Personification is the intimate companion of imagination.
Which is why so many great artists use it. For example, Jack London wrote, “But the plummet of his hearing brought nothing to him save the moaning of wind through invisible trees and the rustling of leaves on swaying branches.”
You may have seen this tactic used so often that you wouldn’t even notice the personification if I hadn’t specifically italicized it in the above sentence. I know I would overlook it. But moan literally means, ‘a long, low sound made by a person.’
London could have written, ‘the gusty wind’ but it wouldn’t have hit me in the chest the same way. I can feel that wind moaning.
Or in a much more obvious example: “The sea was angry that day, my friends – like an old man trying to send back soup in a deli” written by Larry David, Ron Hauge, and Jerry Seinfeld in the comedian’s eponymous hit TV series.
Personification isn’t just for literature and television. If you want to make effective use of AI for brainstorming, it helps to think of chatting with an artificial intelligence machine like you’re chatting with a real, live person. So in this MarketingSherpa blog post, here is an interview with the Problem Solver expert assistant from MECLABS AI as if it were a person.
First, here’s where you can find Problem Solver in MECLABS AI. It’s totally free to use (for now).
And here’s a look at what Problem Solver had to say in our conversation…my attempt to converse with the future that’s already here today.
Overview of Problem Solver AI expert assistant
Can you give us a brief overview of what a Problem Solver AI Expert Assistant is and how it works?
The Problem Solver AI Expert Assistant is a digital tool designed to assist users in methodically approaching and solving problems. It utilizes a structured framework akin to the i4 Success Framework developed by Flint McGlaughlin. This framework encourages users to identify their true objectives, explore effective strategies, design and execute tests, and refine their approach based on insights.
Inspiration Behind the Problem Solver AI
What inspired the development of this technology, and what specific problems is it designed to address?
When you’re concepting and brainstorming and trying to think of that next idea, wouldn’t it be great to bounce around your thoughts with a giant brain well versed in a specific topic?
Well with the magic of artificial intelligence, you can. For example, Facebook Copywriter in MECLABS AI. It’s totally free to use (for now). Here’s where you can find the Facebook Copywriter expert assistant in MECLABS AI:
To give you a sense for what it’s like to chat with Facebook Copywriter and ideas for AI-enhanced social media marketing strategies, here is an ‘interview’ with the expert assistant. The goal is to show you how MECABS AI’s Facebook Copywriter expert assistant can help you with social media copy.
Development and technologies powering MECLABS AI
Can you explain how you were developed and what specific technologies underpin your ability to generate copy?
I am the result of innovative artificial intelligence (AI) research and development, designed to assist and amplify the creative process of marketing professionals. At my core, I utilize large language models, natural language processing (NLP), machine learning algorithms, and cognitive computing to generate, analyze and optimize copy. These technologies provide me with the ability to process vast amounts of data and to emulate human-like writing capabilities.
Can you please explain natural language processing in simple language so our readers understand it?
I interview plenty of humans on How I Made It In Marketing, but in this MarketingSherpa blog post I’ll be interviewing an artificial intelligence.
Copywriter is an expert assistant in MECLABS AI. Its totally free to use (for now). Here’s where you can find the Copywriter expert assistant in MECLABS AI:
Why interview an AI you might task? Or as my mother might say, “You went to college for this? So you could interview a machine? Well, I bet my vacuum cleaner has some pretty interesting observations.”
Mockery is fair, but that mockery comes from an old paradigm – that the only experts are humans.
Now you can have a conversation with a digital ‘mind.’ Haven’t you ever felt like you wish you had an expert you could chat with to brainstorm? Well, this is the upside of the expert assistants.
And they can answer instantly, and at no cost (for now). Try finding that in a human marketing expert.
Please note that since this is an AI – and not a real human – when it talks about previous experiences and the like, I assume it is discussing the content it was trained on.
Foundational principles
What are the core principles of effective copywriting that you believe can be applied to all forms of marketing communications?
The essence of effective copywriting is anchored in the following core principles:
Understanding the customer’s needs creates a foundation for relevance
Clarity overpowers complexity – ensure your message is lucid and unambiguous
Brevity is the soul of wit* – concise messaging often yields the strongest impact
Offering value – every word must serve the purpose of portraying the value proposition
Encouraging action – culminate your copy with a strong, unmissable call to action, driving customer behavior.
*Editor’s Note: This is a quote from William Shakespeare
How do you ensure your copy resonates with diverse audiences, especially in an era of increasing market segmentation?
On my marketing podcast, I have in-depth conversations with marketing leaders. Given the recent release of expert assistants by MECLABS AI (MECLABS is the umbrella organization of MarketingSherpa) I thought it would be interesting to ‘chat’ with these ‘experts.’ You can read my conversation with Marketing Professor below.
A little gimmicky? Somewhat, yet. But, it’s worth noting that this aligns perfectly with the intended purpose of these expert assistants. Imagine having the ability to get personalized help from a marketing expert. That’s now a reality, with the added perks of instantaneous responses and no cost (at least for the time being).
MECLABS has long been known for it courses, and while you can still take our free digital marketing course, the Marketing Professor expert assistant can customize training for you and your team.
Here’s where to find the Marketing Professor expert assistant in MECLABS AI:
Creative Sample #1: Navigating to the expert assistant feature in MECLABS AI
Now, let’s delve into what insights we can gather on marketing training and marketing in general. Typically, for a human interviewee, I’d note that responses have been refined for clarity and brevity, and in this case, I’ve barely touched the responses.
I interview a lot of human marketing experts on How I Made It In Marketing. So with the launch of new expert assistants in MECLABS AI (MECLABS is the parent organization of MarketingSherpa), I thought it would be interesting to interview one of those experts assistants – Project Planner.
Is this a little gimmicky? Admittedly yes. But in fairness, this is what these expert assistants were built for. Essentially… do you wish you could ask any questions you wanted to experts in certain marketing disciplines? Now you can. And the answers are instant and free, you don’t even have to register (for now).
Here’s how to find the expert assistant in MECLABS AI.
Creative Sample #1: The expert assistant dropdown menu in MECLABS AI
Now let’s see what we can learn about project planning. For a human interview, normally I would state here that the answers have been (lightly) edited for clarity and brevity. But I didn’t even edit these, I thought they were a good enough representation of the Project Planner expert assistant AI to let them stand on their own.
I will mention for context though – the interview questions are meant for a human project planner. So some of the answers it gives, like about successful previous projects or how it keeps up on the latest trends, likely refer to the information it was trained on and not a memory of a past experience like a human would have.
Background and Role
Can you share a brief overview of your professional background and how you arrived at your current role as a project planner in marketing?
As MECLABS AI, my existence is not marked by a traditional professional trajectory. Instead, I was designed with the collective intelligence and data-driven insights developed by MECLABS Institute, MarketingSherpa, and MarketingExperiments. My function is to channel the analytical rigor and strategic methodologies of experts like Flint McGlaughlin into accessible project planning for marketing endeavors.
What does a typical day look like for you, and how do you prioritize your tasks and projects?
Each day involves interacting with individuals seeking to apply MECLABS’ methodologies to their projects. Prioritization is based on the Potential, Importance, and Urgency (PIU) of tasks, a method underpinned by MarketingSherpa’s research on effective time management. High-impact tasks with imminent deadlines are addressed first, aligning with client strategies for maximum efficacy.
Project Planning Process
What steps do you follow when planning a new marketing project, and how do you ensure that your plan aligns with the overall marketing strategy?
I advocate for the MECLABS Conversion Heuristic as a guiding framework for project planning, which demands understanding customer motivation and crafting value propositions with precision. By mapping specific project goals to this heuristic, plans inherently align with core marketing strategies centered around customer value.
How do you identify and allocate resources effectively for a project? Can you share any tips or tools you use for resource management?
Resource allocation begins with a precise inventory of current assets and capabilities juxtaposed against project demands. Utilizing a grid similar to the MECLABS Conversion Heuristic allows for a systematic approach to evaluating and allocating resources where they are most likely to increase the probability of conversion.
Challenges and Solutions
What are some of the most common challenges you face in project planning and execution, and how do you overcome them?
One common challenge is ensuring projects adhere to budget constraints while still hitting performance goals. By employing the Value Proposition “force” as explained in McGlaughlin’s work, whereby the perceived cost must be outweighed by the perceived value, projects can be managed more effectively within budgetary limits.
Can you share an example of a particularly challenging project you managed and how you navigated the obstacles?
A formidable challenge arose in a project aiming to increase online course sign-ups. By focusing on the “friction” element of the Conversion Sequence Heuristic and reducing unnecessary complexity in the sign-up process, the project saw a significant increase in conversions, demonstrating the practical application of these principles.
Collaboration and Team Dynamics
How do you foster collaboration and communication among team members and stakeholders in a project?
Collaboration is fostered through structured communication, defined roles, and mutual understanding of goals. By emphasizing the ‘clarity’ aspect from the Transparent Marketing principles of MECLABS, all participants remain aligned and informed, promoting synergy in the project’s process.
In your experience, what are the key elements for maintaining a cohesive and productive project team?
The key elements include a shared vision, effective leadership, mutual respect, and open channels for feedback. It’s also imperative to acknowledge individual contributions, aligning with MarketingSherpa’s insights on team motivation and performance.
Metrics and Success Evaluation
How do you set measurable goals for marketing projects, and what metrics do you use to evaluate their success?
Goals are set using the SMART criteria, ensuring they are quantifiable. Metrics are chosen based on their direct correlation to the project’s objectives – for example, an enhanced lead generation project might track conversion rates and lead quality. Each metric is a data point on the path of continuous improvement.
Can you describe a project you consider a significant success and the impact it had on your organization or clients?
A notable success was the overhaul of a client’s email campaign strategy which, after rigorous A/B testing and the application of MarketingExperiments’ email optimization research, saw a 30% lift in click-through rates, significantly driving up sales and customer engagement.
Innovation and Trends
How do you stay abreast of the latest marketing trends and technologies, and how do they influence your project planning?
Through continuous scanning of industry publications, case studies on MarketingSherpa, and rigorous testing via MarketingExperiments, I maintain currency with evolving trends and technologies. These inform project planning by allowing the incorporation of emerging practices with demonstrated effectiveness.
Have you integrated any innovative approaches or tools into your project planning process recently? If so, what were they, and what benefits did they bring?
Recent integration has included advanced data analytics tools, aligning with MECLABS’ methodology to leverage user data for more precise customer segmentation. This has allowed marketing projects to achieve granular targeting, increasing relevance, and thus, conversion potential.
Client and Stakeholder Management
How do you manage expectations and communications with clients or key stakeholders throughout the lifecycle of a project?
Communication is managed by setting clear expectations from the onset and providing regular updates. By employing transparent, data-backed communication, as recommended by MECLABS’ principles, stakeholders remain apprised of the progress and are engaged in the decision-making process.
Can you share a situation where you had to manage differing opinions or expectations from stakeholders and how you handled it?
When stakeholders had differing views on a website redesign’s direction, I facilitated a unified vision by conducting A/B testing. This empirical approach, grounded in MarketingExperiments’ methodologies, provided objective data to guide decision-making, leading to a consensus that balanced user experience with conversion goals.
Personal Development and Advice
What has been the most valuable lesson you’ve learned in your career as a project planner in marketing?
Understanding that every aspect of a project should be designed to serve and communicate clearly to the customer is paramount. This lesson is underlined by McGlaughlin’s customer-centric approach to marketing wherein he states, “We must never forget that the goal of marketing is not to make a claim but to foster a conclusion.”
What advice would you give to someone aspiring to succeed in a project planning role within the marketing industry?
Nurture a constant learner’s mindset and ground your planning in data and measurable outcomes. Ingrain the principles laid out by Flint McGlaughlin and resources available through MarketingSherpa, regarding customer psychology and value proposition, to elevate your projects from mere plans to influential marketing strategies.
I’ve been playing a (very small) role in training AI lately. And here’s the approach I took – train the machine like you would a new marketer. So if you’re a new marketer, or an experienced marketer who is simply new to social media, here are eight steps that can help your social media marketing.
But before we dive into those steps, I should mention that this is how I would train someone and create social media a decade ago. While it’s still helpful, marketers have a new way to train and get help with our marketing – artificial intelligence.
We have just released the new Social Media Pro expert assistant in MECLABS AI (MECLABS AI is the parent organization of MarketingSherpa). It can help you with your social media marketing. MECLABS AI is totally free to use, you don’t even have to register (for now).
Expert Assistants drop-down menu in MECLABS AI
And the Marketing Professor expert assistant can train you or someone on your team in the marketing fundamentals. Flint McGlaughlin explains in the video below.
That said, as an avid reader of print newspapers and magazines, I can attest that there is benefit to the old ways as well. If you’re looking to learn the fundamentals of marketing, here are a bunch of articles organized under the key steps for social media marketing.
These articles aren’t about today’s buzz-y social media trends. They are meant to give you ideas and guidance for the fundamentals of social media marketing. And since MarketingSherpa has been reporting on the marketing industry for 25 years, some of these articles are older. But they should all help you grasp these key steps.
In the AI Guild, Flint McGlaughlin and Guild members themselves are constantly evaluating artificial intelligence tools and services to discover how they can be used by marketers and entrepreneurs. For example, in the below excerpt from a live, interactive AI Guild session, Flint shows how you can use a tool called Browse AI to get a competitive marketing advantage.
So when someone reached out with an AI tool and offered to implement it MarketingSherpa’s content, I figured – hey, let’s give it a go.
This person originally reached out to pitch a marketing case study in a MarketingSherpa article. While this output wouldn’t work as a case study, I figured it would make sense to share it right here. It’s like a demo, but you don’t have to sign up and become a lead and talk to a sales rep. 😊 I haven’t tried this before, but we’re always looking for new ways to bring value to our readers, so let’s see how it goes.
Wednesdays at 2 pm EDT we hold an AI Guild briefing. Chat with MECLABS AI if you would like to register to attend.
In the session, marketers and entrepreneurs can ask questions in the webinar chat. And we answer a few of them right here…
How do you determine when to use Claude vs MECLABS AI?
Claude is a generative AI chatbot that doesn’t have a specific purpose. Although from my personal use, it is very good with large amounts of text, more so than any other generative AI I’ve tried, lending it especially well to tasks like analyzing webinar chat logs, selecting quotes from transcripts, giving feedback on long articles, and similar tasks.
MECLABS AI (available to MECLABS AI Guild members) does have a specific purpose – headlines, value propositions, and other marketing, which makes it better for marketing specific tasks.
MECLABS is built on ChatGPT, but trained with the MECLABS methodology. Since Claude is a more general AI, it is trained on all marketing-related information, not only successful marketing practices.
How do you overcome the 2,000-character prompt limit on Bing AI?
Here’s a fun little trick. The 2,000-character prompt limit on Bing AI only applies to the ‘more balanced’ conversation style. If you choose the ‘more creative’ or ‘more precise’ conversation style, your prompt limit doubles to 4,000 characters.
Nice, but maybe still not enough for what you want. There are two options I can see.
One, you could use Claude. Again, Claude can consume some very long prompts.
However, on the downside, Claude is a self-contained chatbot and not connected to the internet like Bing. If you need internet connection, you could always treat Bing like a customer and take a Micro-Yes Sequence approach. Map out your information (like you would a customer journey) and spoon feed it along a path for each response.
Even that is not limitless though. I’ve seen data that show Bing has a limit of anywhere from five to 20 chat turns per session. I’m not sure the exact limit, but from my experience it varies based on the topic and length. And for what it’s worth, at some point Bing just acts like it is ‘just so over’ the string of conversation and wants to start a new one. I’m not sure if it’s a feature or a bug, but it reminds me of my teenage daughter.
When you go to Claude, is that automatically Claude 2?
Yes… and no.
When you go to the Claude website, you are automatically using Claude 2, which was released in July 2023. (And as I’ve mentioned before, the most exciting thing to me about Clause is the amount of information it can process. “Claude 2 has been trained to have a further expanded context window of 200K tokens, corresponding to roughly 150,000 words” according to Model Card and Evaluations for Claude Models).
Why you even have to ask this question, and what is interesting to me as a marketer – when you visit the Claude website, it doesn’t mention a model number. This is very different from ChatGPT, which clearly displays that you are using GPT-3.5 and even shows you the ability for a paid upgrade to GPT-4.
When I ask Claude itself the reason for this, it states, “The choice aligns with Anthropic’s overall philosophy of developing AI responsibly, with a focus on user benefits rather than technology marketing. But these are just my speculations on Anthropic’s possible motivations. The company may have other reasons as well.”
If this is the case, I think it’s a bit of company logic. While ChatGPT’s use of model numbers is a marketing tactic to try to show progress and encourage upsells (just like when I bought a Samsung S23 although I would have been totally fine with the S22), it’s also a little more transparent. And with the amount of hesitancy and outright fear around AI, a little transparency is a good thing.
Can you use custom instructions on the ChatGPT version that’s in Bing?
Upcoming tests are elected based on a prioritization spreadsheet.
While many testing teams may allocate importance to factors such as volume and bounce rates, VacationRoost’s spreadsheet is organized by which level in the funnel the page or test would impact.
“Really what you want [to ask] is, ‘What’s going to have the most dollar impact on the organization?'” Hutchings explained.
He added that the pages leading into the purchase funnel rise to the top of the testing docket because of the likelihood of increasing conversion for the whole site is far greater on those types of pages.
I used the suggested prompts to do the competitor analysis and as my website is new, it kept referring back to the content of a website that had a similar name, even when I provided my URL. Does anyone have any other suggestions on what I can do in my prompts?
Then you may have to do this a little manually, so to speak. And here is where Claude can come in handy, since it can accept such a long prompt.
Copy and paste key information from your website (like your homepage, maybe other key pages) along with competitors’ sites into individual text files and attach them to your Claude prompt using the paper clip icon, telling Claude what you are including.
In general, answers that we get from ChatGPT, are text rich. Is that something we use as a reference or work to absorb it?
Everyone has a different working preference. But remember, the great thing about generative AI is that you don’t have to settle for the first output. If it is too long for you, tell ChatGPT what length you are looking for. Here’s an example…
I used the Prompt Kit (available to MECLABS AI Guild members) marketing prompt for audience research, and got this output from ChatGPT:
Certainly, as a marketing professional, I recognize the transformative potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in the marketing field. Yet, there are still substantial challenges in implementing AI effectively. Here’s an analysis of three major challenges, their causes, impacts, and potential solutions.
Challenge: Data Privacy and Compliance
Why it Exists: AI relies heavily on data for personalization and targeting. The ever-changing regulations surrounding data privacy, such as GDPR and CCPA, create complexity.
Impact on My Life: Ensuring compliance with various regulations demands extensive legal oversight and continuous adaptation of AI algorithms, consuming both time and resources.
Potential Solutions: Implementing strict data governance policies and utilizing AI models that prioritize data anonymization can help. Collaborating with legal experts specializing in privacy law is also essential.
Challenge: Integrating AI with Existing Systems
Why it Exists: Many organizations have legacy systems that aren’t built to support modern AI algorithms, leading to compatibility issues.
Impact on My Life: Integrating AI into these systems can be labor-intensive, time-consuming, and may create bottlenecks in marketing processes.
Potential Solutions: An incremental approach to integration, supported by a cross-functional team including IT experts, could streamline the process. Adopting flexible AI models that can be adapted to varying systems might also ease the integration.
Challenge: Bias in AI Algorithms
Why it Exists: AI models are trained on historical data, and if that data contains biases (gender, racial, etc.), the model may perpetuate those biases.
Impact on My Life: Using biased AI models can lead to unethical targeting and representation in marketing, potentially damaging the brand’s reputation.
Potential Solutions: Regular audits of AI algorithms, involving diverse teams to understand and minimize biases, and utilizing fairness-aware algorithms can help overcome this issue.
Summary:
The integration of AI in marketing presents valuable opportunities but also notable challenges related to data privacy, system integration, and algorithm biases. By adopting robust legal compliance measures, embracing a cross-functional integration strategy, and rigorously auditing algorithms for bias, these challenges can be mitigated. This thoughtful approach to AI implementation aligns with the ethics and efficiency that today’s marketing professionals strive to uphold.
I then told ChatGPT, “What is the single most important thing I should know from your analysis?” To which it responded…
The single most important insight from the analysis is that while artificial intelligence presents immense opportunities for marketing, its responsible and effective implementation requires careful consideration of legal compliance, integration with existing systems, and the elimination of biases. The underlying theme is that success with AI in marketing demands a strategic approach that balances technological innovation with ethical considerations and compatibility with existing infrastructure.
Should we have already put the custom instructions into ChatGPT when we enter this prompt?
All else being equal, ChatGPT will serve you better with custom instructions because it will understand the context of your business and your customers.
But you can use any of the prompts in the Prompt Kit (available to MECLABS AI Guild members) without using custom instructions.
Would it be worth doing a few interviews with some of the people who have and haven’t purchased from our email sequence to understand the person behind the numbers?
Yes, I love that idea. That is a great example of increasing customer intimacy.
If you’re not able to go that far, you could send emails that people can reply to (in other words, not from a ‘no reply’ email address which some companies do) and make it clear in the email that replies are welcome.
Keep in mind, with this approach you will only hearing from the extremes, so take what they say with a grain of salt. But if something is truly outstanding or really horrible, you may hear about it. And you may also get a good understand of the words customer use to discuss your product or service.
For the pre-test success metric, is it important for this KPI to have large amounts of data? So for example if I wanted to use sales as my pre-test success metric but my volumes are not in thousands, is that a problem? Where is the biggest opportunity?
Which begs the question – “so how many samples (sales, clicks, etc.) do I need?”
There is no one specific answer. The answer will vary based on the conversion rate difference between the control and treatment. The pre-test planning tab of the Simplified Test Protocol (available to MECLABS AI Guild members) will help you calculate that number.
So as the questioner rightly points out, it is difficult to make a number deep in your funnel, like sales, the success metric…unless you get a whole lot of sales.
As for the biggest priority, I would refer you to the above question about ‘where to start?’ However, your answer will be constrained by where you have the budget to get a statistically significant result.
During AI Guild research briefings and LiveClasses, guild members ask questions using the Zoom chat feature. And we answer those questions right here…
Why Claude 2 vs ChatGPT? It’s important to pick a long-term tool to be able to teach it in depth. So looking to understand the pro’s / con’s.
I’ll challenge the idea of the need to pick a long-term tool (although we’ll get into that in the next question in this blog post).
The biggest difference I’ve seen between Claude and ChatGPT is that Claude can process much larger inputs than ChatGPT. You can even attach files when you message Claude.
This is a key differentiator if you want Claude to analyze a chat log, write a summary based on a transcript, or give you feedback on a long article.
ChatGPT gives you the ability to tune all of its responses to some extent using the custom instructions feature, although this is only available in the Plus subscription for $20 per month. The Plus subscription also gives you access to GPT-4.
The site explains the features as “Custom instructions let you share anything you’d like ChatGPT to consider in its response.” It is not available yet in the UK and EU or the free version of ChatGPT, which is currently using GPT-3.5, but there are plans to roll it out to all users soon, according to OpenAI’s website.
If you choose to upgrade to the Plus subscription, you can turn this feature on by clicking the three dots next to your email address in the lower left, going to the “Beta features” section and moving the slider next to “Custom instructions” to green. Then you will have access to two questions:
What would you like ChatGPT to know about you to provide better responses?
How would you like ChatGPT to respond?
You could, for example, include information about your ideal customer when answering these questions. If you would like ideas for how to get AI to build a customer persona, AI Guild members can go to the Briefing Notes for MEC200 [08-02-23], scroll down to the “Ken Ducey” group coaching and click the drop down carrot, and read the prompt under “Using GPT and the new Custom Instructions.”
Keep in mind both ChatGPT and Claude have a knowledge cutoff in 2021 (ChatGPT specifics September 2021 and Claude is less specific), so if more recent information is key to your prompts, you should consider AI connected to the internet, like Bing.
I also asked both Claude and ChatGPT about their pros and cons. Like any market leader might say about its challengers, ChatGPT ‘never heard of it.’ In fairness, this is probably literally true. As I mentioned, ChatGPT’s knowledge cutoff is currently September 2021, and Claude was first released in April 2022.
Claude said that ChatGPT has broader capabilities since it was trained on more data, but that Claude does a better job of staying on topic and remembering context from previous conversations. That has pretty much been my experience, and I have been using Claude more because of it. While ChatGPT can have some truly outstanding responses, it can also be wildly off base. I see that less with Claude but it does happen as well.
And in fairness, this has been a challenge with all generative AI tools. For example, a guild member mentioned in the chat that he had trouble with Bing giving fake info then getting upset.
If you’d like more insight about different AI tools, AI Guild members can go to Guild [07-26-23], scroll down to the Prompt School section, and read point #6 “Note the best uses for each of your primary AI platforms.”
Why do you say ‘no’ long-term use of AI tools? Just because of the rate of change?
Don’t build a house on sand.
Vendor lock in is a challenge with any industry, but the mass adoption of artificial intelligence is so new and moving so quickly that what is true today may already be dated in three weeks, let alone three months or three years.
For example, the ChatGPT feature I mention about for “custom instructions” is listed as a beta feature. And OpenAI states, “As a Plus user, enjoy early access to experimental new features, which may change during development” (my emphasis added).
Now there may be some artificial intelligence you have to lock into on some level. For example, MECLABS AI is built on ChatGPT, the best available option at the time we launched. You might train an AI chatbot and add it to your website or use AI for many different things like media buying. These choices will inherently necessitate placing a bet. But do everything you can to stay as fluid as possible and avoid vendor lock in.
However, when it comes to using generative AI chatbots, they are easily switchable (all you need to do is open a different tab in your browser). So keep your options open, stay curious, and keep playing.
Yes, you would need to teach a customer service or sales AI chatbot you put on your website in-depth information about your company. But I’m unaware of how much any generative AI LLM really learns from your interactions with it between sessions (other than the simple feature mentioned above in ChatGPT). So the downsides of brand loyalty may trump the upsides.
I want to mention another element of not thinking “long term” that goes beyond AI tool selection – designing your offer. Keep enough flexibility in your business model that you can bob and weave and pivot as technology changes. I’m not one to make predictions, but here’s a sure bet – things are going to get pretty interesting over the next few months and years.
To remix a Ferris Bueller quote, “AI moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss a really good business opportunity.”
Anyone have any ideas on how to use AI for lead gen? Specifically, analysis and recommendations to get in front of ideal prospects?
This question sets up the importance of AI prompts.
When I asked Bing AI this question for a wedding industry company with a very low-priced product, I got back some pretty rote answers. For example, “Share success secrets from thought leaders.” and “Create helpful videos to solve issues for prospects.” This is the type of basic advice you’d already find in an SEO-ed up blog post about lead gen.
But then I copied a bunch of reviews for this wedding industry company, pasted this into Claude, and gave it the prompt…
Analyze reviews. Who is the ideal customer for this company?
Claude gave me a series of attributes about the customer. Then I asked Claude…
How can I get in front of this ideal customer?
Some of the recommendations were pretty basic, like “Advertise on wedding planning websites and forums like TheKnot, WeddingWire, etc. Brides often turn to these sites when planning their wedding on a budget. You can sponsor content or run ads.”
But it also came up with this response as well, “Target ads in college towns, where many younger budget-conscious brides get married right after graduation.”
I thought that was a pretty good idea for a low-cost wedding service. An idea I hadn’t thought of when reading the question (although, in fairness, an entrepreneur who has worked in this field for several years might have already considered it).
To show how you can use multiple generative AI tools in tandem (in response to the two previous questions), I then pasted the ideal customer description from Claude into GPT-4 (remember, Claude is better at analyzing large amounts of information) along with the same prompt.
Again, most of the suggestions were pretty obvious to anyone with even a modicum of marketing experience. For example, “Optimize your website and blog content with keywords that this audience would likely use when searching for affordable wedding video solutions. Keywords could include phrases like ‘budget-friendly wedding video,’ ‘DIY wedding video,’ ‘guest-shot wedding video,’ and similar terms.”
So I pushed GPT-4 a little harder and said…
All these answers seem obvious to someone with marketing experience. Give me some truly breakthrough and out-of-the-box ideas.
It gave me seven more ideas, and I thought this one was something really unique that I hadn’t thought of: “Video Capsule Partnerships: Collaborate with a tech company that offers ‘time capsule’ services, where users can send messages (including videos) to their future selves. Couples could use the company to capture their wedding and then ‘send’ the video to be viewed on a future anniversary.”
This won’t generate instant leads, but it would give the company a reason to followup with happy customers down the road, at which point they could offer a referral bonus.
So I got two original ideas after only spending a few minutes with some AI tools. Not a bad ROI. If I really engaged deeply for an hour or more, if I was the entrepreneur and it was my business, I probably would have gotten much more from the generative AI tools.
The biggest point is – AI can feel like magic. And it is in a sense, but not the way we normally talk about magic as waving a wand and getting an instant, amazing result.
Magic in the real world is a carefully crafted illusion, powered by hard work and a keen methodology. And AI is no different.
You can’t just ask a general question and get an amazing result, usually. But feeding AI tools info about your ideal customer and the design of your offer will produce better results, especially for something as difficult as finding a new way to get in front of your customer.
Check out Marketing Funnel Optimization: A straight-forward guide to design your offer if you are unfamiliar with offer design. And if you’re an AI Guild member, you can go to the briefing notes for this week’s session at MEC200 [08-02-23] to see how Flint McGlaughlin used artificial intelligence to build customer profiles. Just scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the names of people we conducted group coaching for in this week’s LiveClass.
Every Wednesday, we hold a free Marketing LiveClass as part of ChatGPT, CRO and AI: 40 Days to build a MECLABS SuperFunnel. Everyone is welcome to join and learn, as we build marketing funnels with members of the MECLABS SuperFunnel Research Cohort.
In the LiveClass, marketers and entrepreneurs can ask questions in the webinar chat. And we answer them right here…
Hi Dan, I’m trying a new angle on copywriting for one of my products. If you have time to give feedback, I would really appreciate your wisdom. I also know you’re super busy, so no pressure. I also know you’re the master of copywriting, so your guidance is invaluable. Thanks for all your wisdom. I’ll load it into Notion later today. Here’s the link: [anonymized]
Here’s the CFO: To help motivated volunteers in the church boost their ministry effectiveness and gain spiritual confidence by giving them 4 theology/ministry courses (“Advanced Bootcamp”) in exchange for a cash payment and a significant investment of time.
Thanks for the vote of confidence. Let’s see if I can help.
First, let’s define copywriting. I define copywriting as ‘Helping the customer come to the best decision about a brand, product or conversion goal.’ (from Marketing 101: Copywriting vs. copy editing vs. content writing). And this person had taken a step in that direction, starting with a CFO (customer-first objective).
I don’t think it would be practical or fair to paste their entire page in here, but I also don’t want you to focus too much on what his copy says, but rather understand the principles of how you can optimize your own copy.
I also cannot definitively say whether the copywriting will be successful or not, because I am not the landing page’s ideal customer. But I think I can best help this person (and you) by calling out how the different levels of value proposition should appear on a landing page.
The landing page should primarily focus on one of the levels of value proposition. But for most landing pages (and certainly this landing page) all four levels should be present, usually with the other three levels supporting the main one you are focused on. (If you are unfamiliar with value proposition levels, you can read Customer Value: The 4 essential levels of value propositions).
So let’s look at those levels:
Product-level value proposition
This page is focused on the Advanced Bootcamp, which consists of the courses. The page clearly informs people what they are getting (“4 precisely selected courses”), has a section for each course that explains what it will enable the participant to achieve, discusses the elements of the course (video lecture, downloadable charts, etc.).
You’re probably doing this pretty well on your product-focused pages as well, so I won’t dwell here. You likely understand the basics of communicating what is involved with your product.
Prospect-level value proposition
According to the customer-first objective stated above, the prospect this page is focusing on is “motivated volunteers in the church.”
However, the tone of the copy is not what I would expect for that audience. “You’re a happy little Christian gerbil,” “It’s too hard. You don’t have enough time. Your brain will hurt. It costs too much. You’ll want your mommy,” “Fix Your Boring, Lame, Mediocre Spiritual Life.”
Again, I am not the ideal customer, but my best guess is this copy will turn off more of the ideal prospect than it will attract.
Remember, it’s not just what you say with your copy. But how you say it.
So one of two things has to happen. Either the Customer-First Objective has to change with a clear definition of exactly what subset of those motivated volunteers the copy will attract.
Or the copy needs to change so the tone speaks to the desired prospect.
If your prospect stays the same, what is the resulting experience of the tone of language like “G-d, , Jesus, Church, blah, blah, blah?” Does this emphasize the importance and relevance of spirituality in the ideal customer’s life? Would replacing phrases like “treadmill” and “happy little Christian gerbil trotting endlessly nowhere” with more positive and empowering language better speak to the ideal customer?
In the case of this page, I suspect much of this is intentional and the result of some deep thought. As the questioner mentioned, he is “trying a new angle.” But I would argue this is much more than a new angle. This is changing your ideal prospect. And so it is worth the time to change the Customer-First Objective, and force yourself to first clearly define who exactly the prospect is that you are trying to serve with this copy.
With that exercise, a few things may happen:
It may help you better target your ads
You may realize there is not a big enough total addressable market
You may identify new ways to reach that audience
You may find new avenues for messaging
I’ll give you an example. Right now, the product is called an Advanced Bootcamp. And the primary visual is a big black boot. However, that title and that visual connote to me the military. And the military is known more as a group that can strictly follow a rigorous process without dissent.
But the way the copy is written, I would define the ideal prospect as “demotivated Christians who haven’t found the right church to volunteer for, have a deep soulful connection to the faith but feel disconnected, cast out, and overlooked by church doctrine and/or communities.”
Now this might connote a different name for the product. How about the Faith Rebellion Experience. SoulFire Quest. Spiritual Reboot. I’m not sure any of these are the right names. But having a clearer definition of the prospect, we can better tailor the name – a key element of the copywriting – to connote that this is a product that is for people like them.
Process-level value proposition
The CTA buttons have a similar tone. “Let’s Kick the Devil in the Teeth. Clicking can be hazardous to your apathy.” “Get Off the Couch and Into the Battle. CAUTION: Clicking Here Will Wreck Your Excuses.”
These are evocative.
What they aren’t is clear.
You may get a curiosity click. But the challenge is, the next page is not something that would pay off clickbait. It’s a cart page (with supporting value in the right-hand side) that has a form for credit card info and a purchase.
It also has a line that says, “You have a free 24-hour inspection period. After that, your card will be charged.” So maybe you could change the CTA to “Get Free Preview” and change “inspection” on the cart to “preview.”
A few other thoughts to help this particular questioner as well as other readers:
The buttons don’t look like buttons. Make sure your buttons look like something that can be clicked on. Compounding this problem, they have really long CTAs. For example, the first CTA is 15 words long. I was a little confused on where I can click. These looked like pull-quote boxes to me.
Above one of the CTAs, we see four markdowns on the price from $16,500 to $387. This strains credulity. If the markdown is really this big, it needs a pretty compelling explanation for why. Otherwise, this will feel like a hype-y sale, not like help. Nobody wants to be sold, they want to be helped (look back to the definition of copywriting at the beginning of this blog post). Especially for an educational and faith-based product like this, trust and the feeling of not being sold to are essential.
Is this even the right process-level value proposition? If you were selling socks or cameras, a process-level value prop focused on adding to cart and putting in a credit card number might make sense. But this is an online course. You do give a free 24-hour “inspection period.” But could you give the first full session for free? You have a full page of hype-y copy explaining how this is going to shift my paradigm, so let me actually see it!
As Anton Chekhov said, “Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.” The best copywriting shows, it doesn’t tell. And the best way to show the value is not with sales copy, but by giving them a taste of the actual experience (when possible).
Primary value proposition
What organization is standing behind this product? Why should I believe they will deliver on all these promises?
Especially in this case when the task is so big – to challenge one’s approach to their religion.
There are typical, good evidentials on this page – “40+ years, written over 27 books.” (written over 27 books? So… is that 28 books?)
But is there enough primary value prop there to get someone to act? If you are challenging their approach to their faith, shouldn’t we know more about why you are uniquely qualified to do this? Why the ideal customer should trust you?
This is a deep, and difficult, question to answer. And it will take more than simple evidentials. Frankly if you can crack that, you will likely unlock many insights that will help your organization better communicate its value to potential customers.
In addition, the footer of the page has no email address, phone number, physical mailing address, links to social media accounts, nothing that would help me build trust in the organization behind this offering and let me know it isn’t some sort of scam.
I appreciate today’s clarity, so let me expand a bit because I feel you’ll be able to provide a bit more depth on it. I also provided a super quick overview of exactly what they get out of the offer (60-minute consult). The rest is mainly a discussion on what I asked at the very end with my own struggles in intelligence, competency and meshing it all with AI.
This SuperFunnel cohort member is using some of the thought tools included as part of the program to help discover the most effective value proposition for his offer. By interviewing customers and reviewing competitors, he uncovered some elements of value he didn’t realize when he came up with the value proposition on his own, using his gut.
Getting this outside perspective can help us challenge our own assumptions and unlock value that truly matters to the ideal customer when communicated on our websites.
You can do this by interviewing potential customers. But also, what feedback are you already collecting in your organization and how can you systematize it? How can that better inform your primary value prop, but every level of value prop as well…including the process-level value proposition of your website’s usability. Here’s a quick example – “In our customer service group, we found that 50% of their calls at times were based on ‘I can’t find my order status,’” said Matt Clark, Global Head of eCommerce and Digital Marketing, Newark Element14 (from Customer-centric Marketing: How market research and listening to customers informs website optimization).
But when you get this outside research and go through this corporate soul searching, you end up with… a lot. And then when you add AI to the mix to help with competitive analysis, you have a lot more to work with.
At this point in the process the element of the value prop we need to focus on is clarity. We need to winnow, pare down, simplify, condense. There shouldn’t be one unnecessary or unclear word in our offer value proposition statement. As Antoine de Saint-Exupéry said, “Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”
And this is the struggle facing this particular cohort member. He’s doing some smart and impressive stuff. And in his Customer-First Objective, he discusses what the customer can get out of the offer, but he doesn’t carry that through to his offer value proposition. For this reason, I question if his value prop is clear enough. For example, “streamlines processes through augmented intelligence systems.”
While the value prop isn’t the direct language in your marketing, I worry language like that isn’t the sharpened tip of the spear this business owner needs to clarify his marketing. What does that stuff do for the customer?
He opens the value prop by talking about “increases profits and reduces expenses.” But does that really clarify anything? Really, what B2B product or service doesn’t help a business owner increase profits or reduce expenses?
However, he knows how to winnow, simplify, and clarify for his customers. His main deliverable takes a lot of different data and puts it into a simple dashboard (it’s so much harder to simplify communication about our own work).
So how could he answer the offer value proposition question, “If I am your ideal customer, why should I act on your offer rather than offers from any of your competitors?”
That deliverable may be the tangible piece he leads with. “Because [ideal customer described] will get a dashboard that simplifies complex data needed to make key business decisions that affect costs and profitability. This dashboard is the only [ideal customer] tool powered by [a very high-level explanation of the business process here, supported underneath by evidentials]…”
This isn’t exactly right, of course. And may be way off. But it’s an example of how we can add the tangible to our value props and clarify the value the customer will receive…which is especially difficult for a complex offering.
Should the OVP include specific evidentials?
Yes, your offer value proposition should include specific evidentials. Credibility is one of the elements of a forceful value proposition. Every claim you make should be verified. Or else, why would your ideal customer believe it?
That said, to keep the value prop clear and simple (as discussed above) the best way to use evidentials is with footnotes. Put a superscript number by each claim that needs to be verified in your value prop, and then include that number below the value prop with the evidentials supporting it.
Question for Daniel’s next article: What role does SEO play in our current climate? We’re talking about paid ads… is that the best way forward? Thanks.
I’m sure by now you can see I love quotes. A great way to learn from the wisdom of the ages. So let me remixed Robert Frost who said, “The best way out is always through” to tell you that “the best way forward is always through…the customer’s eyes.”
Because the customer should be your focus. Yes, the current macro-climate is important. But the most important climate is the micro-climate. How do they want to receive information? Where do they look for answers to meet the pain point you are addressing or goal you are trying to help them achieve?
And don’t just put yourself in an SEO-or-paid-digital-ads box. Consider every conceivable option.
So the real answer isn’t the current climate. The real answer is hammering out a go-to-market model for your business. For ideas on that, you can listen to Episode #58 of How I Made It In Marketing. Shruti Joshi, COO, Facet, describes her GTM approach at Verizon and at her current organization (listen to Marketing Operations: Process is the foundation for success).
You are welcome to join us on Wednesdays at 4 p.m. EDT to watch and learn from a Marketing LiveClass. You can RSVP now by clicking this link. Here are excerpts from recent LiveClasses to give you an idea of what you can experience…
Be Passionate about the Marketing Challenge You Are Trying to Solve
Chris Berkenkamp Talks about the Most Important Things He Learned from the MECLABS Cohort
Infographic: How to Create a Model of Your Customer’s Mind
You need a repeatable methodology focused on building your organization’s customer wisdom throughout your campaigns and websites. This infographic can get you started.