Decoding Generative AI: Building a Basic Strategy for Your Marketing Organization
As technology-savvy business professionals, we are always looking for new ways to improve our work and stay ahead of the curve. One emerging technology that has been gaining attention is Artificial Intelligence (AI). I recently had a conversation with my friends about the impact of AI on the new year, and they were surprised to hear that I was one of the few professionals in their network who had a positive view of AI and had already started using it in my work.
My friends were curious about how to bring such a disruptive tool into an organization, so I decided to write this article for them and for anyone looking to be a champion for AI at work. In this article, I will help you better understand how AI can benefit your team, how to build a basic AI strategy, and how to bring generative AI into your organization.
Before we begin, it's important to note what this article is not. It is not a risk assessment analysis, legal advice on navigating risk, or a list of the best AI tools (as they are constantly changing). There are other resources available for those topics, such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology AI risk management framework.
Now, let's dive into building a basic AI strategy for your marketing organization.
Step 1: Identify the Opportunity and Objective
The first step in building an AI strategy is to identify which marketing tasks could benefit from the use of AI tools. This could include content creation, data analysis, customer engagement, and campaign optimization. To get started, I recommend brainstorming all the tasks your team currently handles and then reviewing my previous articles in the Decoding AI for Marketing series for more ideas on how to use AI.
For additional inspiration, I have also created a blog post and infographic that lists seven marketing categories and the specific tasks within each one that can benefit from AI.
Step 2: Identify Your Target Users
Once you have identified the tasks and objectives for your AI strategy, the next step is to determine which roles within your organization will have access to AI tools. Depending on the size of your company, you may have hundreds or even thousands of individuals within the marketing department with different tasks and responsibilities. To start, I recommend selecting a small group focused on one specific area to pilot the use of AI. This will help ensure a successful implementation without overwhelming your team.
For smaller organizations, it may be easier to identify key contributors responsible for multiple tasks who are willing to evaluate new tools. You may also want to conduct a skill gap analysis to determine where training or hiring may be necessary.
Step 3: Define KPIs
The next step is to determine how you will measure the success of your AI tools in achieving your objectives. These KPIs will vary depending on the tasks you identified in step 1 and could include increased productivity, creativity, quality of work, and customer engagement. It's important for all stakeholders to align on which measurements will determine the effectiveness of AI-powered outcomes.
Step 4: Determine Budget and Human Resources
It's essential to determine the budget, time, and human resources required for your AI implementation. This includes software costs, training expenses, and potential hiring. I recommend starting with a small pilot to prove the ROI of a small initial investment, and then scaling more broadly across the organization.
To help with this planning process, I have created an AI Strategy Worksheet that you can use as a collaboration tool with your team. I also recommend using a tool like Miro, an interactive whiteboard, for remote teams to ideate together and easily save everyone's input.
Next Steps
Now that you have a basic AI strategy in place, it's time to take the next steps. Stay tuned for future articles in the Decoding AI series that will dive deeper into topics such as tool selection, training and adoption, and measuring outcomes. I also offer free resources, such as my XR/AI Marketing Brief and the AI Marketing Revolution Challenge Video Series, to help you stay up to date with the latest in AI and marketing.
I would also love to connect with you on LinkedIn and invite you to join my live XR Pub Crawl for Marketing on January 19 at noon PT. Happy new year and happy decoding!
Originally reported by Martech: https://martech.org/decoding-generative-ai-how-to-build-a-basic-genai-strategy-for-your-marketing-organization/
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