Are You Alienating Your Audience? The Perils of Impersonal AI

Hello and welcome. My name is Tavishima Ayede. I solve sales and marketing challenges and I'm making today's recording in my living room, so expect to hear some interruptions in the background. Now, the goal of this podcast is business education. So spread the word so that your friends and family members can benefit from the questions that we tackle over here on the podcast. They can do that by subscribing on Spotify, YouTube, Apple, or any player of their choice.

And if you have any sales and marketing questions, bring them to me. You can call, you can SMS, you can WhatsApp me on 08064662140. So today on the podcast, I want us to look at why the future of marketing is human centric. Again, why the future of marketing is human centric. Now, why am I tackling this today? It's because if you've been listening for the last week, you realise that I am concerned by the fact that people are getting carried away with all these AI,

artificial intelligence, automation, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So because of that, most people are putting their marketing, content production, you name it. Lots of people are trying to put their things on autopilot and trying to have as little human intervention as possible. In other words, people want to run e-mail campaigns without actually sending the emails themselves. People want to create content without creating anything themselves.

And the part that I feel, I mean the one that I don't even understand. So like, people want to close sales without actually doing anything themselves. People now want bots to chat with somebody from WhatsApp from beginning all the way to the end and close the deal. And then you, the business owner, you are not going to get involved in any way. Now this has created a problem that lots of people don't realise. It's created a problem in the West.

It's also going to create a problem in Nigeria and somehow people don't see you coming. Now the problem is this, and if you doubt what I'm saying, go and check your WhatsApp inbox or your Instagram inbox or your Twitter inbox or whatever inbox and you see what I'm saying. So because people are trying to AI and automate everything, marketing, communications, any kind of marketing now, any kind of business communication now has become very impersonal.

It has become not targeted and not relevant. And because of that people are not responding. I know those of you who are on this whole AI train. Now you saying come on like I'm just talking trash but check it. Check your own WhatsApp. See how many marketing messages you have received from other business. How many of them did you think were personal? How many of them did you think were targeted or relevant to you? And how many of them did you respond to?

Then by the time you're done listening to this episode, go and pick up your wife's phone or your girlfriend's phone if you're female, the other way around. Go and pick up your husband's phone. Go and pick up your your boyfriend's phone. Check how many marketing messages has he received on his WhatsApp, on his Telegram, on his Instagram, on his you know, how many of them seemed personal? How many of them seemed targeted?

How many of them seemed relevant? How many did he respond to? Even if it's just to say no thank you, I'm not interested. If we step down from our business Hut and we go and check our phones and the people that we love, you see what I'm saying? I think the problem is only going to get worse. And of course, if the initial outreach, the initial messaging, the initial e-mail, the initial DM, the initial whatever, let's say 98% of people are ignoring those messages.

Where do you think, how do you think we're going to be effective at closing business? Think about it. Anyway, let's define AI. Lots of people say AI is computers behaving like human beings. And you know, that definition is scrap. That's not AIAI is just using computers to solve problems. It just so happens that lots of people think that the way human beings solve problems, I'll put it AI is using computers to solve problems, and some people think it's a good idea to try and use robots to try and mimic human intelligence to solve problems.

But either way, these things are not smart. They're just very good. Sorry, excuse me, they're just very good at computation. Yes, what's going on is computation, and what's going on is mimicry, but not actual intelligence. But either way, these tools are pretty awesome and in fact, I use them every day. In fact, by the time I'm done, so excuse me, I had a coaching session today. So I've just, I've just, I've just spent all day talking.

Then yesterday we did the radio show. So my voice is a little short. I was like, uh huh. So I guess what I'm trying to say is I look AII get it. I like it, I use it and by the time I'm done with this episode, I am going to use AI to find a title for this episode because you guys know how you know, I I start the podcast episode. I'm I said I want to talk about one thing and then I ramble and then I introduce some other things and then finally I land the plane.

So I talk about lots of stuff. It's hard for me to come up with a title, but AI has solved this problem for me because all I have to do is just take a transcript of everything I've said, throw it into ChatGPT so I'm not ChatGPT Gemini. That's what I use. Throw it into Gemini. When I say give me suggestions for a couple of give me suggestions for a podcast title, it'll give me 5 or 6 and then I'll select the one I like best.

Or I'll just take elements from one or two and then slam it together to get one definition. So I use AI every day for my business. So I'm not saying AI is crap. I'm just trying to say that as far as marketing is concerned, and marketing is the business function where we're trying to let people know this is me, I exist, this is my business, this is my address, this is the problems that I solve. This is how I can help you.

If you're trying to achieve this vision, come and meet me. If everybody is going to jump on this whole AI thing, and if everybody tries to automate everything so that there's no human intervention is going to be a problem. And the problem is all marketing communications is going to sound impersonal. It'll be flat, clearly not human. It's not going to resonate with anybody. It's not going to be targeted to anyone. It's not going to be relevant,

and people will not respond. So yes, we can use AI to solve problems around visibility and promotion. We can use AI to solve problems around how we have conversations with people. We can use AI, yeah, to help us close the sale. And we can use AI to try and figure out how to acquire new customers. But if your goal is to try and do these things, visibility, handling conversations, closing the sales, acquiring new customers, and you just want the robot to handle it from beginning to end, there's a problem.

Now, this is the solution. We need to use artificial intelligence, AI tools. We need to use it, right? Instead of talking about automation as in let the AI do everything and then I don't step in, think instead about augmentation. To augment just means to improve something. So I'm still in the game, I'm still in the loop, but AI tool will make me better. For instance, with this podcast, this is me. This is not an AI tool.

I record the thing myself. I come up with the ideas myself. But then that last aspect, creating a dope title, a dope headline that will get you guys to click. I will outsource that one to Gemini where you can see that I am augmenting the process. I'm not automating the process. I didn't push a button and then the robot just did everything I did quite a bit. And then I told AII beg, help me finish this final step. So we should always have the human initiative when it comes to creating copy.

Don't just wake up and I say, AI, write me a blog post on blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. No, that that's too much. Now. At the very least, come up with the outline yourself. You can say AI. I'm a business owner. I sell baked bread. I bake bread and cakes. I want to create content on this dot dot dot write me a blog post around why it is unhealthy to use sugar in your cakes. But we should be using sunflower seeds and the benefits of eating recipes that have sunflower in them.

Then, you know, send in case you're one of these bakers who tries to remove causing some bakers trying to remove artificial dish, remove artificial that you know because because it's not healthy and stuff like that. So you can see that in that case, at least you did small work. There's a little bit of human initiative in the prompt. You try to give the outline of the content and they now told Char GPT or whatever to go and execute on the rest.

That is better than just sitting down and saying char GPT, write me a blog post. We humans, we should be taking the initiative when it comes to marketing copy. The first move should be us. We'll now use AI to now refine everything. Just make it tight, make it smooth, make it nice, but the initiative should come from you. These are the small, small things. Like when it comes to writing, for instance. These are the small, small things that make your writing stand out.

If everybody's pumping our content on LinkedIn and everybody's using charge, GBT or AI, there's a way. Everything you know, everyone will just be flat, but you that you initiate the copy by yourself and then maybe you say oircher GPT make this thing more readable. You see that different personal elements. Are there some elements of your voice? Is there some elements of your own personal opinion, your own personal expertise, you know,

things like that. But either way, I think when it comes to marketing, when it comes to marketing, we humans should be taking the initiative when it comes to what the copy is going to look like. Always when I say copy, I just mean text, the text or whatever it is that you're you're creating. Then try and do some research before you send messages, Try and personalise your messages because too many of these messages are so bland.

They can apply to anyone and everyone. And so when people see, they just know that is a broadcast. They just know and they ignore. I was talking to someone about that. She's also business again. Well, I can't remember anyway, this was a while ago, and I ran her through the whole process of how you do some small research on the prospect and how you allow that to reflect in the e-mail or the WhatsApp message or whatever that you're sending.

At the end of the process, she agreed that actually, yes, the final image, the final e-mail that we came up with was pretty good. And then I told her, OK, now these prospects, you want to reach out to number 12345, create the emails for them, send it to me, let me have a look. I guess what? She never came back because it's hard work. Trust me, I know it's hard work. I know it's hard work. Maybe a time will come when there'll be a perfect tool that all you have to do just wake up,

push one button. Now you go and sit down, watch Netflix, and then the machine will do everything for you. Maybe that time will come, but that time is not today. And until that time comes, I beg just do the hard work, do small research to personalise the message that you are sending to somebody and please cut down on broadcasts and all these spammy messages. Yes, you have 3000 contacts on your phone and with the push of a button, you will send a message to 3000 people.

And you have been doing that twice a month for the last three years. And this is the problem. After a while, people just drown you out. The happy new month message that you're sending. There are so many people that have put you on mute. Lots of people have put you on block. You feel like you're doing something because you're sending happy new month to 4000 contacts 12 * a year, but it's not registering. Nobody's seen it even.

Look, let me tell you, even your own mumsy is tired and your own mumsy wants to block you. It's just that if she blocks you, you'll be somehow let not be, as if she's not supporting her son or not supporting her daughter. Even your own mumsy and popsy, they want to block you. Even your wife, your girlfriend, your boyfriend, even them. They're ignoring, ignoring all those messages. You not be quarreling with them saying you're not supporting my business, that you don't repost,

you don't like, you don't whatever. Like why would they do that? It has nothing to do with them. The thing is, soulless is vacant. It's empty. So your babe supports you. I mean, she loves you. She wants your business to blow. But quite frankly, this spamming thing you're doing, it ain't working. It's not happening. You want your babe to promote you by taking the spam that you're putting out and then share it on her home profile so that her own profile too will now look like it's a spam machine.

Anyway, they're just some of my thoughts. And this is the reason why I believe that the future of marketing is human centric. The people who are going to win the game at the end of the day, at least for now, are the people who are going to be able to throw back some of that human elements into the whole thing. That's the reason why you're here. We're here because I'm human and I'm imperfect. I mean, the door might open just now.

My son will come and say, I don't know, Dad, can we go and play or something? It's just one of those things in a world where everything is becoming robotic, teen perfect, sterile, you know, those of us who still have that human touch, That's the thing that is making us to ring honey. I guess this is not purely a sales episode, but I have a strong hunch, at least for now. Maybe when the computers get better, OK, no problem.

But for now, honestly, I really think the future of marketing is human centric, that human touch. So, well, somewhere what I'm saying, OK, I guess I've already summarized it. Let me just end the episode here. No point in keeping you guys for longer than necessary. So that's all for today folks. Remember, if you have any sales or marketing questions, you can bring them to me. You can call me, send me an SMS or WhatsApp me on 08064662140.

So thank you very much for your time and attention. I will catch you next time. Same place in your headphones or in your speakers.