Sometimes those ideas just won’t come to a writer. They need some extra help, some outside of the box ideas. We are here to share some fun content ideas that will hopefully create some good engagement for your social media channels.

Idea #1: Employee Spotlights

Employee spotlights are a great way to showcase the best and brightest members of your team. By highlighting their unique contributions to the company, you can help boost morale, foster a positive work environment, and even attract new talent to your organization.

Social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram offer an opportunity for businesses to highlight their employees’ achievements, share their stories and promote their expertise. By featuring your employees on social media, you can demonstrate that you value their contributions and create a sense of community within your organization.

Additionally, sharing your employees’ accomplishments can help to build trust and credibility with your outside of the office audience. When your followers see that your employees are knowledgeable and passionate about their work, they are more likely to trust your brand and become loyal customers. When they get to know the employees a bit more, they become real instead of just workers behind the scenes. This can help build a more united marriage of purchasing power for the buyer as they know their purchase is helping these employees too.

Posting about your employees on social media can also help to attract top talent to your organization. By showcasing your company culture and the accomplishments of your employees, you can position your business as an attractive place to work and attract candidates who share your values and goals.

Overall, featuring your employees on social media can be a powerful tool for building your brand, strengthening your community, growing engagement and attracting top talent to your organization.

Idea #2: Company Culture

Company culture is an essential part of any successful business. It defines the values, beliefs, and behaviors that guide how work gets done. Positive company culture can attract and retain top talent, increase employee engagement, and ultimately lead to better business results. One way to showcase your company culture is through social media. By sharing posts that highlight your company’s values and personality, you can create a strong brand identity and connect with your audience.

Here are a few ideas for posts that can show off your company culture:

• Share photos or videos from company events, such as team-building activities, volunteer work, or celebrations.
• Highlight individual employees or teams who are doing great work or embodying your company values (see Idea #1).
• Share stories or testimonials from customers or partners who have had positive experiences with your company.
• Show off your company’s unique office space, perks, or amenities.
• Share blog posts, articles, or videos that align with your company values or interests.

Remember, the key to showcasing your company culture on social media is authenticity. Don’t be afraid to show your personality and let your values shine through. By doing so, you can attract like-minded customers and employees who will help your business thrive.

Idea #3: This or That Posts

“This or That” posts are a great way to engage your audience and encourage them to interact with your social media content. These posts typically present the audience with two options and ask them to choose between them. Here are a few tips for creating effective “This or That” posts:

1. Keep it simple: Make sure your options are clear and easy to understand. Avoid using complex language or confusing terminology.
2. Stay on-brand: Make sure your options are relevant to your brand and audience. For example, if you’re a food blogger, you might ask your audience to choose between pizza or tacos.
3. Use visuals: Including images or graphics with your post can make it more eye-catching and encourage more engagement.
4. Keep it fun: “This or That” posts are a great opportunity to inject some personality and humor into your social media content. Don’t be afraid to get creative and have fun with your options!

“This or That” posts are a great way to spark conversation and engagement with your audience. Just remember to keep it simple, relevant, and fun!

Idea #4: Milestone Posts

Milestone posts on social media are a great way to celebrate your company’s achievements and engage with your followers. While they might seem a bit self-serving, they are a great way to allow your followers to easily engage and connect with you. Here are some tips on how to write effective milestone posts:

1. Start with a catchy headline: Grab the attention of your audience with a headline that highlights your achievement. For example, “We’ve reached 10,000 followers on Instagram!” or “Celebrating 5 years in business!”
2. Share the story behind the milestone: People love to hear the story behind your success. Share what led to this milestone and any challenges you faced along the way. This will make your post more relatable and humanize your brand.
3. Include visuals: Visuals are a great way to make your milestone post stand out. Share photos or videos that showcase your achievement. You can also create graphics or infographics that highlight your stats.
4. Thank your followers: Your milestone wouldn’t be possible without the support of your followers. Make sure to thank them for their support and let them know how much you appreciate them.
5. Call to action: Encourage your followers to engage with your post by asking them to share their own stories or thoughts in the comments. This will help increase engagement and build a sense of community around your brand.

By following these tips, you can create effective milestone posts that resonate with your followers.

The Bottom Line

Content doesn’t always have to be super serious, but it can be fun! Marketing can be a lot of fun, and it’s a great way to get creative and showcase your brand’s personality. When done right, marketing can be an engaging and entertaining way to connect with your audience and increase brand awareness.

One of the most fun aspects of marketing is coming up with creative campaigns and ideas. Whether it’s a funny video, a catchy slogan, or an interactive social media campaign, there are endless possibilities for making marketing both entertaining and effective. Plus, it’s always satisfying to see your hard work pay off with increased engagement and sales. Good luck growing those social media pages and creating fun content along the way!

Social media burnout is a real phenomenon that affects individuals who spend an excessive amount of time on social media platforms. It can lead to a range of negative consequences such as decreased productivity, anxiety, depression, and even physical health problems. While there is no official diagnosis for social media burnout, it is important to recognize the need to take a break from social media from time to time.

However, for people who need to use social media for their business or job, walking away just can’t happen. As a business owner, social media can be super stressful and sometimes not fun. As a marketer, it is our responsibility to make sure we can help to take that pressure off of your shoulders and get you back to the parts of your business that you do think are fun. If you aren’t ready to delegate social media tasks to a marketing agency, we completely understand. So instead, here are 3 tips from a professional marketing team who specializes in social media to help prevent burn out and to keep social media fun!

Signs of Social Media Burnout

In today’s digital age, it’s easy to get caught up in the world of social media. While it can be a great way to connect with others and stay informed about the world around us, it’s important to recognize that social media burnout is real. Some signs that you may be experiencing social media burnout include: 

• Feeling anxious or stressed when you are not able to access social media

• Feeling overwhelmed or exhausted from the constant stream of information

• Experiencing a decrease in productivity or creativity

• Feeling like you are not able to keep up with the demands of social media

• Decreased engagement with friends and family

• Feeling negative or cynical about social media

• Experiencing physical symptoms like headaches or eye strain

If you are experiencing any of these symptoms, it may be time to take a break from social media or to reevaluate your relationship with it. Here are some ways to detox from social media.

Set Boundaries

Setting social media boundaries and goals can help to increase productivity in other areas of your life rather than social media. The first thing you can do is to set a realistic goal of how you’d like to decrease your time spent on social media. Whether you want to decrease it by hours, days or weeks, set a goal that you can track and achieve. During the workday, block out time in your calendar to focus on the most important work tasks and do not go on social media at this time. If possible, shut off your phone during those times or at least put it on Do Not Disturb or silent. Make sure your notifications are off for all apps and your email is silenced during this time. Set times for when you feel it is appropriate to scroll through social media. If social media is a task that you need to accomplish for work, but you find yourself getting distracted by it while trying to do work, set a timer for how long you think it should take you to complete the tasks at hand. If your timer goes off before the task is completed, this is a sign that you got distracted and you need to try again.

Allow for Downtime

Social media doesn’t need to happen everyday at a specific time. It is 100% fine if you do not post everyday. In fact, it is just unnecessary. If you are starting to feel burned out, allow for downtime with your social media. Tell your friends and family that you are going to take a break. If social media is a part of your job, and you haven’t tried a scheduling tool, give that a try. Schedule out maybe two weeks worth of posts and then step away. Recharge. Once the two weeks have passed, see if you feel better. You might be surprised how much, or rather how little, you miss out on when you are offline.

Ask for Help

If the task of social media is not your forte of your business, ask for help! This might be the perfect time to seek out a marketing agency to delegate this task to. Once the agency learns how you prefer your social media to be run, they can just take the ball and literally run with it! The level of involvement really depends on you!

The Bottom Line

There is not a one-size-fits-all way to prevent or help with social media burnout. Taking a break from social media can be a great way to reduce stress, increase productivity, and improve overall well-being. If you are a business owner and don’t love social media, please reach out to us and let’s have a discussion as it can be a very valuable tool that we would hate for you to be missing out on. 

Who scored some great deals a couple weeks ago during Amazon’s Prime Days? Walmart, Target, Kohl’s and a whole bunch of other retailers rode the coattails of one of Amazon’s biggest online sales days every year (besides Black Friday). Shoppers don’t even need to leave the comfort of their couch now to do all of their shopping. Even grocery stores deliver groceries right to your front steps. 

The emergence of online shopping has transformed the retail industry and has forced brick and mortar shopping centers to adjust their marketing strategies. In person shopping centers now need to focus on creating unique experiences for customers that cannot be replicated online. This includes offering a variety of entertainment options, hosting events, and providing personalized services. Additionally, brick and mortar shops need to enhance their online presence by developing user-friendly websites and social media pages that engage with customers. By adapting to the changing retail landscape, shopping centers can continue to attract and retain customers in the digital age. Here is how.

In Store Shopping at a Mall

Is there a mall near you? According to a report from Green Street, malls have experienced the sharpest decline in value among all commercial property types since 2018. From small stores to large retailers, malls were a big hit years ago. Now they seem to be dying faster than ever! Why? Likely because rent is higher than it has ever been, the trend is to shop closer to home and people are literally shopping at home on the Internet. It used to be a luxury of just mall walking and seeing what good things could be found, but now people have a mission, a true reason to go shopping. And thanks to the Internet, there isn’t a need to “waste” time walking around a mall. Stores that survived the mall era have moved out of the big complexes and into smaller strip mall areas.

Strip Malls/Strip Center/Strip Plaza

Ulta, Old Navy, Gap, Sephora, Macy’s and other well known mall stores have been moving to strip malls, also referred to as strip centers or strip plazas. Strip malls are open air retail developments that lack enclosed hallways. Instead, they consist of retail storefronts that are connected by common walkways. These storefronts are often arranged in a straight line, L-shaped, or U-shaped layout. They have large parking lots with spaces near whichever store you’d like to shop at and are typically closer to home rather than a big mall. 

There is a difference between buying and shopping which can also be seen as the difference between running errands and seeking out experiences. This can be linked to a mall and a strip mall. We know what we need to buy, so we just go buy it versus skimming the shelves. This change makes marketing for a mall very hard. There needs to be a reason to get consumers into the mall complex itself, plus ways to get them to visit multiple stores with multiple purchases. 

Online Shopping Versus In Store Shopping

The rise of mobile devices and easy access to the Internet has drastically changed consumer behavior in the past decade. Shopping habits have been revolutionized as a result.

To effectively market to consumers, it’s important to understand that the division between online and offline marketing is a myth. Consumers engage in both online and offline shopping, and it’s crucial to convey a consistent image across all channels. Adopting a multichannel marketing strategy is the best way to make a strong impact.

Shopping in an actual store is facing increasing competition from online shopping, which requires businesses to adapt and modify their offers regularly. To remain competitive, brick and mortar stores must evolve their marketing strategies, as content marketing and social media could be essential tools in this effort. Just because you have a brick and mortar store does not mean you can’t have an online store as well. In fact, you should have an online store no matter what!

The Bottom Line

The role of malls has evolved beyond just shopping. Consumers now visit malls to socialize and feel a sense of belonging. As such, malls should prioritize their function as centers for socializing and culture rather than just shopping. This means focusing on hosting events such as musical and artistic performances to attract the general public. Marketing efforts should also be tailored towards promoting these events and creating a welcoming and inclusive atmosphere.

Open-air shopping centers are becoming increasingly popular among consumers due to the convenience, safety, and selection they offer. This trend is expected to continue, leading to healthy lease demand for the next few years. In addition to these benefits, open-air centers provide retailers with more opportunities to connect with customers and build brand loyalty. As a result, traditional shopping malls that fail to evolve may struggle to survive in this changing retail landscape.

No matter if it is a mall, strip mall or online shopping experience, marketing is still important and can work for both entities. Having the marketing work together simultaneously can help grow sales and customer engagement. Expanding an online presence can attract new customers, while promotions and advertising can increase sales. Collecting contact details enables personalized communication and rewarding loyal customers can foster repeat business. Highlighting brands and products through giveaways and promotions can showcase your best offerings. In times of low consumption, employing deals and online campaigns can help revive interest. Even though there is an added expense associated with brick and mortar stores, the pleasures of shopping have not died and plenty of shoppers still enjoy the experience.

Have you ever played a game where the question has something to do with, “what color is this logo?” These types of games can be fun and challenging, and can test one’s visual perception and memory skills. They can also be a way to learn more about different brands and logos that we encounter in our daily lives. Usually there are reasons as to why a business chose the particular colors in their logo and that is very important to marketers. To ensure consistency and appeal to the target audience, businesses should follow color guidelines when choosing their brand colors. Here are some of those guidelines.

Why Are Colors Important?

Brand colors have several applications, including a company’s logo, website color scheme, social media channels, business card design, and print and digital ads. For brick-and-mortar businesses, brand colors can also be applied to the store design, staff uniforms, product packaging, and more.

Choosing the right colors for your brand is essential to showcase your brand identity. The colors you select should mirror your values and the message you want to convey to your audience. A well-thought-out color palette can help distinguish your brand from competitors and create a lasting impression on your customers.

Certain Colors Portray Certain Meanings

Colors matter with branding because they have a significant impact on how people perceive a brand. Different colors can evoke different emotions and feelings, and can even influence consumer behavior.

For example, blue is often associated with trust and reliability, while red can convey excitement and urgency. Green is often associated with nature and health, purple with luxury and creativity, and orange with energy and excitement. 

Consistent use of colors throughout a brand’s visual identity can help to increase brand recognition and awareness. Choosing the right colors for a brand can play a crucial role in shaping its image and communicating its values to consumers.

Primary Colors Versus Secondary Colors

There is no set rule for the number of colors that should be included in a brand’s color scheme. However, it is generally recommended to use no more than five colors to ensure consistency and simplicity. Ultimately, the number of colors used should align with the brand’s values and messaging.

In branding, primary colors are often used to create a strong and memorable visual identity for a company or product. Different shades and tones of these colors can be used as secondary colors to convey different emotions and messages to consumers. Overall, the use of primary colors in branding can help to create a consistent and recognizable image that resonates with customers.

When choosing secondary colors, it is important to consider the emotions and values that a company or product wants to convey to its audience. The right combination of colors can make a brand more memorable and recognizable. Secondary colors are also not used as main colors in branding but just colors to possibly make the marketing pop or stand out from the competition. 

Test The Colors on Digital and Print

Testing color schemes with print media involves several steps. First, choose a printer that can accurately reproduce the colors you want to use. Then, create a design using the color scheme you have in mind and print out a test copy. Make sure to check the colors under different lighting conditions to see how they appear in different environments. Adjust the color balance as needed and print another test copy. Repeat this process until you are satisfied with the results. It’s also a good idea to consult with a professional designer or printer for their expertise on color accuracy and print quality.

Digital color schemes refer to the specific set of colors used in digital design. These schemes can vary in the number of colors used, their combinations, and their hues, saturations, and brightness levels will matter. Digital color schemes are essential in creating visual appeal and conveying a particular message or mood in digital media, such as websites, apps, and social media graphics. It is also important to remember that the color can vary from screen to screen. There are a variety of factors that make colors look different on every screen such as differences in color calibration, display technology, and lighting conditions. Each device may interpret and display colors differently, resulting in variations in color accuracy and vibrancy. Additionally, the color profile used for an image or video can affect how it appears on different screens. Simply stated, the differences in screen technology and settings can cause variations in color perception, which is important to consider when creating or viewing digital content. 

The Bottom Line

Creating a section in your branding guidelines specific to colors is important once a color scheme has been decided upon. This helps ensure consistency and cohesiveness throughout all branding materials.

Colors are communicated in various formats depending on their intended use. The most common color formats include hexadecimal (HEX), Red Green Blue (RGB), Cyan Magenta Yellow Key (CMYK), Pantone Matching System (PMS), Natural Color System (NCS), and Imperial Commission for Delivery Terms and Quality Assurance (RAL). Be sure to include this information in your guideline.

In the end, the importance of first impressions cannot be overstated. Your brand colors, often seen in your logo, are the first thing a consumer will notice about your company. It is crucial to make sure your colors accurately represent your brand and leave a positive and memorable impression on potential customers.

Typically, people don’t seek out help until there is a problem. No one says I need help when everything is going right! That is why when a potential client reaches out to us, we have a discovery meeting to really dig deeper into what the problem is and where it stems from. As a marketing agency, it is our job to turn marketing issues into solutions and sales. But sometimes we discover that marketing isn’t really the whole problem. Now, we aren’t magicians and can’t magically snap our fingers and everything will be fixed. But we can research and try ideas that may help to solve the problem. But how do you really figure out where the problem stems from? Below we will discuss some places besides marketing that we have found problems. Our team doesn’t necessarily have solutions for every problem, but we are always happy to help!

Current and Potential Customers

Are sales not going as well as they used to? Your current customers are an awesome resource to figure out what is going on. Reach out to current customers for feedback because they are going to be a great first line of honest criticism. They are already a customer, they obviously like what they are buying, but they will also have ideas on how to improve it. At times, exchanging something valuable may be necessary to receive something in return. Offering a freebie in exchange for honest feedback can be a generous way to encourage support. We can help with this!

Economy

The past couple of years (2020-2022) have been really hard for businesses of all types. This year, 2023, isn’t much different but at least we are getting back to normal after the Covid-era rules. Adjusting marketing strategies in response to the economy can be crucial for success. Do you need to do a full analysis of your marketing plan to see where you can make cuts, combine efforts or just see where we can save you some funds? 

Money can also be tight for current and potential customers so making sure your prices are what they need to be can also make a difference. If you end up deciding you can make your product cost less for customers, that can be a huge marketing tactic to get those potential customers or former customers to buy into your business instead of the competition. 

Product and/or Service

Whether you have one product or service or 100, it is always important to pay attention to each one. Is it selling well or is it not selling at all? If it is not selling at all, is something wrong with the product? Is something not being explained correctly on how to use it or why the consumer needs it? Is there another misunderstanding when it comes to the product or service that your team isn’t noticing but your potential customers are? Is it time to just cut a product or service and put the effort and money into something else? This is an area that marketing can help immensely. We are great at figuring out how to use words and images to explain your product or service better. 

Your Team

Maybe the problem isn’t outside of your organization, but rather inside. If you have employees, are they working together? When was the last time you brought your departments or teams together to discuss what they need from each other? If you don’t have a team, maybe there is just too much on your plate to handle. This is when you can start to research hiring, bringing in consultants to help or outsourcing work. 

Another thing to consider is team morale if you have employees. Is your team happy? Studies have shown that when an employee feels valued, they work harder. If you have employees, are they happy with what you can offer them or is a change needed? More money isn’t always the answer. Appreciation can be shown in many other ways. These are just a couple of examples, and of course it may not work for everyone:

• Buy lunch every now and then
• Give an extra day off
• Be more relaxed on start and end times

Competition

The worst thing you can do as a business is ignore the competition. Competitors are competitors for a reason. They do something better than you to sell their product or service to someone who could be buying yours instead. It is your job to figure out what the difference is when it comes to purchase decision making for those people. Why did that potential customer purchase from the competitor and not you? Here are some ways you can see what the competition is doing without being sneaky about it:

• Watch the competition on social media – what posts get good engagement?
• Talk to your customers – ask them their feelings on competitors. Why do they choose you over them? And same for potential customers. What makes them choose product A versus B?
• Talk to others in the business – if you work with suppliers, drivers, other businesses that also work with the competition, talk to them about the other business and see what you can learn from them. A lot of people will be open and honest with you when it comes to business conversations that don’t divulge secrets. Any and all information is useful when it comes to the competition.
• See your competitors in action – if they have a store, go visit it. If they are going to be at an expo or conference, attend as well. Seeing them in action, in their own environment, or engaging with potential customers that could be yours instead will give you ideas of what they are doing versus your business. 

The Bottom Line

Problem solving is a process. The first plan of marketing to help solve this problem may not work. It can take time, money and a lot of combined effort to eventually solve the problem. Teams will need to work together, see their differences, and find a common ground for the betterment of the business. This could mean changes, but everyone needs to learn to be flexible. Change is hard, but so is losing business. So which would you rather have? Change or no business? 

Our job is to help with marketing, so if your current marketing isn’t working with potential customers, then maybe we can help. There really isn’t a one size fits all approach to marketing. And if there is one thing we know, it is that people have shorter attention spans now than ever before. So if your business has been around for 10+ years, and your tried and true marketing from previous years just isn’t working anymore, maybe it is time for a refresh to shorten the message. 

As always, our team is open to meeting with you to discuss whatever problems you may be having. If our marketing team can be of assistance, we will certainly bring our ideas to the table. If not, maybe we have trusted resources and outside consultants to help.

A 2019 study by the Journal of Marketing found that ads that elicited laughter were 30% more likely to be remembered than serious ads. The top ads ran during the big football game for the past four years all implement humor. From babies to animals, ads that make us laugh are ads that are memorable. They drive engagement, shares, and continued buzz for the brand. Humor is powerful, but how can advertisers and marketers determine what is funny and if it will work for their brand?

Know Your Audience

Using humor in marketing can be a powerful tool to grab the attention of your audience, make your brand more relatable, and create a positive emotional connection with potential customers. However, it’s important to ensure that the humor is appropriate for your target audience and aligns with your brand values and messaging. When done correctly, humor can differentiate your brand from competitors and leave a lasting impression on consumers.

The textbook rental service Chegg conducted a marketing study which found that nearly 80% of college-age individuals remember advertisements that are humorous. That number is huge for a marketer. 

However, what is funny to a college student may not be funny to their parents or grandparents. Knowing your audience is so important when using humor.

Is The Humor Relatable?

The field of psychology provides evidence that supports humor working in a marketer’s favor. Studies have shown that laughter can help people become more receptive to new ideas and different perspectives. It can also help to reduce tension and create a more positive atmosphere for communication.

Making a joke within advertising has to come from a relatable experience from the viewer. Think about everyday occurrences in life. Cooking messes that need a specific cleaning product. A car issue that needs to be taken care of by a certain insurance professional. Chips that make you feel a certain way. Just random thoughts of everyday things that happen in life that can be looked at as funny and relatable. 

Bonus tip – poking fun at your own brand may help make your brand even more relatable to your customers. Toilet paper companies love to do this!

Tread Lightly with Humor in the Beginning

Humor can help to break the tension and make people feel more comfortable in social situations. It can be a great tool for building connections and easing communication barriers. Jokes can be subjective and what one person finds funny, another may not. 

It’s important to be mindful of our audience and use humor appropriately. Being edgy and pushing the boundaries of out of the box humor and marketing can be great, but it can also fail miserably. Being authentic to your brand and audience can create an ultimate win-win for everyone involved.

The Bottom Line

It is important to know your audience when using humor, and adjusting your approach to fit their preferences and values. Humor isn’t a one size fits all approach. Think about your favorite comedian. Their jokes may not be your buddy’s cup of tea, but guaranteed there is a comedian that he or she likes that you don’t. We are allowed to have our own opinions which is also why there are so many brands pushing similar items! 

Humor is a universal and powerful way to connect with others and improve our overall well-being. So go ahead and give humor in your marketing a try and see what happens! You might just be surprised.

A Call To Action (CTA) is a marketing tool used to prompt an immediate response or encourage a sale. It can take many forms, such as a button on a website or a statement at the end of an advertisement. Basically, this strategy encourages the audience to move forward in whatever the scenario put forth is.

By choosing the right words and phrases, you can create a sense of urgency and excitement that motivates people to click, sign up, or buy. Consider using action-oriented verbs, clear and concise language, and personalized messaging to make your CTA more impactful. A CTA needs to be both attention-grabbing and convincing in order to effectively engage an audience. Without these qualities, people are likely to overlook it and move on.

Write an Effective Call-to-Action

The effectiveness of a CTA is measured by its ability to keep potential customers engaged on a website or compelled to complete an action.

Here are some tips to keep in mind when writing a strong CTA:

1. Use action-oriented language to encourage the user to take a specific action
2. Make it clear what the user will get or achieve by clicking the CTA
3. Keep it short and sweet, ideally no more than 5 words
4. Use contrasting colors or bold typography to make the CTA stand out
5. Place the CTA in a prominent location on the page, such as above the fold or at the end of a blog or social media post
6. Use urgency to create a sense of FOMO (fear of missing out)
7. Personalize the CTA to the user’s needs or interests
8. Test different variants of the CTA to see what works best for your audience
9. Use A/B testing to optimize your CTA performance
10. Don’t forget to track and analyze your CTA’s performance to continuously improve.

The effectiveness of a call to action can vary depending on a variety of factors such as the audience, the context, and the clarity of the message. However, well-designed and strategically placed calls to action can significantly increase the likelihood of user engagement and conversion.

Graphics and visuals can be important with CTA statements as they can help to draw attention and communicate the message more effectively. However, the most important aspect of a CTA is the language used and how compelling it is in motivating the user to take action.

The Bottom Line

It’s not necessary to include a CTA in every social media post or blog, but it can be a helpful way to encourage engagement and drive specific actions from your audience. Printed pieces fall into this same boat. It ultimately depends on your goals and the content of your marketing piece. If you want your audience to take a specific action, like clicking a link, making a purchase or commenting on the post, including a CTA can be effective. However, if your post is simply meant to provide information or entertainment, a CTA may not be necessary. One thing to always remember is when you are asking for your reader to do something for you, you should also do something in return. An example of this is if you are asking a social media follower to comment on your post, you should always reply to their comment. Reciprocating actions helps to grow trust in the brand and that is the biggest part of obtaining loyal customers.

Marketing teams that utilize artificial intelligence (AI) for positive gains are skyrocketing. AI writing tools are flying at us faster than ever before. A once very scary idea has now flourished into user-friendly programs that can help promote brands and businesses in a faster, more efficient way than ever before. The floodgates have been opened to many impressive AI options on the market, so let’s take a look at three tools that we find helpful and are interested in using more!

Canva

Since we already use Canva on a daily basis for many things, it was exciting when they released their AI intelligence suite. The company just released a whole new slew of features that are designed to make creating content like social media graphics, presentations, and advertising materials more accessible to those without professional design experience. Beyond graphic design, Canva also has AI writing technology that helps to create high-quality content. This is a great tool to use when writer’s block happens and the words just won’t come out right. If you are nervous about AI tools, we suggest starting with Canva’s suite as they are now being touted as a competitor of Adobe! It is easy to use and still needs the human aspect to get it to write something that sounds good.

ChatGPT (Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer)

Released in November of 2022, ChatGPT is a computer generated conversational tool. If you are not familiar with ChatGPT, we are sure you have used Amazon’s chat feature and have had to have a conversation with their AI to get your issue resolved. ChatGPT is similar to that in which it will follow an instruction in a prompt and provide a detailed response. Take a look at the sample below in which the human asks ChatGPT about a coding issue. 

ChatGPT responds looking for more information to help it help the human. It collects data from the human and learns from the human feedback of responses. However, it does have its limitations. According to their website, these are the limitations:

• ChatGPT sometimes writes plausible-sounding but incorrect or nonsensical answers. Fixing this issue is challenging, as: (1) during RL training, there’s currently no source of truth; (2) training the model to be more cautious causes it to decline questions that it can answer correctly; and (3) supervised training misleads the model because the ideal answer depends on what the model knows, rather than what the human demonstrator knows.
• ChatGPT is sensitive to tweaks to the input phrasing or attempting the same prompt multiple times. For example, given one phrasing of a question, the model can claim to not know the answer, but given a slight rephrase, can answer correctly.
• The model is often excessively verbose and overuses certain phrases, such as restating that it’s a language model trained by OpenAI. These issues arise from biases in the training data (trainers prefer longer answers that look more comprehensive) and well-known over-optimization issues.1,2
• Ideally, the model would ask clarifying questions when the user provided an ambiguous query. Instead, our current models usually guess what the user intended.
• While we’ve made efforts to make the model refuse inappropriate requests, it will sometimes respond to harmful instructions or exhibit biased behavior. We’re using the Moderation API to warn or block certain types of unsafe content, but we expect it to have some false negatives and positives for now. We’re eager to collect user feedback to aid our ongoing work to improve this system.

ChatGPT can really be useful to gain information, to help with issues and to bounce ideas off of. It can be a helpful tool if used in the correct way.

Jasper

Jasper touts itself as an AI platform for business that helps your team create content tailored for your brand 10X faster, wherever you work online. Headlines, articles, blog posts, captions for social media, email marketing campaigns, and even translation are just a few examples of what Jasper can offer. A frontrunner in its capabilities, Jasper is also a leader as far as bang for your buck. However, just like many of these AI tools, it collects information from the Internet and compiles it into whatever category you choose (ex: blog post). The only fact checking is then from whoever is “writing” so some research should be done to make sure it is all true. 

The Bottom Line

Writing is a gift that a lot of people don’t have. Just like we have musicians and athletes and so on, each person is unique with their talents. However, to a writer, using AI writing tools can seem like cheating, or not actually being the author. Proofreading, researching facts and citing sources will still need to be done no matter what program you use. 

It is scary to think about whatever we are reading and if a human wrote it or some AI program. Doesn’t it make you wonder about authors now? What about employment for writers in the future? Are human writers just going to be shoved to the wayside because now AI tools can do their jobs? It is impossible to know the future, but it is definitely something to think about. Would you rather have a real human behind your written words of your business and brand or an AI robot just putting words together to make them sound nice? And just for your knowledge, we didn’t use an AI tool to write this blog, but it doesn’t mean we won’t in the future!