I recently watched a fascinating discussion between Kipp Bodnar and Kieran Flanagan from Marketing Against the Grain about how marketing is evolving in the age of AI. Their insights were eye-opening, especially for someone like me who’s been in the marketing space for decades.
The big takeaway? AI isn’t replacing marketers – but the marketers who partner effectively with AI will outperform those who don’t. This resonated with me because I’ve seen similar patterns with other technologies throughout my career.
What struck me most was their practical approach. Instead of theoretical discussions about AI’s potential, they outlined six specific strategies they’d implement if building a marketing plan from scratch today. Let me share these strategies and add my perspective on how you might apply them.
1. Optimize for AI Search
Traditional SEO focused on ranking for specific keywords on Google. AI search is fundamentally different – it’s about appearing in responses from AI assistants like ChatGPT or Claude.
The key metrics here are:
- Share of voice – how often your product appears in answers to relevant queries
- Citations – how frequently your brand is mentioned alongside key phrases you want to be known for
What fascinates me is that this represents a major shift in measurement. Performance marketers now face a brand metric (share of voice) rather than direct conversions. This creates interesting conversations with CFOs about impact!
My advice: Start by identifying the questions your ideal customers are asking that should trigger mentions of your product. Then track how often you appear in those answers compared to competitors.
2. Master Short-Form Content
I found it surprising that 65% of B2B buyers now prefer short-form content to learn about products. This used to be primarily a B2C trend.
The demonstration of V3 (Google’s video generation tool) was particularly impressive. With just text prompts, Kieran created compelling short video clips that could be edited together into engaging marketing content.
The ability to capture the first second of someone’s attention – where they stop scrolling – is becoming the most valuable marketing skill.
In my experience working with creators, this rings absolutely true. With platforms drowning in AI-generated content, capturing initial attention is crucial before you can deliver your message.
3. Create Code-Powered Experiences
This strategy represents a fundamental shift in lead generation. Instead of offering information (like whitepapers), smart marketers are now offering action through lightweight interactive tools.
Why? Because 70% of B2B buyers prefer self-serve tools and interactive content over passive consumption.
The barrier that previously existed – coding being much harder than creating content – has disappeared. AI makes creating simple code-powered tools nearly as easy as writing an article.
My suggestion: Think about the problems your customers face and create small, useful tools that help solve them. These become powerful lead magnets that demonstrate value immediately.
4. Build an Intent Engine
This was perhaps the most advanced concept discussed. An intent engine gathers internal and external signals about your ideal customers to power personalized AI experiences.
External signals might include:
- Job changes or promotions
- Company funding rounds
- New product launches
- Increased search activity on industry sites
Internal signals could be specific actions on your website or within your product that indicate buying intent.
The more context you can gather, the more personalized and effective your AI-powered marketing becomes. This is truly where the magic happens.
5. AI-Powered Sales Prospecting
The average sales rep spends only 28-33% of their time actually selling. The rest goes to administrative tasks and prospecting.
Marketing teams can use AI to automate much of the prospecting process, creating personalized outreach and call scripts based on intent data. This potentially doubles sales productivity by giving reps back their selling time.
I’ve seen this shift happening across organizations I work with. As buyers gain access to more information independently, the traditional sales process is changing. Marketing is taking over more of the early-stage process, freeing sales to focus on high-value conversations.
6. Implement Micro-Audience Campaigns
Traditional marketing targets broad segments. AI enables marketing to much smaller, more specific audience slices with highly contextual messaging.
The results are impressive: targeted campaigns can increase click-through rates by 209% and conversions by 3-5x.
What makes this possible is that AI dramatically reduces the cost of creating customized marketing assets. Instead of one campaign for 300,000 people, you might run 100 campaigns for 3,000 people each – with AI handling much of the creative and setup work.
This approach aligns perfectly with what I’ve observed in creator-driven marketing – personalization and relevance win every time.
Getting Started
If you’re feeling overwhelmed by these strategies, start small. Connect your marketing data to an AI assistant and ask it to identify what additional intent signals would help improve your results. Then research the best sources for that data.
The marketing landscape is changing rapidly, but the fundamentals remain: understand your audience, deliver value, and meet them where they are. AI simply gives us powerful new tools to do this more effectively than ever before.
The future belongs to marketers who embrace these tools while maintaining their human creativity and strategic thinking. That’s a future I’m excited to be part of.
