Why Your Business Needs a Living, Breathing Partner in Brand and Marketing - Not Another Ai Tool
4 Minute Read
Give it a break, Ai
There’s no shortage of blogs and resources pointing you to the next trendy Ai tool. There’s a bot to run practically every aspect of your business, but where’s the joy in that? While we recognize the appeal - fast, easy - we’re rooted in a more meaningful way of work. A real, authentic, human approach.
It’s natural for ambitious entrepreneurs to look towards Ai to help generate marketing content and create operational efficiencies in their business. And as they should - Ai and its marketing tools - like ChatGPT - are no-doubt impressive. By pulling the vast web’s database of content, they’re able to generate seemingly perfect pieces of content like blogs, articles or social posts in a few seconds. Voila! Dozens of content-creation hours saved, right?
We get it, but while these tools are no doubt helpful, they will never replace the robust value of a living, breathing partner and subject matter expert. Unfortunately, Ai isn’t invested in the best interest of your hard-earned small business, your long-term ambitions, and the personal livelihood that it is.
In this blog post, we explore why small businesses are better off prioritizing and investing in human intelligence, and lived experiences, over Ai tools in their marketing, brand and creative efforts.
Emotional Intelligence
”Emotional intelligence is a way of recognizing, understanding, and choosing how we think, feel, and act. It shapes our interactions with others and our understanding of ourselves. It defines how and what we learn; it allows us to set priorities; it determines the majority of our daily actions. Research suggests it is responsible for as much as 80 percent of the "success" in our lives.” -J. Freedman
The essence of branding and effective marketing is connection. And no Ai tool can replicate the capacity of a unique beings’ emotional intelligence, garnered from individual, lived moments, to create delightful experiences that effectively connect. This is the most significant and reliable advantage over Ai, but keep reading.
Connecting with diverse groups of audiences requires a deep understanding of human emotions and behavior. AI tools can analyze data and patterns, but they cannot understand the intricacies of human emotions. Only the emotional intelligence of humans can effectively craft messages and experiences that truly resonate with customers. And not just any customers - your ideal, loyal, returning customers (and prospectives).
Business Acumen
Ai’s knowledge is based on today and its limited information on available, published market forecasts. It has no lived business experiences and no unique industry acumen. Ai offers no exceptional knowledge or expertise garnered only through years of experience, growth and relationships with business stakeholders.
The best human marketers and brand experts have a strong business acumen that drives all of their recommendations and the corresponding positive outcomes for your business. For maximum impact in your business, draw on the experiences of marketing and brand partners in your network. Like you seek a tax expert each spring, and a legal expert to review your website T&C’s, a partner in brand and marketing you can consult for personalized, experience-driven best practices and advice is best.
You can’t confidently rely on Ai when you have a PR crisis or need advice navigating your brand’s stance on public sentiments. The sooner you establish and build a relationship with your brand expert, the better they’ll come to know and serve your business over time.
Imperfect Foundation
AI-based content isn't perfect in a couple obvious ways -
Bias - AI algorithms are designed based on the data that they are trained on. If the data used to train an AI algorithm is biased (and there's plenty of biased content out there), the algorithm will also be biased. This can lead to discriminatory marketing campaigns and content that targets unfairly.
Overreliance on data: AI algorithms are designed to analyze large amounts of data which can lead to an overreliance on data as a whole. Successful marketing and brand campaigns aren't data-based, they're uniquely engaging through strategic storytelling and emotion. Telling facts and data only won't help you balance consumer preference for realness and authenticity.
Legally Confusing
One of the biggest challenges with AI is the lack of transparency in how it makes decisions. This can make it difficult to understand why certain decisions are made or where content is pulled from, which can lead to errors in campaign planning and execution.
AI-generated content is also not your intellectual property.. it's, Ai's? We recommend consulting a legal expert here.
Lacking Reliability In Relationships
Ai lacks human oversight. A heavy reliance on it diminishes decision clarity and entrepreneurial confidence in the long-term. Reliable, trusted business partners, and your own entrepreneurial intuition focused on serving your business vision today and tomorrow will deliver the most compounding value.
Conclusion
While AI tools can be helpful in some areas of marketing, they cannot replace the importance of having a living, breathing partner in brand and marketing. Human marketers and brand experts bring emotional intelligence, creativity, flexibility, and relationship-building skills that AI simply cannot replicate. For more effective marketing and brand that resonates, prioritize a long-term relationship with a trusted brand expert.