287: How to use AI for Marketing Strategy

Send us a text

How to Use AI for Marketing Strategy (Without Losing Your Voice)

In this episode of Imperfect Marketing, host Kendra Corman tackles a hot-button topic: AI in marketing strategy. Is it a game-changer, a gimmick, or something in between? If you've ever rolled your eyes at those five-minute "AI builds your business" TikToks—or felt overwhelmed trying to organize your strategy—you’re not alone.

Kendra shares a refreshingly balanced take on using AI as a powerful marketing assistant, not a replacement. She walks you through her own process using her AI partner "Suzy Strategy," and how this dynamic duo transformed pages of chaotic meeting notes into a streamlined, strategic roadmap for a client.

In this episode, we cover:

AI Myths vs. Reality

• Why AI won’t build your business from scratch (and that’s a good thing)
• The danger of unrealistic expectations (spoiler: it's not a magic wand)
• What AI can do that saves you hours every week

How to Use AI as a Marketing Partner

• Kendra’s real-life example of AI helping build a client strategy
• How her AI partner “Suzy” helps identify patterns, structure ideas, and save time
• Why the last 10-20% of human input is what makes content exceptional

A Practical Framework for Building Strategy with AI

• Start with what you know: your customers, their pain points, your insights
• Use AI to prompt clarifying questions and surface blind spots
• Tap AI for research, trend analysis, and content structuring
• Always refine and personalize: add your voice, stories, and expertise

Key Takeaways for Marketers:

• AI is a tool, not a miracle. It’s a screwdriver, not the whole kitchen table.
• Use AI to amplify, not replace, your expertise.
• The best strategies come from a partnership between human insight and machine support.

Whether you’re skeptical about AI or curious how to use it more strategically, this episode offers a grounded, practical approach to integrating AI into your marketing workflow—without losing your authenticity.

If you found this episode helpful, share it with a fellow marketer or entrepreneur!
Don’t forget to rate, review, and subscribe so you never miss an episode.

🎧 Imperfect Marketing — because imperfect action always beats perfect inaction.

Looking to leverage AI? Want better results? Want to think about what you want to leverage?

Check and see how I am using it for FREE on YouTube.

From "Holy cow, it can do that?" to "Wait, how does this work again?" – I've got all your AI curiosities covered. It's the perfect after-podcast snack for your tech-hungry brain.

Watch here

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, I'm Kendra Korman .
If you're a coach, consultantor marketer, you know marketing
is far from a perfect science,and that's why this show is
called Imperfect Marketing.
Join me and my guests as weexplore how to grow your
business, with marketing tipsand, of course, lessons learned
along the way.
Hello and welcome back toImperfect Marketing.

(00:34):
I'm your host, kendra Korman,and today I am going to be
talking about something thatseems to be on a lot of people's
minds AI for marketing strategy.
So I got this email the otherday.
That was a rant.
The top line was AI sucks, andit was really about how AI sucks
for marketing and your businessand everything in between, and
while reading it, I found myselfnodding my head to some of it,

(00:57):
but definitely shaking my headat the rest.
The rest.
The email was basically callingout I'm going to say those
TikTok videos that used to showup on my For you page that
basically said AI is going tobuild your business and it can
do all of your marketing andjust tell it who you're
targeting and it'll come up witha downloadable and everything

(01:20):
else to go with it.
Right?
I get the frustration, butconversations around AI seem to
be one or the other.
Right, it's going to take ourjobs and replace us, or it's
completely useless and coming upwith mediocre drivel.
And I have a more balancedperspective.

(01:41):
Okay, and I feel like we'reeither selling it short or
expecting it to do more than itcan at this point, and I don't
like either of those answers.
Okay, ai saved me 30 to 40hours a week, which is insane.
It doesn't seem like it shouldbe real, yet it does.

(02:02):
Doesn't seem like it should bereal, yet it does.
So let's talk about how AI canenhance and assist you in
creating your marketing strategy, not by taking over your
business or recreating it orcreating products for you, but
working alongside you as apowerful tool Just a different

(02:23):
way to think about it.
So let me share a bit from thisemail that I received, and I'm
going to read some of this, sobear with me.
The author wrote AI won't buildme a new business, or you or
anyone.
Now we're all surrounded by aslew of fake, mediocre content
posing as empathy, sympathy andopportunity.
You know what?

(02:43):
Sympathy and opportunity?
You know what?
It's not entirely wrong.
Ai alone is not going to buildyour business, and there
absolutely is a flood ofmediocre AI content out there
for people that aren't using itthe correct way.
The writer also said myscrewdriver won't build me a new

(03:04):
kitchen table.
You're right 100%.
But that's where I disagree.
Right, the screwdriver is notgoing to build you your entire
kitchen table by itself, butthat doesn't mean it's not an
incredibly useful tool in theprocess.
You might not be able to buildyour kitchen table without a
screwdriver, right?

(03:24):
The problem isn't with AIitself.
It's how it's being used, andsome of the people are using it
with unrealistic expectationsbeing set.
There was somebody who was likeget a complete marketing
strategy or, you know, grow yourbusiness to $10,000 a day in

(03:46):
five minutes with AI.
Sorry, to burst your bubble.
That is not realistic.
Marketing is not magic, andneither is AI, although
sometimes it does feel like itis.
All AI can do is amplify yourefforts, speed up certain
processes, organize yourthoughts and maybe sometimes
help you see things from adifferent angle.

(04:07):
I actually have an AI marketingpartner.
Her name is Susie, susieStrategy actually.
Susie has about 20 plus yearsof marketing experience, a
built-in.
She knows the classics fromcontent marketing expert Joe
Paluzzi, marketing legend SethGodin, writing guru Anne Handley
and many others in the digitalmarketing space.

(04:27):
But Susie doesn't run mybusiness.
I direct her focus, I providethe inputs and make the
decisions.
She is a partner, not areplacement for my experience
and expertise.
So let me give you a realexample of how this partnership
with Susie works.
After a client discovery session, I had pages and pages of notes

(04:49):
also known as transcript fromfathomvideo but I was struggling
to organize them into acoherent strategy because there
were so many ideas, goals,challenges.
It felt a little bitoverwhelming to have that a 90
minute meeting in a transcript,right, and I needed to structure

(05:13):
it in a way that made sense andreally cut down to what they
truly meant and were getting atwhich.
I had some ideas because, again, we had a conversation right.
So I had some ideas and I knewa little bit about what I was
getting into, but that was aboutit.
So again, I asked Susie to helpme categorize the information,
identify some potentialstrategic pillars, find patterns

(05:37):
and connections.
That's what she does.
Well.
She helped structure everythingokay into four clear focus
areas, suggested connectionsbetween them, and at least one
of them I had missed in myanalysis.
When I presented what I came upwith to the client and I, they

(06:01):
actually said wow, this isreally well organized.
I loved how you got to thebottom of this, because we sort
of felt a little disjointed andthey were disjointed, but I was
actually able to offer themclarity and Susie was able to
help me along the way.
Did Susie do the strategy?
No, my questions, my thoughts,their responses that's what

(06:23):
built the strategy, not AI.
Ai probably saved me 10, 12hours on the strategy, right
Going through typing, organizingthings like that.
That's a lot of work.
So, even though I had anoutline and knew a little bit
about where I was headed withthem, susie was able to help me

(06:45):
focus it even more.
So, again, I made those finaldecisions.
I actually edited a couple ofthings that Susie had that I
didn't agree with.
This was way faster than Icould have done it alone.
That's the power of AI.
When it's used correctly, itenhances capabilities, it
doesn't replace them.
Now, when you're thinking aboutAI and marketing and marketing

(07:08):
strategy, I want you to thinkabout AI getting you 80 to 90%
of the way there.
That 10 to 20%, that's whatmakes all of the difference in
this world.
Now let me explain what I mean.
Ai can draft content, analyzedata, organize information,
suggest ideas.
It cannot replace your uniquebusiness knowledge.

(07:31):
Ai doesn't know your company'shistory, internal dynamics or
unwritten rules.
Your understanding of yourcustomer needs it can't replace.
It hasn't had thoseconversations with those
customers that you've had.
It hasn't heard the emotion intheir voice or noticed the
hesitation when discussingcertain topics.
It can duplicate your brand,voice and personality.

(07:54):
It can mimic a tone right, butauthentic personality comes from
real experiences and values.
Your strategic decision makingis what it can't duplicate.
It can present options, but itdoesn't truly understand risk,
opportunity, cost or intuitionbased on years of experience in

(08:17):
your industry.
That's important.
You have experience that AI mayknow of written down on paper,
but it's not going to come upwith a new idea.
That's all you.
I often see a stark differencebetween AI generated content and
the final version after humanrefinement.
For example, when I ask AI towrite about marketing automation

(08:40):
, it could produce a technicallyaccurate article that covers
all the basics.
It could produce a technicallyaccurate article that covers all
the basics, but it doesn'tinclude that story about how you
helped a specific client useautomation and reclaim 15 hours
of their week.
It's not going to reference theunique challenges your
particular audience faces withimplementation that human touch,
those real world examples andstories.

(09:02):
That's the 10 to 20% that turnsmediocre content into something
valuable and distinctive.
So how would I recommend thatyou create a marketing strategy
with AI?
Well, here's my practicalapproach.
First, start with what you know.
What problem do you solve?
Who are your customers?
What are they trying to achieve?

(09:24):
What challenges are they facing?
What's keeping them up at night?
That you can help them with AI?
Yeah, it can make up answers tothis, but it can't answer these
questions for you, not in theway that you need to to build a
marketing strategy.
It can help give you a form anda focus and help you organize

(09:45):
all of it, which will save youhours and hours and hours of
time, but it's not going to doit all for you.
Okay, this knowledge, thisinformation, these insights,
they have to come from you.
Second, use AI to ask clarifyingquestions.
I love asking AI what else doyou need to know?

(10:05):
Or how can I help you do thisbest?
Right, because sometimes we areso close to our business that
we miss asking importantquestions or we miss giving
information because it's in ourhead.
Ai can prompt you with thingslike have you considered your
secondary audience?
What metrics will indicatesuccess in this strategy?

(10:26):
Those types of questions thatsometimes we know the answer to
right.
We just don't put it down onpaper and if, when you're
building a strategy, it reallyhelps to have it there.
Finally, or third I should say,ai can be used for research and
trend analysis and trendidentification.

(10:47):
Ask it to summarize recentdevelopments in your industry or
identify patterns acrosssuccessful competitors.
Perplexity is a really good onefor this and can help you do
that.
Fourth, have AI organize andstructure your ideas.
This is where I find it mostvaluable.
I can just give it a brain dumpright, feed it my thoughts,

(11:09):
data, insights and ask it tohelp me find connections and
create a structured approachthat will give me that direction
.
Oh, by the way, I came up withthat direction already, which is
fine, but this will help takeit to the next level.
Finally, and this is absolutelyessential, review, refine and
inject your personality,experience and ideas.

(11:31):
Add those customer stories,include your unique insights,
ensure the strategy aligns withyour brand, voice and values.
This approach is not going toget you a full proof marketing
strategy in five minutes or less.
That's just not realistic.
But if you understand yourbusiness, your customers and
have ideas of your own.
Ai can shave hours, dozens ofhours off the process and maybe

(11:56):
give you a perspective that youhadn't considered before.
So where does this leave us?
Ai is not the magic marketingpill.
It's also not useless.
It's a tool, a powerful one,when used correctly.
If you're completely ignoringAI in your marketing efforts, I
hate to say it, but you'reprobably falling behind, not

(12:19):
because AI is doing everythingbetter right or that you're
doing everything better byyourself, but because your
competitors, who are using itstrategically, have an
efficiency advantage, and timeis one of our most valuable
resources.
Those five-minute marketingstrategies are going to be
generic at best and potentiallyharmful at worst, and it can be

(12:40):
harmful because it might goagainst your brand.
The sweet spot is using AI as apartner, while maintaining your
strategic vision, your uniquevoice, your unique experience
and ideas.
So start small.
Use it to help you organizeyour thoughts, generate ideas
based on your input, or draftcontent that you can refine.

(13:03):
If you want a more structuredapproach, you can check out my
content creation roadmap thatwalks you through exactly how to
integrate AI into your contentdevelopment process while
maintaining quality andauthenticity, which is important
.
You can find it on my websiteat KendraCormancom.

(13:23):
Forward slash playbook.
Thank you so much for tuning into today's episode of Imperfect
Marketing.
Remember, good marketing isn'tabout finding magical shortcuts.
It's about connectingauthentically with your audience
and providing genuine value.
Ai can help with that process,but it cannot replace the human
connection at the heart of greatmarketing.

(13:45):
It can't.
If you found this episodehelpful, please share it with a
fellow marketer or businessowner who might be wrestling
with how to be using AIeffectively.
Be sure to rate and subscribewherever you're listening or
watching so you don't miss anepisode.
Until next time, this is KendraKorman, reminding you that
imperfect marketing beats outperfect inaction.

(14:08):
Every time, take care and havea great rest of your day.