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MARKETING

A practical AI workflow for better marketing

Use customer evidence to create a focused campaign, then learn from what people actually do.

By Ashley Kays · Practical AI field guide · October 3, 2026

Start with the behavior you want to change

Choose one result: a qualified inquiry, a product trial, a booked appointment, or a repeat purchase. Define the audience and what they need to understand before taking that step. AI can generate endless campaigns, but it cannot choose a useful objective without context. Write a short brief covering the customer, the offer, the stage of awareness, and the next action.

Collect the language customers already use

Review approved interview notes, support questions, sales objections, and relevant public discussions. Remove unnecessary personal details. Ask AI to group recurring needs and questions while preserving the original language and sources. Do not have it invent quotes. Distinguish a pattern supported by several observations from an isolated comment that may still be worth investigating.

Develop a few different messages

Ask for three distinct approaches tied to the same offer: the practical outcome, the costly problem, and the reason to believe. Review whether each is accurate, specific, and relevant to the buyer. Delete unsupported superlatives and promises you cannot substantiate. A message can be compelling because it clearly explains a useful result; it does not need an exaggerated claim.

Create one connected campaign

Choose a channel where the audience is plausibly reachable, then draft the message, destination page, and follow-up together. Keep the offer and next action consistent. A social post inviting someone to a checklist should lead to that checklist, not an unrelated sales page. Adapt the length and format to the channel while keeping the underlying promise intact.

Review before publishing

Check claims, links, dates, voice, images, accessibility, and the destination experience. Ask AI to critique the campaign against the original brief and identify ambiguity. Have a person approve the final material. Do not confuse an assistant’s confidence with factual verification, and do not publish synthetic testimonials or invented results to make a campaign appear more credible.

Learn from the complete journey

Look beyond impressions. Depending on the objective, review relevant visits, inquiries, qualified conversations, purchases, or repeat behavior. Keep the denominator and observation period visible. A weak result could reflect targeting, creative, the offer, the page, or follow-up. Ask AI to compare hypotheses against the evidence, then change one important variable and document what happens.

A prompt to make your own

Help me create a focused marketing campaign. Audience: [audience]. Offer: [offer]. Desired action: [action]. Customer evidence: [notes]. Channel: [channel]. Draft three distinct messages, one matching landing-page outline, and a follow-up. Flag unsupported claims and explain what I should measure to judge the campaign.

Your next move

Choose a tool. Try the workflow.

Find a tool for the task, or download the business brief and prompts to use with one you already have.