AI marketing strategy for founders
What a marketing strategy is, what AI can do for each part, and a four-step way to build one in a single sitting.
In brief
An AI marketing strategy is a written plan for who you sell to, what you say, where you say it and how you will know it worked. AI does the research and the first drafts. A person makes the decisions. It has six parts: audience, competitors, positioning, channels, campaigns and measurement.
Last reviewed
Build a draft strategy in four steps
This is the order MITPO is built around. You can follow it with any tools, and the steps still hold.
- 01
Test the idea
Describe what you sell and who it is for, then pressure-test it before you spend on marketing.
- 02
Read the competitors
Run a report on the three or four names your buyers compare you with. Note the claims everyone makes.
- 03
Write the positioning
Pick the gap you can honestly fill and write it in one sentence. Everything else follows from it.
- 04
Plan one campaign
Turn the positioning into a short plan for one or two channels. Draft, review and publish with a person approving each post.
Strategy first, tactics second
A marketing strategy answers four questions. Who are you selling to? Why should they pick you over the alternatives? Where will they see you? How will you know it is working?
A plan lists what you will do this month. Tactics are the individual posts, ads and emails. Many founders start with tactics because they are easy to see, then find nothing connects them.
AI makes the slow parts fast: reading competitor sites, summarising what buyers say, drafting options. It does not know your business as well as you do, so it cannot choose for you.
What a strategy has to decide
Audience
Who has the problem you solve, and how do they describe it? AI can summarise public posts and reviews. You decide who to focus on first.
Competitors
Who else does this job, and what do they promise? AI can read their sites and lay out the claims side by side. You decide where you differ.
Positioning
The one sentence that says who you are for and why you are the better pick. AI can draft options. Only you can tell which one is true.
Channels
Where your audience already pays attention. Pick one or two and do them well. AI can draft posts for each. You choose where to show up.
Campaigns
A short run of connected content around one message and one offer. AI can build the plan and first drafts. You approve what goes out.
Measurement
What you will look at every week to decide what to keep. Choose it before you publish. AI can summarise the numbers. It cannot tell you what matters.
What AI does well, and what stays with you
Fast, wide, first-draft work
- Reading many competitor pages and comparing their claims
- Turning a rough idea into several positioning options
- Drafting posts, headlines and campaign outlines to react to
- Reformatting one message for different channels
Judgement and truth
- Deciding which customer to focus on
- Checking that every claim is true before it is published
- Choosing what your brand will never say
- Knowing when the work is proven and worth paying a specialist for
Where AI-made strategies go wrong
Skipping the audience. If you start from channels, you write for nobody in particular. Decide who it is for before you draft a single post.
Copying competitors word for word. Reading them shows where the market is crowded. Repeating their claims makes you a weaker copy. Look for the gap they leave open.
Publishing drafts unread. AI drafts can sound confident about things that are not true. Read each one, check the facts and put the words in your own voice.
Tracking too much. Pick two numbers you will look at every week. More than that and you will stop looking.
One page for each part
- Competitor research
Read competitor sites and get positioning, messaging and gaps in one report.
Competitors - Idea validation
Pressure-test an idea before you spend on it.
Audience - Positioning
Turn what you learned into a clear message.
Positioning - Campaign planning
Turn the message into a plan you can run.
Campaigns
A written plan for who you sell to, what you say, where you say it and how you measure it, built with AI doing the research and first drafts. A person makes the decisions and checks the facts.
It can draft one, and that draft saves hours of reading and formatting. It cannot know your customers, your limits or what is true about your product, so you need to review and correct every part.
Yes, a short one. Without a chosen audience and message, posts do not connect to each other. One page that names the customer, the promise and the channels is enough to start.
The strategy is the choices: audience, positioning and channels. The plan is what you do this month to act on them. Change the plan often. Change the strategy rarely, and only with evidence.
It helps with the research and drafting steps: pressure-testing an idea, reporting on competitors, drafting positioning and planning a campaign. You approve everything, and posts go out only after a review step.
There is a free plan with 100 credits, given once, and no card is needed. Paid plans start at $15 a month billed annually. Use the free credits on one competitor report and one campaign plan.
Draft your strategy on your own business
Start free with 100 credits, no card. Run one competitor report and one campaign plan.