Building an AI CMO That Becomes Your Strategic Marketing Partner
Guest podcast on AI Explored with Michael Stelzner
How to transform AI from a basic task assistant into your $20/month chief marketing officer
If you're running a small business or working as a solopreneur, you've probably hit that familiar plateau. You're maxed out on work, your referral network is starting to dry up, and you're asking yourself questions like: Should I be running Facebook ads? Do I need a content strategy? What even is a content strategy?
What you really need is strategic marketing guidance. But hiring a full-time CMO or even a fractional marketing director with a $150,000 budget simply isn't feasible for most small businesses.
Here's what most entrepreneurs don't realize: you can build your own AI chief marketing officer for as little as $20 per month. Not an AI intern that writes social posts on command, but a strategic partner that knows your brand, understands your goals, and thinks critically about your business.
Why Most People Are Using AI Wrong
Most entrepreneurs treat AI like a really smart intern:
"Hey ChatGPT, write me a social media post."
"Claude, brainstorm some newsletter ideas."
"Gemini, help me with this email."
But when you approach AI this way, you're massively underutilizing these tools. You're getting generic outputs that sound like everyone else's content, and you're missing the real opportunity.
What if instead of asking AI to complete tasks, you trained it to think strategically about your business? What if you could access the collective wisdom of every marketing expert you admire—Gary Vaynerchuk, Amy Porterfield, Seth Godin—all customized to your specific business, brand, and goals?
That's exactly what an AI CMO can do for you.
The Foundation: Strategy Before Tools
The biggest mistake people make is jumping straight into tools without laying the strategic groundwork. Before you ever open ChatGPT or Claude, you need to gather three critical pieces of information.
Document Your Brand (What Makes You Uniquely You)
Your AI CMO needs to understand what makes you different from the dozens of other people in your market doing the exact same thing. This goes far beyond your logo and brand colors.
Start gathering:
Your bio and about page content
Client testimonials, especially ones where clients rave about working with you
Transcripts from happy client calls (these are goldmines for authentic voice)
Your unique perspective or approach to problems
Words and phrases you use repeatedly
Pro tip: If you use an AI assistant that records your meetings, you're sitting on a voice goldmine. Feed those transcripts to ChatGPT and ask it to identify common words and phrases you use when talking about topics that excite you.
Create a word bank of your signature phrases. For example, I always sign my emails with "cheers." These small details make your AI outputs sound authentically like you rather than generic robot content.
Define Your Real Business Goals
Don't start with vanity metrics like "I want 10,000 Instagram followers." Dig deeper. Why do you want those followers? What's the bigger picture? Ten thousand followers means nothing if they're not converting to revenue.
Pull from:
Your business plan and vision statements
Those late-night notes where you dream about where you want to be in 3-5 years
Your actual revenue goals and what you need to achieve them
Choose Your Expert Influences
This is where the magic happens. If you had unlimited budget and could hire any marketing expert, who would you choose? Maybe you want Seth Godin's creative thinking, Rand Fishkin's SEO expertise, and Amy Porterfield's marketing savvy all rolled into one CMO.
Here's how to gather their expertise:
Find their blogs, podcasts, and YouTube channels
Use deep research capabilities in ChatGPT or Claude to locate their signature content pieces
Look for RSS feeds and interview transcripts
Focus on content that serves your particular business goals
You're essentially creating a reference library of the best marketing minds, customized to your specific needs.
Building Your AI CMO: Platform Options
Once you have your foundation, you can start building your AI CMO. Here are three platform options, from beginner to advanced:
Custom GPT (Best for Beginners)
Start with a Custom GPT in ChatGPT. Put your brand information in the instructions and upload your expert research to the knowledge base. You can tag your custom CMO into any ChatGPT conversation by typing @ followed by your CMO's name.
The beauty of Custom GPTs is their simplicity. Once set up, your AI CMO remembers everything about your brand and goals across all conversations.
Claude Projects (Intermediate Level)
Claude Projects work similarly to Custom GPTs but offer a key advantage: artifacts. When you ask your AI CMO to create content, Claude generates separate documents for LinkedIn posts, blog posts, newsletter ideas, and more. These artifacts are easy to save and help keep everything organized.
Claude also tends to be better at strategic thinking and will actually challenge your ideas rather than just agreeing with everything you say.
Poppy AI (Advanced Users)
Poppy AI offers a visual interface similar to Miro or other virtual whiteboards. You can drag and drop different pieces of information and see how they connect. This platform can pull from TikToks, Instagram Reels, and even unlisted YouTube videos.
The visual aspect helps you control which information your AI CMO accesses for each conversation, preventing it from getting overwhelmed by too much data at once.
Three Strategic Ways to Use Your AI CMO
1. Analytics: Your Data Detective
Upload your business data and ask strategic questions:
Podcast download numbers and listener engagement
Email newsletter open rates and click-through rates
Social media analytics and performance metrics
Website traffic and conversion data
Instead of just looking at numbers, ask your AI CMO: "What patterns do you see? What's working well? What should I do more of? What gaps exist in my current strategy?"
2. Advisory: Your Strategic Sparring Partner
This is where your AI CMO becomes truly valuable. Ask strategic questions like:
"You know my brand, my business goals, and my growth trajectory. Here's my revenue for the last six months, and here's where I want to be. What do I need to do over the next quarter to hit my year-end goals?"
Important note: ChatGPT tends to be overly agreeable ("That's the best idea ever!"). Push back and ask it to find your blind spots. Claude is better at providing critical feedback and will tell you when something needs improvement.
3. Content Creation: Expert Knowledge + Your Voice
Stop asking for generic social posts. Now you can request content that:
Reflects your unique perspective from your brand foundation
Serves your specific business goals
Draws from expert strategies you've incorporated
Sounds authentically like you
Your AI CMO can create content informed by the best marketing minds while maintaining your authentic voice and serving your strategic objectives.
Process Over Prompts: The Key to Success
Everyone's hunting for the perfect prompt, but the magic happens in the strategic foundation you build first. When you document your brand, define your goals, and incorporate expert knowledge before touching any AI tool, you transform generic outputs into strategic insights.
This "process over prompts" approach is what separates successful AI implementation from disappointing results.
Getting Started: Your Next Steps
Building an AI CMO isn't about finding the fanciest tools or the most complex prompts. It's about creating a strategic foundation and then choosing the right platform for your needs.
Start with documenting your brand and business goals. Then choose one platform—Custom GPT, Claude Projects, or Poppy AI—and get good at it. The magic isn't in the tool; it's in the strategic thinking you do beforehand.
For solopreneurs and small teams who can't afford a $150,000 CMO, this approach provides access to strategic marketing guidance for the cost of a monthly subscription. More importantly, it gives you a thought partner who knows your business intimately and can help you make better strategic decisions.
The question isn't whether you can afford to build an AI CMO. The question is whether you can afford not to have strategic marketing guidance as you grow your business.
What would you ask your AI CMO first?
This framework has helped women entrepreneurs go from "AI overwhelms me" to "AI runs my marketing strategy." Ready to build your own AI CMO? Start with the foundation, choose your platform, and begin transforming how you think about marketing strategy.
