The terms "disruption" and "innovation" have become hyperbolic, clichéd and, thanks to entrepreneurial fraud and mismanagement, suspect. But in the case of ChatGPT and other AI emerging technologies, these words apply in their best original sense. Financial services marketers should take note.
Think of it as a chatbot on steroids. But far from a "robots are coming" worst-case scenario, ChatGPT allows users to engage in human-like conversations in order to delegate tasks to an evolving tech-based assistant, potentially freeing up time for strategic thinking. Subject to review, the AI tool can draft emails, blogs, write code and more.
It's the "review" element that should alleviate any concerns about integrating ChatGPT into business-as-usual activities.
Here are five questions financial marketers can ask to derive immediate impact.
Title tags and meta descriptions
Whether the website of your financial services, investment or wealth management firm is a landing page or a content hub, optimized title tags and meta descriptions drive search engine visibility. Creating variations of them can be time-consuming. That's where ChatGPT comes in. Ask it:
"Got any ideas for title tags and meta descriptions for a wealth management firm based out of my city and state?"
The results will traffic generators numerous options to evaluate and leverage for future testing and learning.
Simplifying metrics reporting
Metrics matter. But conveying them in a report or proposal while refraining from marketing jargon can be a challenge. Enter ChatGPT. Let's pose the following query:
"Can you provide the percentage change in the number of page sessions on my site from Q4 in 2022 to Q1 in 2023? In Q4 of 2022, our site had 3000 page sessions and in Q1 of 2023 we had 6738 page sessions. Can you explain why this improvement is important to our brand as if you were speaking to a 10 year old?"
Its answer will include formulas and totals along with a plain English explanation as to why these results are meaningful to a brand.
Language translation
Diversity and inclusion initiatives can require long-term planning and training, which can be a sizable time and cost expense. Firms can deliver cost-effective impact by utilizing ChatGPT for content language translation for public-facing communications (there may be a requirement to have such translations certified) as well as for internal documents. Here's a question to ask:
"Can you translate the following job description into Spanish?"
Insert the text and watch it work its magic. Review the translation with a Spanish-speaking colleague to ensure sense and accuracy. Once approved by all required departments, distribute internally.
Encourage other translation ideas from your team and colleagues to improve communications within the firm. This will also bolster your content library and build morale by positioning the organization as an empathetic firm cognizant of the multilingual needs of employees.
Post and hashtags
Prioritizing consistent content sharing is one thing; having the bandwidth to create posts aligned to a calendar or campaign is another. ChatGPT can help a content team organize its thoughts around a given topic and provide an array of posts and hashtags for said topic. The following question could be a good start:
"Got any creative ideas for social posts across all social platforms for a financial brand, specifically posts that help 20-somethings understand the importance of income protection?"
Five to 10 suggestions of varying length and tone should give a content team a solid foundation from which to start. While the AI is intuitive, it will not know your brand voice, which is why it shouldn't be considered a replacement for a content team.
Blogs and thought leadership
Blogs and thought leadership pieces are critical for brand awareness and educating your audience. ChatGPT can reduce the workload of your content team by drafting a first pass of an article on a specific topic. That's the key — specificity. Here's an example:
"Can you come up with two blogs with a minimum 400-word count on (topic 1) and (topic 2) using relevant SEO keywords?"
Content teams can use the results as a framework for a blog or blog series. Additionally, they can repurpose the content for email, social posts, memes, ads and more.
Keep in mind that getting compliance buy-in is critical to any financial marketing campaign or approach. Assess their comfort level with ChatGPT and come to a consensus on acceptable use cases for your firm. Perhaps show them ways it can expedite their reviews or reports. It may take time and internal trial and error but ultimately, ChatGPT is worth integrating into your marketing technology stack.
