Alastair and Samantha of Optix Solutions delivered a comprehensive and thought-provoking PM Forum training session. Delegates appreciated the provocative food for thought to make more proactive use of AI in their marketing and business development teams and activities. Opportunities quickly become threats so the need to get a handle on AI in marketing is an imperative. Key Insights from the AI in Marketing training by Optix at PM Forum.
The speakers on AI in marketing
I attended Alastair’s webinar in February 2024 (hosted by South West Committee) and was so impressed that I invited him to prepare and present a training session for PM Forum. PM Forum – PM Forum. (PM Forum members can access the earlier webinar recording Generative AI – Going Beyond the Content… (pmint.co.uk))
Alastair Banks is founder of Optix Solutions, lecturer at London Business School and Imperial College and has written for Forbes. (2) Alastair Banks | LinkedIn
Samantha Smith is Senior Digital Marketing Manager at Optix with a particular interest in data analysis. (2) Samantha Smith | LinkedIn
Optix Solutions, based in Exeter, was founded 25 years ago and provides a range of services including digital marketing strategy, digital campaigns, creative, data science and training. It has an impressive client list including: Nvidia, DPT (NHS), The Met Office, HSBC and London Business School. It also works for 15 law firms and several accountancy and consultancy firms including Michelmores and Bishop Fleming. It has won numerous awards including best places to work. Digital Marketing Agency Exeter, Devon | Optix Solutions,
The Optix team also delivered the recent session for PM Forum on how to create a digital marketing strategy in a professional services firm (kimtasso.com)
The delegates on AI in marketing
Delegates were from law firms (solicitors, barristers and patent attorneys), accountants and consultancies in the UK, Ireland and United States. There was a mix of marketing and business development executives and managers – and a couple of more senior people.
Their primary interests were in marketing communications, digital marketing, events and business development. Some were exploring AI for the first time, others were testing different AI tools. Some had a firm-wide perspective and others were focused on specific sectors such as life sciences and tech. Others were in the process of introducing their own versions of ChatGPT. Just about everyone was afraid of being left behind in AI adoption!
Overview of the AI in Marketing session
This was the first presentation of PM Forum’s training on Artificial Intelligence delivered by the Optix Solutions’ dynamic duo Alastair and Samantha.
Their aims were to:
- Provide ideas how to use AI in your day job
- Create behavioural change in using Generative AI in marketing
The session comprised three modules:
- Introduction to AI and AI toolkits
- AI-powered marketing
- Creating an AI enhanced marketing plan (prompt engineering)
Alastair and Samantha provided the conceptual underpinnings of AI, then shared a powerful demonstration of what a week with AI in marketing could look like before providing practical guidance on using Generative AI.
My key takeaways were the speed at which AI is developing and the potential of AI in competitor analysis, pitch preparation and new service development. I also reflected on the new roles and organisational structures needed to accommodate the introduction and management of AI tools within professional services firms.
Opportunities quickly turn into threats. People say that when new technologies arrive they are an opportunity. But if you don’t seize them quickly they become a threat. All MBD professionals need to upskill in artificial intelligence and adapt their daily behaviour so that GenAI use becomes second nature.
At PM Forum, we will develop further AI training sessions aligned to the different and evolving needs for marketing and business development folk in professional services. For example, for beginners and advanced users. And for specific applications such as content development, marketing/BD planning and sales coaching. So please let me know if there are any particular topics you’d like us to consider.
Introducing AI and AI toolkits
To allow peer comparisons, the first poll asked delegates how much experience they had using AI:
- 9% None
- 27% A little
- 27% Moderate amount
- 36% Quite a bit
- 0% Extensive
For reassurance, Alastair quoted Malcolm Gladwell’s rule of thumb that it takes “10,000 hours to become an expert”. This equates to about six years and Generative AI hasn’t been around that long so no-one’s an expert! He also warned that the AI landscape is changing daily.
He mentioned his 1991 American university textbook (“A new guide to artificial intelligence” by Professor Derek Partridge) which argued at the time that there was insufficient computational power to make it happen. This reminded me of my first feeble attempts at developing AI programs when studying cognitive psychology back in the 1980s. Whilst exploring a timeline of AI development we saw that that Alan Turin coined the term “artificial intelligence” in the 1940s yet ChatGPT was launched in 2023.
There was a brief exploration of different types of AI – ANI (narrow includes chess programmes and chatGPT) and AGI (general) where it does the same tasks as humans and learns by itself. ASI (Artificial Super Intelligence) is the stuff of science fiction films where robots take over the world.
He presented the Gartner Hype Cycle for digital marketing which shows the curve of innovation trigger, peak of inflated expectations, trough of disillusionment, slope of enlightenment and finally the plateau of productivity. This was compared to the 2023 Gen AI hype cycle where we are just leaving the peak of expectations and entering the trough which might explain the emerging media malaise on the topic.
Most people use GenAI sporadically but we need to get to the point where it’s second nature on everything we do – so we always think to “How could AI help us?”. He foresees a time when we will all work faster and be more creative by having AI open on our browser and phones all the time. It’s a seductive but scary scenario.
There was a mention of the recent change in Google search – Search Generative Experience (SGE) and Optix provided further information: Complete Guide to Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) | Optix Solutions
Generative AI Toolkit
We romped through ChatGPT (OpenAI), Copilot (Microsoft 365), Dall-E (OpenAI) for images and Midjourney. Other notable tools included: Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Jasper.
My mind was blown when Alastair shared the GenAI Prism. I’m sure the delegates were as surprised as I was to learn that there are already a plethora of GenAI tools. He mentioned that one professional services firm already has a Head of AI whose role is to test new tools.
Integration means that Microsoft’s CoPilot Digital Assistant is gaining in popularity. Alastair talked about the pros and cons of free and paid versions. Many people already use GenAI to summarise email threads, format documents and create copy. Facilities to allow you to automatically create PowerPoint templated presentations from Word documents save hours creating a first version. Licensed versions mean that sensitive internal data and documents can be protected from public access. He noted that from 2025 keyboards will have a Copilot launch button.
GenAI concerns and considerations included protecting intellectual property, content copyright, data protection, reliability and bias. The duo offered helpful tips to counter them. Delegates were polled on their biggest AI questions:
- 17% Ensure outputs accurate and reliable
- 17% Ethical concerns
- 33% Integration into workflow
- 17% Best practice for data privacy
- 58% Match brand tone and style
There was a breakout here for delegates to share their experiences of AI. Key comments included:
- Several worked in firms using legal-specific HarveyAI
- Typical uses: brainstorming, summarising, getting started or overcoming writers’ block
- Issues included: poor summarising, tone of voice (often US biased), people not checking and refining AI outputs, concerns about client confidentiality, not having accurate references (Perplexity – which I have on my phone – provides references and paid ChatGPT will help with references)
- AI in Photoshop
- Some firms have their own chatbots – primarily to support access to internal resources on their intranet
(Note: One of my marketing students recently mentioned the use of AI powered search tool MyTelescope: Forecast the future for brand tracking and competitor analysis)
A week of AI powered professional services marketing
The focus in this section was prompt creation (prompt engineering). With a reminder of GIGO (Garbage in, Garbage out).
Alastair talked through an illustrative example of how AI was deployed over a week for a marketing agency working with the Head of Marketing at a law firm. A key feature was training the GenAI system (ChatGPT in this instance) with context, custom instructions, style guidelines, clear prompts and feedback on its outputs.
Activities included:
- Task setting – Ask ChatGPT to provide a list of marketing tasks to work on together. The response included: budgeting, digital strategy enhancement, content marketing plan and video marketing
- Creating a business case – Identified they would need more resources and suggested a new marketing executive be recruited. The system provided a one-page business case for the Board covering: introduction, background, objective of new role, justification, role requirements, financial considerations and conclusion
- Recruitment – ChatGPT provided an outline job description and a brief for a recruitment agency
- Budgeting – ChatGPT created a table with marketing categories such as digital advertising, content marketing, SEO, social media, email marketing, events etc. This could be taken into a spreadsheet and modified
- “How to” training support – ChatGPT helps create an Excel formula to tackle analysis which saves searching for answers across Google
- Create a sector specific digital marketing plan – ChatGPT develops an overview of a particular sector and prepares an outline marketing plan including personal branding, content marketing ideas, a social media strategy and topics for webinars
- Recruitment support – ChatGPT provides example interview questions to help understand the capabilities, expertise and experience of the candidates. ChatGPT also provides a draft welcome letter and (book) suggestions for a welcome gift. The demonstration included how Crystal (on LinkedIn) creates personality profiles for insight into what the candidate is likely to appreciate
- Create sample personas – ChatGPT creates the requested three personas for the nominated sector and suggests authoritative web sites and podcasts as a source for further sector information
- Create content plans tailored to the sector and the personas
- Repurpose content – Revise content to produce SEO-optimised snippets for LinkedIn, Facebook, X and Instagram
- Analyse meetings – Use Fireflies and Otter tools to produce a transcript of a Zoom call and identify the key points and actions. Also to obtain an example outline for a training session
- Sales targeting – Use ChatGPT to review web sites and social posts of target clients to suggest topics of conversations and craft outreach email messages and social posts
- Sales training – Use ChatGPT to act as a coach or sales mentor by providing targeting criteria (within a consultative sales process) and analyse potential answers to questions
At this stage there was a breakout discussion for delegates to consider how their daily, weekly and monthly tasks could be augmented by the use of AI. Responses included:
- Logistics and administration – particularly transcripts of meetings
- Internal research to map people to clients
- Scoping sector-specific content
- Support for advanced use of Excel for analysis
- Competitor research
- Support for drafting marketing and business development materials
- Analysis of GA4 and LookerStudio analytics
- Offline meetings and conference reports (uploading hand-written notes to transcribe and summarise)
- Preparing award submissions and press releases
- Summarising reports
The key insight was that most delegates had been using AI in a reactive way and that they could achieve a lot more by using AI proactively.
Better prompt engineering
Delegates were polled on their prompting skills:
- 36% Basic
- 64% Decent
- 0% Good
- 0% Advanced
Alastair shared his top tips on how to improve the quality of prompts – and thus enhance the outputs of GenAI. Sam then talked through some prompt frameworks (see image above):
- RTF – Act as a role, Create a task, show as Format
- TAG – define Task, state the Action, clarify the Goal
- BAB – Explain the problem Before, state the outcome After, ask for the Bridge
They shared their document showing 10 prompts that will transform your marketing team – https://bit,ly/10prompts which included: components of an AI-powered marketing plan, audience analysis, content strategy, channel strategy, client journey mapping and performance measurement.
There was some material on how to set SMART goals for AI marketing. The speakers stressed the importance of agreeing policies and guidelines to manage AI usage within an organisation.
There were some final insights into how GenAI might develop in the future – virtual organisational assistants, VoiceGPT (hands free, real time assistance) and CustomGPTs for creating your own trainers and bots.
Delegates discussed their AI implementation plans. Key insights were to think more proactively, develop better prompts and allocate more time/resources for training and experimentation. Other delegate actions included:
- Explore ChatGPT4 as currently locked into other tools
- Work on uploading notes to speed up summaries
- Use Jasper AI for its tone of voice and use of personas
- Invest time in training in AI and developing better prompts
- Follow marketing AI influencers on LinkedIn
- Check the ChatGPT update log regularly
- Set goals for increased use of AI for the team before the year end
- Consider AI as a member of the team
- Always review the first AI output and refine
Related posts on AI in professional services marketing
create a digital marketing strategy in a professional services firm (kimtasso.com) September 2024
Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) updates standard (kimtasso.com) September 2024 – including CIM’s new AI marketing module
The future shape of a Proactive MBD Executive? (kimtasso.com) May 2024
Be more strategic – Stretch your strategy muscle (kimtasso.com) May 2024
questions from Proactive Marketing/BD Executives (kimtasso.com) April 2024 – considers what AI tools firms are using
Marketing and BD case studies in legal, accountancy, consultancy (kimtasso.com) April 2024
18 ways to stretch MBD resources (kimtasso.com) January 2024
System review: CogniClick for instant, personalised research (kimtasso.com) October 2023
22 tips on being a persuasive writer in professional services (kimtasso.com) August 2023
Being more strategic – Case studies and insights (Ireland May 2023) (kimtasso.com) June 2023
Lessons from digital marketing webinars (June 2023) (kimtasso.com) June 2023 Includes Ben Lee of Bidwells use of ChatGPT
Marketing technology system review – Clean contact data with Cirrom (kimtasso.com) February 2023
What are soft skills? And why are they so important? (Video) (kimtasso.com) June 2020
The Human Edge – How curiosity and creativity are your superpowers (kimtasso.com) April 2020
Intapp leads the way with client lifecycle management (CLM) solution (kimtasso.com) June 2019
