Mastering Generative AI for SMS Marketing

Generative AI is all the rage in the tech community, but most people don’t understand the significant impact it can have on their business. In fact, most people don't truly understand what it even means.

Generative AI is a term that refers to AI systems, often in large language processing or image creation. What makes generative AI so special and how is it different from traditional software? Well, generative AI can create new information from scratch, as opposed to being limited to preexisting data. That means you can tell the software what you want and it will make it for you…and fast.

It’s not hard to find ways in which generative AI can improve your business efforts. For starters, there is copy content generation. That is, AI known as Large Language Models that can write unique creative content, business content, or a blend of the two. In fact, many models allow you the option to pick the ‘tone’ of the copy it will produce. You can also pick the length, language, and really anything else you want. Generative AI can write blog posts, responses to reviews and comments, social media posts, email campaigns, and most important of all SMS marketing campaigns. How does that affect your bottom line:

Faster speed to market

Generating great content often takes less than one minute. That means getting articles out that break the news, not reply to it days later. It also means personalized content for each audience member to grab their attention at its optimal point – as soon as they show interest.

Free time

It is especially beneficial for small businesses where one person wears many hats (does several business tasks). Generative AI can be a valuable time-saving tool for businesses and professionals who create content on a regular basis.

Less expensive

Generative AI offers several free options as well as paid options. Paid options tend to be very inexpensive and are often much cheaper than using a creative agency, freelancer, or staff employee. Free options are, well, free.

Better quality

Generative AI can change its tone while maintaining perfect grammar. It can also reference infinite amounts of text and images that would be impossible for even the largest team of humans to reference; and it can do it without bias. All of this efficiency means copyright and images that are limitless and truly inclusive.

More variety

Humans tend to operate in patterns based largely on their beliefs and surroundings. It is hard for the average person to understand the other side of an argument, let alone all of the sides. With your instruction, generative AI will avoid patterns in your content and be more spontaneous. This could mean appealing to larger or newer audiences, or simply keeping your audience engaged.

Personalization

AI models can generate personalized content based on the preferences of individual users. This can help businesses and professionals to create content that is more likely to be of interest to their target audience, and therefore more likely to be read or shared.

How AI and SMS go hand-in-hand

One of my favorite sayings is, “You will not be replaced by AI, you will be replaced by a person using AI.” (source unknown). It is true that AI will continue to reshape the way businesses act and marketers create, but the same principles apply. That means using the best tech, like helios for SMS marketing. It means adopting the newest trends and being fearless, like generative AI. Most of all, it means dynamic marketing is as important and relevant as ever.

The flip side of the coin is that, if you’re not using generative AI, you’re competing against it. As industry adoption continues, more and more of your competitors will be leveraging these powerful and inexpensive tools to lower their customer acquisition cost (CAC) will improving conversions (CVR) and return on ad spend (ROAS). In short, they’ll spend less to make more. So what do you have to lose?

The short answer is, nothing. Also, you shouldn’t be afraid of using AI – you already do with Helios. When you use personalization tools like {first_name}, our wonderful computer friend is finding the first name of each individual contact in your list and applying it so that the right person sees the right name. When you set up a triggered automation, like “Reply DEAL for 15% off your next booking”, AI is interpreting the response and then auto responding based on the next message in your automated SMS workflow. In other words, you’re already leveraging AI with Helios. Incorporating generative AI is simply layering on another time-saving benefit.

Leveraging AI in your SMS prompts and business messaging

So how can you use generative AI to compliment your SMS marketing campaigns? To start, generative AI like copy.ai will write text messages, headlines, deal terms, and more. Services like ChatGPT can write an entire campaign for you, filled with unique messages for each step in the funnel. You can take these responses, save them as templates, and automate the workflow so that they are sent out in sequence.

Here are some generative AI tools that can empower your business:

1. ChatGPT - writes emails, ad copy, campaigns, etc.
2. Termly.io - write policies and handles some components of compliance
3. Copy.ai - write email headlines and body, social media posts with filters for things like tone.
4. Writesonic - writes copy with a focus on SEO, it can also develop outlines, or generate ideas for the writer
5. Jasper - generates marketing materials
6. Deepai.org - generates images based on text input. No more looking for the perfect stock image for a blog or advertisement.

Those are just a few that I have personal experience with. Here is a list of generative AI tools curated by Antler:

In our next article we will walk through exactly how to set up an SMS marketing campaign with ChatGPT. You will see how easy and efficient this method can be for your business growth, customer retention, and marketing efforts. To see all of the best Helios features, check here.

Combining AI, phenomenal content and personalization will make your SMS marketing stand out. Using powerful software like Helios ensures that you are making optimal use of all of these components.