9 Ways to Leverage AI to Be a Better B2B Marketer

Whether B2B marketers are ready or not, AI is here to stay.

That’s not to say AI will put marketers out of jobs - a common fear circling industry discussions. However, marketers who are quick to use AI to their advantage might be the ones to put other reluctant content marketers and competitors out of business. But this isn’t unique to marketers. Every department will need to find innovative and efficient ways to integrate AI into its central practices, strategies, and routines to keep up with agile competitors and early adaptors.

How can B2B marketers keep up and ahead of the curve when it comes to AI? Start with these 9 practical tips!

1. Have AI draft your blog outline that you can edit, continue, and refine:

Consistent and quality content is essential for establishing rapport with target audiences. Being able to crank out good content (and fast) takes a lot of brain work and time that small teams and individual marketers may not have every week. In fact, in the time preceding AI technology the idea of producing quick top-quality content might’ve been considered an oxymoron. Now, platforms like Hubspot, Copy AI, JasperAI, and others make this idea a reality and just plain doable using AI.

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These platforms do more than spit out superficial information and writing--they use natural language processing (NLP), and extensive data sets from all around the internet to come up with title ideas, create outlines, and even take a stab at original content. Careful, though - it’s essential to comb through AI-generated outputs with a strict editing eye and add your brand voice and unique perspectives.

AI writing assistance tools, like Grammarly, are able to quickly identify grammar and language errors, offer corrections or alternative language for better clarity, and even offer a tone assessment of written text  - making the writing process that much more efficient and manageable.

Try prompts like:

• “Generate a blog outline on the purchase habits of technological device consumers in South America.”
• “Create an outline for an article on the benefits of bettering employee experience in the workplace, with headers focusing on employee stress, hybrid and remote work, and productivity.”
• “Write a blog outline on how artificial intelligence is improving the quality of life in large cities, including sections on new technology and human behavior.”

2. Have AI come up with title ideas for a blog piece on a set topic

If one of your hats as a marketer is copywriting, you know that blog writing is one skill but writing attention-grabbing blog titles is another.

An article could have all of the most sought-after insights and be the most enjoyable reading experience, but that means close to nothing if audiences are not clicking on it because of a dull title. If you take the extra time to research and create a thought-provoking title, you give your content a standing chance to be enjoyed and your readers a standing chance to discover it.

This is where AI title generators like Sem Rush, Jasper, and Writesonic come in. These tools are easy to use and speed up this brainstorming process.

Just plug in your general blog topic idea, target keywords, and other questions or insights you’d like to share with your audiences, and let these platforms create lists of headlines that connect with your ideal audience and target relevant high-level topics they typically look for.

Try prompts like:

• “Create an attention-grabbing article title on SEO practices for better marketing.”
• “Write a blog title on how technology is advancing differently around the world, in the form of a question.”
• “Draft an article title on the benefits of qualitative research to understand human behavior using the following keywords: consumerism, data, market research.”

3. Have AI summarize an article for you and convert that to copy for a social post

Once you’ve got the long-form content down, make sure you are taking advantage of the opportunity to repurpose this into short-form social media copies.

But, instead of starting from scratch or a blank page, plug entire articles into any generative AI tool mentioned in this article to generate a variety of engaging social media copies that promote key insights and topics of the relevant content on selected social platforms like Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

Try prompts like:

• “Create a social media post for LinkedIn about Market Research predictions. Use information from the following text: [insert copy from article]”
• “Write a social media post including a question to audiences for [insert topic].”
• “Write an Instagram caption about [insert topic], using a quote about [insert topic].”

4. Have AI generate ideas for social media strategy and copy that you can use

Generative AI tools are not just for repurposing long-form content. They can also streamline data-led brainstorming for completely original social media strategies and topics that appeal to your audience. Plug in your industry niche and topics of interest into your favorite Gen AI tool to receive a list of potentially high-performing content ideas backed by automated research on trending news and Google searches.

AI social media strategy platforms like AI Writing Assistant by Semrush, Jasper, and ChatGPT allow you to prepare, organize, schedule, and send out automated messages or posts to social media with machine learning technology. This way, you can plan and execute a routine content publishing process and see performance reports all in one location.

Try prompts like:

• “Generate social media post ideas using the keywords: marketing, consumer decision making, Business to Business”
• “Draft social media posts on new ways to use AI tools for market research and business.”

5. Have AI predict SEO topics and trends

Brand positioning is crucial in saturated markets, and SEO can help your brand stand out as a reputable and accessible expert in your field.

Enter the importance of an effective SEO strategy to ensure your brand is creating content your audience is looking for while following a content strategy that is up-to-date with industry trends and conversations.

AI SEO tools like Surfer SEO and ClickUp use data, machine, and algorithmic learning to predict future industry SEO topics and trends and identify opportunities where brands can create searched-for content that ranks well in search engine platforms. Several SEO AI tools also collect and analyze metrics like website traffic and user behavior to monitor SEO strategy success and identify potential friction points.

6. Have AI do your keyword research

On the other side of the SEO realm, AI tools can help you save time on keyword research and think ‘outside of the box’ when it comes to connecting with target audiences through their content.

When you spend days, weeks, and even months developing and following a content strategy, it becomes easier than you’d think to pigeonhole yourself - hyper-focusing on the topics and content comfortable to you while other unique ideas fly under your radar.

Keyword research platforms are equipped with tools that allow them to evaluate user behavior insights like browsing history, location, user preferences, and search intent to spotlight opportunities to hit less competitive yet optimal long-tail keywords.

Try prompts like:

• Enter a keyword like “consumer interest” to receive a list of similar, relevant, and competitive keywords
• Specifically, request long tail keywords to optimize content planning. For example - ‘Draft long-tail keywords inspired by AI and travel’

7. Have AI automate repetitive tasks

Marketing isn’t all glitz, glamor, and creativity, it often feels like most of our time is spent finalizing the day-to-day nitty gritty: summarizing meeting notes, analyzing transcripts, and extracting insights from large data sets.

To make sure you make the most of your time, energy, and brain juice to focus on the important stuff, try using AI for automated solutions that do the legwork for you.

Otter.ai and Click Up can transcribe video or audio files from meetings and whip up a summary of the conversations, identifying individual speakers and their quotes, and even offering translation tools for multilingual work teams.

Speak.ai transcribes audio and video files and even summarizes this information into reports, identifies keywords and topics, and more.

If you are looking to save time pulling insights out of large data sets and reports, Polymer can extract data from spreadsheets and documents to create a personalized database with essential insights.

8. Have AI test/analyze your ad creative and copy

Sometimes, advertisements can feel very hit-or-miss when it comes to performance and connecting with the right audiences - tools like Link AI under Kantar Marketplace, can now test creative ad copy and content to predict how it will perform, identify areas of improvement, analyze competitor campaigns, and screen ad content for last minute decisions. 

You’ve probably noticed that ad budgets are quick to fly - that’s why it is so important to run trials and tests before launching campaigns to make sure your brand is not wasting money on ads that just sometimes won’t land, and so you have time to make adjustments and get the most bang for your buck.

9. Have AI support you adapt inclusion and DEI practices

Beyond providing time-saving, efficient, and data-driven solutions, AI technology is paving the way for a future of greater accessibility in online and marketing spaces.

In 2023, it was estimated that one in four adults in the United States has a form of disability, and globally, over 1.3 billion people experience disabilities of some kind. However, less than four percent of the world’s top websites are accessible to users with disabilities.

AI technology has become a catalyst for creating new disability inclusion and accessibility measures that accommodate all internet users, and encourage new users to join.

In the realm of marketing, AI can help you to better tune into customers who may require unique assistance or needs. Exciting developments you’ll want to look forward to in the realm of accessibility and artificial intelligence technology include Voice AI, image-to-text generators, generative AI summaries for neurodivergent internet users, and more.

AI seems to be making an impact on all walks of tech and workplace life. At first, these tools and platforms may seem intimidating, but they are here, truly, to make your life easier. Have an open mind, do a bit of research, maybe watch a few educational videos, and give yourself time to practice and learn the ins and outs of these resources.

AI may not have all of the power to fully encapsulate the human experience and connection - but it can give you the extra support to connect the dots and make even further strides toward more ‘human’ marketing.