AI marketing plan creation can save you time and money. Ready to learn how? Read on!
The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has many people worried about job security. AI writing, AI images, and AI videos are becoming more common. While these tools aren’t perfect, they do make us wonder about the future of work.
But if AI can help create a marketing plan, I say, “Welcome aboard!”
A marketing plan is crucial for any marketing strategy. It keeps businesses organized and focused on their goals. However, creating one can be time-consuming and tedious.
That’s where AI can help.
After years of manually compiling documents, I recently used AI to create a marketing plan. Here’s a breakdown of the steps I took, how the plans turned out, and how you can replicate them.
Why Use AI to Create a Marketing Plan?
AI can help marketers work smarter, not harder. Concerns about plagiarism, bias, data insecurity, and poor quality are valid. But when it comes to planning and research, AI tools can save massive amounts of time and money.
In fact, one of our recent studies found that 75% of marketers say AI and automation help them spend less time on manual tasks like research.
AI assistants like ChatGPT, Gemini, and even Breeze perform research and optimization in real time. The speed at which they can pull information from multiple data sources isn’t humanly possible. Add in tasks like data analysis, calculations, and formatting, and it’s no wonder marketers report getting 12.5 hours back weekly.
By using AI to create or draft your marketing plan, you can spend less time and money planning and more time executing.
Now, let’s dive into the real action.
How to Create a Marketing Plan with AI
I tested two AI tools and approaches for creating a marketing plan: a chatbot and a generator. Below, I’ll break down my process into specific steps and share my thoughts on how they did, along with some tips I learned along the way.
Creating a Marketing Plan with a Chatbot
A few months back, I used ChatGPT to create a marketing plan. Here’s how I did it.
1. Summarize Your Business
Before AI could develop my marketing plan, it needed to know what it was marketing and who exactly my company was.
What I included: I kept it simple, stating I was the head of marketing for a technology company that sells a SaaS product for Sales Teams. But to get the best results, you’ll want to dive into:
- Your product/offering
- What makes it different (specific features, capabilities, etc.)
- Company mission
- Company values
Pro tip: You may even want to provide a SWOT analysis or competitive analysis so the AI knows the full scope of what you’re dealing with. No information is too much.
2. Outline Your Business Goals
What is your marketing team working on? What is it trying to achieve? Document these goals so your AI tool knows what all its suggestions need to work toward.
Use the SMART framework for goals — make sure they are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. This leaves less room for ambiguity in whether you accomplished what you were supposed to.
For example, in the past, I’ve seen clients try to set vague goals like “Increase my presence on TikTok.” But a SMART version could be, “Increase my TikTok following by 30% by June.”
What I included: “The goal of the marketing plan is to close 5000 new customers in the next 12 months.”
Pro tip: Including your average conversion rates and buyer behavior can help AI better understand your sales cycle and determine which strategies will be more effective for you.
For example, I added this line, “Assume the conversion rate from traffic to customer will be 5%, which means I’ll need roughly 100,000 website visits.”
3. Describe Your Target Audience
Who is your buyer? Who does your marketing plan need to reach? AI needs to know this information to ensure its strategic suggestions align.
You can share a full buyer persona with your AI tool, but at the least, you want to include the following in your prompt:
- Age
- Location
- Company, job title, industry (if B2B)
- Goals
- Personal challenges
- Pain points you solve
What I included: “Our audience is primarily sales reps at small-to-medium-sized businesses. Their teams are usually small, with 2-4 reps on the team total. They are concerned with meeting their sales goals, prioritizing the right prospects, and streamlining their sales process. Our CRM offers automation and data enrichment tools to make this easier.”
4. Define Your Marketing Budget
This point is pretty straightforward — How much can your company spend on your marketing plan to achieve your goals? Defining your market budget in your prompt gives the chatbot parameters to work with.
What I included: “Our marketing budget is £10,000 for the year. Cost-effectiveness is a top priority.” I added the second line to clarify that while I have this total to spend, I want it to be distributed in proven areas.
5. Establish Your Timeline
Like your budget, your timeline gives your chatbot further direction on what suggestions are plausible and which aren’t.
For example, if your timeline is only one month, it wouldn’t make sense to suggest leaning into SEO and blog articles, as those can take months to gain traction.
What I included: My timeline of “12 months” was established in my goal and referenced throughout my prompt.
6. Set Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
How will you track and report on your success? Some company stakeholders expect to see specific data. If so, your prompt is your chance to loop your chatbot in on this expectation.
But if you don’t include them, it’s not make or break. Usually, KPIs are linked to your tactics and strategies. So, if you’re waiting to see what our marketing plan suggests to set metrics, no worries.
Pro tip: You can also ask the chatbot to suggest KPIs based on its proposed strategy.
What I included: I left KPIs out of my prompt so ChatGPT would focus on tactics and strategy.
7. Share Examples and “Extras”
Do you have specific campaigns you admire? How about marketing frameworks like StoryBrand or thought leaders like Ann Handley or Neil Patel?
Once again, sharing these examples with your chatbot in your prompt helps it understand what you’re looking for from your marketing plan.
What I included: I added to my prompt: “I want your answers to be heavily influenced by marketing greats:
- Seth Godin’s approach to branding
- Gary Vaynerchuk’s approach to social media marketing
- Andy Crestodina’s approach to web and digital strategy”
You can also take this time to add what I call “extras” to your prompt. For instance, I made it a point to tell ChatGPT that I didn’t want to see best practices. You can mention if there are specific channels you want to include or exclude, or maybe even global holidays.
8. Compile Information into a Prompt
Once you’ve got all the pieces from steps 1-7, compile them into one prompt. Make sure that it’s conversational, and each sentence is short and precise.
9. Enter the Prompt into a Chatbot
Enter your compiled prompt into the chatbot and let it generate your marketing plan.
10. Review and Refine
Once you get your results, you can use this as a first draft to elaborate on or ask for edits. Treat the chatbot like your intern or freelancer. Refine and clarify until the finished product meets your needs.
Honestly, I wasn’t super impressed by the results I got from my initial prompt. The answers were quite generic, which goes to show you how generic your results can be if you don’t give specific details about your business. But perhaps if I made follow-up requests, I could have uncovered some unique gems.
What Did I Like About This AI Marketing Plan?
- Easy to skim through the ideas
- Clearly considered my examples and requests
- The conversational nature of the chatbot made it easy to use
What Could Be Improved?
- Suggestions were fairly generic
- It takes iterations to get more detailed and specific results
- Putting together the creative brief is very time-consuming
- Formatting is informal
Who Is This Best For?
Small-to-medium-sized marketing teams that need help brainstorming strategies but don’t necessarily need anything cutting-edge.
Creating a Marketing Plan with a Generator
After ChatGPT, I tried an AI-powered Marketing Plan Generator.
Here, I still needed all the information we discussed above ready to go, but this tool did a great job of simplifying the compilation process and formatting it into a neat little document.
Rather than putting together an instructional prompt, all I had to do was answer a few questions. Then, the tool delivered a one-page document with a yearly marketing plan along with priority and strategy suggestions based on the goal I entered.
The document makes it easy to review the marketing plan at a glance and share it with teammates and stakeholders.
Pro tip: This AI marketing plan generator does a lot of formal formatting for you, but the quality it delivers is only as good as the information you give it to work off.
Before you use the generator, sit down and flesh out your:
- Marketing mission statement: This is what your marketing is focused on for the year
- Strategy: What are you doing to reach your goals?
- Marketing Initiatives (i.e., brand awareness or building a high-quality pipeline)
- Target Goals (i.e., generating 100 leads per week)
- Metrics
The tool will ask you about these things, and it’s better to consider them before making them up at that moment.
What Did I Like About This AI Marketing Plan?
- Easy to skim one-page document
- Form eliminates the stress of knowing how to write a good prompt
What Could Be Improved?
- More detailed strategy/suggestions
Who Is This Best For?
Businesses short on time or those new to creating marketing plans who want a starting point. It’s also great for those who haven’t mastered the art of chatbot prompts.
Treat AI Like a Running Start
These are just two of the ways you can create a marketing plan using AI. In fact, there are many other tools dedicated specifically to this need. However, no matter which you choose, remember to treat any results as a first draft.
Artificial intelligence only knows as much about your company, product, and audience as it’s been told. It doesn’t have your team’s first-hand experience or knowledge.
So, treat any results as a brainstorming tool and something to elaborate on. Right now, AI can only give you a running start; it can’t take you to the finish line.
For more insights on AI marketing plan creation and other marketing strategies, visit our blog or contact us via email at info@07hm.co.uk or telephone 01702 410663.
