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FEATURE
AI and the Future of Marketing
by David Lee King
| The trick is to view AI as simply a tool to aid you in the creative process, rather than a comprehensive solution. |
AI can seem like a double-edged sword. It’s cutting-edge technology that can slash your workload but could kill accuracy and quality when wielded incorrectly. The trick is to view AI as simply a tool to aid you in the creative process, rather than a comprehensive solution. AI can be particularly helpful with a library’s promotional efforts, so this article explores how a variety of AI tools can help to boost marketing and promotional strategies, from enhancing content creation to streamlining social media strategy.
Writing With AI
A significant part of any library’s marketing plan involves writing, and AI tools can be a game-changer. These tools can assist with everything from brainstorming to proofreading.
Brainstorming
Starting a new writing project can be tough. You might brainstorm with a co-worker, bouncing ideas around until something sticks. Think of an AI tool as that creative partner. By using a simple text prompt, you can ask an AI assistant such as ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, or Microsoft’s Copilot to generate ideas. For example, if you need to create 10 short Facebook ads for a new service, you can provide the AI tool with details about the new service and ask it to draft some short, fun Facebook ads. The results from the AI assistant might not be perfect, but it will be a good starting point and can spark new ideas, saving you valuable time.
Outlining and Drafting Content
Are you stuck on how to start a blog post? Ask an AI assistant to create an outline based on your topic and main points. This gives you a structure to build from. Once you have an outline, you can go a step further and ask the AI tool to create a first draft based on the outline. You can take that draft, edit and refine it, and fill in any missing details to make it your own.
Editing and Proofreading
It’s really a better practice, producing better results, if you do the initial writing. Then paste your article into the AI tool, and ask it to proofread and edit your work. Beyond the usual checks for spelling and grammar, you can also ask the AI assistant to shorten or lengthen an article, adjust things such as tone of voice, or rephrase content to make it more readable.
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Since I’m writing about using AI assistants to help with generating marketing copy, I decided to experiment with AI tools. To start, I wrote a rough draft of this article based on my own outline. Next, I pasted my rough draft into both ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini AI assistants and asked them to edit the article. My prompt was this: “Can you clean up this very rough draft of an article and make it readable and cohesive? Also, make the introduction and the conclusion sound better. Here’s the article draft” (see the image above). I then rewrote this article based on the suggestions I was provided (using my own words). The process helped me quickly clean up my initial rough draft. After that, my wife (a professional editor), who usually gives my articles a once-over before I send them off, mentioned that I should rewrite the introduction and make the mention of the “double-edged sword” a stronger lead-in to the rest of the article. The AI tool definitely sped things up, but AI tools (at least not yet) are not good substitutes for human input and creativity.
Creating Personas
Would you like to test an idea before launch? You can use an AI assistant to help create and interact with customer personas. A persona is a fictional character based on research about the customer segments for your marketing campaign goals. Personas are often named and given a background. For example, you might create Melissa, a 35-year-old parent who loves to read new mystery novels and tends to look for family-oriented activities. After creating your persona, you can roleplay with the AI assistant, asking it questions and having it respond as Melissa. This allows you to capture feedback on your marketing campaign and can provide insights on how to refine your marketing strategy.
AI for Graphic Design and Images
Your marketing team has been manipulating images for years—cropping, resizing, adjusting color, and removing blemishes. AI tools built into graphic design software help graphic designers perform these routine tasks faster. Let’s look at a few popular tools that incorporate AI features.
Adobe Creative Cloud
Adobe Creative Cloud (adobe.com) has integrated some powerful AI tools into its products, including Generative Fill and Generative Expand in Adobe Photoshop, Text to Image in Adobe Firefly, Generative Recolor in Adobe Illustrator, and Generate Text Effects in Adobe Express.
Adobe Firefly
Adobe Firefly (adobe.com/products/firefly.html) is a newer, dedicated AI app that can generate images and video clips from a text prompt, create sound effects, translate the language in a video, turn an image into a video clip, and even develop mood boards.
Canva
Canva (canva.com) has integrated a suite of AI tools to assist with graphic design needs (see the image above). You can use a generative AI text box to create images and even draft documents. Some people use Canva to produce reports, including text, charts, and graphs. Features such as “Design for me” can generate a variety of materials, such as postcards, logos, fliers, and presentations from a text prompt. Canva also offers AI-powered tools for photo editing, such as an image enhancer and a face-swap feature, along with AI-generated audio for video projects.
Designs.ai
Designs.ai (designs.ai) is similar to Canva, and you can use the power of AI to create graphics, videos, and logos. It offers a variety of design templates, such as social media post templates and book covers, and includes an AI writing app, a face swapper, and an image-to-text tool that creates captions based on the image provided.
AI for Video Production
Video is an essential part of modern online marketing and promotion, and AI tools can help streamline and strengthen your library’s video content. Let’s look at a few AI video tools.
CapCut
CapCut (capcut.com) is an AI-powered video editor packed with features, including a video translator that translates into different languages, a way to resize and crop video clips, motion tracking, a greenscreen editor, and a background noise remover. It can turn longer videos into video shorts with one click. One of its most powerful features is transcript-based editing, which allows you to edit a video by simply editing its automatically generated transcript. It can also identify and remove filler words and speech gaps.
Submagic
Submagic (submagic.co) focuses on using AI to create short-form videos for platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok (see the image below). Submagic uses AI to automatically add captions to your videos, convert long videos into shorts, and remove silence and filler words. It even has a feature that can “correct” a person’s eyes to make it appear as if they are always looking directly into the camera, instead of looking off-camera at a script.
MotionArray
MotionArray (motionarray.com) is a subscription-based app that provides a wide range of video tools, including stock footage, motion graphics, music, sound effects, photos, templates, presets, and plugins. My library—Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library—uses MotionArray to help with video creation. We recently started using MotionArray’s AI voice generator feature, which allows you to choose from a variety of voices, then simply enter your text into the text prompt to turn it into a voiceover audio file. You also have the ability to change the speed and emotion of the voice. From there, download the audio file, and add it to your video. We have used this feature for video voice narration, and it works well.
HeyGen
HeyGen (heygen.com) is an AI video generator that uses realistic avatars and voices. I just signed up for its free account to try it and found that it’s very easy to use. You can create a video by providing text, choosing an avatar, and selecting a voice. Then HeyGen generates the entire video for you. This is a great option for educational content or explainer videos or for situations in which you don’t have a staff member who is comfortable on camera.
Social Media
Most of the tools and services already mentioned can be used to support social media content creation. There are also platforms specifically designed to help manage your library’s social media presence. Let’s explore a few options.
Buffer
Buffer (buffer.com) is a social media management tool that my library uses to schedule posts and to reply to comments, as well as for analytics. Buffer also has some powerful AI tools. For example, its AI Assistant (buffer.com/ai-assistant) can help you brainstorm ideas, rewrite content, and create platform-specific posts. It functions like a specialized version of ChatGPT that’s focused on the unique needs of social media marketing. Buffer’s social media post generator (buffer.com/ai-assistant/social-media-post-creator) appears to be a freemium tool. You can add text into the text prompt box, and Buffer will rewrite it into promotional-sounding copy that can be used for social media posts. When you click Save, you are taken to an account sign-up page. But this tool is still a great place to start.
Hootsuite and Sprout Social
Hootsuite (hootsuite.com) and Sprout Social (sproutsocial .com) are competitors to Buffer and offer AI features for writing posts, optimizing timing, and analyzing performance. One of Hootsuite’s powerful new AI features is OwlyGPT. Hootsuite calls this “the only social media AI assistant built for social pros” (hootsuite.com/platform/ai-assistant). OwlyGPT pulls content from your organization’s social media conversations and from social media listening tools such as Talkwalker to help you create focused, timely, and engaging content. Sprout Social (sproutsocial.com/ai) embeds AI tools across its platform. It combines its own dataset with other large language models, such as OpenAI and Claude, to help you create content and quickly gain insights into your customers’ interests.
No Substitute for Human Creativity
We’ve explored how AI tools can assist with creating text, images, video, and social media content for your library’s marketing efforts. While these tools are incredibly powerful, they don’t replace the need for human creativity. You are still the one wielding the sword—you own the content, craft the final message, and bring your library’s unique marketing and promotion vision to life. By experimenting with these new tools, you can not only save time, but also push your design and content creation to the next level. AI isn’t here to replace you—it’s here to empower you to do what you do best: create amazing content for your community.
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