Building campaign strategy, briefs, marketing plans, and content frameworks

I used to spend 30-40 hours per client building out a strategy, and I've almost cut that time in half using AI.

I loovvveeee AI but it’s really easy to get really bad or generic output if you’re not careful. That’s why I’m breaking down the exact process I use to build out my $15-$20K client strategies.

In this episode of CMO School podcast, I break down:
- The 5-step process I use to build out my $15K client strategies with AI (so you can set yourself up the same way)
- The biggest mistakes I see Fractionals making with AI in strategy work (the last one is the worst)
- How I set up my AI to get great output (instead of generic or AI sounding garble)
- How I use AI as a thought partner instead of having it do the thinking for me

If you want to use AI for marketing strategy, or you already are, but you’re not happy with the output, you’ll love this episode.

Listen or watch on your podcast platform of choice 👇

YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gzxc5Etu
Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gj4cn2Dk
Apple Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/g-v-2NZd

Someone asked me recently if using AI means I am doing less thinking.

Honestly? I am doing more.

I run Communications, Marketing and Brand at Mawingu Group. Two markets, multiple campaigns, Google Ads, PR, content, stakeholder comms, and a team to lead. The volume does not slow down and the standards cannot drop.

AI did not change what I am responsible for. It changed how much of my energy goes into the parts that actually matter.

I used to spend the first hour of a campaign build just getting things out of my head and onto a page in a format other people could read. Now that hour goes into the strategy itself, pressure testing the idea, interrogating the audience, sharpening the message.

The brief still needs my judgment. The campaign still needs my instinct. The client relationship still needs me in the room.

What AI handles is the scaffolding. And removing scaffolding does not make the building less yours. It just means you spent more time on the architecture.

I am not interested in debates about whether AI belongs in Comms and Marketing. For me that ship has sailed.

The tools have changed. The thinking has not. Use what works.

Now go enjoy your weekend, you have earned it. ✌🏾☀️

The question isn't whether you should use AI. The question is whether AI is strengthening your brand or slowly erasing it.

Everyone is talking about AI, but I am not always sure in the right way.

Over the last six to nine months, its capabilities have expanded at an incredible pace.

As a marketer, consultant, and lecturer, I use AI EVERY DAY....not just to enhance the aesthetics of my work, but to improve how I serve my clients, analyse data, develop strategies, create content, and support my teaching and training.

However, I'm also very intentional about how I use it.

AI is an incredibly powerful productivity tool, but if we're not careful, it can make our content sound, look, and feel generic.

The more businesses rely on the same prompts and the same outputs, the harder it becomes to stand out.

Your competitive advantage has never been AI itself.

Your competitive advantage is your thinking, your experience, your perspective, and your authentic voice.

For me, the real opportunity isn't allowing AI to replace my expertise.

It's training AI to understand how I think as a consultant, how I communicate, how I teach, and how I solve problems.

When used well, AI should amplify your expertise, not dilute it.

The organisations and professionals who will win aren't those who simply adopt AI.

They'll be the ones who learn to integrate it into their systems in a way that increases productivity while preserving what makes them unique.

Use AI to work smarter.

But never let it erase the very thing your clients choose you for, your authentic brand.

How are you using AI without losing your authentic voice?

Here's how i use AI to execute faster as a marketing professional


AI is not just one tool.

It's a collection of tools that can be integrated into your workflow to help you execute faster and more efficiently.

For brainstorming and strategy around my campaign ideas, content pillars, messaging angles, customer personas, or content calendars?

I use ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini.

For research and insights
I use Perplexity.

It's great for pulling information from multiple sources, summarizing reports, and finding data points much faster than traditional search.

For designs
I use Canva AI most times…
I recently discovered Gamma and the secret to prompting right with ChatGPT for clean designs.
Midjourney is also a great option.

For presentations
I Use Gamma.

For automation
Zapier, Make, or n8n are great options.

With these I’m able to automate repetitive tasks so i spend less time on manual work and more time on high value activities.

The goal isn't to let AI do all the work.

The goal is to spend less time on execution and more time on thinking, creativity, strategy, and decision making.

That's how you win.

Which AI tool has become a regular part of your workflow lately?

Adobe GenStudio unites and accelerates the content supply chain with generative AI.

Here are a few ways we are leveraging AI to assist with sales and marketing (plus a few ways not to use AI). Do you have anything you would add to either list?

First, let’s dive into how you should NOT be using AI.

- Stop using AI to create all your content. Several colleagues have shared data showing engagement levels plummet for social media and website content created by AI. Engagement across all platforms. It is ok to use AI to help, but you MUST edit this content with a qualified human. A good rule of thumb is that the more important the content, the more editing it will require.

- Stop using AI to send important emails. The content generated by AI is clearly not human. People can subconsciously tell, if not outright. This sends a signal to the person you are emailing that you don’t care enough to write them yourself.

- Stop using AI to create all your content images. Again, let’s think about this from the perspective of how important your content is. Simple post, sure, if that post needs an image. But adding an image for the sake of it is not effective.

Here are a few amazing ways to use AI for sales and marketing:

- Start using AI to inspire your content, emails, posts, research, and more. AI can be a great assistant in helping you identify opportunities you may miss. This is mostly done in the conversational side of AI.

- Start using AI to do the mundane tasks. With a simple Claude Code .md file (Google this if you don’t know what it is), I was able to create a file where I insert a URL into Claude Code, and it creates a csv of names, emails, LinkedIn profiles, and bios of all the decision makers. Saves a ton of time.

- Start using AI to set up automated low-touchpoint interactions. Rather, this is online chat or surface-level emails; create AI agents that help you knock out 80% of the work in low-impact, high-volume interactions.

- Start using AI for marketing and sales processes and plans. AI is amazing at creating frameworks and rubrics for marketing and sales. Think of AI like a junior employee here. The output is solid, but requires some changes and additions. Use AI for editorial calendars, campaign plans, road maps, and more.

- Start using AI for research. Competitive research, new market options, market size, scope, areas of opportunity, your own campaigns, etc. AI can be a powerful research assistant. You need to be careful to properly structure the research, so AI doesn’t just give you answers you want to hear.

Most marketers are using AI wrong.

They ask it to write captions and stop there.

Here's how I use AI to run smarter marketing campaigns — without losing the human touch:

1. Research in minutes, not days
AI helps me analyze competitor positioning, audience pain points, and market trends before I write a single word of copy.

2. Build the strategy first, then generate content
I feed AI my target audience, goals, and tone — then use it to draft content frameworks, not finished posts. The thinking stays mine.

3. Repurpose everything
One blog post → 5 captions → 3 email hooks → 1 short video script. AI makes this take 20 minutes instead of 3 hours.

4. Test faster
I run A/B variations on headlines and CTAs using AI-generated options, then let performance data pick the winner.

5. Personalize at scale
From outreach emails to ad copy, AI lets me tailor messaging to different audience segments without starting from scratch each time.

The marketers winning right now aren't the ones replacing their thinking with AI.
They're the ones using AI to think bigger.

Which of these do you already use? Drop it in the comments 👇

#MarketingStrategy #AIMarketing #DigitalMarketing #ContentMarketing #MarketingTips

Today may be April Fool’s Day… but this conversation is very real 😀

Recently I had the chance to join Jeff Spinella from Darwin | Web, Data and AI Engineering on the What Keeps Marketers Up at Night podcast, and the episode was released today! 🎙️

Fitting for the name of the podcast, we spent a lot of time talking about what’s changing in marketing right now, and why it’s starting to feel more complex.

As we got into it, I realized how much this reflects what I’ve been seeing both in my work in healthcare technology and in the classroom.

My students pick up on things quickly. When something sounds generic or a little too automated, they notice. And more importantly, they start to question the brand behind it.

That part always makes me pause.

Because I use AI too. Every day. It helps me think faster, organize ideas, and move work forward.

But at the same time, it feels like the expectations for what “good” looks like are getting higher, not lower.

That tension came up throughout the conversation.

We talked about zero-click search, how buyers are doing more research in tools like ChatGPT and Claude, what marketing looks like in regulated healthcare environments, and how I think about ABM and sales alignment in that context.

But the thread running through all of it was something simpler:

AI can support the work.
It can’t replace the thinking behind it.

And it definitely can’t replace a real, consistent brand voice.

Marketing still takes intention. And a bit of care.

I’m really grateful to Jeff for inviting me to be a guest and for such a thoughtful conversation!

Tools mentioned in this episode:
HubSpot Breeze, Jasper, AdRoll, Claude, ChatGPT

#B2BMarketing #HealthcareMarketing #DemandGeneration #AIinMarketing #BrandVoice #MarketingStrategy #WhatKeepsMarketersUpatNight

https://lnkd.in/gRxpM5TD

5 free AI tools I use every day as a marketer
(no BS)

1. Perplexity
Deep competitor research.
With real sources attached.

2. Claude
Build full campaigns.
Funnels. Content calendars.
Long form strategy.

3. Notion
Turn messy ideas
into clean timelines.

4. Canva
Design posts.
Carousels.
Ads. Fast.

5. Gamma
Create professional
client slide decks
in minutes.

I use them across:
• LinkedIn • Instagram • TikTok • YouTube • X

Which AI tool do you use every day?

A few years ago, I put together the KickframeToolbox.com, a collection of marketing planning templates with guidance on choosing and using them. It’s still live, and you can download everything in editable formats.

I was wondering if these frameworks could also work as prompts. A prompt could walk you through the same steps as a template, asking questions, clarifying your thinking, and producing a completed draft. I built one and it worked pretty well. Then I took it further and created a meta-prompt (a prompt that generates other prompts) and applied it across a handful of other frameworks.

What impressed me here was that I could use Claude Code to automate the whole process. I gave it the meta-prompt with instructions, along with the Toolbox frameworks, and it produced a full set of prompt files. From there I had Claude Code build a webpage with all of the prompts accessible. The whole thing took a few hours, not counting the automation, which ran on its own.

Now these prompts are pretty clunky, and there’s no substitute for strong, clear, informed critical thinking (don’t go firing your strategic planner!) But it did make me think that tools like these could be useful for capturing and organizing early thoughts into a first draft, or for sparking a strategic discussion when working through ideas together with a colleague. If you have tips for incorporating AI tools like these into your strategic planning workflow, I’d love to hear them.

See comments for a link to the prompts.