sjt-marketing

AI Is Accelerating Marketing. Where Do Marketers Go From Here?

Wed, 22 Apr 2026 15:48:20 GMT

AI is collapsing marketing production. Expectations are rising. Attention is fragmented.

Marketers are caught in the middle.

Last night, like many of you, I lost an undefinable amount of my evening to watching reels. What did I watch? No idea. And if I shared a bunch of them with you… Sorry!

This is the reality we are operating in. A constant bombardment of content, created faster than ever, consumed in seconds, and forgotten just as quickly.

Right now, it is a volume game. The organizations gaining traction are increasing their frequency. Remember when we used to say that “spray and pray” marketing didn’t work? Surprisingly, its back! How much, how quickly, where, and when people consume marketing — or more accurately, advertising — has fundamentally changed.

We are at a crossroads. Consumption is up. Production is exploding... At least for some organizations.

The old rules of marketing are being tossed out the door. Corporate, white-shoe industries are creating 60-second reels with influencers. The classic three-part framework — state the problem, establish credibility, present the solution — is now being delivered in vibrant colors and quick hits of personality.

Today’s game is less about being cautious and more about increasing volume to see what resonates. You can call it testing. But in many ways, it is still a version of spray and pray.

So what does this mean for marketers who are just trying to stay relevant?

Thankfully, AI is offering some level of efficiency. Even writing this blog is 1,000% faster for this dyslexic writer. Tools like Canva are preparing to launch expanded AI capabilities that will further accelerate visual production. Content that once took hours — or days — can now be created in minutes.

How do we keep up? It truly feels like the wild west of marketing production.

And yet, one thing is becoming clear — and it is a saving grace for marketers everywhere:

What organizations need most right now are creative and strategic minds.

People who understand:

Their services and products
Their target audiences
Their organizational constraints

People who can quickly evaluate whether a new trend is worth adopting — or whether it is better to stay focused and build consistency over time.

Because while production is accelerating, strategy is still scarce.

And one thing remains absolutely true: Inaction will get you nowhere.

The marketers stepping into leadership — not just execution — are the ones most needed right now. Especially in small organizations with limited capacity, where decisions about where to focus matter even more.

This moment is not just about producing more content.

It is about making smarter decisions, faster.

It is about balancing experimentation with clarity.

And it is about recognizing that while AI may be transforming how marketing gets created, it is still people — thoughtful, strategic, creative people — who determine what actually works.

How IKEA Used AI to Elevate Roles Instead of Eliminating Them

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 20:02:29 GMT

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Like most technologies, AI is not going away. It is here to stay. For the most part, I’m seeing small-scale adoption that helps individuals within organizations write faster and produce content. However, I’m not yet seeing organizations take the more strategic step of critically thinking about what parts of their operations could be improved by integrating AI into the process.

Before I get too deep into my thoughts, I want to acknowledge everyone is doing too much with too little and is stretched so thin that they’re struggling to reach the right constituents, or enough of them.

That is why I was inspired to hear about how IKEA re-engineered its customer service chatbot.

Like many companies, IKEA’s AI chatbot took over many of the basic customer service questions: order tracking, returns, store hours, and basic product inquiries. In fact, it has significantly reduced workload across customer service teams by handling a large share of incoming requests.

Instead of using AI purely to reduce headcount, IKEA looked at the types of questions AI couldn’t answer well. A pattern emerged: customers didn’t just want answers—they wanted help designing their homes.

So IKEA made a different kind of decision.

They retrained customer service employees and repositioned them as remote interior design consultants, supported by AI tools that help create layouts, recommend products, and guide customers through design decisions.

The result wasn’t just efficiency.

It was new value—reportedly generating over $1B in early rollout and creating an entirely new service model for the business.

AI doesn’t have to replace work—it reveals where human work becomes more valuable. The companies that will win this next era are not the ones using AI to do less, but the ones using AI to reimagine what’s possible.

Bringing this back to marketing: it is extremely time-consuming work. Most organizations are not operating with the level of frequency that 2026 demands. They are not present on enough platforms or publishing often enough to stay competitive.

AI cannot, and will not, for the foreseeable future, replace creative strategy. But when thoughtfully integrated, it can elevate teams, helping marketers become more effective in the areas and regions they are trying to grow into and expand. It is about using the tools to do more, not replace headcount. Those are the organizations that will innovate and reach their mission and goals.

Learn about this IKEA story here: https://youtube.com/shorts/To1w_AtPEGY?si=DuSD4k9LKBcWJcGt

UX Content Development in the Age of AI

sara@sjtmarketing.net (Sara Trifiro) — Thu, 25 May 2023 16:33:15 GMT

Last night my son was looking for a simple recipe for Belgian waffles and was beyond excited when he landed on a recipe from King Arthur. The recipe was great, but what delighted him was that he did not have to scroll through an extra-long blog about nothing to read the ingredients.

Has that ever happened to you? You want a recipe and search for options, but before you can see the actual recipe you have to sort through “the twenty-seven eight-by-ten color glossy pictures” of every iteration of said recipe. Who cares!!! There must have been someone somewhere in the SEO world that said the best way to write a cooking blog was to first tell your life story and bury the recipe deep in the end. Frankly, it's just annoying!

Today, if you are looking for a great waffle recipe, just ask ChatGPT… you can also, use it to create massive amounts of content for your organization… All this talk about AI made me contemplate the effects the end user… aka the buyer.

First… I love ChatGPT. It literally makes my life easier! I write something and it helps me improve it. Usually, it goes way overboard (see below for more on this.) Yet, I do pull ideas and phases from it and it is improve my writing.

And there is still the issue of ownership??? (Please note: the matter of ownership still remains uncertain. If you are writing for clients who require full rights to their content, it is essential to stay informed about the evolving rules in this regard.)

However… People buy things… not machines…

This brings me to the UX (user experience) of content. We spend a lot of time thinking about the UX of websites or hopefully the UX of a sales campaign. When it comes to content, the emphasis is on SEO compatibility, keywords, linkbacks, and rankings.

I am not saying we shouldn’t consider SEO when writing, but isn’t the point to convert a person to buy something? To engage them? To teach them something they were searching for?

While I am not a big fan of personas… I think they can easily water down the goal of any marketing activity, but that is a discussion for another day! However, when I write, I put the name of a real person, the target/client, I most want to engage with the blog at the top of my page and then I ask…

Is he or she:

Lost and confused before finding what they needed?
Served a lot of “seemingly” unnecessary information?
Forced to listen to someone's longwinded diatribe before they arrived at the meat of the content? (point taken!!!)
Pushed to hand over personal information to download a simple whitepaper (which consequently triggered an unwanted email or telephone campaign)?

Were they engaged?
Were they delighted? (Did they laugh, smile and/or feel validated?)
Did they find what they were looking for?
Did they learn something new?

For me, it is really important to use a real person as my target, so I can envision them engaging with the content. It is a good way for me to call bluff on myself.

Marketing, and especially content development, should be quick and simple, to the point, and direct. The days of patience and time are long gone. If you waste their time or frustrate them in any way, it will erode your brand and your long-term buying opportunities.

So give them what they want, when they want it, and how they want it.

P. S. I gave ChatGPT a chance to improve the readability of this article… To be honest, I pulled one sentence and added it in. But otherwise, I found their version to be packed with unnecessary words and phrases. It removed my bullets which are a crucial element to easy reading and it rambled a bit too long. (which one could say is happening here too :)

What is the State of Today's Marketing Department?

sara@sjtmarketing.net (Sara Trifiro) — Wed, 24 May 2023 14:34:59 GMT

Marketers, we want to hear from you! We are updating our 2022 survey to compare responses and see how you now feel about your current job, the marketing pressures you face, and where you see your future.

We want to better understand the human factors facing marketing departments:

How are you handling changes to the department made since COVID,
The pressures placed on the department to do more with less, and
The expectations to understand and implement new technologies brought into the department from AI.

Please take this quick 4-minute, 30 question survey to let us know your thoughts. Results will be published to this page and on LinkedIn.

Results will be published to the www.valueofmarketing.com website and to LinkedIn later this year and will contribute to a book that we are writing to help marketers navigate today's evolving marketing world.

If you haven't viewed the 2022 survey results, it provides key insights into how marketing departments handled pressure from the pandemic, and where the marketing budget and strategy stood during the second half of 2020 and throughout 2021.

The Age of the Lurker: How Content is Changing the Buyer’s Journey

sara@sjtmarketing.net (Sara Trifiro) — Tue, 16 May 2023 20:32:55 GMT

Just imagine we are looking to buy something new like… an air fryer… what do we do?

First, we search for “best air fryers” and review the many pages of curated articles full of lists and comparisons. We also use social and messaging tools to reach out to friends asking them which version they like best. Then head to YouTube and, in addition to wasting countless hours watching videos on all the great things you might make in said air fryer, we manage to watch several comparison videos and reviews.

We are lurkers (yes, a very technical marketing term) and we are using dark social to inform our buying decisions.

Since the pandemic, we have changed the buying process and put it back into our own hands, at our own pace and in our channels of choice.

Think about it… By the time you have made the decision to purchase, you basically have made the decision on which brand to buy.

This is also true for most B2B buying decisions today. Yet, companies are still struggling to reframe their go-to-market strategy and meet the buyer where they are NOW. We need to embrace content and dark social and build the right tools to assist the lurking process.

In case the term dark social is new to you… It is not a sketchy back alley where you might go to buy an air fryer off the back of a truck for a deep discount. Dark social is where we go to make informed decisions and help us work through buying decisions.

Chatgpt defines dark social as:

"Dark social refers to the phenomenon of social sharing and online interactions that occur through private channels or platforms that are difficult to track or measure. It refers to sharing content or links via private messaging apps, email, or secure browsing, rather than through publicly visible social media platforms. In dark social, the sharing and interactions are not easily traceable or attributable to specific sources."

Dark social can be any platform that is difficult to track such as twitter, linkedIn, and YouTube. It could be a chat forum on Slack where people ask peers for their experience. Or searching outside google which can be done in many untraceable ways. Even Reddit is becoming an important place for B2B product and services discussions.

So how should dark social and the lurker inform companies your buying journey? Here are some suggestions:

Use content to aid in the lurkers buying process

Yes, I realize that most companies are processing content at a feverish clip. With AI it seems this becomes so much easier.

Yet, if half or more of the buyer's decision-making process happens in dark social, then how can you truly understand what they are consuming and what they need?

As marketers, stay in contact with your clients. Ask them about the key issues that informed their buying decision. Host roundtables. Add “where did you hear about us” on your web form. OR… jump on to a sales call and learn real-time from your team.

Review your content and make sure it matches up with what you are learning. Make sure your speak to the lurkers needs and are readily available where they might want them as they move down the path to a decision. Make sure you have the right influencers reviewing your products and services so that your buyer can make an informed decision.

Respecting and understanding the lurkers process

What do I mean by respecting the lurkers process? At a recent client of mine, to download a simple educational white paper, the prospect would get catapulted into a fast-paced buying campaign. The lurker just wanted some information. Now they are receiving daily emails about specials, marketing propaganda, and pitches to sign up for a sales call. Sure, there are always a few people ready to buy. However, the vast majority are still lurking.

Go ahead and add them to your content mailing list, but give them the space to lurk.

It's not more leads, or even better leads, it is ripe leads

Many times sales is jumping in too soon! This is jarring to the buyer and equally as frustrating for the sales team. But it is not the sales’ fault. As marketers, we play the role of intermediary and should try and guide sales in at the right time. I realize we don’t always have that control as marketers. Partnering with sales to help them be most successful will ultimately save them time and most definitely increase their win rate.

Engaging in dark social

In addition to producing great content, find more ways to engage in the conversation. Go… play... lurk! Act like a buyer and go see what you can find. Read Reddit to see what's happening there. Ask questions.

Then design a “client journey” that matches today’s current buying process. It may be longer and more complex yet there are many automation tools that can help you tailor the process to their individual needs.

This can be tough for small, resource-constraint organizations. But there are some tools such as “chatboxes” on social that can respond to keywords or simple campaign builders in email programs.

and, lastly...

Stay informed

As we marketers know, nothing stays the same for long. Watch trends and keep connecting with your target market. Unfortunately, the yearly or even semi-yearly client focus groups are no longer enough. Build quarterly or even monthly points of contact with clients into your yearly strategic plan.

Engage with the sales team. Hear their struggles. When are they seeing success? These will give you oodles of information on what content is needed and when. Ultimately, the stronger the partnership between both departments, the better the buyer's journey will be.

Didn’t email die??? 4 Truths we have learned about email

sara@sjtmarketing.net (Sara Trifiro) — Wed, 10 May 2023 15:04:09 GMT

Once upon a time, we all thought email was dead and gone! Social media was talking over and soon inboxes would be full of crickets and trees falling that no one would hear!

But actually, that is not true! Email is alive and well and a great asset to any marketing strategy.

Yes… people have crowded inboxes, yes some things will fall into spam, but if you have a focused email strategy, email will be your tool to speak to your biggest fans!

And this is why…

Email is an opt-in opt-out relationship - By staying on your list, they are telling you "We want to hear about your products, services, and promotions!" So don’t be shy…
You own your list - This is critical because at any moment, FB or Twitter or TikTok could disappear or change their algorithms. However, as long as you have proper email opt-in processes, this is your list and no one can take it away!
Bigger isn’t always better - If you are concerned because you have a tiny list… rest assured, size isn’t always what matters for email lists. Some email lists are small but perfectly targeted to the right demographic. If people constantly open and read your email, and stay… then you are doing what you should be.
Email can help you with your SEO - Help drive your SEO by piquing people’s curiosity and driving them to your website where they can get lost like they are in the middle of an IKEA… Finding all sorts of things they never knew they needed!

Tips for Success in your Email Program

Email is not a one-and-done - Constancy is key, so your readers know when and what to expect. Are you publishing bi-weekly or every other day? Are you using tools that ship emails to each individual when they are most likely to read and open something?
Test and try new things with email - Emojis in subject lines seem odd, I get it, but have you tried them? All email systems have A/B testing opportunities, but so few are using them. Take some chances and see how people react. Not everything is going to work, but you will learn things about your audience that you never knew!
Email is a slow - build branding process - Especially for content-rich email subscriptions, people stay as long as they are engaged and unsubscribe when they are no longer getting what they wanted.
Teach, tell, and learn - The more you teach people, the more you tell stories, and the more they learn from you, the better your email engagement will be. And, the more you will learn from their engagement behavior about what they want to see more/less from you. (feel free to ask them questions…
Take advantage of marketing automation - If your system has automation tools, try them. Segment your list to bring more tailored content to key prospect groups.
Use humor - People are starving for more joy in their lives. The more you get them smiling, the more positive their feelings toward your brand will be. Give them the truth, but try to add some humanity, levity, and fun into people’s days.
Clean your lists, please… If your organization doesn’t know how to keep them clean, hire an outside expert to do a monthly purge! This is vital to the stability of your list going forward.

And lastly…

Know the rules - No buying lists, have a proper opt-in and unsubscribe policies, etc.

Email is an easy, virtually free way to meet your target market exactly where they are.

Are we replaceable? Will AI replace marketers?

sara@sjtmarketing.net (Sara Trifiro) — Mon, 08 May 2023 15:56:24 GMT

This seems to be the question of the day… Will AI replace marketers?

So… I ask ChatGPT and this is what it said: (feel free to skip below for my summary)

“AI is unlikely to completely replace marketing, but it will certainly change the way that marketing is done. As with any major technological shift, there will be winners and losers. Those marketers who embrace AI and use it to their advantage will likely thrive, while those who resist or fail to adapt may struggle to keep up.

One of the biggest advantages of AI in marketing is its ability to analyze vast amounts of data and provide insights that would be impossible for humans to uncover on their own. This can help marketers to better understand their target audience, personalize their messaging, and optimize their campaigns for maximum impact.

However, AI is not a magic solution and it still requires human input and expertise to be effective. Marketers will need to have a good understanding of how AI works and how to integrate it into their marketing strategies. They will also need to continue to develop their own skills and knowledge in order to stay ahead of the curve.

In summary, AI will not replace marketing, but it will definitely change it. Marketers who embrace AI and use it to their advantage will be able to achieve greater success than those who do not.” - ChatGPT

Thanks, ChatGPT, for telling us all what we most definitely already knew… In summary, marketing will, for the long foreseeable future, require human input and expertise.

However, what do AI and the influx of marketing tools mean for the marketing profession right now?

Who is the next unicorn marketer of the future?

I looked to Google for some of their thoughts and in this recent video How Search AI is Changing Marketing an interview of four search marketing experts from May 4, 2023. While some of these items are somewhat contradicting for a 2:41 min video these five points really jumped out at me:

Innovation and the Acceptance of Failure

The first key takeaway is really around the need for an increase in dedication to creating more “time to try change.” Google is endorsing this idea for the need for “time” and license to “try things.” For the masses of marketers, innovation is definitely the name of the game. However, time and “chance to fail” have been stripped away. In our recent study, 2022 State of Today's Marketing Department Survey , 81% of marketers surveyed felt that the demands put on the marketing team greatly increased since the pandemic . With increased demands, it is fair to say that the ability to take chances and try new things is greatly diminished.

More Curiosity

The need for more curiosity within marketers has always been a basic tenant of marketers. However, keeping up with the Jones, including the newest idea coming at you from every angle of the company has, over time, overshadowed the ability to be curious.

Even with AI, Strong Analytics

The third idea that jumped out of this video is that skills of the next marketer are going to be “data engineering, strategic creative planning, and really strong analytical abilities.” Strategy and data engineering typically are strengths that come from different parts of a team. I, for one, am always better when I have a strong data engineer by my side. It takes both kinds, but not necessarily a superhuman with both skills.

Age-old Battle Between the Generalist and the Specialist

We continue to oscillate between the generalist vs the specialist. I continue to be leery of the role of the “generalist” (which, of course, I call myself). It still becomes a rabbit hole for many marketers. While it is important for us to know enough about each element of marketing when we are “good enough” in too many of these areas, we end up watering down our focus and the ability to keep up with the massive change within each marketing area.

Always Strategy

Lastly, and most importantly, yes… The most important part of marketing is “strategy.” It is the ability for us to take what we see, analyze, and hear and put that into useable tactics.

So Google… I am going to give your little video a thumbs up on clickbait because you hit all the right “keywords”, but thumbs down because you left us, marketers, exactly where we were before… confused!

My summary of the above video, if I am allowed to have my own interpretation of it, is that as marketers the need for strong, free-thinking, chance-taking strategists is key to the success of a marketing program.

2022 Survey of Today's Marketing Department

sara@sjtmarketing.net (Sara Trifiro) — Fri, 28 Jan 2022 20:28:00 GMT

What is the State of Marketers Today?

This survey offers key insights into how today's marketing departments are handling the current pressures facing the department, from changes due to the pandemic, and where the marketing budget and strategy currently stand.

During the second half of 2020 and throughout 2021, B2B marketing departments across the U.S. had to handle virtual employees, canceled conferences, remote events, and drastically modified business strategies, all under the pressures of limited headcount and severely reduced budgets.

We wanted to better understand where these pressures were coming from and how marketers were successfully handling the added responsibility.

Our survey was sent to marketers at all job levels, and we received 71 completed responses. Our demographics are at the end of the survey results.

When did we lose the creativity in marketing?

Sat, 18 Jan 2020 02:37:26 GMT

In their 2019 Marketers Happiness Report, MarketingProfs found that marketers are pretty unhappy. This is not surprising given today’s state of affairs. Just think about it, today everyone is a marketer. Everyone can make a webpage, tweet their crazy idea and design a logo for basically nothing. Marketing is automated and AI will solve all your top of the funnel problems, right!

Marketers are pulled in every direction and, frankly, rarely taken seriously! When did everyone else become a marketer? Marketing is not about which one of the hundreds of tools, wikis or fancy new shiny objects someone can use…

Marketing is about understanding the product/service deeply and knowing how it matches with the opportunities in the marketplace. It is about understanding your target so well that you are able to help them reach and identify how your solutions will solve their problems. And most importantly, it is about the emotional experience of buying.

It is a loud noisy world out there. Also, it is a loud noisy world in most of our heads! Good marketing helps you stop, think, and obtain the solutions you need! Good marketing comes from a deep understanding of the prized, most profitable targets and the process that they go through when deciding what to buy. Marketing is about emotion; not tools! And marketing, like all good business decisions, needs a solid, thoughtful strategy!

So, if you happen to bump into a marketing professional today… give them a hug (if appropriate) and buy them a coffee! Sit down with them and treat them with respect! Don’t pull them in every direction with your crazy ideas and newfound apps… Let them help you create a strategy that puts your target in the center! Then together, choose the tools that match that strategy.

Lastly, let marketers be creative again! Let them think, take chances, and burst through the walls of the box! Creativity is what got us to where we are today! Let your marketing professionals be who they are… creative and strategic professionals! Let them guide the process!

Credentializing vs Driving Marketing Activities: Why it is important to understand the difference

Wed, 01 Jan 2020 16:33:48 GMT

I find organizations are struggling with differentiating between driving and credentializing marketing activities and why it even matters. With modest marketing budgets and fleeting moments of potential prospects’ interest, you want to use your time and money wisely.

If you are not clear between the two and how they connect, your targets are going to be more confused with a haphazard barrage of messages. That is why it is important to take stock of which activities are credentializing and which are driving.

Let’s take a moment to unpack the difference between the two.

Credentializing activities prove you are who you say you are. They quickly identify you, what you are offering, and to whom. Stake your claim and make sure your materials, website, value proposition all foot with this message. If not, your targets will get confused and lose interest, oftentimes moving on to a seemingly more trustworthy provider. Credentializing, done right, removes confusion for the buyer.

Potential Credentializing Activities

Website
Brand & logos
LinkedIn profiles
Company materials
Mission
Thought leadership

Driving activities pique the interested targets and help them visualize a better way to solve their problem. These activities bring targets to you. They focus on where your targets are, clearly articulate the pain they are experiencing and display potential solutions to their problems to draw them into your organization as a solutions provider.

Potential Driving Activities

Sales outreach
Email marketing
Networking
Advertising
Thought leadership
Social media / SEO
Event activities

Many times, I see clients focused first on the driving activities, only to realize that their credentializing activities are misaligned. Imagine using a map to get to a destination, only to land in a location you weren’t expecting and don’t need. This confusion hurts the sales process. Confusion causes inertia and sidesteps buyers from the purchasing journey.

Taking stock of this, periodically, is vital to ensuring your current strategy matches your assets, brand, and image. In fact, the older your company is, the harder it can be to ensure your credentializing activities are working to your advantage and not against it.

Rethinking Revenue Generation: Sales and Marketing Accelerated Bootcamp

Thu, 07 Nov 2019 16:20:19 GMT

Join me and Dennis Boyle on Jan 14th for a transformative morning workshop:

Rethinking Revenue Generation: Sales and Marketing Accelerated Bootcamp