OTT Issue #14: Does AI Mean Going off the Trail, or Going off the Rails?

I don’t pretend to be an AI guru.

But in a newsletter that covers smart ways to subvert the status quo of the ways we work, AI simply has to be in the conversation. It might be a shortcut to greater efficiency and effectiveness, or it might lead us into an abyss of gross, generic marketing that makes it exponentially harder to innovate.??

Both paths are possible at this point.?

So here’s what we’re gonna do.?

Me:?Curate a handful of AI ideas, suggestions, rants, etc. from multiple very smart marketers, (collected and summarized below). They’re loosely ordered from most general to most specific.

You:?Leave a comment and tell me what you think about them. Did you already try them? What happened? Do you find this whole thing energizing and exciting, or is it giving you horrible flashbacks from that one year we were all obsessed with machine learning??

Smart Marketer Perspective #1: AI = leadership opportunities for the curious via?Paul Roetzer

As the Founder and CEO of the Marketing AI Institute, Paul has a lot to say on this topic. Here’s a glass half full take for you:?

“There is a massive first-mover / early-adopter advantage to be had in almost every industry.

Because of the lag in education and adoption, even in some of the most advanced organizations in the world, you have an opportunity to lead in the understanding and application of AI in your department and company, and create entirely new career paths.

People who are curious about AI, and seek broad knowledge and understanding of the technology, will be able to connect the dots in their companies and industries to help build smarter businesses.

Once you get through the uncertainty and fear of AI, the opportunities for growth and innovation are unparalleled.

You can be an AI leader no matter what stage you are in your career.”

Are you finding this to be true as a marketer? Smash that reply button and share your experience!?

Smart Marketer Perspective #2: Shaking up the marketing mix via?Rand Fishkin

AI may or may not be the SEO apocalypse, but the chances are good that it’s going to change the way that marketers try to position their brands as authoritative.

When search results start taking “amalgamated answers from many people…who’ve produced content that answers the query effectively and smush them together,” our approach to content creation and rankings and keyword strategy and distribution gets pretty dang disrupted.?

For Rand, “What’s really changed here is the missing link to a single source. What hasn’t changed is that this answer and these answers could still contain your brand…The way we think of link-building and guest posting today may be very different in a future where Google’s answers come without a link to the source…?Generative AI marketing through seeding of training data?sounds like a pretty interesting future to me!”?

Public relations, positioning, content marketing, guest posts, contributing to language models – throw it all in a blender and turn it on. Things are gonna get weird.?

Smart Marketer Perspective #3: In the age of AI, content is still for customers via?Ann Handley

“I’m a fan of AI tools. They are useful tools.

But sweet Cheez-Its… blindly implementing them with zero long-term, broader consequences is nuts. It’s a recipe for the nuttiest Nutloaf Disaster.”

Like Brendan, Ann advocates for the use of AI and/or ChatGPT to enhance the quality of the work we do. It should NOT replace writing expertise. It definitely should not override any requirement to think critically, creatively, and constantly about our customers.?

As she defines it, “‘Quality’ means trustworthy, inspired, customer-obsessed empathetic content.

It means content we’ve crafted that could come only from us…

“Drop in quality” = unremarkable, boring, me-too marketing

“Drop in quality” = commodity content

“Drop in quality” = a mudslide like erosion of customer trust

…

The point of content is to generate leads, right? No. The point of content is to create a connection.

With an audience? No. With a specific person.

One specific buyer, prospect, individual whom you have created a cozy space for in your mind's eye. (You've strung up twinkle lights; you've fluffed the throw pillows on the couch. Just for them.)”

If AI tools help you make that cozy space, use the heck out of them. If AI tools are a crutch to get around cozy space creation, time to rethink your use case.?

Smart Marketer Perspective #4: Argue with AI via?Brendan Hufford

“If you want to create easily ignorable content, write about exactly what ChatGPT says to write about…If you want to write INTERESTING content (that your ideal customer profile immediately forwards to their friends and executive team), write about the opposite.”

An example:?

“ChatGPT’s public speaking tips:

1. Know your audience and tailor your message to their interests and needs.
2. Plan and practice your speech thoroughly.
3. Use clear, concise, and simple language that is easy to understand.
4. Vary your tone, pace, and volume to keep the audience engaged.

EYE ROLL

Compare that to?Amanda Natividad's article for?SparkToro?on this topic:

1. Pick your topic (fun + skill + audience Venn diagram)
2. Cover your ass (by asking for deadlines)
3. Promote the event (or don’t!)
4. Actually attend the event
5. Reuse your content

Wow.”

Creating content by relying on AI = the most meh content possible. For content to stand out, we need to go the other way.?

Brendan calls this the "Argue With AI" Strategy.

1. Look it up in ChatGPT.
2. Do the opposite.

Smart Marketer Perspective #5: Your Turn

Point me to a resource, thought leader, or random social media post that’s sparking great AI ideas for you.?

I’ll start, once again pulling from one of the Smart Marketers on this list, Paul Roetzer:?

“If you want to try and see around the corner, pay attention to the research and public comments from the major AI research labs and LLM (large language model) companies—Amazon, Anthropic, Cohere, Inflection, Google DeepMind, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Stability.”

- Andrea