3 Ways to Use Chat GPT AI for Marketing

Chat GPT & AI for Marketing: Podcast Episode Summary

In this episode of Cinch Academy, Mandy, Kat and Shyan break down three practical ways to use GPT and other AI tools in digital marketing: maintaining a consistent brand voice, using AI as a fast “search engine” for troubleshooting and research, and adding chatbots to improve website lead handling and customer support. They also discuss why AI needs a human editor, how “auto-optimized” ad creative can go sideways and why strong branding keeps audiences engaged, even when content topics shift.

Main Takeaways:

• Use GPT to lock in a consistent brand voice across team members

• Build an “AI brand kit” alongside typography and colour codes

• Treat AI like a search engine for fast answers and WordPress troubleshooting

• Use AI for keyword idea starters, then validate in SEMrush and Google Ads

• Chatbots can triage inquiries and improve after-hours responsiveness

• Don’t let AI be the final copywriter — add human voice and judgement

• Watch for AI “optimizing” ad images and distorting text or adding weird characters

• Branding is what keeps audiences with you, even when topics pivot

• Bonus: Taco Bell weddings are a wild example of attention-grabbing marketing

The Abridged Transcription (Listen for full content!)

Mandy: Welcome back to Cinch Academy! Today, we’re talking about how we can use AI in digital marketing. We’re going to share three specific tips you can use to apply AI in different ways to improve your own marketing. Who wants to start?

Tip One: Use AI to Keep Branding Consistent

Kat: One thing I hear from business owners all the time is a lack of consistency in brand voice. They hire a new social media person, and suddenly it sounds, looks, and feels different. With AI, you can create guidelines that keep everything in the same brand voice.

Mandy: So you’re recommending that one robot handles the marketing strategy, or does it act as the brand voice?

Kat: It’s the brand voice that guides your team throughout the process. That way, you can switch team members, but you’ve got one “robot” that stays consistent.

Mandy: That actually makes sense. I personally have trouble not overhauling things when I take them over from someone else, so that would help prevent that.

It’s a good guideline every brand should have by now, and it could even be part of a brand kit: typography, colour codes and your AI voice guide. Then, when you generate social media content, everything is in one place.

If you don’t know how to use AI to create a brand voice, you can start with something customizable. Even the free version of ChatGPT lets you set rules within a conversation. If you keep working in the same chat, it will continue to follow those rules: spell your brand a specific way, always link to a specific website, and so on.

If you’re using a paid platform or you’ve had someone build a brand voice assistant for you, you can log in, and it will carry those rules forward.

Tip Two: Use AI as a Search Engine and Troubleshooter

Alright, tip two: a good AI program can act like a search engine. Shyan, you started using it that way when we were dealing with weird WordPress problems — because WordPress is amazing and we never have trouble using it.

Shyan: That’s right. AI is incredible, especially from a coder’s perspective and for data research, which I do a lot. One of the ways it’s been most helpful is learning how to add specific code snippets or pixels, or figuring out which plugins to use on WordPress.

It’ll walk you through step by step. Instead of bouncing through YouTube videos trying to find the one part you need, AI simplifies it into clear steps without all the extra noise.

It also helps me with day-to-day keyword research. I don’t use it as the final answer; I use it as a starting point. For example, I’ll ask what keywords are trending in a certain industry. Then I take those ideas and do a deeper dive using tools like SEMrush and Google Ads.

Mandy: So you use it as a starting point.

Shyan: Exactly. It’s hard to find step one, especially if you’re working in an industry you don’t understand yet. AI helps you get unstuck.

Mandy: Have you used different AI tools for these tasks, or mostly one?

Shyan: We’ve tried a few. Early on, we used Jasper, but we outgrew it. Then we shifted to ChatGPT, and we’ve stuck with it. It’s advanced quickly, and you can tell it’s being actively improved.

I’ve also tested Gemini and Microsoft Copilot. Copilot hasn’t impressed me — especially because it refuses to rewrite content I’ve written when I’m trying to repurpose it, which isn’t useful in a marketing context. Gemini hasn’t stood out to me yet, either. ChatGPT is the most all-encompassing tool for what I need right now.

You also see AI baked into tools like Canva, with features like Magic Write and generative image tools. They’re improving, but we’re still a long way from replacing graphic designers.

Mandy: AI image tools have come a long way, though. When we first brought ChatGPT into the office, it helped with ideas and research, but it couldn’t really handle images. It’s getting better, but it still does weird things. Like when Michaela tried to remove an object from a photo — it removed the object, but it also changed people’s faces.

Shyan: That’s the key: AI is powerful, but it still needs human oversight.

Tip Three: Add an AI Chatbot to Your Website

Mandy: Tip three: adding AI to your website through chatbots. In fact, we can do that for you, if you'd like! Cinch Communications creates helpful AI chatbots for any kind of website to help users navigate your platform and products.

We’ve all dealt with chatbots — you contact a big company, and you have to go through the bot first. For some businesses, chatbots make a lot of sense. A dental office, for example, might use a chatbot to triage: is it an emergency? What availability do you need? What’s happening? It’s like a modern operator, routing people to the right place.

Back in the day, you’d press 1 for English, 2 for French, 1 for billing, 2 for technical support. If you needed a person right away, you’d press zero — and now some places don’t even let you do that, which drives me nuts.

Chatbots can be helpful if they actually guide people efficiently, especially outside business hours. But sometimes you still need a human, because humans can understand context and nuance in ways bots can’t.

Shyan: A chatbot can be a helping hand, but it isn’t perfect. You still have to monitor it and make sure it’s actually useful.

Mandy: Exactly. Like on a bank website, if you need something straightforward — your routing number, for example — a bot can quickly point you to it. That’s helpful.

Content, Branding and Search Intent

Shyan: Short-form video is still big, but people are burnt out on fluff. Viewers skip content that wastes their time.

Mandy: To me, TikTok is mostly trash unless it’s a cat.

Shyan: Fluff depends on the person. For me, it’s long “get ready with me” videos. I’m not interested unless the story is actually useful or interesting.

Mandy: That reminds me of podcasts. If you love the hosts and their brand, you’ll listen to them talk about anything. I’ve listened to people rank salad dressings for an hour and a half because I like them. The topic didn’t matter — the brand did.

Shyan: That connects to search intent, too. Someone might find content through a random long-tail search and become a fan because they like the style and personality.

Mandy: The lesson is: branding keeps people with you, even when you pivot.

Final Note on AI-Generated Ads and “Optimization”

Shyan: If you use AI to help write ads or create variations, don’t let the robot be the final copy. You need to inject your authenticity and make it sound like a real person.

Also, some platforms “optimize” images using AI in ways that can break your creativity. If you have text on an image, AI can distort it, add weird characters, or auto-fill borders in ways you didn’t approve. It’s trying to help, but it can create messy results — so always review before publishing.

Mandy: Don’t let it automatically optimize everything. Sometimes “optimized” looks worse.

Weird Marketing Story of the Day: Taco Bell Weddings

Mandy: A fun marketing story: Taco Bell is doing weddings — at their flagship location in Las Vegas. They offer themed wedding packages, wedding merch, champagne flutes, a taco party pack, a chapel space, an officiant and even a hot sauce packet bouquet.

It sounds fake, but people have actually done it. If you’re in Vegas, it’s kind of hilarious.

We should make this a recurring segment: weird marketing stories.

Mandy: That’s it for today. See you next month!