As president of the leading growth marketing agency Relevance, I've had a front-row seat to watch the potential of artificial intelligence play out. It’s still a bit shocking how quickly AI tools have developed, and yet, here we are. We’re already at the point where they can positively transform daily workflows and boost productivity across all stages of marketing.
Our marketing team has spent months exploring the nuances of generative AI in digital marketing contexts through client meetings and hands-on experiences. We’ve seen what AI marketing tools can do, and trust me when I say it’s something marketers can’t ignore anymore.
If you’re looking for ways to supercharge your growth marketing with AI marketing tools, I have some ideas for you. Here’s what I believe to be some of the most effective ways to leverage AI technology for better results as you promote your brand this year.
Below are several key insights I've gathered that can transform each marketing campaign you put together. (And as a marketer, I don’t use that word lightly.) Keep in mind as you read that the goal isn’t to replace you or your staff but to help AI and marketing automation work for you.
These suggestions are inspired by insights taken from a recent live webinar hosted by myself and our Chief Strategy Officer Emma Kessinger on Navigating the AI Landscape. You can find the webinar in its entirety at that link.
Alright. Let’s dive in!
Tools like Fathom have revolutionized how we handle meetings as a team. Again, the goal here is to expedite and enhance ongoing activities as a growth marketing agency, and having a competent note-taking AI application has been a key factor in easing the everyday gruntwork.
One of those activities is interviewing subject-matter experts. Adding expert analysis and opinions to your content has become really important for any good growth marketing strategy, but gathering that information can be time-consuming.
Using AI note-taking tools allows us to automatically capture and organize SME meeting notes. We found this doesn’t just help you take notes faster. When I’ve done this, even with in-person clients, Fathom has allowed me to stay engaged in the conversation. I can focus, knowing that when it’s done, I’ll have all of the notes recorded and even highlighted at important points.
Streamlining note-taking is a pretty obvious use of AI (even though we’ve found you need to be thoughtful about how you implement it). However, you can also confidently use the right AI tools when creating content for clients, too.
You can use tools like Gemini, Perplexity, and ChatGPT—and I’ll talk about some of those in a minute. Personally, though, I need to start with my favorite. I’ve found Claude is the best way to handle something as personality-driven as branded content, making it a game-changer for marketers.
This is because the AI platform excels at capturing perspective. Trust me when I say that Claude is exceptionally good at capturing tones and voices. We used it for parts of our email newsletter and found it was actually helping us expand our content precision and resonance.
For instance, we trained it on different brand voices, like “professional with a sense of humor” and “a little bit of snark.” By testing our prompts across different email subject lines, we found that our customer engagement went up with more punny subject lines.
As with all good AI tools, Claude doesn’t thrive in a vacuum. You have to tell it the “role and the goal” in each prompt if you want that personality to come through. Still, for me, Claude is one of the best options to maintain a professional, individualistic, and approachable branded writing style, whether you’re composing an email, summarizing lengthy content, or anything in between.
Content creation and growth marketing strategy are multi-faceted. In the same way that you wouldn’t work with one single person to strategize, develop, and execute an entire marketing campaign, you shouldn’t use a single AI marketing tool, either. Something like Claude might be great for tone, but when it comes time to dig deep into that customer data or market research, I still say ChatGPT is one of the best options out there—especially if you’re springing for the paid version.
The OG AI tool is great at analyzing data sets and spreadsheets. From conducting product research to the ability to drop a URL into the search bar to analyze an entire website, ChatGPT is great at aggregating information from multiple sources, analyzing that information, and then synthesizing it into understandable takeaways.
ChatGPT also excels at breaking down complex concepts. If you’re trying to understand nuanced elements of a growth marketing campaign or a client’s product functionality, it can help break things down. It’s even a great assistant for personal things, like car shopping or, from my own experience, helping your child with her math homework.
Text-based AI tools are common, and most people are more comfortable with them. But I’ve found most people are neglecting the visual side of AI tools. In a year where AI is expected to shift from experimentation to targeted execution, expect more comprehensive applications of AI to follow, including more sophisticated forms of visual AI content generators.
There are already several options out there. Traditional tools like Canva have built-in AI features. Sora just released a text-to-video AI solution in December of 2024. My favorite option, so far, though, is the generative AI features in Photoshop, which remain one of the premiere ways to produce realistic computer-based visuals.
This is perfect for creating quick custom graphics. It’s ideal when you’re trying to generate website imagery to support text pieces or sales pages, too. It can also help with making minor design adjustments when you don’t have a full-time designer on staff. We even use the tool on our own website at Relevance to refresh our images.
Relevance has always been big on content audits. You have to be willing to give your existing content a hard look and decide where to optimize and where to delete things if they aren’t performing well.
Not surprisingly, AI is making major inroads in the content analysis side of things, as well. Specialized tools like MarketMuse and SEOmonitor are streamlining this side of long-term content marketing by automating content quality assessments, keyword research, keyword grouping, assessing topical authority—you name it.
As you create content, let AI ease the burden of babysitting it over time. You can create prompts and even use an AI-powered tool with built-in features specifically designed to help you prune bad content and optimize the good stuff. Tools like SEOMonitor can help you clarify topical authority. You can also use AI to identify content gaps and page optimization opportunities. This area is less defined than content creation. Don’t be afraid to be creative as you look for ways to use AI tools to manage your content over time.
AI is changing things quickly, but marketing is still a necessary part of business. Don’t let the disruption discourage you. Look for ways to embrace AI as part of your daily marketing activity.
At Relevance, we have learned that you always need to look for the latest marketing AI tools, try them out, and then see if and how they can help your internal activities. If you can learn to thrive in that kind of ongoing evolutionary process, you’ll be able to recapture that momentum and transform your brand from a reactionary follower to an industry leader.
If you’re looking for help integrating artificial intelligence into your growth marketing plans, contact our team at Relevance. We can set you up with a FREE strategy session to look at your best options and help you chart a profitable path to growth.
