{"id":264474,"date":"2025-05-30T23:37:26","date_gmt":"2025-05-30T23:37:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/business\/marketing\/the-ai-growth-engine-accelerating-your-marketing-results\/"},"modified":"2025-05-30T23:37:26","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T23:37:26","slug":"the-ai-growth-engine-accelerating-your-marketing-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=264474","title":{"rendered":"The AI Growth Engine: Accelerating Your Marketing Results"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Imagine having a marketing superpower that could analyze mountains of data, predict consumer behavior, and optimize your campaigns faster than you can say \u201cAI.\u201d Well, guess what? That power exists, and it\u2019s revolutionizing the way we drive growth in marketing.<\/p>\n

You see, in today\u2019s hyper-competitive landscape, traditional marketing methods are about as effective as using a flip phone to browse TikTok <\/g><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. But there\u2019s a game-changing technology that\u2019s transforming marketing<\/a> from a guessing game into a precise science. It\u2019s like having a crystal ball, but one that actually works.<\/p>\n

Now, you might be thinking, \u201cGreat, another tech buzzword to add to my marketing bingo card.\u201d But hold onto your hats, because AI in marketing isn\u2019t just hype \u2013 it\u2019s the hyperdrive for your growth strategies.<\/p>\n

And who better to be our Jedi Master in this AI-powered marketing galaxy than the incredible Cathy McPhillips?<\/p>\n

AI in Marketing: Unpacked<\/svg><\/span><\/a> host Mike Allton asked Cathy McPhillips about:<\/p>\n

\u2728 AI-Powered Precision<\/strong>: Enhancing targeting and personalization.<\/p>\n

\u2728 Data-Driven Decisions<\/strong>: Leveraging AI for strategic insights.<\/p>\n

\u2728 Scalable Growth Strategies<\/strong>: Automating and optimizing marketing efforts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Learn more about Cathy McPhillips<\/strong><\/p>\n

Resources & Brands mentioned in this episode<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"The\"The<\/figure>\n

Full Transcript<\/h2>\n

(lightly edited)<\/em><\/p>\n

The AI Growth Engine: Accelerating Your Marketing Results with Cathy McPhillips<\/h3>\n

[00:00:00] Cathy McPhillips:<\/strong> I\u2019ve spent the past three and a half years as part of the team and it shifted the way that I\u2019m doing my marketing. So when I tell folks like, how do I get started? How do you keep up on all of this? I actually leave it to Paul and Mike to tell me what I should be paying attention to. My day usually involves with getting into our Slack community for about 25 to 30 minutes a day, listening to the podcast once a week, going on LinkedIn, and then I can go to work.<\/p>\n

You know, I don\u2019t, I\u2019m not an AI expert. I\u2019m probably a little bit indexing a little higher than your average marketer just because of the business<\/a> that I work for. I\u2019m trying to find ways to use AI to help me do my job better. I\u2019m not trying to be an AI expert. And I think we as marketing leaders just need to remember that we still have a job to do and using AI to help us improve is really our end goal.<\/p>\n

[00:00:44] Mike Allton:<\/strong> Welcome to AI in Marketing: Unpacked, where we simplify AI for impactful marketing. I\u2019m your host, Mike Allton here to guide you through the world of artificial intelligence and its transformative impact on marketing strategies<\/a>. Each episode, we\u2019ll break down AI concepts into manageable insights and explore practical applications that can supercharge your marketing<\/a> efforts.<\/p>\n

Whether you\u2019re an experienced marketer just starting to explore the potential of AI, this podcast will equip you with the knowledge and tools you need to succeed. So tune in and let\u2019s unlock the power of AI together.<\/p>\n

Greetings program. Welcome back to AI in Marketing: Unpacked where I selfishly use this time to pick the brains of experts at keeping up with and integrating or layering artificial intelligence into social media<\/a>, content, advertising, search, and other areas of digital marketing. And you get to learn to subscribe to be shown on prepare yourself and your brand for this AI revolution and come on ahead.<\/p>\n

Now imagine having a marketing superpower that can analyze mountains of data, predict consumer behavior, and optimize your campaigns faster than you can say AI. Well, guess what? That power exists and it\u2019s revolutionizing the way that we drive growth and marketing<\/a>. You see, in today\u2019s hyper competitive landscape, traditional marketing methods are about as effective as using a flip phone browse TikTok, but there\u2019s a game changing technology. That\u2019s transforming marketing from a guessing game into a precise science. It\u2019s like having a crystal ball, but one that actually works. You might be thinking great. Another tech buzzword added by marketing bingo card, but hold on to your hats because AI and marketing isn\u2019t just hype.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the hyperdrive for your growth strategies. And who better to be our Jedi master in this AI powered marketing galaxy than the incredible Cathy McPhillips. Folks buckle up because Cathy isn\u2019t just any marketing expert. She\u2019s the Chief Growth Officer at the Marketing AI institute. And she\u2019s here to blow your mind.<\/p>\n

This powerhouse has been recognized as one of the 50 women in AI<\/a> and a woman to watch in analytics. She\u2019s like the Obi Wan Kenobi of AI marketing, but with better hair and a killer sense of humor. Cathy\u2019s not just talking the talk. She\u2019s walking the walk. Leading growth efforts for the AI Academy for Marketers and helping countless professionals harness the power of AI to achieve marketing results that are out of this world today, Cathy\u2019s going to pull back the curtain on the AI growth engine and show us how it\u2019s turbocharging marketing results across the globe.<\/p>\n

Galaxy. I mean, industries, get ready to discover how you can leverage AI to not just reach for the stars, but actually grab them. So you\u2019re ready to accelerate your marketing results to light speed. Let\u2019s dive in with the amazing Cathy McPhillips. Hey, Cathy, welcome to the show.<\/p>\n

[00:03:20] Cathy McPhillips:<\/strong> Oh my gosh. I\u2019m going to follow, have you follow me around and introduce me wherever I go.<\/p>\n

That was,<\/p>\n

[00:03:26] Mike Allton:<\/strong> I will be your official hype queen anywhere you want. Happy to do that. Could you start though, by just explaining what you think AI growth engine means, what does that mean to you? And, and how does that apply to the context of marketing?<\/p>\n

[00:03:42] Cathy McPhillips:<\/strong> Yeah. I mean, I think if you just break down those words, it\u2019s just very, it represents like the integration of AI technologies into marketing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So it\u2019s enhancing efficiencies. It\u2019s driving innovation. It\u2019s achieving measurable results. It\u2019s doing all the things that we are doing already. Just helping us do it better, faster, more efficiently, quicker, cheaper. Yeah. And in many cases, just better. So it\u2019s taking all of our superpowers as marketers and helping us grow our businesses with the uses of all these technologies that are just improving with every single day.<\/p>\n

[00:04:11] Mike Allton:<\/strong> So how do you see it actually transforming, like specifically growth marketing in just the recent year or two?<\/p>\n

[00:04:19] Cathy McPhillips:<\/strong> Well, I think, you know, we talked a lot about Chat GPT, you know, everyone\u2019s like that when we think AI people are like, Oh, Chat GPT. And it\u2019s, I, I truly think that writing and content<\/a> is the least useful use of AI right now.<\/p>\n

I mean, it\u2019s, it helps us understand. It helps us break it down and say, Oh, I actually see a tangible result from my input and then this output that I receive. But we talk a lot about at the Institute that we\u2019re all journalism majors. We\u2019re writers. We are, you know, we let, we love writing, so we don\u2019t use it to write.<\/p>\n

We do things that we can\u2019t do. Data analysis, you know, the amount of data that these AI tools<\/a> can. Process and analyze and give back to us in formats that we can actually make, you know, are actionable is huge. So data analysis is a huge one. Personalization, hyper personalization with the messages we\u2019re sending out, sending people, you know, we\u2019ve said this for years.<\/p>\n

When I was at CMI, when we had Content Tech, it was right place, right time, right message. And now that\u2019s just become an expectation. You know I think automation. So many of the things we\u2019re doing are repetitive data driven trying to make a prediction, trying to create something and all of those things that we\u2019re doing that are so critical to the business.<\/p>\n

But there aren\u2019t our favorite things to do. Or there is that repetition that you\u2019re like, there has to be a better way. Let\u2019s let\u2019s work smarter<\/a>, not harder. Automation is a big part of that. And then efficiency, you know, there\u2019s just so much to do. And everything that we\u2019re doing and where can we gain efficiencies and where can we invest our time in other places, in better places for the, for the growth of the business.<\/p>\n

[00:05:57] Mike Allton:<\/strong> I love that point because, while I\u2019m not a growth marketer per se, particularly here, you know, with, with The Social Media Hat, my side hustle, I\u2019m still finding incredible ways to use AI to help me do things that either I wouldn\u2019t have done at all because I didn\u2019t have the time or I would not have done them well.<\/p>\n

Like I am not a copywriter. I am like you said, like a journalist. I like writing long form articles that help explain complex topics to people. Writing a landing page, that converts, that\u2019s not something that I would consider in my skillset, and yet I can work with AI to develop my tone of voice, develop my target audience<\/a>, and then craft really, really good<\/p>\n

[00:06:35] Cathy McPhillips:<\/strong> right<\/p>\n

[00:06:36] Mike Allton:<\/strong> landing pages right that far exceed what I would\u2019ve just done on my own.<\/p>\n

Quite frankly, they were garbage on my own, so I love that. What are some of the key AI technologies or tools that you think marketers really need<\/a> to be aware of from that concept of driving growth?<\/p>\n

[00:06:54] Cathy McPhillips:<\/strong> So I\u2019m going to go back to your last question for just for a second. Cause you were talking about, you know, just efficiencies and filling a knowledge gap<\/a> and just things like that.<\/p>\n

So you might, you\u2019ve heard this, me talk about this numerous times that the notion that I\u2019m out in the public eye talking about podcast production<\/a> is if laughable, if you would have known me four years ago, you\u2019re like, Cathy, you\u2019ve never done this before. You weren\u2019t using AI, you weren\u2019t producing a podcast.<\/p>\n

Amanda at CMI was doing that and now I\u2019m doing it and I\u2019m talking about it mostly because, or all because I\u2019m using AI technologies to help me do it. And Claire on our team has since taken over a lot of that process. So I don\u2019t want to, you know, when I say I, I do mean we, but we\u2019re using Descript to edit the videos<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t know how to edit videos<\/a>. I had kind of done my children\u2019s. I movie, you know, end of the marching band season videos, but now I\u2019m producing a podcast. We are doing our videos for our webinars and things like that using these AI tools. So it\u2019s filled a huge knowledge gap for me. It\u2019s improved our efficiencies.<\/p>\n

Claire, who has come on board, who has video experience, it\u2019s accelerated her knowledge. The tool and she\u2019s doing more exciting things with it because she can use the tool to do the AI stuff, you know, editing and things like that and make it even better. So I\u2019m trying to focus on what are the use cases in my day to day that can help me achieve better results that can have me focused on things that I like doing, that I should be doing, that a human<\/a> should be doing.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s where we\u2019re finding the tools to help us do all of these things.<\/p>\n

[00:08:22] Mike Allton:<\/strong> I love that example because obviously I can relate to that a hundred percent. I have five. podcasts at Agorapulse four them active. And then this podcast, which is a side hustle, and I\u2019m able to put out, actually publish two episodes a week.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s thanks to AI. I\u2019m using a custom GPT with either Claude or Chat GPT to develop the actual run of show and the questions and all that sort of thing. And then to your point, I\u2019m using Descript to take the editing process really, really down to the bare minimum that I need to actually get it out and it\u2019s incredibly revolutionized how I\u2019m able to push out content and have. So many more valuable conversations to your point because I\u2019m able to talk to so many more people and work on those relationships. Thanks to AI.<\/p>\n

[00:09:07] Cathy McPhillips:<\/strong> And I think that\u2019s something that you and I are both excel at. Not to like pat myself on the back, but I\u2019m not a Dan. I\u2019m not an analyst.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a communicator and I like talking to people. And if I can invest time in these AI tools, learning them and scaling them across the organization, I can be talking to our customers. Going to events and that\u2019s what, where I thrive and that\u2019s what I love doing. And I love, you know, and that\u2019s helping us convert other parts of our business because I\u2019m not sitting there doing things slowly because I don\u2019t know how to do them, you know, or even if I do, is that the best use of my time?<\/p>\n

So to go back to your question about what kind of tools are out there, you know, predictive analytics is huge. You know, we\u2019re trying to figure out what our customers want, what they need Google analytics, Adobe analytics which brings up the point of. Are there tools that are already in your tech stack that you\u2019re not taking advantage of all of the capabilities?<\/p>\n

So before you\u2019re like, let\u2019s go find a tool, first I\u2019d say go find a use case for, for finding a tool. And then go to the tools you\u2019re already using and say, can you do this for me? What\u2019s changed in the past three or six or twelve months? What can I be doing better with the tools that I, I\u2019m already paying for?<\/p>\n

Natural language processing HubSpot and Marketo are working on like content creation. And, you know, we\u2019re trying to use some of the AI tools<\/a>. We were a HubSpot company, so we\u2019re trying to figure out ways we can start using some of the things that are out there that we\u2019re, you know, again, we\u2019re paying for.<\/p>\n

social media analytics, you know, there\u2019s just so many opportunities to grow the things that we\u2019re already doing and looking at those analytics instead of just broadcasting our, you know, getting our blog post out a million places or our video out or our podcast. It\u2019s like, is this a good use of our time?<\/p>\n

You know, those analytics are so critical to all the things that we\u2019re doing because we need to make sure that we\u2019re optimizing all of our marketing because there\u2019s so many things we could be doing right now. You know, I was just talking to someone recently about when I started my career 33 years ago, it was like, do you want to be on TV, radio, outdoor, print?<\/p>\n

You know, that was it. And now it\u2019s like, we have so many opportunities, but back then it was like, you just kind of, you had Nielsen, you had Arbitron, you had things like that, but now we know, we know precisely what\u2019s going on and we have so much data and how can we use AI to help us. Sift through it all.<\/p>\n

[00:11:30] Mike Allton:<\/strong> And to your point, because of AI and because of the focus on digital marketing, small businesses<\/a>, medium businesses have so much better access to that information than they ever would. When I was working with small businesses<\/a> a couple of decades ago, we were looking at billboard advertising. Well, it was, you know, 600 bucks a month.<\/p>\n

And now we hope it drives us in business. We won\u2019t ever really know, but we hope it does. Kind of a situation, whereas today there\u2019s just so much more options available to us. And I loved all the points that you just made. I wonder if you could share some examples or a case study or success story<\/a>, whether from your own organization or customers or companies that you\u2019ve worked with about how they\u2019re effectively using A I to accelerate their marketing results.<\/p>\n

[00:12:16] Cathy McPhillips:<\/strong> One, one that I really like talking about is Coca Cola. They\u2019ve used a lot of predictive analytics to get to know their customers better. The whole share a Coke, you know, was, was AI based. And then another one I was just at MAICON this year. I talked to Mike Conley at the Cleveland Cavaliers and Go Cavs.<\/p>\n

And he was talking about they\u2019re using Perplexity. And. They\u2019re scaling it across the organization. And what I love about this story is that a team member of Mike\u2019s, when they were looking at what tool they were going to scale across the organization, I think his name was Ben he went through every department that would be onboarding this technology and found use cases specific to that or to that department, trained them and showed them if we onboard this tool in this way, here\u2019s how it\u2019s going to benefit you specifically.<\/p>\n

And having that. understanding what each of these departments were doing, how they\u2019re going to use this tool, how they can improve, how they can scale all of that before the tool was purchased. And then onboarded is like genius, you know, because this has been happening for decades. You know, we onboard technologies, AI or otherwise, and if they\u2019re not onboarded and trained the right way, they\u2019re, you\u2019re not going to see the ROI that you were hoping for. And then you just don\u2019t purchase it the next year. You don\u2019t really, you don\u2019t renew. And that\u2019s such a missed opportunity for so many folks and the way that the Cavs were doing it, it\u2019s just like, that\u2019s amazing. So there are better, there\u2019s better marketing, there\u2019s optimized marketing, there\u2019s better customer experiences, the fan experiences out of this world.<\/p>\n

And all of that is because they\u2019re using this tool the right way.<\/p>\n

[00:13:54] Mike Allton:<\/strong> Love that example. And a little personal context for all of you listening. You may know that I live in St. Louis<\/a>, but I grew up in a little town in Ohio, just 45 minutes West of Cleveland where Cathy\u2019s at now, she\u2019s talking about MAICON, the Marketing AI Conference, which is the premier event, if you\u2019re a marketing and you want to learn about AI, you\u2019ve got to go to this event in 2025. They just had their 2024 edition, which was fantastic. I could make it this year. I will absolutely be there next year, because that is the event to go to. And of course, it\u2019s the home of the Cleveland Cavaliers for the premier NBA team.<\/p>\n

So thanks to you for sharing that story. That was terrific. I wonder if you could do a little myth busting for us, because a lot of people come to these shows, you know, some people they\u2019ve been listening for a long time and they get it, but other people, they might be, this might be the first time they\u2019re listening to the, this podcast, it might be their first exposure to, you know, how AI is truly impacting marketing.<\/p>\n

So what are some common misperceptions that they might have, particularly when it comes to implementing AI with their growth strategies?<\/p>\n

[00:14:55] Cathy McPhillips:<\/strong> I think complexity, I think people think, you know, how can I even get started with this? And I think that goes back to, we do annual research every year, the state of marketing AI report.<\/p>\n

And, you know, a lot of folks, lack of training is the number one thing when it comes to people\u2019s lack of getting started and they think it\u2019s just so hard to do. And it, it can be, you know, there are certain things that can be, but if you\u2019re looking at like onboarding AI across your organization, if you\u2019re looking for some big tech to scale across the org, Sure, that takes some time.<\/p>\n

But if you\u2019re trying to look at like quick win pilot projects, look at some use cases. My podcast production is a great example where you just go through and you just itemize. Here\u2019s the 15 things I do every single week for the podcast. How can I find one or two places where that will have the highest value for me?<\/p>\n

And what are some ways that we can onboard this super easy? So maybe data isn\u2019t the best place to start because you need to get approval from people. IT and legal and do all the right things from a compliance and governance and, you know, that sort of standpoint, but can you take a press release and use Chat GPT to turn it into social posts to turn into a blog post?<\/p>\n

How can you use some of the things you already have? and repurpose, then you can show those results. It saved me two hours<\/a> a week and I use those two hours to do this. And so showing, and then going to your leadership team and saying, here\u2019s a quick win I just had, here\u2019s an example of AI, can I do more? So if you are in a regulated industry, don\u2019t worry about that because there are other ways besides diving into your data that you can start trying some things.<\/p>\n

Off of that data privacy is a huge thing. You know, our customers data is our most, is our most important asset. And how can we make sure that we are the stewards of that data? And it\u2019s working with legal, working with IT before we\u2019re doing anything, putting data into some of these tools. It\u2019s knowing that our customers data is going to be protected, our company data is going to be protected. So that\u2019s a challenge for sure. That\u2019s a huge roadblock in a lot of companies, but there are ways to work around it. So working with legal is critical. And I think the last thing is job displacement, job loss, that the AI is going to come take all of our jobs.<\/p>\n

So I think we just need to get ahead of that, you know, upskilling, reskilling, figuring out how AI can work side by side with us. So preparing for that because it\u2019s here and it\u2019s not going away. So how can we make sure that we are doing the best we can with these tools, learning how to use them, learning how to scale it and just protecting ourselves or even creating jobs for ourselves that that aren\u2019t going to go away.<\/p>\n

[00:17:34] Mike Allton:<\/strong> Those are all a lot of terrifically valid points. The one thing that I\u2019ll add is that I know a lot of marketers who haven\u2019t really gotten into AI yet, they\u2019re looking at all the, jargon and the nomenclature and the options and they\u2019re feeling overwhelmed because there\u2019s a lot to that and if that\u2019s you, I\u2019ve got two recommendations for you.<\/p>\n

First, I\u2019ll link in the show notes my AI Marking Primer, it\u2019s free. Just walks you through, you know, what are the different large language models? What does that even mean? What\u2019s the difference between Claude and Gemini? Things that you should probably know, just to give you that basic. Primer understanding of Mark.<\/p>\n

And the other thing that I recommend is the podcast that Cathy was just talking about. That\u2019s The Artificial Intelligence Show. And I\u2019ve talked about a lot on this show because that\u2019s, that\u2019s my go to podcast every single week. It\u2019s, it\u2019s a little over an hour. So set aside some time every single week<\/a>, but we\u2019re talking about Paul Roetzer and Mike Kaput their breakdown every week. What\u2019s happened this past week in the world of AI, that\u2019s usually the extent of what you should know when it comes to the overall AI technology and industry. You don\u2019t necessarily need a certification. You don\u2019t need to go into the details.<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t understand all the tech and the why. That podcast will cover, I think, most of what you need to know. Folks, we\u2019re talking with Cathy McPhillips about how AI is impacting and accelerating growth marketing. And I\u2019ve got some more questions you\u2019re not going to want to miss, but first, a quick word from our sponsor.<\/p>\n

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Don\u2019t just market, market smarter with Magai. Tap the link in the show notes.<\/p>\n

Cathy earlier, you talked a little bit about predictive analytics and that sort of thing. How do you think AI can help marketers better understand and predict customer behavior to drive growth<\/a>?<\/p>\n

[00:20:15] Cathy McPhillips:<\/strong> I think there are quite a few ways, you know, I\u2019d start with identifying patterns, you know, some of the things that we think are patterns might be anomalies and we don\u2019t, might not recognize that.<\/p>\n

So I think, you know, AI can surface those things. I just, like I said, I remember the days of like, we need more data. We need more data now. It\u2019s like, we have so much data. Where do we even get started? And AI can help us break that down at these superhuman speeds that we just wouldn\u2019t have the time or the knowledge to be able to do that.<\/p>\n

So AI is helping us surface some of those trends. It\u2019s helping us optimize our strategies. It\u2019s taking it, it\u2019s just, it\u2019s just. Giving us in superpower, such an overused word when it comes to AI, but it really is true. It\u2019s helping us focus on the things that we know, the institutional knowledge we have about our companies, our brands, our clients, and help us fine tune all of those things like creating targeted campaigns, things like that.<\/p>\n

But it just is giving us the ability to let AI do the work on the analytics and the analysis, and the humans do the work on the strategy and the prediction.<\/p>\n

[00:21:17] Mike Allton:<\/strong> No, that makes complete sense. In fact I love your, your, your. Little example there of identifying anomalies as anomalies. That\u2019s really hard for us as humans.<\/p>\n

And a corollary to that was, we had Andy Crestodina on the show early on, and he was talking about using AI in analytics for content gap analysis because it\u2019s kind of the same concept as humans were going to be challenged to identify what\u2019s missing, what\u2019s not there. I mean, he\u2019s talking about looking at a thousand articles in your archive and determining, well, what haven\u2019t you talked about yet?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s your target audience. Your target consumers or customers would be really interested in. And that\u2019s really hard. I mean, I\u2019ve written all the content for my site, but for me to think through the thousand plus articles that I\u2019ve written in 10 plus years and think about, okay, what haven\u2019t I written enough about yet?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s that\u2019s really hard for me. And I\u2019m intimately familiar with everything that I\u2019ve written. Imagine, you know, as a consultant or just, you know, a different department of the same organization trying to do that analysis as a human. It\u2019s challenging, if not impossible with AI. Not only can we feed all of it, all that data into the AI, but to your point, we get the result in seconds.<\/p>\n

And then we can have that conversation back and forth, which I really, really love being able to do.<\/p>\n

[00:22:33] Cathy McPhillips:<\/strong> And it takes out some of that bias too. You know, sometimes we\u2019re looking, we\u2019re looking for a nugget because we kind of know what we want to do. And you know, the AI kind of level sets that and says like, no, no, this is actually the better, the better way to be doing things.<\/p>\n

[00:22:48] Mike Allton:<\/strong> That, that\u2019s a really huge point because as a marketer, I may have been and probably was really invested in that campaign that we ran a few months ago. And I really not only wanted it to do well, I needed it to do well.<\/p>\n

[00:23:02] Cathy McPhillips:<\/strong> Right.<\/p>\n

[00:23:03] Mike Allton:<\/strong> But maybe it didn\u2019t, and maybe I need the honesty and clarity of AI to say, well, look, this is what actually happened.<\/p>\n

You know, this is the results that you got. These are the people that you reach. These are the things that you can look to, to improve for the next time, which is great learning. But. Yeah, we need that that non rose speckled glasses look at everything that\u2019s happening. But speaking of campaigns, how do you see AI helping us to actually maximize our campaigns and improve them, get more ROI, just make them better in the future?<\/p>\n

[00:23:35] Cathy McPhillips:<\/strong> Yeah, for sure. So I started my career as a media planner at an agency here in Cleveland. And so much of my time was spent doing budget allocation. We want this much, you know, here\u2019s the weeks we\u2019re flighting TV campaigns or, you know, at the end of my career there, time there, it was analyzing or flighting digital campaigns.<\/p>\n

And then it was like, okay, let\u2019s layer that on top of sales and, oh, the TV must\u2019ve worked because our sales are up. So now it\u2019s like. Again, to your point, Mike, just matching up those things, but now with, it can help us with budget allocation because it\u2019s, it can actually tell us more data. It can tell us more of the analytics, but also it can give recommendations.<\/p>\n

So taking those recommendations and then going in there and, you know, doing our due diligence, making sure that that makes sense for the business. So budget allocation for sure. More AB testing. So in all of our CRMs, we can, you know, AB test subject lines, AB test copy, all of those things and get results faster.<\/p>\n

And even, you know, an email campaign that I was doing and say in HubSpot previously where I would say, okay, here\u2019s my lists, here\u2019s my segments, here\u2019s my messaging for these different groups. Let\u2019s get the results. Let\u2019s build new lists. Let\u2019s build, build new segments, more email copy. So it\u2019s always the human doing all of those things.<\/p>\n

But now there are tools that can take the, you know, you send your first email and then the second email. It\u2019s just going to do it for you because it knows what your goals are. So the human is still built, you know, here\u2019s what my goal is. Here\u2019s what I want to be doing. Here\u2019s what I would want to be saying to these folks.<\/p>\n

And the AI is like, got it. You know, I\u2019ll just do it for you. So it\u2019s taking out a lot of that manual work. And giving us better results because it\u2019s optimizing it for us at a speed that is faster than what we can do.<\/p>\n

[00:25:24] Mike Allton:<\/strong> Love that example. But to your point, the human still needs to be involved when I\u2019m working with, yeah, when I\u2019m working with clients, we have an entire framework for integrating AI, the H.U.M.A.N. Framework that really emphasizes making sure that the humanity is kept and retained throughout.<\/p>\n

So I\u2019m wondering how you see see that evolving in the very near future. How do you see that role of human marketers evolving as AI becomes more and more prevalent, particularly in, in growth strategies?<\/p>\n

[00:25:51] Cathy McPhillips:<\/strong> Yeah. I mean, I think a lot about, you know, do you remember when like e cards were a thing, you know, and we were like, Oh, we can send cards via email.<\/p>\n

Like who wants a card via email right now? You know, it was great at the beginning. It was this hot thing. Magazines went away for a minute. We love and books. Like we love, I love my Kindle because I can read in the cold with one hand under a blanket and one hand on my Kindle. And I like taking eight books with me when I go somewhere thinking I\u2019ll actually read eight books in a week, but, and I like having that in my pocket.<\/p>\n

Gosh, I love touching paper, you know? And I think, and, and to that point, we love\u2026 humans, so, like to communicate with other humans. So we relate to each other. We relate to our emotions, our connections and all of that. So we don\u2019t want to talk to AI. We want to talk to a human. We want to read what a human is saying, but we can, we\u2019re able to do more with AI helping us.<\/p>\n

So I think, and, and just, Let\u2019s just not even skip over the fact that a lot of stuff that AI is doing is wrong. It\u2019s giving you, it\u2019s trying to predict what it thinks you want to hear versus this is factual. So we need to make sure that everything, every output, whether it\u2019s copy, whether it\u2019s data, whatever it is, a human needs to look at that and make sure it\u2019s right.<\/p>\n

A human needs to put it into the voice of your, your brand. It needs to, be in the voice of what your customer wants to be hearing from you. So every single step of that needs to be updated. And the more you update that, the more, and then you put, put it back into the system. They\u2019re then learning, okay, here\u2019s what I\u2019m going to do better for Cathy next time I do an output.<\/p>\n

So, you know, I\u2019ve have this, relationship now with Chat GPT, because every time it gives me something, I then go back and say, here\u2019s what I ended up using. And then it\u2019s used using that for next time. So when I ask for something else, similarly, it kind of knows my style. It knows my format. It knows the things I\u2019m changing.<\/p>\n

So if I went into Chat GPT and I said, tell me about Cathy McPhillips. You know, here\u2019s what she does for a living. She writes in a very fun, friendly, human, engaging, conversational tone, relatable. I\u2019m like, yeah, that\u2019s totally what I\u2019m trying to do. Cause I\u2019m trying to, well, one that\u2019s me, but I\u2019m trying to relate to other marketers saying, I\u2019m a thousand percent in your shoes and going what you\u2019re going through and now Chat GPT is learning that\u2019s my style and it\u2019s now giving me things in a format that like yeah, this actually really does sound like me<\/p>\n

[00:28:09] Mike Allton:<\/strong> That is such a huge point the default programming for Ai is to be helpful, which in a lot of cases we love they don\u2019t complain when we ask them to give us data 10 more subject lines and then 10 more subject lines and then 10 more subject lines.<\/p>\n

I mean, if you asked me to do that three times, we\u2019re done. Do your own subject lines. Chat GPT is like, sure, Cathy, happy to do that for you. But then I<\/p>\n

[00:28:30] Cathy McPhillips:<\/strong> apologize. I\u2019m like, I\u2019m sorry. Could you just do that one more time? Could you slow down and maybe just think for a second? And it\u2019s like, no problem.<\/p>\n

[00:28:37] Mike Allton:<\/strong> Yeah.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s so happy to help. But if you aren\u2019t explicit about what you want, it will be too helpful. When I tell it to summarize a podcast interview, like I will do this, this will, this will show up as a LinkedIn newsletter that I, you know, very transparently say is written by CLU, my AI assistant<\/a>, but the first couple of times I worked with CLU to develop these podcast interview summaries, I would say, you know, pull out some quotes from the guest.<\/p>\n

It would make up quotes, or it would quote me. I\u2019m like, no, no, no, no. I\u2019m the host. I\u2019m not the guest. Cathy McPhillips is the guest. Pull her quote directly from the transcript, which you had, I had to be very explicit about that. And it\u2019s like, Oh, I\u2019m sorry. Yeah.<\/p>\n

[00:29:17] Cathy McPhillips:<\/strong> Or it\u2019s a quote that\u2019s so out of context.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re like, okay, that\u2019s actually not really a quote. You know, here\u2019s the message I want to give to our readers. What are some key takeaways? You know, you have just the more, you examples you give or the more detail you give. Like I just spoke to some eighth graders last week and I said, you know, imagine you\u2019re talking to someone in a house with no windows that, and they can\u2019t see outside and you say, what should I wear today?<\/p>\n

Clothing. Okay. Well, it\u2019s raining out, but it\u2019s still warm out. I\u2019m a, I\u2019m female or what, you know, just the more detail you give, it\u2019s like, Oh, okay, well, you know, wear this and this and this, but if you start with something basic, you\u2019re going to get something basic. And, you know, out of it and<\/p>\n

[00:30:01] Mike Allton:<\/strong> they were all like, Oh,<\/p>\n

[00:30:02] Cathy McPhillips:<\/strong> that makes sense.<\/p>\n

[00:30:04] Mike Allton:<\/strong> Yeah. This is such a great mindset<\/a> shift. I think particularly for, you know, marketers who are new to AI, you know, they\u2019re, they\u2019re just jumping in. They don\u2019t realize that the limitations perhaps, or the, or the, you know, boundaries that you need to place around AI, the pre work that you can do to help AI understand the context.<\/p>\n

What other advice would you give folks like that?<\/p>\n

[00:30:23] Cathy McPhillips:<\/strong> It also helps, you know, if there\u2019s reluctance, you know, saying like, I like writing, I am proud of my work. I like, you know, digging into the data. Using these tools involves so much strategic thought and so much critical thinking that you actually are probably using your brain more the way you want to be using your brain than you were before.<\/p>\n

So just have that shift. Of so yeah, I think that\u2019s an important thing to focus on is like all the ways that you like, you can be really smart with these tools and find new ways to use it and be innovative with, with AI.<\/p>\n

[00:30:58] Mike Allton:<\/strong> Yeah, yeah, for sure. So that\u2019s great advice for folks who are new to AI, or maybe they\u2019ve been doing it a little bit wonky for a while.<\/p>\n

What other advice would you give to marketers who are relatively new to AI or AI and growth marketing?<\/p>\n

[00:31:12] Cathy McPhillips:<\/strong> Yeah, I said this earlier, but it bears repeating. Start small, start with a use case that you say, okay, I, it might be something like, I hate writing subject lines. I need to, every week I am taking a blog post and creating 10 social posts from it.<\/p>\n

That takes time. You know, even if it, even if time is a measurement for you, you know, it takes me two hours a week. Can we get that down to 30 minutes a week? How can I be reusing that time? So start with a small project, find a tool. So many things are free right now, or have free two week trials, Chat GPT, the 20 bucks a month is the best 20 bucks a month we\u2019re spending as individuals within our organization and start small. Measure, you know, how much time did it take me before? What were the results of those social posts? How much time did it take me now? What are the, what are the results of those social posts?<\/p>\n

And even if it\u2019s strictly a time savings, we could totally, and that\u2019s a win. That\u2019s a huge return on your investment of that time. So where can you reinvest that time for maybe it\u2019s creating more content. Maybe it\u2019s talking like again, talking to your customers, diving into some data. Doing something you didn\u2019t have the time to do before and surfacing a whole new project, a whole new revenue stream, a whole new something for your company because now you have more time to be doing that.<\/p>\n

So while I think we can go well beyond efficiency gains when it comes to AI, I think finding some small efficiencies is a great way to begin. And it\u2019s a great way to get buy in from your organization if you are hitting a wall with people saying, we\u2019re not going down this road.<\/p>\n

[00:32:40] Mike Allton:<\/strong> That\u2019s, that\u2019s huge. And to your point, you don\u2019t have to spend a lot of money.<\/p>\n

I use and recommend Magai<\/a> because it\u2019s 20 bucks a month. And with that, I get access to paid ChatGPT, paid Genesis, paid Claude. I can use DALLE-3 or Leonardo or any other image generation tools. So, you know, just a great, easy use case is when I\u2019m writing articles for my blog, instead of using stock photography, the way I go into DALLE-3 via Magai and have it create an image specifically from my blog.<\/p>\n

And I\u2019ve got a style that I\u2019ve developed that I just changed a little bit for every article. And people have told me now when they see my funny bears in those Star Wars<\/svg><\/span><\/a> settings, they know it\u2019s my content. So I\u2019ve successfully achieved some brand awareness and connectivity, right? With the brand voice<\/a> for pennies, really, you know, and I\u2019m not having to pay for stock imagery and I\u2019m not using stock imagery.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s so not me has nothing to do with my brand because it\u2019s stock imagery.<\/p>\n

[00:33:35] Cathy McPhillips:<\/strong> And you\u2019re also, you\u2019re, you\u2019re not pretending that you\u2019re not using AI. If people look at it, they know you\u2019re using AI, but you\u2019ve built a brand from it and you could also just use some of these tools for simply for, you know, my husband works at GE lighting on the East side of Cleveland and he was trying to create a logo for their CES booth for one of the, not for a product, but for kind of this fun thing they were doing.<\/p>\n

And he got, he put some of his thoughts into Chat GPT, he got an image and he was like, Oh my gosh. And I, I\u2019m like, well, you know, you can\u2019t use that lead. You know, you can\u2019t copyright that. He\u2019s like, I don\u2019t want to copyright this. And he said, Norm, I, the designer, but he said, I can give this, this is, he\u2019s like, I gave enough detail that I was able to get something that I wanted.<\/p>\n

All the words were spelled wrong. DALLE-3 stinks at spelling words, right? But he took it to his designer and he said, this is what I\u2019m picturing versus done this back and forth of this designer that you\u2019re paying for to create this image for him. And he\u2019s like, I kind of, I was able to verbalize What I wanted just by showing him this piece of paper or, you know, sending him this JPEG of here\u2019s kind of where my head is, make it, make it ours, make it better, which is pretty cool.<\/p>\n

[00:34:46] Mike Allton:<\/strong> Yeah. We did a whole episode just about how you can use AI for prototyping. And that was a central point of the episode or just how much time and money you can save, whether you\u2019re the business that needs the asset and you\u2019re working with a consultant, or maybe you\u2019re the consultant, the agency, the graphic designer<\/a>, right?<\/p>\n

And you want to quickly draft up some ideas and show them to a client. So what do you think about these? Is this the direction you\u2019re looking at? You could do that real time on a discovery call before you actually go into the actual, you know, back and forth in the process. So that\u2019s a that\u2019s a great example of time savings.<\/p>\n

Thanks for sharing that, Cathy. What about looking ahead? What kinds of emerging AI trends<\/a> are you seeing that you think are going to have the biggest impact on marketing growth? And I\u2019m not going to ask you to look five to 10 years in advance. AI is always trying to get me to ask these questions. And I\u2019m like, this is again where the human needs to be involved, right?<\/p>\n

Cause the human knows, no one knows what\u2019s going to happen in five years with AI. Five weeks, maybe. What do you see coming up?<\/p>\n

[00:35:47] Cathy McPhillips:<\/strong> Well, to that point, Paul talked about something at MAICON this year. We put the video on YouTube last week and someone wrote, this is outdated. So I went back into YouTube and changed that link to say, we know it\u2019s, this was recorded on September 12th.<\/p>\n

So like even five days sometimes is, is too long. But I think a couple of things, I think, you know, the way we are. Searching on the internet now, you know, we\u2019re going to perplexity for Google, for searches instead of Google, how we\u2019re using, you know, How SEO can be, how AI can improve our SEO, ethical AI.<\/p>\n

I think ethical AI is like such a critical and important thing. You know, how are we using these tools? There\u2019s so many ways this could go South with and I think there are more good people in the world than there are bad. So we just need to be The leaders in the marketing<\/a> world who are doing it the right way, using these tools the right way, being ambassadors for the tech and for for all of this, these processes that we\u2019re using.<\/p>\n

And I think hyper personalization, I think people are expecting. To not receive something irrelevant from the brands they\u2019re following from the, you know, companies are looking into. So the more personalized without getting overly creepy, how we can use AI to to deliver personalized messages when people want them through advanced analytics and things like that is really huge.<\/p>\n

[00:37:06] Mike Allton:<\/strong> I love the point about not too creepy. That was something we talked with Zontee Hou about in an earlier episode and how much fantastic data personalization you can do today, but still brands have to be careful and aware. She shared a story of, you know, Target identifying with AI expectant mothers, well before they would traditionally, you know, tell people and make announcements and that sort of thing is, you know, I understood the idea.<\/p>\n

The idea was to make sure that they\u2019re getting in front of these expectant mothers before they\u2019re even ready to start buying all the things that they have to buy. And so now target\u2019s top of mind, but imagine now they\u2019re sending direct mail pieces to expectant mothers. Who at that point actually probably haven\u2019t even said anything to the other people in their household.<\/p>\n

And now it\u2019s Target that\u2019s sharing the news that this person is expecting when other people didn\u2019t even know yet. That was a problem. That was a miss when it comes to using<\/p>\n

[00:38:05] Cathy McPhillips:<\/strong> And you know you\u2019re a parent. You wait, like, you wait three months because you\u2019re crossing your fingers that everything goes well.<\/p>\n

[00:38:12] Mike Allton:<\/strong> That\u2019s exactly right.<\/p>\n

[00:38:13] Cathy McPhillips:<\/strong> Yeah,<\/p>\n

[00:38:14] Mike Allton:<\/strong> but they used AI to understand that even though you haven\u2019t said anything publicly in that first trimester, your spending habits and things that you\u2019re buying, I don\u2019t know what it was, if it\u2019s supplements or what, but you start to buy things that are strong indicators. Oh, okay.<\/p>\n

This person\u2019s expecting. Yeah. That was a big mess, but those are the kinds of things that are happening. And I love that you\u2019re bringing up so many valid points for folks, but I know we\u2019ve just touched the surface. And for folks who want to know more, they want to connect with you. They want to learn from you because you\u2019ve been amazing.<\/p>\n

Where can they go?<\/p>\n

[00:38:46] Cathy McPhillips:<\/strong> So marketingaiinstitute. com. That\u2019s our website. I would say a few free places that I would start with us is the marketing AI or no, we changed the name. We rebranded. It\u2019s the artificial intelligence show. It drops every Tuesday morning. Paul and Mike do an amazing job. And as a marketer, like I said, I\u2019ve been doing this for a few decades.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve spent the past three and a half years as part of the team. And it shifted the way that I\u2019m doing my marketing. So when I tell folks like, how do I get started? How do you keep up on all of this? I actually leave it to Paul and Mike to tell me what I should be paying attention to. My day usually involves with getting into our Slack community for about 25 to 30 minutes a day, listening to the podcast once a week, going on LinkedIn, And then I can go to work.<\/p>\n

You know, I don\u2019t, I\u2019m not an AI expert. I\u2019m probably a little bit indexing a little higher than your average marketer, just because of the business that I work for, but I\u2019m trying to find ways to use AI to help me do my job better. I\u2019m not trying to be an AI expert. And I think we as marketing leaders just need<\/a> to remember that we still have a job to do and using AI to help us improve is really the, our end goal.<\/p>\n

So. That\u2019s the ai, the artificial intelligence show. Once a month we have an intro to AI class that Paul does, and I am on there fielding all of the audience questions, which is amazing. And so once a month, it\u2019s just intro to Ai. I forget the website. I don\u2019t know. I\u2019ll add it to the show notes and we\u2019ve got blog content.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve got research. We\u2019ve got tons of free stuff on our website. And then if you\u2019re interested in more, we\u2019ve got some paid educational offerings. We have MAICON that\u2019s next October. Or just reach out to me on LinkedIn. If you have questions, I would love to help you in any way that I can.<\/p>\n

[00:40:22] Mike Allton:<\/strong> Love it. In fact, I love your mindset so much, Cathy, that, that might be the first time that I use that closing segment as the opening segment of the show, because I think that was so valuable.<\/p>\n

So thank you for sharing that. Thank you everyone for listening. That\u2019s all the time we\u2019ve got for today. But like I mentioned before, this is your first foray into the world of AI and marketing. I\u2019ve got that perfect resource for you. That AI marketing primer<\/a> designed to quickly get you up to speed. I\u2019ll have that linked in the show notes along with everything else.<\/p>\n

That Cathy and I talked about today. In the meantime, welcome to the grid.<\/p>\n

Thanks for joining us on AI in marketing unpacked. I hope today\u2019s episode has inspired you and given you actionable insights to integrate AI into your marketing strategies<\/a>. If you enjoyed the show, please subscribe on your favorite podcast platform and consider leaving a review. We\u2019d love to hear your thoughts and answer any questions you might have.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t forget to join us next time as we continue to simplify AI and help you make a real impact in your marketing efforts until then keep innovating and see just how far AI can take your marketing. Thank you for listening and have a fantastic day.<\/p>\n

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