It didn’t take long for platforms like Netflix, Facebook, and Instagram to amass millions of users. Netflix took 3.5 years, Facebook took 10 months, and Instagram achieved this feat in a mere 2.5 months. And then came ChatGPT. Launched in November 2022, this technology only needed five days to reach one million users.

Image source ChatGPT is certainly a hot topic. But how reliable is it? What are the implications for marketing, especially for small businesses? This article will break down ChatGPT to help you understand:

• What it is and how it functions
• Its limitations
• Six practical ways it can be used for small business marketing
• Six ways it SHOULD NOT be used Let’s get started.

What is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is a free information source, similar to Google or Wikipedia, but with a key difference which we will discuss shortly. It provides encyclopedic knowledge in the form of an AI chatbot. Unlike Google, where information is retrieved by typing a search query and sifting through pages of results, ChatGPT engages you in a dialogue. You ask questions, and it generates answers tailored to your input. Think of it as a highly sophisticated chatbot. According to its creator, Open AI, ChatGPT possesses the ability to “answer follow-up questions, admit its mistakes, challenge incorrect premises, and reject inappropriate requests.” Furthermore, according to Life Architect, its capabilities extend far beyond that. It can accomplish tasks like passing the bar exam, drafting legal documents, and even obtaining an MBA.

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How ChatGPT Works

Unlike tools like Google and Siri, which source their information from the internet, ChatGPT possesses its own “brain.” This is achieved through its large language model technology, which allows it to accumulate vast amounts of text data from the internet, encompassing books, articles, websites, blog posts, and more. The “GPT” in ChatGPT represents “generative pre-training transformer,” signifying its training on these massive datasets and its utilization of the GPT-3 algorithm (referred to as a transformer algorithm) to produce human-like text. The sheer volume of data enables GPT-3 to outperform its predecessors significantly in terms of learning parameter count.

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ChatGPT Applications

Given that language and communication are integral to almost every aspect of our lives, ChatGPT has proven useful in an extensive range of applications. Some of these ChatGPT’s many capabilities include:

• Writing: code, articles, marketing content, stories, poems, emails, essays
• Generating: ideas, examples, multiple choice questions
• Recommending: products, services, movies
• Explaining: complex topics simply
• Analyzing: sentiment and tone based on punctuation, words, and phrases
• Translating: text into 95 languages
• Finding: data sets, job openings
• More: the list is constantly expanding Even this initial list highlights the significant implications ChatGPT has for various industries. However, our primary focus here is on digital advertising.

Limitations of ChatGPT

It’s crucial to understand that ChatGPT is not a substitute for human professionals such as marketing consultants, doctors, accountants, lawyers, plumbers, etc. While it is an advanced technology, it is still in its early stages. Like any other computer, AI tool, or machine learning technology, it does not offer a 100% guarantee of accuracy. Essentially, it is a computer program capable of aggregating and summarizing data. However, beyond the information you provide, it lacks the comprehensive context of your life, business, health, or any other aspect necessary to provide completely reliable and relevant answers.

Even the tool itself acknowledges its limitations:

• Occasional generation of incorrect information
• Possible production of harmful instructions or biased content
• Limited knowledge of world events after 2021 Therefore, it’s essential to provide specific prompts and utilize the responses as starting points for further exploration, deeper investigation, and refinement. You’ll observe that ChatGPT often includes disclaimers in its answers. For instance, it might say, “While X tool is useful for Y, remember that it’s just one tool among many.”

Six Ways to Leverage ChatGPT for Marketing

The integration of AI into marketing, even for small businesses, is not a new concept. If you’ve ever utilized dynamic search ads in Google Ads, consulted Google Analytics Intelligence, or used an AI content generator, you’ve already experienced AI in action. Let’s explore some of the most accessible ways to utilize ChatGPT for your marketing needs:

1. Generate Copy for Your Marketing Materials

ChatGPT can assist in creating compelling copy for various marketing assets: emails, blog posts, product descriptions, ad copy, headlines, website content, social media captions, and more. Ask it to:

• Generate fresh content
• Modify existing content to match a specific tone—like making it more engaging for a certain demographic or infusing it with a negative sentiment.
• Enhance existing content for a specific goal (e.g., SEO). Keep in mind that generating an entire blog post might be a stretch. Consider requesting an outline instead. Prompt: Craft a promotional email offering a 50% discount on custom framing for the month of October.

This example demonstrates how the output should be treated as a starting point. The generated text is excessively long for a promotional email. Considering the disclaimer mentioned earlier, here are some additional (and admittedly biased but reliable) resources to help you create exceptional marketing copy:

• Email copywriting tips
• Free guide to writing exceptional text ad copy
• Headline examples
• How to write a press release
• Instagram captions
• How to write a blog post Discover even more ChatGPT prompts that can be applied to a wide range of marketing tasks here.

2. Get Marketing Tool Recommendations

Beyond copywriting, ChatGPT can also provide tool recommendations. The internet is flooded with “top ten” lists for almost every tool imaginable. For instance, you could inquire about the best keyword research tools. The response generates a list similar to our roundup of the best free keyword research tools: Prompt: What are the best free keyword research tools for small businesses?

However, it omits one tool: Our Free Keyword Tool! Out of curiosity, I decided to ask about our Free Keyword Tool: Prompt: Tell me about nexus-security’s Free Keyword Tool

Not too bad. Many of the statements are accurate, such as the description of how it “allows users to enter a primary keyword or phrase related to their business and receive a list of related keywords and their respective search volume, competition, and estimated CPC data.” However, it also mentions some outdated features.

3. Content Ideation

ChatGPT offers several avenues for generating ideas for your blog posts, guides, whitepapers, and ebooks. You can request post ideas based on specific topics or existing content, utilize it for research on a particular subject, curate top articles on a topic, or have it simplify complex concepts for your audience. Prompt: Explain how the Google Ads auction works.

Considering our post on how the Google Ads auction works, this response is quite impressive!

4. Learn Shortcuts and Formulas

While it’s not advisable to rely on ChatGPT for reporting and analytics (we’ll delve into this later), it can be valuable for learning shortcuts that aid in data processing and analysis. For example, you can request spreadsheet formulas, regular expressions, and other evergreen strings. Prompt: What’s the Excel formula for percent increase?

5. Generate Customer Surveys

Your target audience is constantly evolving. While thorough market research is essential for identifying your target audience, Chat GPT can be a helpful tool in generating surveys or polls. This allows you to gain deeper insights into your audience and customers and collect valuable feedback. Prompt: Generate a customer feedback survey.

This is a general feedback survey. You can provide more context about your business type, product or service, and target audience.

6. Get Chatbot Ideas

Adding chat to your website is an excellent tool for generating leads, engaging customers, and collecting feedback. Use ChatGPT to brainstorm prompts and responses for your own chatbot! Prompt: I’m creating a chatbot for my website. What’s a good greeting for visitors who land on my pricing page?

You can also draw inspiration from our chatbot examples! As with all ChatGPT responses, remember to use them as a starting point and tailor the copy to align with your brand voice and cater to your specific audience.

Want to learn how to use AI the right way for your marketing? Free download >> Emergency Guide to AI in Marketing

Six Ways to Avoid Using ChatGPT for Marketing

As evident from the suggestions above, ChatGPT is best suited for marketing tactics related to content and copy. When it comes to marketing strategy, relying on proven resources such as a marketing partner or professional remains your best bet. You can always supplement this with Google research. As previously mentioned, ChatGPT’s database has limited knowledge beyond 2021, whereas Google provides more up-to-date information. With that said, let’s explore some marketing areas where you should avoid seeking assistance from ChatGPT.

1. Don’t Rely on It for Marketing Strategy Recommendations

Seeking the most effective ways to promote your business? While it might be tempting to ask ChatGPT, remember that the optimal marketing strategies for your business are contingent on your specific goals, challenges, and available resources. Prompt: What are the best marketing strategies for local businesses?

In response to the prompt above, ChatGPT suggests claiming your “Google My Business” listing—which is outdated because it is now now called Google Business Profile. While social media is a valuable marketing strategy, the response fails to address how to use social media for local marketing specifically.

Our Local Social Media Marketing Lab is a free course on local social. Check it out!

Speaking of promoting your business…

Free guide >> The 30 Best Ways to Promote Your Business (With or Without Money)

2. Don’t Let ChatGPT Structure Your Google Ads Account

Although ChatGPT can be useful for writing headlines and descriptions for your Google Ads, leave strategic tasks to the experts. For instance, while you can ask it to some have suggested using Chat GPT to organize your Google Ads account structure, we strongly advise against it. Prompt: What ad groups should I create for a chiropractor’s Google Ads campaign?

The way your Google Ads campaigns are organized directly impacts the relevance of your ads to their targeted keywords, ultimately affecting your cost-per-click and, consequently, your ROI. While ChatGPT demonstrates the right approach in the example above, it lacks insight into your active campaigns, business objectives, account size, and budget.

It is essential to consider these factors and more, carefully building your campaigns accordingly. We offer a free guide below that you can utilize!

3. Avoid Using It for Keyword Research

ChatGPT is a tool in itself. We’ve already discussed how to use it for tool recommendations. However, avoid using it for to do keyword research. Remember that it is not a real-time platform connected to the web, and its data is limited beyond 2021. So, while the example below may appear promising, the data is outdated and unreliable. Prompt: Do keyword research for me for custom framing.

Prompt: Can you provide search volume, competition level, and cost per click for each of those keywords?

Instead, explore the tools mentioned earlier in ChatGPT’s response. Or, better yet, try our Free Keyword Tool!

4. Don’t Use ChatGPT for Web Development

Let’s imagine you want to create a lead magnet for your website, specifically a free tool. There are instances where people have asked ChatGPT to generate JavaScript code for an ROI calculator. Prompt: Generate JavaScript code for an ROI calculator.

Prompt: How do I implement this on my website?

However, you still need to know that JavaScript is necessary for website implementation, and it might not even be the appropriate language. Creating a free tool is a complex process in itself, let alone integrating it into your site. There are numerous factors to consider, such as the impact on page speed, site security, other ranking factors, brand consistency in the user experience, and whether you want to collect lead information. Since your website is central to your marketing efforts, it’s best to entrust such projects to your web development team to avoid any potential risks.

5. Avoid Using It for Reporting & Analytics

While GPT can analyze data, its current functionality in this area is quite limited. Similar to marketing strategies, the appropriate KPIs and goals will vary based on your unique circumstances. The most effective way to identify trends, patterns, and insights in your data is to establish your own consistent reporting routine. Continue using tools such as Google Data Studio (now Looker Studio), Google Analytics, and Google Ads for your organic traffic and PPC reporting.

It’s worth noting that Google Ads has its own AI features, such as the Insights and Recommendations tools, both of which should be interpreted with caution.

6. Do Not Use Chat GPT to Conduct a Competitor Analysis

A SWOT analysis evaluates a competitor’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in relation to your business. Again, ChatGPT’s data is not the most current and is based on aggregated text data from various sources across the web. It lacks context. While it might generate some helpful information about your competitors, conducting the analysis yourself using real-time platforms and apps is recommended. Prompt: Run a SWOT analysis on Hasbro.

A SWOT analysis helps shape your marketing strategy, business model, and more. Avoid relying on ChatGPT for something so fundamental to your business! Use our SWOT analysis template to conduct your own analysis and obtain dependable results.

Stick to Content & Copy When Using ChatGPT for Marketing

Remember that while ChatGPT is an intriguing information source with a user-friendly interface, it is still in its infancy and comes with its share of drawbacks, limitations, and risks. Information accuracy is a significant concern, not to mention privacy. Therefore, it is best to stick with content and copy tasks, and even then, consider the output as a starting point. To recap, leverage ChatGPT for these purposes:

1. Generating copy for your marketing assets
2. Requesting marketing tool roundups
3. Brainstorming and researching content topics
4. Getting formulas and shortcuts
5. Generating polls and feedback surveys
6. Getting ideas for your own chatbot Avoid using ChatGPT for these tasks:
7. Seeking marketing strategy recommendations
8. Structuring your Google Ads campaigns
9. Conducting keyword research
10. Implementing website changes
11. Handling reporting and analytics
12. Running a competitor analysis Interested in learning more about AI in marketing? Explore these resources:

• How ChatGPT may impact marketing
• More ways to use generative AI in marketing
• How to use ChatGPT for SEO (without killing your rank)
• SEO Automation: 5 Tasks to Automate for Better Results (+Tools to Try)
• 12 Ways to Use AI for Small Business Marketing