“Assume AI does everything..." In this episode of the FutureCraft Marketing podcast, hosts Ken Roden and Erin Mills discuss prompt refinement with ChatGPT and Claude and how AI can be used for personal health goals. Special guest Matt Hines shares his expertise on leveraging AI for personalization, customer journey mapping, and segmentation. The conversation explores strategic planning, innovation, and the future of AI-driven marketing, highlighting practical tips and ethical considerations. The episode wraps up with a review of Chat Hub GG, a tool for comparing different AI models, and concludes with a call to action for listeners to engage with the podcast community.

00:55 Ken's AI Prompt Enhancements

06:05 Matt Heinz on AI and Job Market Shifts

07:55 AI in B2B Marketing Strategies

11:07 Hyper-Personalization in B2B

14:23 AI's Role in Customer Journey and Decision Making

17:44 The Infinite Loop in Customer Journey

22:20 AI's Role in Content Creation

22:52 Top AI Use Cases in Marketing

24:47 AI for Market Positioning

26:29 Customer Journey and AI

27:45 Personalization and Omni-Channel Experience

29:26 AI in Segmentation and Targeting

34:03 Quickfire AI Tips and Tricks

Key Takeaways:

• Strategic AI Use Cases: AI can be effectively used for research, synthesis, and understanding market opportunities, which helps create hyper-personalized customer experiences.
• AI in Customer Journeys: AI can significantly enhance mapping out customer journeys, understanding their needs, and identifying potential churn points, leading to better customer retention and engagement.
• Competitive Differentiation: Employing AI to analyze competitors and identify market gaps can provide a competitive edge, allowing for more strategic positioning.
• Job Transformation: AI replaces mundane tasks, enabling marketers to focus on strategic initiatives rather than routine operations.
• Segmentation and Targeting: AI can help marketers better understand their segments and prioritize their target audiences, leading to more efficient and effective marketing campaigns.

About our Guest:

Matt Heinz is a nationally recognized, award-winning blogger and the president and founder of Heinz Marketing. With over 15 years of experience in marketing and business development, Matt has worked with various organizations, including Amazon, Seagate, Morgan Stanley, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Known for creating predictable, repeatable sales and marketing engines that fuel growth, Matt is a dynamic speaker and leader of the well-regarded CMO Coffee Chat group.

Notable Quotes:

• "Assume AI can do everything, and you'll be surprised at how much it can, which you've been doing manually and inefficiently." - Matt Heinz
• "AI can be a proxy for getting closer to your customer today." - Matt Heinz
• "Think of AI as a really smart intern that can do a bunch of the dirty work for you." - Matt Heinz
• "Assume you won't keep up with all of the AI news. Just find a couple of people that align with your worldview and follow them." - Matt Heinz
• "The ability to create a model of your ideal customer and ask it questions enables more personalized and relevant customer engagement." - Matt Heinz

Resources:

• Connect with Matt on LinkedIn
• Heinz Marketing

Stay tuned for more insightful episodes from the Futurecraft Marketing podcast, where we continue to explore the evolving intersection of AI and marketing. Take advantage of the full episode for in-depth discussions and much more!

To listen to the full episode and stay updated on future episodes, visit the FutureCraft Marketing Podcast website.

Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be considered advice. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are our own and do not represent those of any company or business we currently work for/with or have worked for/with in the past.

Music: Far Away - MK2

In this week’s episode of the Futurecraft Marketing podcast, hosts Ken Roden and Erin Mills interview guest Lara Shackelford, a prominent AI strategist and thought leader, about moving beyond use case frenzy and getting strategic with AI-first and focused strategies. Throughout the discussion, they explore the nuances of implementing AI in marketing beyond basic use cases.

00:00 Introduction and Podcast Disclaimer

00:27 Meet Your Hosts: Ken and Erin

00:52 Exploring AI in Marketing

03:14 Guest Introduction: Lara Shackelford

03:42 Diving into AI Strategies with Lara

07:54 The Future of AI in Marketing

16:29 Frameworks for AI Integration

22:39 Creating Effective Focus Groups with AI

23:26 Hyper-Personalization in Customer Experience

24:18 Challenges and Innovations in Telecom Marketing

28:16 Global Economic Trends and AI Strategies

30:52 The Future of Work: Project-Based Engagements

35:01 Measuring ROI in AI-Driven Marketing

41:44 Practical AI Tips and Tools for Marketers

46:21 Reviewing Canva's AI-Powered Features

48:52 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

• AI Integration Strategy: Lara Shackelford emphasizes the significance of AI literacy across all organizational levels and the dual exploratory and exploitative approach to integrating AI in business processes.
• Customer Experience: Hyper-personalization through AI-driven contextual marketing can significantly enhance customer experience, moving beyond ‘creepy’ personalization to more welcomed and relevant interactions.
• AI-First vs. AI-Enabled: The nuanced differences between AI-first and AI-enabled go-to-market strategies and their implications for crafting robust marketing plans are the subject of a pivotal discussion.
• Dynamic Project-Based Work: The potential shift towards project-based engagements and dynamic work structures facilitated by AI could redefine traditional employer-employee relationships, offering more flexibility and efficiency.
• Future AI Trends: Lara forecasts further advancements in real-time, dynamically adjusting marketing messages and the pivotal role of sophisticated data utilizalization

Lara Shackelford is an influential thought leader and executive in AI and marketing. Currently heading Fieri AI, a company that emphasizes building trust between businesses and customers through AI, Lara has a diverse professional background with roles at major tech companies such as Intel, Oracle, and Microsoft. She has also contributed significantly to startups like Datastax and Looker. Recognized as a LinkedIn top voice in AI, Lara strongly advocates diversity in tech and has been lauded for her innovative approach to integrating AI into marketing strategies to boost customer satisfaction and operational excellence.

• “One of the biggest parts is focus groups. We spent a couple hundred thousand dollars on focus groups that took months... In the end, GenAI comes out and I just posed the question... and it gave me back the term we chose.” - Lara Shackelford
• “We can be more responsive to markets today and look at things like dynamic pricing and offers... AI can feed into our sales process, our proposal creation, and more.” - Lara Shackelford
• “If you can change and adjust your message in real-time, and that can then dynamically change the message on your website... marketing is going to get the real lift.” - Lara Shackelford
• “Companies are demonstrating already... with layoffs showing an emerging gig economy where scaling up and down is becoming normalized.” - Lara Shackelford

• LinkedIn - Lara Shackelford
• Fieri AI Website
• Paul Roetzer
• Ethan Mollick

Stay tuned for more insightful episodes from the Futurecraft Marketing podcast, where we continue to explore the evolving intersection of AI and marketing. Take advantage of the full episode for in-depth discussions and much more!

To listen to the full episode and stay updated on future episodes, visit the FutureCraft Marketing Podcast website.

Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be considered advice. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are our own and do not represent those of any company or business we currently work for/with or have worked for/with in the past.

Music: Far Away - MK2

Episode Summary:

Hosts Ken Roden and Erin Mills interview Andy Crestodina, co-founder and CMO of Orbit Media. They discuss the impact of AI on search and SEO, the future of AI in marketing, and how marketers can leverage AI tools to improve their content strategy. Andy shares insights on using AI for on-page optimization, link building, and gaining deeper insights from analytics data. He emphasizes the importance of maintaining a human touch in content creation and offers tips for validating and improving AI-generated content. The conversation also explores the potential of AI in sales enablement and the challenges of keeping up with AI advancements in marketing.

• AI is disrupting the search experience with the rise of search generative experiences (SGEs) and the potential decline in traditional search usage.
• While AI can be useful for generating content ideas and optimizing on-page elements, marketers must add their expertise and personal touch to create memorable and impactful content.
• Marketers should focus on creating a strong digital footprint and getting their brand mentioned on various online platforms. AI may prioritize mentions with elevator pitches over high-domain authority links.
• AI can identify gaps in content and persona-based messaging, helping marketers create more targeted and relevant content.

Andy Crestodina: Co-founder and CMO of Orbit Media, a digital agency specializing in web design and development. With 24 years of experience, Andy is an expert in SEO, content marketing, and conversion optimization. He is the author of "Content Chemistry: The Illustrated Handbook for Content Marketing."

• "AI is just another input. It's just another point of view. You can take it or leave it and move on." - Andy Crestodina
• "Be a person. Draw a line in the sand, plant a flag, have a point of view. Try that. You will sound different." - Andy Crestodina

• Orbit Media
• Digital Marketing Tips Newsletter
• Content Chemistry: The Illustrated Handbook for Content Marketing

Thank you for listening to the Future Craft Marketing Podcast. Please subscribe and give us a review if you enjoyed today’s content.

Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be considered advice. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are our own and do not represent those of any company or business we currently work for/with or have worked for/with in the past.

Music: Far Away - MK2