At a recent RSPA Marketing Community meeting, members explored how AI is transforming their marketing strategies and driving sales growth.
Retail IT channel leaders are discovering what AI can do as part of their technology solutions, but the best place to start is with personal use — leveraging AI to make their own work more creative and efficient. RSPA Marketing Community Members shared ways they use AI in daily tasks to streamline processes and improve outcomes.
Discussion takeaways and insights include:
- AI as a Marketing Assistant – Many members, especially “marketing teams of one”, rely on ChatGPT as their “assistant” to generate drafts, brainstorm, and save time.
- Prompt Quality Matters – The group emphasized the importance of specificity in prompts; detailed context yields better results. Tools like Prompt Cowboy were recommended to improve prompts.
- AI for Content Creation – Members use AI to generate LinkedIn posts, blogs, social media copy, and even email subject lines – though always with human editing to add authenticity.
- AI for Research & Efficiency – Tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity are used for tasks such as consolidating data, generating FAQs, pulling company URLs, and surfacing key dates/events – cutting hours of manual work.
- Creative Limitations – Members agreed AI-generated graphics are generally weak, with Midjourney producing stronger visuals.
- Human + AI = Best Results – Participants stressed AI outputs should be “massaged” by humans. Straight copy-and-paste doesn’t work well – AI gets you ~70% of the way, then human voice makes it credible.
- AIO (AI Optimization) is Emerging – Beyond SEO, members discussed AIO – optimizing content so it surfaces in AI-driven answers. FAQs on websites were identified as a key tactic to improve visibility in AI summaries.
- Privacy Concerns – Some members hesitated to input sensitive company data into ChatGPT, raising questions about data safety. Private/company-owned AI tools were mentioned as alternatives.
- AI for Titles & Brainstorming – AI helped RSPA quickly generate multiple event title options, which sped up collaboration and content creation. Members saw value in AI as a creativity booster.
- Tool Diversity – Alongside ChatGPT, the community mentioned Prompt Cowboy, Semrush, Perplexity, Phrasely, MidJourney, and Looker Studio – each serving different AI-related needs for writing, visuals, SEO, and reporting.
Key AI tools mentioned during the discussion:
- ChatGPT – Content creation, brainstorming, process automation, research.
- Prompt Cowboy – Improves prompt quality for clearer, more specific outputs.
- Knowledge Net – Company-specific AI tool with proprietary business data.
- Perplexity – Research tool that includes citations and sources.
- Midjourney – Best for image generation and creative visuals.
- Looker Studio (Google) – Connects data sources and builds automated marketing reports.
- Semrush – SEO keyword tracking and visibility monitoring.
- Ahrefs – SEO tool for backlinks, rankings, and AI references.
- Phrasely – AI tool for improving writing and research.
About RSPA Marketing Community
RSPA Communities are a unique opportunity for members to get involved, share their expertise and help to make the association even stronger. The RSPA Marketing Community meets every 6-8 weeks to discuss RSPA marketing efforts, marketing best practices, and share marketing challenges or tips. If you would like to get involved in the Marketing Community, please email RSPA Sr. Marketing Communications Manager Ayana Scriven at AScriven@GoRSPA.org.
