Education marketers are always looking for ways to be more effective. Like us, you’ve probably experimented with a few AI-powered marketing tools, sometimes successfully and sometimes not so much! Used smartly, AI can help us reach more people, in a more targeted way and often at a lower cost. To help you maximise the benefits of using AI in marketing, here are our top tips.
1. Planning where to use AI in marketing
As always in marketing, planning is the first step. Consider what areas of your education marketing activities might benefit from using AI. A useful framework is the one used by Jasper: Ideation, Acceleration, Adaptation, Optimisation, to which Opus adds Analysis. Examples of where AI could help lighten the load are:
- Ideation: Generating email subject lines or image ideas for a prospectus.
- Acceleration: Batch-creation of social media images.
- Adaptation: Transcribing a webinar, or a Head’s welcome assembly, then adapting the tone into a written piece for a blog or newsletter.
- Optimisation: Review web pages for keyword optimisation.
- Analysis: Analyse social media engagement metrics, sentiment and trends.
For more ideas, and marketing AI tools to help, read our blog what every education marketer should know about AI.
2. Prioritise
As marketers we’re always spinning lots of plates. So, as exciting as it might be to try lots of shiny new things (I’m a bit of a magpie myself), prioritising is key. You might consider where you will save the most time, such as batching and automating social media image creation. Or perhaps assessing potential impact. Maybe you’ve not had the time to trial a newsletter, but an AI tool could create one from your social media posts.
3. Is it a strategic fit?
Our next top tip is to check it’s a good fit for your overall strategy. Implementing a website chatbot may be a real asset for a technical college, but not for a school with brand values centred around personal approach. For organisations marketing to schools, using AI to increase your blog output might support SEO, but if it doesn’t engage visitors, it won’t convert.
4. Due diligence
Before selecting a tool, remember to check the terms and licence conditions. Does its meet GDPR rules for your region? Who owns the copyright for what’s created? Are there limitations on how and where you can use the images? Also think about whether it would cause an issue if pricing or terms change in the future.
5. Bring the team with you
People have mixed feelings about AI. The ONS reports that nearly a third of employed adults believed AI could put their job at risk. So, involve your marketing team in any discussions around using AI. To win hearts, it may help to start with automating time-consuming or repetitive tasks, and also identify where the newly freed-up time can be spent.
Now you’ve done the planning, it’s time to get going…
6. Educating AI
Taking generative AI tools as an example, such as Chat GPT, the quality of the outputs is driven by the quality of the inputs: the prompts. So, educating the AI on your school or organisation is well worth the time. You can either create the brief, as you would when briefing a marketing supplier, or ask the AI to ask you 10 questions. Remember to include guidance on your brand’s tone of voice or style, and also give feedback so the AI can learn.
7. Apply your education experience when using marketing AI
Always check what’s generated and question the data. In education marketing, we’re not selling widgets, there’s significant expertise and nuance. Check any facts or sources cited to make sure they’re accurate and from a recognised source. Use critical thinking – where might the gaps be, will it resonate with parents or teachers? And then apply best practice for education, for example when is the best time to send an email, or apply the power of repetition.
8. Be a smart consumer
Also be aware that the marketing tools you’re already using may also be using AI. For example, Google Ads uses AI to suggest advert text and make targeting recommendations, check these are the best for your school or business. To upskill yourself, there’s lots of free training available in many aspects of AI.
9. Measure and analyse
Yes, we’re all about data-driven marketing! If you’re starting to use AI, measurement will help inform decisions to start, stop or continue. For example, if you use AI to generate social media posts, track engagement before and after. If you’re using AI to write emails, A/B test AI-generated vs human-written subject lines. Data will help identify the strengths of your AI approach and identify where it needs more work.
We wish you every success in using AI in marketing
When you’re using AI in marketing smartly, it should help you work more effectively. And, as AI marketing tools are developing all the time, there should be more opportunities in the future. However, at the moment, AI is a useful assistant; nothing can replace the expertise, experience and passion of an experienced education marketer.
If you’d like expert (human) help in delivering effective marketing campaigns that engage your education audiences, contact us. We’d love to help!
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