Multi-tool AI strategy review to find campaign blind spots

Every time I tell someone I use AI in my workflow, the first question is usually,

“So… does it write your content?”

Honestly?

That’s probably 10% of what I use it for.

The other 90% happens before I write a single word.

I’ll ask AI to help me understand the audience.

Organise market research.

Compare competitors.

Find messaging gaps.

Challenge my assumptions.

By the time I sit down to write, I already know what I want to say.

The caption becomes the easiest part.

I think that’s where many marketers get AI wrong.

They use it to replace thinking.

I use it to improve thinking.

There’s a huge difference.

Question: What’s one repetitive task in your workflow you’d love to automate?

P.S. I help founders build content systems that combine AI with strategy, so they spend less time guessing and more time growing. If you’re exploring AI for marketing, let’s talk. 🤍

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

Is AI making us better marketers, or just faster at being mediocre?

I use AI. For stress-testing ideas before I share them. For first drafts on headlines. For analysis when it's integrated with my data.

But I've also had moments where every answer I got back was vanilla. Generic. Safe.

And I only recognized it as mediocre because I had the experience to know what good looks like.

That's the trap.

If you don't have the expertise yet, AI feels like a shortcut. But you're skipping the reps that build the muscle.

Writing and thinking — I still do those myself. Not because AI can't. Because that's what makes me 𝗮𝗻𝘆. That's the differentiator.

There's a line from Greg McKeown that stays with me:

If it's easy now, it will be hard tomorrow.
If it's hard today, it can be easy tomorrow.

AI is a tool. But tools don't build expertise. The hard work does.

So the question isn't "should I use AI?"

It's: "Am I using it to grow, or to hide?"

I use AI every day.

It’s become part of how I work as a fractional CMO, especially when I’m moving between different clients, time zones, and priorities in the same week.

Used well, it’s a genuine advantage. It helps me sense check early thinking, move faster on first drafts, and protect time for the work that actually needs senior attention.

And when it gets things right, it can save a significant amount of time.

But every so often it produces something that sounds incredibly convincing and is, unfortunately, completely wrong.

Not slightly off. Not something that just needs polishing. 𝗏𝗫𝗨𝗩𝗞𝗤𝗲𝗥𝗟𝗬 𝗐𝗥𝗨𝗡𝗚.

That’s the bit I think more people / businesses need to stay alert to.

AI is now polished enough that it feels trustworthy at first glance. The structure looks smart, the tone reads well (enough), and what appears to be the “answer” arrives in seconds.

When you’re operating at pace, it’s very easy to take that at face value.

In fractional life, judgement becomes even more important. I’m often stepping into businesses at pace, across different growth stages, with limited time to waste. AI helps me move faster, but it never replaces the need to apply context, commercial reality, and experience over the top.

Used properly, it’s a brilliant accelerator.

But it still needs someone in the room who knows what they’re looking at.

Use it, by all means.

𝗉𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗝𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀.

#AITips #AIinMarketing #FractionalCMO

Most marketers use AI to go faster.

I use it to find out why we’re slow in the first place.

Here’s my actual stack and what I actually do with it:

𝗖𝗵𝗮𝘁𝗚𝗣𝗧 & 𝗖𝗹𝗮𝘂𝗱𝗲 — I don’t use these to write my campaigns. I use them to pressure test my strategy before I spend a single dollar. If I can’t explain the idea clearly to AI, I can’t explain it to my audience either.

𝗛𝘂𝗯𝗦𝗽𝗼𝘁 𝗔𝗜 — I use it to find where leads are dropping off and WHY. Smarter segmentation, better timing, fewer wasted touchpoints.

𝗔𝗜-𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘀 — I use it to spot inefficiencies in campaign performance BEFORE they become expensive problems. Think of it as a marketing audit that runs itself.

The result? Faster speed to market. Leaner budgets. Campaigns that actually convert.

But honestly?? The application I’m most excited about hasn’t been fully unlocked yet!

𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘩𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘤 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨.

Imagine using AI to detect cultural shifts BEFORE they go mainstream — so brands stop scrambling to react and start showing up first.

The brands that consistently look like visionaries aren’t lucky. They’re watching signals most people can’t see yet.

That’s where I think this is all going. 👀

One way I use AI has nothing to do with replacing people.

I use it as a sounding board, not because I think it is smarter than my peers or better than human judgment, but because it helps me move through my thinking faster.

When I’m in the middle of a packed day and trying to work something out in real time, AI helps me pressure-test rough thoughts, shape early ideas, and get to a clearer point of view before I bring that thinking to someone else.

A lot of the conversation around AI centers on output. For me, one of its most practical benefits is how it accelerates the thinking that comes before the output.

That is where it has been most valuable.

My CMO gave me three weeks to fix a campaign that had a 0.8% click-through rate.

I didn’t hire a consultant. I didn’t run another A/B test. I opened Claude.ai and treated it like the most senior marketing strategist I’d ever worked with.

The campaign hit 4.3% CTR. We added 2,100 leads in 18 days.

This is not a “AI is amazing, go use it” article. This is the actual playbook — the prompts, the frameworks, the mistakes, and the surprising moments when Claude did things no human marketer had thought to suggest.

I ran a test that changed how I use AI.

I fed the same marketing prompt into multiple AI tools, then asked each one what they thought of the others' output. The responses were telling.

Each tool flagged different weaknesses. Different messaging angles. Different assumptions about the audience. Different takes on what a strong campaign even looks like.

Working across paid media, brand strategy, and content, I've seen firsthand how differently each AI tool approaches the same problem.

So if you're building your campaign briefs, ad copy, or brand positioning through just one tool, you're not getting strategy. You're getting one tool's version of strategy.

The marketers who win with AI won't be the ones who found the "best" tool. They'll be the ones who stop using it just to get work done, and start using it to challenge their own thinking.

Run your strategy through multiple tools. See where they disagree. Dig into the gaps. That's where your blind spots live.

I think that's the skill that's not being talked about enough.