How to Revolutionize the Industry as an AI Marketing Agency

Technology plays an increasingly important role in all types of marketing activities, especially within the digital landscape. Positioning your business as an AI marketing agency can help you create stability for your company in a quickly evolving market. 

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The market share for AI in the marketing tools and services industry is growing at an especially fast rate compared to other niches, with an expected CAGR of almost 27 percent between 2021 and 2026 (Technavio). Understanding how to leverage this growth for your business and clients can help you grow your agency quickly too.

What is an AI marketing agency?

An AI marketing agency uses AI tools to enhance marketing efforts for clients. AI algorithms and machine learning technology can be used to analyze data, automate processes, and optimize marketing campaigns. AI marketing agencies provide these tools and/or the expertise needed to use them in creating content, optimizing customer service responses, managing ad campaigns and many other tasks related to lead generation and nurturing. 

Image source: Vendasta

What makes an AI marketing agency different?

Around 80 percent of digital marketing professionals look to artificial intelligence to revolutionize processes in upcoming years (The Marketing Hustle). But what’s so special about these tools and how do they help an AI marketing agency stand out?

A few ways artificial intelligence can enhance marketing efforts include:

• Personalized customer experiences. Pairing automated workflows with the data-backed power of AI lets you create custom experiences for each customer or client. Consider how Amazon can recommend the exact products someone might want based on customer data and online behaviors—AI technologies put that type of customization capability into the hands of marketing teams and small businesses of all types. 

• Powerful predictive analytics. Machine learning algorithms can account for enormous banks of data, unearthing patterns in that information and using them to offer helpful predictions and suggestions. This can inform marketing efforts or help automate intelligent management of ad campaigns. 

• Real-time insights for better decision-making. AI provides instant access to a lot of data about marketing campaigns, making it possible to tweak campaigns in the moment for optimal performance. 

Operating an AI marketing agency

In a lot of ways, operating an AI marketing agency is like operating any other digital marketing firm. However, there are some special considerations. 

What are the key considerations for running an AI marketing agency?

Whether you’re looking at start up ideas with AI or want to offer your existing clients new services, make sure you consider the big picture when it comes to artificial intelligence. Involve your entire team and external vendors who can speak to legalities, ethics, and technology needs as you move forward with this process. 

Take particular note of the key considerations summarized below.

The importance of a skilled team with AI expertise

While AI automates work—and up to two-thirds of jobs could be impacted—in many cases, this impact is an augmentation and not a full replacement of human talent (Goldman Sachs). You still need savvy marketing team members to step into the gaps machines can’t cross. As you implement automations and AI, however, the skills you value most within your agency might change.

Some common tasks marketing teams handle alongside AI include:

• • Humanizing AI-generated content. While natural language processing allows AI to create impressive content, it’s not always exactly on brand and may lack human intuition and intent. Skilled content creators can work with AI to generate content faster while putting human touches on work before it’s published. 
  • Ai lead generation follow up. While you can automate tasks such as lead generation and scoring, depending on services and products, a person may need to step into the process at some point.

• Training AI. Artificial intelligence works best when you teach it to work for you. That might include training GPTs or setting parameters to ensure AI produces outputs you can use.

Consumer perception

Ensure you’re cognizant of how your clients and their customers perceive AI use so you can create appropriate communication around this topic. 

While consumers still hold a lot of distrust for machine-backed processes and AI in general, many recognize the benefit of these tools in marketing. In fact, as of 2023, around 15 percent of people aged 18 to 44 said they found AI-generated images on social media compelling, and many Americans approve of businesses using AI to help create basic content like product descriptions (Statista).

Being as transparent about AI use as possible while casting it in a positive light to help clients and consumers understand the benefits—and how you work to protect their interests—is important. 

Data privacy and ethical considerations in AI marketing

Whether you’re offering a white label software solution or managing third-party AI processes for clients, make sure you understand the privacy rights of your clients and their customers. Consider how you can protect those rights while using AI. It’s also a good idea to work with your team to think about any ethical concerns that AI might pose for your brand and how you can approach them to protect your reputation while supporting efficiency.

Image source: Vendasta

Tools for operating an AI marketing agency

• AI copywriting tools. Content creation tools include GPTs that can help you brainstorm, outline, and write as well as spellcheck, grammar, and QA tools. Some examples include ChatGPT and Grammarly.
• AI image tools. You can use AI to find appropriate stock images, create graphs and charts, or make new images from text prompts. Examples include DALL-E and Adobe’s Firefly.
• AI video tools. AI can help you edit video or add important elements such as full transcripts to media. Examples include Descript and Opus Clip.
• AI SEO tools. SEO AI tools help you understand what keywords and other factors to add to copy to help search performance. Examples include Clearscope and Sitechecker.
• AI data tools. AI data tools can help you consider massive quantities of data and draw relevant, practical insights from it. Examples include Tableau and Microsoft Azure Machine Learning. 
• Automation tools. Automated workflows help support greater productivity and efficiency. Examples include Vendasta and Hubspot.

Potential services you can offer as an AI marketing agency(1300)

As an AI marketing agency, the services you offer potential clients will be similar to those a traditional digital agency offers. However, you can provide these services at a scale that may not be possible with traditional human-powered processes. You can also offer unique services related to AI integrations.

Some services to consider adding to your lineup as you integrate AI include:

• Managing campaigns for social media marketing. You can leverage AI to help clients consistently post on social media, engage with followers, and target the right audiences with the right messages at just the right time.
• Offering white label software. Partner with solutions like those from Vendasta to offer white label AI software solutions to your clients without a lot of internal work on your part.
• Helping clients make money with AI art. Help clients leverage AI image tools to add revenue lines with art or graphics.
• Customer segmentation. Use AI tools to expertly segment client audiences to support higher conversion rates and better marketing performance. 
• Chatbot development. Help clients create custom chatbots to nurture leads and provide optimal customer experiences. 
• Personalized marketing campaigns. Enhance client marketing campaigns with personalizations that speak to the needs of each potential customer. 

Why is it important to build a strong brand?

Whether you’re leveraging AI to enhance your own agency growth or to support your clients, building strong foundations is critical to overall success. Before you install AI-powered processes into your marketing efforts, you must be sure you (or your client) has a strong brand. Here’s why:

• Your AI-powered efforts need boundaries. You need a specific guide for setting up AI marketing efforts so that they remain helpful and relevant. The mission, vision, and values of a brand offer that guide.
• Any marketing efforts work better when you have a good base to lay them on. This is especially true when you’re first launching AI integrations and everything may not be perfect. Existing audiences are often willing to “roll with the punches” if they already have a strong relationship with the brand.

Scale your agency with AI marketing tools

Starting an AI agency begins with choosing a niche, gathering the tools you need, and marketing your services. Scaling your AI marketing agency beyond your first few clients requires consistency and commitment. You’ll need to:

• Expand your team. AI efforts still require human intervention. You’ll need team members that are tech-savvy and know about both AI and marketing as you grow.
• Invest in research and development. As an AI marketing agency, you’re half marketing firm, half tech company. To scale, you’ll need to continue to invest in technology advancements. 
• Remain up-to-date with AI advancements. You and your team must keep up with the quickly changing landscape of AI, and specifically AI in marketing, to remain relevant to clients.