406. AI Marketer 👾
What even is an AI marketer ... and how to become one
Hi there 👋
Interested in which Super Bowl commercials were the best this year? I’m sending this newsletter during the Big Game (today, Sunday, February 12), so it’s too early to know the official results. But you can bookmark USA Today’s Ad Meter, which will have the Top Ten commercials ranked for you soon after the game ends. My money’s on Squarespace, Doritos, or anything with Maya Rudolph in it.
It’ll be hard to beat last year’s Coinbase commercial! (Or will it?)
Kevan
(ᵔᴥᵔ)
Thank you for being part of this newsletter. Each week, I share playbooks, case studies, stories, and links from inside the startup marketing world and my time at Oyster, Buffer, and more.
Say hi anytime at hello@kevanlee.com. I’d love to hear from you.
Do you have what it takes to be an AI Marketer?
AI is everywhere these days, so it should be no surprise that it’s begun to seep into our job descriptions as well.
Check out this job from Tomorrow.io, a climate tech startup that provides weather intelligence tools to companies (which is super cool, btw).
The specifics:
AI Marketing Specialist
Stay up-to-date on the latest developments in AI/related technologies to catapult our go-to-market organization forward at scale
Create, manage, and distribute content across various marketing channels (website, social media, email campaigns)
Envision the next iteration of Tomorrow.io's social media presence across channels (LinkedIn, Twitter, Meta, etc.) utilizing AI technologies such as natural language processing and machine learning
Support our event marketing strategy with content & coordination for in-person and virtual formats
According to the job description, the skills and experience required for this role are a passion for AI and technology, 1-2 years of experience in B2B SaaS, experience in content marketing, and being a creative thinker and good communicator.
I first heard about this job from Meghan Keaney Anderson, the Head of Marketing for Jasper.ai, one of the premier AI startups that has been helping marketers be AI marketers for several years now. Meghan linked to a post from Tomorrow.io’s CMO Dan Slagan who pitched the AI Marketer role like this:
Let’s be honest, the future of marketing is knowing how to use AI to 1+1=3 everything. Knowing when to push AI further, knowing when to back off and be more human, but overall embracing the fact that thinking AI first before doing anything is the best way to 10x impact.
Want to apply for the job?
You can do so here.
Want to become an AI Marketer? Keep reading!
How to become an AI Marketer
When I read the Tomorrow.io job description for the AI Marketing Specialist role, I can’t help but think it sounds a lot like a content marketing specialist. You’re creating content for the website, for emails, and for social media. The difference is that you should be using AI tools to be ultra creative and efficient.
I would argue that we all should be using AI tools to be ultra creative and efficient, regardless of our roles. Content marketers, product marketers, VP marketings, you name it.
In many ways, AI is more of a mindset than it is a toolset.
Again, I think that AI literacy will be a prerequisite for pretty much any marketing job across the org. We will all be AI marketers of a sort. But if you want to really stand out as an AI marketer — and chase those cool, hip AI Marketer roles — you’ve got to do a couple of things:
Think AI-first
Become an AI wizard
Know when to be human
Thinking AI-first requires a shift in how you start projects.
Do you need to brainstorm 10 variations of ad copy? Ask ChatGPT. Do you need a header image for your email or blog post? See if an AI tool can get you started. Facing the tyranny of the blank page when you’re writing a memo or crafting a blog post draft? Why not let AI give you a hand (Notion AI just saved my bacon).
Then from a pure skills perspective, just like we all had to become Slack experts and Asana pros, the best marketers will need to be become AI wizards.
Take, for example, my TikTok “For You” page, which used to be full of silly dog videos (example here, here, and here) but is now a feed of AI tips and tricks.
There are AI influencers now!
(My shock and awe probably belies how late I am to the AI party.)
The AI pros know the precise phrases to use and questions to ask in order to get quick and powerful results from the AI. ChatGPT, which is an open book when it comes to what you can ask it, requires a certain type of conversation to truly unlock its potential.
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And on top of being a wizard with how you use the tools, you should also become a wizard with what tool to use in what instance. Here’s a list of 10 cool ones, again from a TikTok video I saw :)
Solves anything - ChatGPT
Writes anything - Jasper.ai
Create talking avatar - Synthesia
Generate art from text - Dall-E
Writes essays - Jenni.ai
Note taking - Fireflies
Text-to-speech - Murf
Multipurpose chatbot - Chatbot Live
Copywriting - Copy.ai
Creative ad testing - Smartly
I can imagine a future when an AI Marketer case study looks a lot more like a technical interview for an engineering role. I would want to sit down with my AI Marketer candidate and see how they do the work in real-time. Are they resourceful? Are they fast? Are they advanced?
But then the last and most important element of being a great AI marketer is knowing the limits of AI and recognizing the importance of humanity, authenticity, personality, and style. AI will never be the answer for everything. For many brands, AI won’t be the answer for most things. As Dan Slagan said in his pitch for the AI marketer role, it remains vitally important to …
Know when to push AI further, know when to back off and be more human
About this newsletter …
Hi, I’m Kevan, a marketing exec based in Boise, Idaho, who specializes in startup marketing and brand-building. I currently lead the marketing team at Oyster. I previously built brands at Buffer, Vox, and Polly. Each week, I share playbooks, case studies, stories, and links from inside the startup marketing world. Not yet subscribed? No worries. You can check out the archive, or sign up below:
Thank you for being here! 🙇♂️
I’m lucky to count folks from great brands like these (and many more) as part of this newsletter community.
