AI in Marketing B2B Guidebook. Step-by-Step with Real Examples and Insights from Experience
Have you ever thought about AI not as a buzzword, but as a marketing co-pilot? Not the “future” everyone keeps talking about, but “a right-now game-changer”? Not “I don’t need more people on my team, let’s replace them with AI,” but more “how can we be more effective and stop wasting time on mundane tasks?”
Here’s my most important observation: AI in marketing is great for some tasks (e.g., proofreading or brainstorming), but for others, it’s the opposite (e.g., creating personas entirely in ChatGPT, without CRM data and sales insights).
Let me show you exactly how I use AI in my day-to-day or with my clients, making sure it serves my strategy rather than throwing me into the “automate-everything” void. I’ll walk you through my process — tool by tool, task by task, from drafting a strategy to creating a post on social media.
Spoiler:
It’s less of a magic wand than you might think.
Spoiler 2:
Nobody pays me to recommend or use these tools. They’re just based on my experience.
Prep Before Working with Marketing AI Tools
It’s essential to treat AI tools, especially chatbots, as if they know nothing about you (because they don’t). You need to provide them with as much data and context as possible from the start:
- Goal — Who am I? What’s my background? What does my company do, or what project am I working on? What industry and countries am I targeting? Who is my audience?
- Campaign — What campaign or project do I want to create or modify today?
- Tools — What tools do I need to execute it?
- First step/prompt — What will be my first action?
Important!
AI is not a solution for a lack of strategy, goals, or a unified marketing and sales approach. If we’ve been doing something wrong without a plan or clear direction, we’ll keep doing it wrong — just a lot faster.
AI as My Strategy Architect
Think about building your customer personas. It used to take hours of spreadsheet juggling, guesswork, and too many cups of coffee. If you’ve ever spent hours trying to segment your audience or map out buyer personas, you know how tedious it can be. Enter AI. By analyzing vast amounts of customer data, AI identifies key trends and predicts behavior patterns I’d never spot on my own. This makes personalizing my outreach and fine-tuning campaigns a breeze.
Tools I swear by:
- HubSpot/Salesforce CRM for segmenting leads with AI-powered insights.
- ChatGPT/Gemini to help find patterns and cross-check data.
- AI-based personalized app for your company used for real-time data analysis and predicting campaign outcomes.
Example:
Let’s say I’m targeting U.S. and UK manufacturing clients. I input my customer data, and AI spots patterns in purchase cycles and product interests that I didn’t even know existed. From there, I can tailor my messaging to fit each segment perfectly.
Important!
AI doesn’t magically know things — you need to feed it data and context. Be clear about who your target is, which markets you’re focusing on, and what results you’re aiming for. The better the input, the smarter the output.
- It’s worth comparing ChatGPT and Gemini as they often provide different responses. Using them together gives more ideas to work with.
- You can ask AI to generate a content plan for several months, tailored to your expectations.
- You can even request a Gantt chart — practically anything.
- Garbage in, garbage out — the quality of the data and prompt you provide directly affects the quality of the results.
Research, Supercharged
Research can be a time sink, but not anymore. Thanks to tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity, I can dive into industry insights in half the time. Whether it’s scoping out trends in e-commerce or exploring AI-driven solutions in finance, I’ve got fast, actionable data at my fingertips.
Example prompt I use:
“I’m leading a marketing team in a tech company specializing in AI solutions for finance and manufacturing sectors. What are the latest trends in AI for industrial automation?”
AI uses the latest articles and reports, saving me hours of combing through Google search results.
Important!
For deep, fast insights, ChatGPT is a go-to for most people, especially for market trends and competitive research. Don’t overlook Perplexity — it’s excellent for drilling into niche topics or getting quick answers when time is tight. If you’re not satisfied with the results, keep refining your prompts and don’t hesitate to ask follow-up questions.
Research AI Toolbox:
Additional tools for brainstorming, ideation, and gathering notes from meetings or agile project management processes:
- Notion
- Loop
- Fireflies
- Miro
Content Creation. AI as My Copywriter & Visual Designer
Content is king, but creating it? That takes time. AI steps in here, too. Whether I’m working on a blog post, social media copy, or a product/service page, tools like Copy.ai, Jasper, and Grammarly help me churn out polished drafts faster than my morning coffee. Need images? AI-driven platforms like Canva, MidJourney, or ChatGPT allow me to design visuals perfectly suited for any platform.
Example:
For a recent B2B campaign targeting industrial clients, I used Semrush for content topic research and keyword analysis, ChatGPT to draft the initial copy, and then refined it with Grammarly to make it client-ready. Meanwhile, Canva AI handled all the creative work for my social ads, producing images and graphics tailored to LinkedIn and Google Ads specs. I even tested these visuals with Attention Insight before going live to ensure they hit the mark, with logos and titles placed correctly.
Important!
If you’re juggling multiple campaigns, AI can dramatically speed up the content ideation and creation process. But remember — “garbage in, garbage out.” Your prompts and inputs need to be sharp. Tools like Headlime can also adjust the tone and style to fit your brand voice. For testing, I use Attention Insight to evaluate how visuals will perform before I hit publish.
Content AI Toolbox:
For different content needs, I’ve been using these tools:
- Most versatile for marketers without designers: Canva AI, ChatGPT
- Voice and language changes for video: HeyGen
- Best tool for testing graphic effectiveness (quality/cost): Attention Insight
- Most versatile overall tool: ChatGPT
- For EN copywriters: Grammarly
- Translations: DeepL
- Audio tools: Transcriptor, Eleven LabsYou can also adjust tone, complexity, and style for specific outputs.
More graphics/video tools:
- ChatGPT
- MidJourney
- Canva
- Beautiful.AI
- Pitch
- Lexica.art
- Runwayml
- Attention Insight
- Looka
- HeyGen
More text tools:
- Jasper
- Copy.AI
- ChatGPT
- Gemini
- Headlime
- Rytr
- Grammarly
- Originality.AI
- Transcriptor
- Eleven Labs
Paid Campaigns. Creative Automation
Running paid ad campaigns can often feel like managing a never-ending to-do list, especially in e-commerce. That’s where, e.g. AdCreative.ai steps in. It’s designed to generate ad creatives and banners with conversion rates up to 14x higher than traditional methods. Whether you’re managing a client portfolio or handling in-house campaigns, ad tools helps create high-performing ad visuals while reducing your workload.
Example:
You can use AdCreative to generate banner ads for e-commerce. Within minutes, it produces fully branded visuals optimized for Google Ads, with variations you can test. The best part? When working with clients, you can offer this as a value-add, creating a new revenue stream while delivering superior results.
Important!
If you’re juggling multiple accounts or campaigns, this tool is a lifesaver. The ability to customize branding and quickly generate creatives means you can focus more on strategy and less on production. I’ve also found it particularly effective for A/B testing visual variations across platforms. AI tools like SurferSEO complement this by optimizing your ad copy for better visibility.
Sales Prospecting. AI Knows Who to Call
When it comes to sales, finding the right lead can feel like searching for a needle in a haystack. AI helps sift through CRM data to prioritize leads and even personalize outreach. Tools like Salesforce and HubSpot help narrow down prospects, while Lemlist takes it a step further by crafting AI-driven, hyper-personalized email sequences or LinkedIn content with Taplio.
Example:
I use ChatGPT to generate a list of top prospects in the manufacturing industry, focusing on companies with over 1,000 employees in the U.S. and UK. It provides a breakdown of companies based on revenue growth, employee size, and geographic location. Then, you can use Apollo or a similar tool to find prospects. Once they’re in the pipeline, you can use HubSpot’s or Salesforce’s AI tools to score leads and automate the follow-up process.
Important!
If you want to boost your prospecting game, use AI for lead segmentation and scoring. CRM tools can automatically suggest the best leads to focus on, and Salesforce can even recommend personalized follow-up actions. Always input detailed criteria to get the best results — remember, AI thrives on specifics.
E-commerce. AI for Personalization and Pricing
In the world of e-commerce, AI is a game-changer for personalizing shopping experiences. Whether it’s crafting tailored product recommendations or optimizing pricing models, AI helps businesses achieve Amazon-level personalization without the Amazon-level resources.
Example:
For a recent e-commerce client, I recommended using AI to deliver personalized product recommendations via their newsletter, based on browsing history and abandoned cart data. The result? A 28% increase in conversion rates.
Important!
If you’re running an e-commerce store, AI tools like Mailchimp and SeventhSense can help you personalize product suggestions and optimize send times for your campaigns. For pricing optimization, consider experimenting with AI-driven platforms that predict buying trends based on market conditions.
Wrapping It Up
AI isn’t about replacing what we do — it’s about helping us do more and do it better. From accelerating research to fine-tuning copy, optimizing campaigns, and pinpointing leads, AI is my daily co-pilot. But here’s the trick: AI is only as good as the prompts, data, and context you feed it. It’s not a silver bullet, but it is a game-changing tool when used smartly.
Key takeaways for your team:
- Define your objectives first. AI can help you move faster, but it won’t fix a lack of strategy.
- Pick the right tools for the job. Whether it’s copywriting or optimizing paid campaigns, choose tools that align with your goals.
- Test and refine continuously. Don’t just set it and forget it — use AI to run ongoing optimizations.
So, how are you planning to let AI take some of the heavy lifting off your plate? Or maybe you’ve noticed issues with your marketing AI stack? Let’s talk about how we can make this beneficial for your team.
