Day: September 26, 2024

Happy fall, MiM-ers! Grab your pumpkin-spiced latte, settle in with Noah Kahan's Stick Season, and get ready to hear from a paid marketer who’s all-in on influencers, storytelling, and AI-targeted ads.

(I'm sorry I can’t offer up a more recent fall-inspired album. To be fair, I'm still obsessed with my "Summer 2019" mix.)

Keep reading to learn why Zapier's head of paid ads thinks the golden age of paid ads is over. 

1. Fully embrace the influencer buzz. 

James de Feu says the golden age of paid advertising is over. And he's okay with it. 

He's also the manager of paid ads at Zapier. 

(I'm currently imagining Mad Men's Don Draper rolling over in his TV grave.)

De Feu is so confident about influencer marketing that he negotiated to bring it under his paid ads team. He succeeded because, moving forward, "we see that as our brand motion." 

In fact, when I asked how he'd spend a hypothetical $1k, de Feu tells me he'd put a hefty 40% into influencers. 

But don't delete your Google Ads account just yet. De Feu says he'd still give 50% of that hypothetical budget to paid ads. (The other 10% would go to SEO, if you got stuck trying to add this up to 100.) 

As he acknowledges, "Paid ads will always be on, and we'll still spend a ton of money there. But paid ads live and die in that spending month. It's not getting us the reach it once did."

That's why de Feu isn’t putting all his eggs in one basket. Paid is still a good egg (err-basket?), but he's excited to seek out influencers who thrive on the same platforms where Zapier's customers hang out. 

"I smirked when you mentioned influencers, because that's the name of the game — even for those of us in the B2B space,” he tells me. “It's no longer just about glossy teenage products anymore."

2. Storytelling is the bread and butter of marketing.

"In the world of paid ads, we get fixated on one single, siloed experience, and we just keep trying to optimize it until it's perfect," de Feu says. "But one thing we've learned is that storytelling is huge." 

"Storytelling is huge" is exactly the same pitch I gave my parents when I was trying to convince them that majoring in creative writing was a sound financial decision — but de Feu isn't wrong. If there's one truth that remains consistent in the world of marketing, it's that humans have always, and will always, love a good story.  

"Stretching something out, building a story, creating use cases, highlighting testimonials — I let go of that over the past couple of years, and I'm just grateful now that we've reset ourselves. Storytelling has always been, and will continue to be, our superpower as marketers." 

So if you're unsure of where to start in the world of paid ads, try this: Talk to your customers, learn their pain points, and then communicate your solutions through a good ole-fashioned tale. 

3. Get used to cha-cha-changes. 

David Bowie preached it: You've got to keep up with all the changes happening in the advertising industry or risk throwing precious cash down the drain. (Those are the lyrics, right?)

For de Feu, that means doing tons of tests to learn how to use AI to personalize Zapier's ads — not just in creating assets, but in audience targeting, too. 

"You have to be really on top of all these recent changes or you'll end up wasting money," he says. 

An example could be an athletic brand that uses AI to target yoga apparel ads to their vinyasa-loving consumers while ensuring their golf apparel is sent to every guy on Wall Street. 

In other words: The future of ads will look a lot more like high-intent, targeted content, and less like the generic, all-purpose ads we've come to know and hate. 

Hello Gang! I'm grateful once again for the advice to use MySQL over Postgres. It's been a pretty smooth experience so far. Unfortunately I had to migrate to a different host and have been getting an undefined variable error.

Mysql is Running. I used the package manager to get python-mysql.connector installed. And yet I keep getting an undefined variable error.

Here is the output:

Exception creating initial db connection
Error:  module 'ssl' has no attribute 'wrap_socket'
Error type:  <class 'AttributeError'>

Here is some test code if you need to replicate it:

import base64
import mysql.connector as mysql
try:
    connection=mysql.connect( host="localhost", database="iheartdaniweb", user="funuser", password="supersekritpass") 
except Exception as error:
    print("Exception creating initial db connection")
    print("Error: ", error)
    print("Error type: ", type(error))
connection.autocommit=True

Thanks in advance gang! Unfortunately the interwebs were no help with this one or I wouldn't bother you guys! Thanks again!! !!

Many of you — perhaps most of you — have been sitting on the sidelines while WordPress and WP Engine trade legal attacks on one another. It’s been widely covered as we watch it unfold in the open; ironically, in a sense.

These things can take twists and turns and it doesn’t help that this just so happens to be an emotionally charged topic in certain circles. WordPress is still the leading CMS after all these years and by a long shot. Many developers make their living in the WordPress ecosystem. All of those developers need hosting. WP Engine is still the leading WordPress-flavored host after many years. Many developers host their agencies there and use it to administrate their clients’ sites.

And I haven’t even gotten to the drama. That’s not really the point. The point is that there’s a bunch of heated words flying around and it can be difficult to know where they’re coming from, who they are aimed at, and most importantly, why they’re being said in the first place. So, I’m going to round up a few key voices contributing to the discussion for the sake of context and to help catch up.

Editor’s Note: Even though CSS-Tricks has no involvement with either company, I think it’s mentioning that Automattic was a looooooong time sponsor. This site was also once hosted by Flywheel, a company acquired by WP Engine before we moved to Cloudways following the DigitalOcean acquisition. Me? My personal site runs on WP Engine, but I’m not precious about it having only been there one year.

Prelude to a tweet

We had fair warning that something was coming up when WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg sent this out over X:

I know private equity and investors can be brutal (read the book Barbarians at the Gate). Please let me know if any employee faces firing or retaliation for speaking up about their company's participation (or lack thereof) in WordPress. We'll make sure it's a big public deal and…

— Matt Mullenweg (@photomatt) September 19, 2024

There’s the ammo: Don’t let private equity bully you into speaking up against the company you work for when its contributions to WordPress are on the slim side of things.

Private equity. Lack of participation in the WordPress community. Making a big public deal of it. Remember these things because this is one day before…

WordCamp US 2024

Matt spoke at WordCamp US (WCUS) 2024 in Portland, OR, last week. September 20 to be exact. Making big, bold statements at WCUS isn’t a new thing for Matt, as many of us still have “Learn JavaScript deeply” tattooed on the brain from 2016.

Matt’s statements this year were less inspirational (instructional?) as they took direct aim at WP Engine as part of a presentation on the merits of open-source collaboration. You can watch and listen to where the first jab was thrown roughly around the 10:05 marker of the recording.

Let’s break down the deal. Matt begins by comparing the open-source contributions to WordPress from his company, Automattic, to those of WP Engine. These things are tracked on WordPress.org as part of a campaign called “Five for the Future” that’s designed to give organizations an influential seat at the table to form the future of WordPress in exchange for open-source contributions back to the WordPress project. Automattic has a page totaling its contributions. So does WP Engine.

Before Matt reveals the numbers, he goes out of his way to call out the fact that both Automattic and WP Engine are large players in the neighborhood of $500 million dollars. That’s the setup for Matt to demonstrate how relatively little WP Engine contributes to WordPress against Matt’s own company. Granted, I have absolutely no clue what factors into contributions, nor how the pages are administrated or updated. But here’s what they show…

Quite the discrepancy! I’d imagine Automattic dwarfs every other company that’s pledged to the campaign. Maybe it would be better to compare the contributions of another non-Automattic pledge that has a fairly strong reputation for participating in WordPress community. 10up is one of the companies that comes straight to my mind and they are showing up for 191 hours per week, or roughly five times WP Engine’s reported time. I get conflicting info on 10up’s revenue, valuation, and size, so maybe the comparison isn’t fair. Or maybe it is fair because 10up is certainly smaller than WP Engine, and no estimate I saw was even close to the $500 million mark.

Whatever the case, bottom line: Matt calls out WP Engine for its lack of effort on a very public stage — maybe the largest — in WordPress Land. He doesn’t stop there, going on to namecheck Silver Lake, a ginormous private equity firm bankrolling the company. The insinuation is clear: there’s plenty of money and resources, so pony up.

That’s bad enough for attendees to raise eyebrows, but it doesn’t end there. Matt encourages users and developers alike to vote with money by not purchasing hosting from WP Engine (11:31) and seems to suggest (23:05) that he’ll provide financial support to any WP Engine employees who lose their jobs from speaking up against their employer.

I think I can get behind the general idea that some companies need a little prodding to pull their weight to something like the Five for the Future campaign. Encouraging developers to pull their projects from a company and employees to jeopardize their careers? Eek.

“WP Engine is not WordPress”

This is when I believe things got noisy. It’s one thing to strong-arm a company (or its investors) into doing more for the community. But in a post on his personal blog the day after WCUS, Matt ups the ante alleging that “WP Engine isn’t WordPress.” You’d think this is part of the tough-guy stance he had from the stage, but his argument is much different in this post. Notice it’s about how WP Engine uses WordPress in its business rather than how much the company invests in it:

WordPress is a content management system, and the content is sacred. Every change you make to every page, every post, is tracked in a revision system, just like the Wikipedia. This means if you make a mistake, you can always undo it. It also means if you’re trying to figure out why something is on a page, you can see precisely the history and edits that led to it. These revisions are stored in our database. This is very important, it’s at the core of the user promise of protecting your data, and it’s why WordPress is architected and designed to never lose anything.

WP Engine turns this off. They disable revisions because it costs them more money to store the history of the changes in the database, and they don’t want to spend that to protect your content. It strikes to the very heart of what WordPress does, and they shatter it, the integrity of your content.

OK, gloves off. This is more personal. It’s no longer about community contributions but community trust and how WP Engine erodes trust by preventing WordPress users from accessing core WordPress features for their own profit.

Required reading

That’s where I’d like to end this, at least for now. Several days have elapsed since Matt’s blog post and there are many, many more words flying around from him, community members, other companies, and maybe even your Great Aunt. But if you’re looking for more signal than noise, I’ve rounded up a few choice selections that I feel contribute to the (heated) discussion.

Reddit: Matt Mullenweg needs to step down from WordPress.org leadership ASAP

Matt responds to the requisite calls for him to step down, starting with:

To be very clear, I was 100% cordial and polite to everyone at the booth, my message was:

* I know this isn’t about them, it’s happening several levels above, it’s even above their CEO, it’s coming from their owner, Silver Lake and particularly their board member Lee Wittlinger.

* Several people inside WP Engine have been anonymously leaking information to me about their bad behavior, and I wanted to let them know if they were caught or faced retaliation that I would support them in every way possible, including covering their salaries until they found a new job.

* That *if* we had to take down the WP Engine booth and ban WP Engine that evening, my colleague Chloé could print them all new personal badges if they still wanted to attend the conference personally, as they are community members, not just their company.

This was delivered calmly, and they said thank you, and their head of comms, Lauren Cox, who was there asked that they have time to regroup and discuss.

Automattic’s Actionable Misconduct Directed to WP Engine

WP Engine issues a cease and desist letter designed to stop Matt from disparaging them publicly. But hold up, because there’s another juicy claim in there:

In the days leading up to Mr. Mullenweg’s September 20th keynote address at the WordCamp US Convention, Automattic suddenly began demanding that WP Engine pay Automattic large sums of money, and if it didn’t, Automattic would wage a war against WP Engine.

And yes, they did issue it from their own site’s /wp-content directory. That’s easy to lose, so I’ve downloaded it to link it for posterity.

Open Source, Trademarks, and WP Engine

Just today, Matt published a cease and desist letter to the Auttomatic blog where he alleges that WP Engine’s commercial modifications to WordPress Core violate the WordPress trademark. Again, this has become about licensing, not contributions:

WP Engine’s business model is based on extensive and unauthorized use of these trademarks in ways that mislead consumers into believing that WP Engine is synonymous with WordPress. It’s not.

This is trademark abuse, not fair competition.

This is no longer WordPress vs. WP Engine. It’s more like Automattic vs. WP Engine. But with Matt’s name quite literally in the name Automattic, let’s be real and call this Matt Mullenweg vs. WP Engine.

WP Tavern coverage

WP Tavern is still the closest thing we have to an official WordPress news outlet. Nevermind that it’s funded and hired by Automattic (among others). I respect it, though I honestly have been less attentive to it since the team turned over earlier this year. It’s still a great spot to catch up on the post-event coverage:

• Highlights from Matt Mullenweg’s Spiciest Word Camp Presentation at WordCamp US 2024 (Sep. 24)
• Automattic Responds to WP Engine’s Cease and Desist with Legal Action (Sep. 24)

There’s another more recent WP Tavern article I want to call out because it’s a huge development in this saga…

WP Engine Banned from Using WordPress.org Resources

Dang. This is the point of no return. It not only affects WP Engine proper, but the Flywheel hosting it also owns.

WordPress.org has blocked WP Engine customers from updating and installing plugins and themes via WP Admin. 

I was able to update plugins on my site as recently as yesterday, but let’s see as of this morning.

Maybe I can still see details about my installed plugins…

This is a bad, bad situation. I have thoughts about it and neither side looks good. Using real people with no dog in the fight to make a point is never gonna be a good look. Then again, both sides have valid points and I can see where they’re coming from. I just hate to see it come to a head like this.

Update (Oct. 3, 2024)

The story continues, of course — and it ain’t slowing down. WP Tavern is on the ball and publishing regular updates, although remember: it’s an Automattic publication at the end of the day. Matt’s been the most vocal player so far, so it stands to reason that WP Tavern might want to amplify things.

In any case…

• WP Engine Banned Again, Reports Deploying a Solution
  WP Tavern reported that WP Engine deployed a workaround for its banned status on WordPress.org, but it was short-lived because whatever loophole they found was plugged up. Notice the screenshots showing strides that WP Engine has taken to distinguish itself from WordPress (the brand) on its site in several places.
• Automattic Publishes WP Engine Term Sheet Amidst Controversy
  Today, I learned that (1) this fight has been going on for “years” (in Matt’s words), (2) the royalty rate offered to WP Engine appears to rise with each passing month (it was 7%, then 8%), but (3) but that’s now off the table.
• Mullenweg threatens corporate takeover of WP Engine
  Oh, my dear! This would be a sad conclusion. That said, I have no bones to pick at Matt’s informal poll asking whether WP Engine’s Advanced Custom Fields Pro should be baked into WordPress Core. I’ve never understood why WordPress has never built a UI for custom fields, perhaps other than the spirit of open source and allowing plugin developers to thrive. Custom fields ought to be a core feature of any CMS as they are needed to, you know, manage content throughout a site by making it more pliable.

Catching Up on the WordPress 🚫 WP Engine Sitch originally published on CSS-Tricks, which is part of the DigitalOcean family. You should get the newsletter.

A new tool from Eric Meyer, Brian Kardell, and Stephanie Stimac backed with Igalia’s support. Brian announced it on his blog, as did Eric, describing it like this:

What BCD Watch does is, it grabs releases of the Browser Compatibility Data (BCD) repository that underpins the support tables on MDN and services like caniuse.com.  It then analyzes what’s changed since the previous release.

Every Monday, BCD Watch produces two reports. The Weekly Changes Report lists all the changes to BCD that happened in the previous week — what’s been added, removed, or renamed in the whole of BCD.  It also tells you which of the Big Three browsers newly support (or dropped support for) each listed feature, along with a progress bar showing how close the feature is to attaining Baseline status.

Browser support data is at MDN. There’s also plenty at Caniuse.com. The two share data, in fact, though not all of it. We now have Baseline, which is also cited in MDN and Caniuse alike. It’s nice to see an effort at cracking a central spot for all this — organized by date, no less.

Oh, and hey, there’s a feed. Even better.

You can also poke at its repo. Thanks a bunch, Eric, Brian, Stephanie, and Igalia! This is super helpful and already part of my toolkit.

BCD Watch originally published on CSS-Tricks, which is part of the DigitalOcean family. You should get the newsletter.

As someone who has experimented with different AI marketing tools, I can confidently say that embracing AI can benefit marketing teams looking to become more efficient in reaching their goals.

While it can automate tasks, save time and costs, and boost productivity, there are some AI challenges marketers should be aware of.

Our 2024 AI Trends report found that 74% of marketers predict most people will use AI in the workplace by 2030. So, I figured I should explore the challenges marketers could face when working with AI, so they're prepared as it becomes a bigger part of their workflow.

I’ll also highlight expert insight from industry leaders so you can learn how to tackle these challenges and harness the power of AI in marketing.

• The 10 Biggest Challenges When Implementing AI
• 12 Tips for Implementing AI

The 10 Biggest Challenges When Implementing AI

Along with the benefits of using AI in marketing outlined in the image below, the challenges of implementing AI in marketing are vast.

Image Source

This includes challenges related to the AI systems, processes, team buy-in, and more. We‘re working through the most significant challenges and the data that justifies these day-to-day challenges. You’re not the only one feeling the struggle.

Here are 10 common challenges when it comes to AI in marketing.

1. Hampering Creativity

As brands like Coca-Cola and mega-celebrities like Nicki Minaj use generative AI in their marketing campaigns, many marketers worry that AI could stifle creativity.

Our marketing and AI survey found that 43% of marketers who use AI do so to create content.

With such a huge chunk of marketers using AI to create, it's understandable to have concerns that the marketing landscape could become oversaturated with AI and lose its creative spark.

However, there are several ways marketers can avoid this pitfall.

One key to overcoming the challenge is for marketers to use AI as an assistive tool that streamlines their process or gets the creative juices flowing.

2. Undermining Competency

If you‘re concerned that AI could undermine your competency as a marketer, you’re not alone.

According to our survey, 57% of marketers feel pressured to learn AI or risk becoming irrelevant. This translates to sentiments that AI could undermine a marketer's effort and competency at work.

Though AI is becoming increasingly ingrained in marketing, that doesn‘t mean marketers can’t remain competitive and shine in the workplace.

Marketers can overcome this challenge by learning more about AI's functionality, how different AI tools work, and finding ways AI can boost productivity or troubleshoot roadblocks.

3. Extra Time Commitments

If you want a sound output from AI, you need excellent input. That means you need to know what to ask for based on your goals.

Prompting AI for marketing is another thing to add to your swelling to-do list.

Like any new skill, prompting AI needs to be learned and practiced. The good news is that the time taken to prompt and use AI may be a case of short-term pain for long-term gain.

Based on our research, if you can prompt AI to deliver generative content that you're happy to publish, you could save as much as three hours and ten minutes when working on a single piece of marketing content from start to finish. Not bad.

In fact, our survey found that 75% of marketers use AI to reduce the time they spend on manual tasks.

4. Creating Working Processes

A contributing factor to the challenge of time constraints when implementing AI is creating processes. However, navigating the challenges of AI will be easier with a working process.

If you use AI, you want all team members to work with it similarly. An AI process is required to help eliminate bias and ensure everything is fact-checked, and it naturally provides best practice tips to use AI tools efficiently.

Image Source

5. Inaccurate Information

In our state of AI in marketing research, we found that one of the top challenges for marketers implementing AI is pushback regarding inaccurate information.

It's unsurprising, considering almost half of the marketers surveyed have received incorrect information from generative AI.

Producing inaccurate information is undoubtedly a valid concern for conscientious marketers, and it could damage brand reputation and brand/consumer relations.

6. Poor Quality Content

Similar to the challenge above, poor-quality content concerns conscientious marketers. But there's an argument that this does not need to be a challenge.

As I mentioned earlier, 43% of marketers in our survey use AI to create content.

With so many marketers leveraging AI in their creative processes, it‘s important to remember that AI isn’t always going to generate accurate results.

So, remember to fact-check AI outputs always.

7. Privacy and Data Analysis

There are broad concerns about privacy and data analysis regarding using AI.

When it comes to data analysis, marketers use AI to analyze customer data and understand user behavior. However, it has its own set of challenges. When implementing AI into your workflow or customer interactions, do the following:

• Consult with your supervisor and/or IT department before inputting sensitive data into AI.
• Be cautious of free trials, as they may retain your data after your trial is up.
• Choose trusted AI software with a proven track record of reliability and security.

8. Job Replacement

The worry about job replacement has been around for a while, and it’s understandable.

In 2017, a McKinsey report studied considerations around the workplace in 2030 and how AI might impact it.

The report estimated that “between 400 million and 800 million individuals could be displaced by automation and need to find new jobs by 2030.”

The good news is the findings are yet to come to fruition. In fact, our report finds the opposite to be true. According to our AI Trends Report, 68% of marketers surveyed say has helped grow their career.

But the fear is still there. You might find some pushback when implementing AI with your team if they’re worried about job security.

Now, the subject of job replacement and AI is much more positive. Mike Maynard, the CEO at Napier, published an article titled Will AI Lead To The End Of Marketing Jobs? in Forbes.

Maynard said, “AI will inevitably replace certain aspects of traditional marketing, but by and large, it will probably be the tedious, mundane tasks, like analytics, that most of us aren’t enthusiastic about anyway."

He explained, “The truth is that although AI can potentially automate certain tasks and improve efficiency, it is unlikely to replace marketing teams for the foreseeable future completely.”

There are reasons to believe that AI is here to solve tasks and will never replace human teams in marketing. Naturally, marketing leaders must convince teams that their jobs are safe.

9. AI Bias

AI bias is a challenge that most marketers should be aware of.

Ultimately, AI will always be biased because humans are biased. Marketing leaders need a plan to meet the challenge of teams inputting bias into a system.

Bias is a serious consideration and challenge for businesses, and its impact can be serious. DataRobot’s 2022 survey found that the impact of data bias can result in as much as 62% lost revenue.

Image Source

10. Keeping Up with New Trends and Technologies

The field of AI is constantly evolving, and it’s growing fast. Marketers can feel overwhelmed keeping up with the latest trends and technologies.

It’s hard to know what to try, prioritize, and invest your time into. This challenge is particularly overwhelming if you have business heads pushing your team for more.

12 Tips for Implementing AI

Okay, now we know what some of the biggest challenges are, let's find out how to overcome them in a way that helps you reach your marketing objectives while you reap all the AI benefits you’ve heard so much about.

Here are 12 tips to help you do just that.

1. Enforce AI policies.

Dan Robinson, Head of Marketing and e-Commerce at instantprint, recommends that businesses implement and enforce AI policies to aid smooth AI implementation.

The solutions he‘s integrated into instantprint’s AI implementations include:

“Employees must adhere to the guidelines we‘ve set out. We nurture an environment of trust but also provide our team with the rules and regulations they need to be aware of to use these tools effectively and safely. Our ‘AI Code of Conduct’ is set out by each platform we use, with do’s and don't for each tool.

“We want to make our AI policy a collaborative space. Those using AI and other models will get to know the platforms in great detail. Making policies a shared effort means that we're more likely to have rules that will work for our team, developed by our team, with the exception of legal and ethical frameworks as a standard.”

What we like: Robinson doesn‘t deny the importance of AI policies that are legal and ethical but doesn’t stop the team from adding their thoughts. With a collaborative effort to develop policies, you’re more likely to get buy-in from team members.

2. Start with low-risk AI implementations.

Rosella Dello Ioio, Head of Content at Enate, says, “Businesses should be clearly defining the data they can and can't share with public and private AI models. Consider hiring a Chief AI Officer to take the lead on security and governance within the business.

“Once the rules around these challenges have been clearly established, begin rolling out GenAI in your marketing department by identifying all the people whose job involves creating (writing, designing, and building) and let them find the best AI co-pilot for their tasks.

Creative roles such as Copywriting and Graphic Design are relatively low-risk in terms of sensitive data as opposed to a CRM Manager who wants to use GenAI to analyze customer feedback and complaints.

Test and procure low-risk tools to support these creative individuals in boosting productivity and slashing the time spent on mundane tasks while ensuring governance protocols are adhered to."

What we like: It's justified for marketers to be concerned about data and analysis by AI tools, but Dello Ioio has found a solution that allows marketing leaders to start implementing AI in a way that feels manageable and safe.

Sometimes, the first step is the most challenging, and once leaders get rolling with AI, they may be inspired to try more.

Look at HubSpot’s AI content assistant for low-risk AI experimentation. It’s free to demo, and you can write content, create emails, landing pages, and more.

3. Leverage AI alongside your existing tech stack.

Cassey Bowden, Director of Marketing at Promet Source, recommends that marketing leaders consider new AI tools with existing tech and your talented team.

She says, “When used effectively in combination with other tools and skills of our respective teams, the door is wide open for possibilities. I would encourage folks to look at AI as an assistive tool in their digital toolbox.

Those who will see the best results and realize the most benefits of AI, in my opinion, will be those who view this tech through a Venn diagram lens.

Leveraging this tech along with your existing tech stack in addition to your skilled team, where these overlap, is where we will find success."

What we like: Bowden’s tip could help marketing leaders close the gap on challenges that hamper creativity. If AI is used in addition to your skilled team, then there's everything to gain through collaboration.

Consider taking the best of AI and the best of that all-important human touch and find the areas where they can best support each other.

4. Talk to your team.

Communication is, of course, everything! When it comes to AI, marketing leaders can eliminate a lot of AI challenges with team buy-in and communication.

Jessica Packard, Content Strategy Manager at ClockShark, found that some reassurance allowed her team to see AI for what it is; a marketing tool that can aid their workflow.

Packard says, “Initially, my team of copywriters was apprehensive about how AI could potentially replace their work in the organization."

She continues, "The fear was understandable, but it was important to reassure them that the AI tools are still underdeveloped and they cannot create copy that successfully engages readers on an emotional level as humans do.

It’s also important to show them how leveraging AI can be beneficial to their work, from brainstorming content ideas to help writing creative titles and meta descriptions."

Montse Cano, International SEO & Digital Marketing Consultant at Montserrat Cano, shared similar tips for overcoming AI challenges. She follows a set of questions and uses AI in a way that helps teams.

She shares her process, “We identify what needs we have in our team that we could meet by using AI. Is it code generation, text content ideas, or images? Then, assess current resources to test and validate outputs, i.e., do we need any training, hire someone else.”

Johannes Larsson, Founder and CEO at Johannes Larsson, adds to the importance of communication with an onus on regular comms and empowerment.

Larsson says, “We regularly communicate with our team about the benefits of AI and how it can empower them rather than threaten them. We also aim to provide training and resources to help them develop new skills and expand their knowledge in areas where AI is involved.”

What we like: It might seem simple to suggest communication, but it’s easily forgotten when you’re all busy at work. Cano, Packard, and Larsson have recognized the why behind team challenges and recommended how you can solve this challenge through communication, reassurance, and future training.

5. Test AI with your team.

In line with the importance of talking to your team, Kevin Miller, co-founder and CEO of GRO, encourages marketers to improve their workflow efficiency with AI.

He started with a solid goal, improving his team’s efficiency by 400%, and worked with his team to document AI success.

Miller shares his story, “We experimented with ChatGPT earlier this year to improve writing efficiency for long- and short-form content creation.

For our clients, we want to produce the highest-quality work possible to help them grow their domain authority and online traffic, so automation was a natural strategy to pursue that goal. That being said, it's not a one-stop-shop tool."

He continues, “Aiming to improve workflow efficiency by 400% by leveraging AI tools, we asked writers to adapt their workflows and give feedback on how well ChatGPT helped improve their writing and deliverability.

Although we did not hit those marks because of many natural obstacles and limitations of the software, we increased workflow efficiency by 200% through content templates and research assistance.

ChatGPT is fantastic for content generation and assessment, but can‘t do the work alone. It is still a part of many of our writers’ workflows to use as they see fit, and I am confident that it will continue to grow in capacity and use."

What we like: Miller and his team have experimented with ChatGPT and actively found that AI can improve team efficiency. We especially like the level of involvement Miller’s team had in AI experimentation.

With his team reporting back on their AI feedback, we feel Miller was more likely to get buy-in from team members.

6. Get your processes locked down.

Adam Smith, founder of The Content Machine, has mastered AI prompts. His test website was just 30 days old and boasted over 36,000 clicks and over 1 million impressions. All of his content was created using AI.

Image Source

Smith says, "I’m using totally un-edited AI content, straight from ChatGPT. There's a big misconception that AI content is rubbish or garbage.

However you can create helpful content if you get your ChatGPT processes locked down! You aren't going to be creating high-quality content with ‘write me a 1,500 word article on x topic’ type prompts."

According to Smith, there’s more you can do to improve the quality of content, he advises you, “Add unique images, add internal links to other contextually relevant blog posts, add as much schema as possible, and embed related YouTube videos.”

What we like: With a well-thought-out prompting process, Adam Smith has proved that AI content can be helpful, and it can rank. (And it’s even better when the data backs up the claims.)

7. Find the areas where AI is most effective.

Using AI doesn't have to be an all-or-nothing scenario. You can find the opportunities or tasks that AI is most capable of solving; then you can do the rest.

Sara Cooper, Director of Web Strategy at SimPRO, found that her team found AI most beneficial at generating headlines or sections of copy.

Copper says, "One of the biggest challenges has been feeding AI the right directives to get the output we are looking for and learning to not ask for too much from AI upfront.

For example, as the team has started to leverage AI to generate more content across our website, it‘s clear that it’s most effective when supporting the personalization of headlines or sections of copy rather than generating whole landing pages from scratch."

Jessica Ruane, Senior Content Manager at Beekeeper, echoes Cooper. Ruane says, “A big challenge that surrounds AI is effectively utilizing it in Content Marketing. Companies are definitely using AI to varying degrees during the content creation process.

Some may be fully writing content with the use of AI, while others are utilizing it for research and inspiration. The best way to implement AI in content is — slowly. Focus on the ‘voice’ that you’d like to use, and experiment with rewriting phrases to get started.”

What we like: Ruane and Cooper agree that there’s a place for AI in content writing. Equally, they’re both seeing the role of AI vary based on what marketers find more useful. Consider using AI for different tasks and find what works for you and your team. AI doesn’t have to write everything.

8. Experiment carefully.

Sofia Inga Tyson, SEO Content Editor at Juro, resolves the AI challenge of quality and brand with careful experimentation and full disclosure to key stakeholders.

Tyson says, “There are certainly concerns about the use of AI in content strategies diluting the quality and overall authority of the website.

Businesses are often keen to experiment with AI to scale their content production but content writers are naturally fearful that AI-generated content at scale will have a detrimental impact on the performance of existing, expertly crafted content.

I think it’s really important to manage stakeholder expectations in this regard and ensure that these risks are disclosed to other decision-makers in the business that might be encouraging this approach for aggressive growth.

I also think it’s important to be cautious about AI-generated content because the true impact won’t be felt immediately. It could be months or even years before the content is evaluated negatively based on the quality or use of AI.

Any experiments should be just that - careful, closely monitored and kept at a scale that means it can be reversed if needed. I think this approach will bring a lot of content writers comfort as it demonstrates that you’re approaching the use of AI with caution, not carelessly jeopardizing the online presence you have already."

What we like: Tyson’s holistic approach to AI covers brand reputation, the team, and stakeholders. She considers the desire to leverage AI with the needs of the team who use it. We love the reassurance for all involved when experimentation is monitored carefully.

9. Monitor quality and accuracy.

Once you’re set up and using AI, you don’t want to neglect the all-important quality check.

Annika Haataja, Head of SEO at Seeker, says, “As you expand your use of AI, don‘t forget to monitor quality and accuracy. We all know that AI can sometimes make mistakes, which may hurt adoption if teams don’t trust the results.

Have people review a sample of AI output to catch errors, and empower them to have faith in their own expertise in the process.”

What we like: Diligence around AI output could decline as teams become comfortable with AI usage. Haataja reminds us to stay mindful of quality and accuracy as AI adoption scales, an important reminder for all of us.

10. Refine your data sources.

Simon Brisk, Director at Click Intelligence Ltd., found AI bias a challenge. Interestingly, they found better data once his team refined the data sources.

He says, “One significant challenge we‘ve faced at Click Intelligence when integrating AI is ensuring data integrity. AI models are only as good as the data they’re trained on. Inaccurate or biased data can lead to misguided marketing decisions.

“For instance, while analyzing user behavior for an e-commerce client, skewed data initially suggested a preference for a specific product line. Only after refining data sources did we realize a more holistic preference trend, thereby recalibrating our marketing strategy.”

What we like: Brisk’s experience with AI bias shows the potential impact and the solution. By recalibrating data sources, Click Intelligence could recalibrate its marketing strategy based on reliable data.

11. Stay competitive.

The world of AI is developing fast. Chris Stott, Director at Seven Marketing, recommends staying ahead of AI developments.

He says, “Staying ahead of the competition is paramount. It's essential for us to consistently deliver exceptional value. This means rigorously testing all AI software to keep us on the cutting edge and guarantee that we provide top-tier results to our clients.”

What we like: Incorporating AI into your systems can be exciting and empowering. Testing AI from a place of experimentation is a great way to explore AI capabilities with your team. You’ll soon get a feel for what supports you and what you can live without.

12. Overcome data integrity and change management.

Jessica Shee, Senior Tech Editor and Marketing Content Manager at iBoysoft, shares the importance of overcoming data integrity and change management.

She says, “Change management and data integrity are two significant obstacles to implementing AI in marketing. For accurate AI-driven insights and decision-making, it is essential to ensure high-quality, pure data.

Misaligned data can cause inaccurate forecasts and ineffective marketing campaigns. Invest in data cleansing, validation, and data integration tools to address this issue.

Change management is an additional obstacle. Integrating AI can disrupt existing workflows and require team members to acquire new skills. Transparent communication about the benefits of AI and training team members to cultivate acceptance and proficiency are necessary for a smooth implementation.

Working with AI experts, integrating teams in decision-making, and starting with trial projects can help integrate AI while resolving difficulties. A systematic strategy, continual training, and clear communication ensure a smoother transition and optimize AI marketing benefits."

What we like: Shee recognizes that you don’t have to do everything alone. You can bring in experts and start with trial projects to help support your team through AI implementation challenges.

What's stopping you from implementing AI?

There's no harm in experimenting with AI automation so long as you follow the guidelines I laid out in this post.

In the worst case, you‘ve run an experiment (and isn’t that what marketing is all about?), and in the best case, you've got the data to support the success of your AI endeavors. Getting buy-in from your team or stakeholders will be easier when they know AI drives marketing objectives.

Plus, with the top tips from marketing leaders, you’ll start with the best possible insights to make AI and marketing an absolute success.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in November 2023 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Vouchers and coupons are a key part of any marketing strategy, offering customers special discounts and incentives to drive engagement and sales. But to truly catch the eye, these vouchers need to look polished and professional.

In this blog post, we’ve gathered the best voucher and coupon mockup templates to help you present your designs in a realistic and appealing way. Whether you’re designing for a restaurant, retail store, or online brand, these mockup templates allow you to showcase your voucher or coupon designs with style.

From clean and modern layouts to more elaborate, creative designs, these templates are perfect for visualizing how your final product will look in the real world. Have a look.

Modern Voucher Mockup Template

This is a modern and customizable mockup template for showcasing your voucher and coupon designs. This kit offers four high-resolution PSD files that you can easily edit to place your designs. You can also alter the contrast, design, or even the background color and textures according to your needs.

Gift Voucher Mockup Template

This voucher mockup template is fully customizable and integrates seamlessly with Smart-Objects for easy replacement of designs. The high-quality resolution of 3000 x 2000 px at 300 DPI ensures stunning visuals. A comprehensive help file is included for your convenience.

Natural Voucher Mockup Template

A versatile voucher mockup template for showcasing food and nature-themed product vouchers. It provides 4 different templates, all customizable via smart objects for easy editing. It features high-resolution (4500x3000px, 300 DPI) well-layered PSD files with adjustable light, capable of accommodating both bright and dark designs.

Voucher Coupon Mockup Template

This is a crisp, easy-to-use voucher mockup template ideal for showcasing your voucher designs. This template features smart objects for hassle-free editing, well-organized layers for speedy adjustments, and the capacity to modify the background color to match your designs. It offers a realistic photo quality along with a fully layered PSD, well-structured layers, and 300 DPI optimisation.

Stylish Gift Voucher Mockup Template

A customizable voucher mockup template for creating engaging gift vouchers or tickets. It’s ideal for social media posts and presentations to clients. This template features four high-resolution PSD mockup scenes, easy-edit smart objects, variable light settings, and a changeable background. Plus, all objects and shadows are fully separated and editable.

Discount Voucher Mockup Templates

A set of voucher mockup templates that are ideal for professionally displaying your unique coupon designs. Comprised of five different gift voucher Photoshop mockups, the templates offer smart-object features for effortless design replacement, adjustable background colors, and impressive high-resolution imagery (3000×2000 px, 300 dpi). Suitable for anyone with Photoshop CS4 and up.

Creative Voucher Mockup Templates

This collection of voucher mockup templates can make your voucher designing process effortless and quick. These templates, provided in a neatly organized and high-resolution PSD file, incorporate smart-object features for easy and fast editing. They can handle all designs, bright or dark, and allow customization like background color tweaking, separate shadows, and light adjustment.

Elegant Coupon Voucher Mockup Template

A versatile, professionally designed voucher mockup template kit. Perfect for displaying business logos, discount vouchers, and promotional designs, it captures attention and elevates your brand’s visibility. Easy to edit with Photoshop, these high-resolution mockup files come in an RGB color mode. Brilliantly crafted for showcasing branding design, the set includes three files, a user guide, and enables customizable background colors and designs.

Simple Gift Voucher Mockup Template

This is an efficient tool for crafting gift coupons. It features 4 items within a well-layered PSD file. Utilizing the smart-object feature, you can swiftly personalize the existing design effortlessly. The template comes with organized layers and folders, customizable background colors, and both bright and dark design options.

Dark Voucher Mockup Template

A versatile voucher mockup template for showcasing your gift voucher designs professionally. This creative asset includes 4 PSD Photoshop format files, features a high resolution of 4500x3000px, and a customizable background. The included smart-object features make editing quick and easy, catering to both bright and dark designs.

Colorful Voucher Mockup Template

This is a vibrant and user-friendly voucher mockup template ideal for showcasing your promotional designs. The template features a photorealistic mock-up with a high resolution of 5000×3000 pixels, smart object background, and is easy to maneuver. It also comes with built-in photo filters, enhancing the visual appeal of your vouchers.

Bold Voucher Mockup Template

This is a professionally designed voucher mockup template perfect for displaying your brand’s coupon design. With four easy-to-use Photoshop mockups, it offers smart-object features for quick design replacements. Moreover, it allows background color alterations, boasts a high-quality resolution of 3000x2000px at 300 dpi, and includes a helpful guide file.

Stylish Voucher Mockup Template

An excellent voucher mockup template for presenting your designs with a professional and realistic edge. It comes as a high-resolution, easy-to-use PSD file, compatible with Photoshop CS4 or higher. Among its key features, the template offers a changeable background color, convenient smart-object attributes, and a helpful PDF guide.

Unique Coupon Mockup Templates

This is an expertly designed voucher mockup template kit perfect for showcasing your business logos, coupons, and discount vouchers. The high-resolution, fully-editable PSDs can be tailored to your preference using Photoshop’s smart objects, allowing you to effortlessly change designs and colors. With three files included, these templates are ideal for presenting your branding and heightening your brand’s visibility.

Minimal Coupon Mockup Templates

A valuable voucher mockup template pack for those seeking sleek, structured coupon designs. With 05 high-resolution (4500x3000px, 300 DPI) PSD files included, the bundle allows for easy and speedy editing via smart objects and organized layers. Features such as customizable background colors and adjustable lighting cater to both bright and dark design preferences.

Modern Gift Voucher Mockup Template

This voucher mockup template provides a sleek and efficient solution for crafting gift vouchers. It comes with two PSD styles, featuring a high-resolution design (4500×3000 pixels, 300dpi), and a certificate size of 7×3″. Its organized layers and folders and simple editing via smart objects make personalizing your vouchers a breeze.

Basic Coupon Mockup Templates

This is an effortless way to professionally present your unique voucher designs. Comprising of five easily customizable Photoshop mockups, these templates have a smart-object feature that lets you swiftly insert your designs. They also offer changeable background-colors and come in a high-resolution, 300 DPI, 3000×2000 pixel format.

Classy Voucher Mockup Template

This voucher mockup template boasts a refined and elegant design, perfect for those aiming to showcase their products professionally. Featuring four PSD files with a high-resolution of 4500×3000 and 300 dpi, this template is easily editable and well-organized. It’s a fantastic and efficient tool to preview whether your design vision will translate successfully before execution.

Free Coupon & Voucher Mockup Templates

Free Coupon Cards Mockup (PSD)

This is a free mockup you can use to showcase all types of coupon and voucher designs. It features a very realistic-looking mockup scene that will make your designs look much more alive and real in presentations.

Free Voucher Card Mockup (PSD)

This mockup template is also free to download and it features a unique nature-inspired mockup scene. It’s perfect for all sorts of vouchers, coupons, and other types of card design presentations.

Free Gift Voucher Mockup

This is a simple gift voucher mockup scene that you can fully customize to your preference. The template includes easily editable smart object layers and changeable backgrounds as well.

Free Ticket & Coupon Mockup

This is a collection of 5 creative coupon mockup templates that come in multiple variations and arrangements. You can use these to showcase your tickets, coupons, and vouchers like a pro.

Free Discount Voucher Mockup

Another free voucher mockup with a stylish design. This mockup features a beautiful scene with lots of editable elements. Placing your designs in the mockup is also easy thanks to smart object layers.