AI for business

I’m what people usually describe as a senior citizen, but that doesn’t mean that I’ve got a closed mind to the latest technology.  I’ve heard people much, much younger than me express doubt that AI is a good thing (and a few people say that they’re too old to get involved with all this AI stuff). 

I believe that age is a state of mind and that the day I stop being curious and willing to explore is when I’ll really get old!

With that in mind, I’ve been playing with a whole host of different AI tools. 

Content creation

These days most people have discovered ChatGPT, but it’s not the answer to everything and there are others that do as well – or better – depending on the task.  Claude works well for long content and there’s Microsoft Co-Pilot, not to mention Perplexity and, of course, the latest offering from China, DeepSeek.

Check out NotebookLM too, it can create summaries, lead magnets, checklists, surveys and much more.

My advice is to check whatever is produced, as there have been instances where the AI has invented information and references.

Top tip:  If you’re asking the AI to write marketing copy, include in your brief ‘write in the style of a professional copywriter’.

To be honest the content I’ve had from some of these has been pretty bland and expanding a 350 word article to 700 words has resulted in a generous sprinkling of adjectives, rather than more meat!  However, if you’re not a professional writer you can get plenty of content using AI.  Bear in mind that, if you want the AI to develop to write in your style, you’ll need to invest time and effort in training it.

I don’t use it to write for my clients as I prefer to create original content in their voice, but it’s been useful to generate ideas and a lot of ideas for headlines.

Handy tools to save time

I love Founderpal!  This is a marketing AI assistant.  The best tool of all is the User Persona Generator.  You put in your industry and your ideal client and the persona generator produces a profile showing their problems, pains, goals, benefits, triggers and barriers.  While it may need a bit of tweaking, it’s a huge leap from that blank piece of paper you’re starting with.

Gamma is invaluable if you’re creating lots of slide decks.  Slide decks take time, but give Gamma short brief and it will create a complete deck for you.  Again, you may need to do some judicious editing, but it saves hours.

If you want video content check out invideo. It has the tools for you to create your own videos, adding voice and music – or give it a text brief and it will create your video for you.  Other useful tools for videos are GetMunch, Opus and Alphana – all of which will take a longer video and clip it intelligently into short clips for social media.

Make your content work harder – use Voicepen to turn your videos into blog posts, or transcribe audio recordings to text.

Are you writing content that needs illustrating? You need Napkin! Paste your text in and Napkin will create visual – with a ton of options, so, if you don’t like one, there are dozens of other alternatives.

Thinking of hosting a podcast? Take a look at ElevenLabs.  You upload a content file and choose a voice (the paid version can clone your own voice) and press a button!  It even creates a conversation with two people discussing whatever content you give it.

This is just the tip of the iceberg – and none of these are complicated to use. 

And if you think these are mind-blowing, wait until TikTok’s OmniHuman-1 launches!

Webinar magic

Even if you’d never attended an online event before, lockdown probably changed that for you.  Instead of jumping in the car and meeting face-to-face, we all got to grips with online platforms like Zoom and Remo (and many others).

Online meetings have retained their currency as people realised that you don’t have to be in the same room with others to get things done.  Zoom, Teams and GoogleMeet have all gained massive usage in the past few years, where previously only a few people used these tools.

GoToMeeting was the domain of webinars and mass promotional meetings with hundreds of participants.  Although there were others, this one was usually at the top of the list for professional promoters.  Zoom has carved a large chunk of that market out now as the preferred platform.

However, it doesn’t matter what your chosen platform is – as long as it works.  What does matter is what you can use it for.

Why a webinar works

Now we’re all used to attending webinars, it makes sense to use them to expand your reach to more people.  You can deliver webinars:

• To share your knowledge
• To educate your audience
• To promote your offer

Or a combination of all these.  If all you do is sell, people will switch off, but if you share good content, people don’t mind the offer, it just depends on how it’s delivered.

When your webinar is stuffed with great content that genuinely delivers value, more people will be interested in buying a more in-depth service or product.  If they don’t buy, they’ll still have had a positive experience and may buy at some point in the future.

The secret of making sales is to have

1. A good sized audience
2. Who are highly focused – i.e. they are exactly who your offer can help
3. Have already received great value
4. Can see exactly how the offer will benefit them
5. Will get a reduced price or something exclusive that isn’t available elsewhere.

The offer needs to be ethical, of real value and with a great reason to buy – and remember, people buy people.  So they’re not just buying your offer, they’re also buying you.

People that Tony Robbins mentors nearly always bring him into the mix when they’re doing online presentations.  His reputation not only swells the audience size, but means that the offer comes with validation built in.  

That doesn’t mean you need a big name to back you, but you do have to be able to offer some kind of validation.

Get your ducks in a row

Even the big names in webinar delivery work hard on the pre-event marketing.  That means social posts and ads, on Facebook, Google, interruption ads on games, etc.  As the saying goes ‘speculate to accumulate’.

If you don’t do this for free webinars, you’ll end up with three people and maybe your Mum!  Even if 20 people have registered, free events have a big drop out rate.

What can you do to get registrants to actually turn up?

1. A ‘hot’ title – with something that is specifically for your audience.  
2. Reminder emails, at least the day before and on the day an hour before, 15 minutes before and at go live time.  Include the link in every email to make it easy to join in.
3. A teaser – e.g. ‘Don’t miss this as I’ll be sharing the strategy that netted £10,000 in just 30 days’ or ‘I’ll be sharing the secrets that let me double my fees – and my client base’.  Know your audience and what they want.
4. Scarcity – e.g. only 30 places – first come, first served.  If you don’t log in on time, you could miss out.

Practise your presentation, including the offer, with your slides, if you’re using these.  This helps things to go smoothly on the live event.

Make sure you are comfortable using your chosen platform (Zoom or GoToMeeting or whichever you choose).  Know your way around the tools.

If you’re going to encourage participation in the chat, have someone else in your team monitor it, so you aren’t trying to present and respond at the same time.

Plan, Practise and Perform – and your webinars will work!

What is marketing?

I go to networking meetings regularly and so I often get asked ‘What do you do?’  It’s hard to explain it in one word or a short phrase, so it can end up being more of a list.  Many people are surprised at some of the things we do – and that led to this blog!

Our team focus mostly on content – usually written or image based – it’s all about helping our clients to maintain a shiny, positive and influential reputation.  These activities are how we do that.

Consulting: to develop an understanding of the ideal client and create a plan that will reach them effectively.

Web copy: structure and content for your website to engage visitors and make it easy for them to find what they’re looking for.

Blog articles: to share knowledge and expertise.

Social media posts: to retain visibility, get attention and extend reach.

Profiles and biographies: for LinkedIn, other social platforms and for third parties.

Newsletters: to nurture and educate your list.

Email campaigns: to promote your products and services – and to deliver added value.

Lead magnets: to attract new people to your list.

Lead funnels: a process to move people from ‘sign up for free’ to paying customers.

Award entries: to raise profile in your industry and the business community.

Articles for publication: thought-leader articles, profiles/interview-style pieces, press releases for the media.

Scripts: for videos, webinars and podcasts to present your knowledge, information and offers effectively.

Ebooks: to educate your target audience about your depth and breadth of knowledge.

Books: development, editing and marketing of a full length book for publication both digitally and as a hard copy book.

CVs and professional profiles: to present you effectively for those who want more in depth information.

Every marketer is different, and marketing is a catch-all term, so when you engage a marketer or marketing agency, be clear about what you want and choose someone who gets you and your business.