative results through collaboration. Enter Claude, my new bet friend. The ability to engage in creative brainstorming sessions with an AI that can understand context, suggest alternatives, and help refine concepts has been transformative. I've seen my creative output increased tenfold, and the quality of my ideation has improved dramatically.
The Copilot integration in the entire Microsoft 365 ecosystem put it a step ahead in our workflows at the office. We use Copilot to transcribe every video teams meeting, it gives speaking tips while you're talking, it recaps the meeting, then sends you a summary with task lists. It can also tag you when you're mentioned in the video and link you to the timecode so you can go back and review that part. If you miss a meeting, it's CAKE to catch up, see what you missed, and not miss what you need to do.
Because of Copilots deep integration into our work environment, I can ask it to summarize a document, catch me up on our team's chat or help me catch up on anything I missed in email. It's truly a productivity workhorse. Don't read that next 20 page PDF to curate technical specs or data to use for your next meeting, presentation or social post, ask AI to summarize and highlight the key takeaways. Done.
On a personal note, AI has even helped me win at Dadlife. When my daughter needs help with her 9th-grade algebra questions, I use AI to not just find answers but understand the underlying principles. Being able to take a photo of a problem and get a step-by-step explanation on point-slope form has turned potentially frustrating moments, or hours YouTube videos, into simple and clear step-by-step problem solving specific to the actual problem we're working on. Which leaves me with a single question: Where was this while I was in school?!?
What excites me most about AI isn't just how it's helping me personally and in my Marketing role (which is awesome), but its potential to transform entire industries. At Sentry, we're already building custom AI integrations and automations for our clients, and I'm fortunate to be part of the team dreaming up these solutions. We're seeing firsthand how AI can:
Despite all these technological advances, I've never believed more that AI is most powerful when it enhances rather than replaces human creativity and strategic thinking. The key is finding the right balance – it's a great partner and assistant but it's not ready to sit in the driver's seat.
As we continue to explore and implement AI solutions, we're just scratching the surface of what's possible. The future of marketing – and business in general – will belong to those who can effectively harness AI while maintaining the human touch that drives genuine connections and breakthrough ideas. Don't let this season pass without taking a step, potentially outside your comfort zone, to begin to figure out how you can be the person that leverages AI for breakthrough impact.
For marketers and business leaders looking to stay ahead of the curve, my advice is simple: start experimenting with AI tools now. Pro Tip: it's 100% worth the $20 bucks for the paid version of Calude or ChatGPT. It's faster and better, and SECURE. The learning curve might seem steep right now, but the potential rewards are too significant to ignore.
This is an exciting time to be in marketing, and I'm grateful to be part of a company that encourages exploration and innovation. As we continue to push the boundaries of what's possible with AI, I'm looking forward to discovering new ways to create value for our clients and transform our industry. Sentry is a trusted technology solutions partner, and we'd love to help your business explore what's next for you in AI.