Most people use AI for marketing by typing "write me 5 posts for a moving company" and getting back generic slop. The tool isn't the problem. The problem is skipping the part that makes marketing good: research and strategy before any writing. Here's a real task from this week, start to finish. I co-run a small studio that does web and marketing work for clients, and one of our clients is a packers-and-movers business. I needed a one-page positioning summary: who the local competitors are, how they talk, what customers actually complain about, and where the gap is that we can own.
I use Claude for this, but honestly any of the big ones (ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude) will get you to almost the same place. Use whatever you already have. The process is what matters, not the logo.
Step 1 - Give it the real context first. I told it what the business is, the city it operates in, who the customers are, and what I already know about the competition. Two minutes of context beats an hour of fixing generic output.
Step 2 - Make it research before it writes. This is the step everyone skips. Roughly: "Before writing anything, research this. Look at how the main packers-and-movers companies in [city] talk about their service, and find what real customers complain about in this space - reviews, forums, discussions. Give me the actual words and phrases people use, not a vague summary, and tell me where each came from." The AI can pull from the live web now, so it comes back with the real language people use: "they broke my TV," "hidden charges at the end," "showed up 3 hours late." That language is gold, because now I write in the customer's words instead of industry jargon.
Step 3 - Make it think before it writes. "Based on that research, give me 3 positioning angles for our client. For each, tell me who it's for, what fear it removes, and why you chose it. Don't write the one-pager yet - show me your reasoning first." I edit the strategy here, which is far cheaper than editing a finished doc.
Step 4 - Then write, in my voice. I paste a sample of how I write summaries and say "match this tone." Then it drafts the one-pager. Total time: about 30 minutes for something that used to take me half a day.
Two honest caveats: Fact-check the research. It's usually right but it can be confidently wrong, and this is going to a client. Verify before it leaves your hands. It doesn't replace judgment. It's a fast researcher and drafter. The taste is still yours.
Research first, strategy second, writing last. That order is the whole trick. Happy to share the exact prompts if anyone wants them.