David Searns | Co-CEO
I confess!
I did it. I said I wouldn't, but I did.
I wrote a newsletter entirely with AI.
Before I show you the result, I need to explain myself.
I take great pride in this newsletter. My goal is to give you something of real value, each and every week.
Whether it's advice on marketing, sales, recruiting or anything else that I think you'll find interesting, I personally create the content you are reading.
Until this week.
Right now, I am at the Ohio Search and Staffing conference. I'm here to give a presentation about how to 10x sales by integrating marketing into the sales process (if you are interested, you can watch a recording of this presentation
here).
Today, my marketing team reminded me that my weekly newsletter was due.
Ugh! I had not written anything, and I didn't even have a topic.
As I sat in the conference audience today, my friend Todd Bossler from Top Echelon gave a terrific presentation with practical tips for integrating AI into your daily work.
Todd provided an overview of several AI platforms (ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, etc.), and he mentioned that Claude was found to be the best for learning your brand voice and creative writing.
WAIT, what did he say?
It could learn your voice? It's great for writing???
I'M SAVED!! Well, maybe.
So, I downloaded the Claude app on my phone.
Then I fed in the last issue of this newsletter and asked Claude to evaluate my writing style.
Here's what Claude told me:
The overall tone is conversational and informal, with frequent use of contractions, rhetorical questions, asides and direct addresses to the reader (e.g.,"Wait. Wait." "Okay, let me back up and explain...," "Want to know more?"). This establishes a friendly, accessible voice.
There is heavy use of short sentences and paragraph breaks to create a breezy, easy-to-skim structure. Complex information is often broken down into bite-sized chunks separated by line breaks.
The writing makes frequent use of emphatic punctuation like ellipses, exclamation points and italics to add drama and emphasize key points (e.g., "But there's more...," "And yes, there's even more...").
While the general voice aims for a conversational tone, the passage demonstrates solid command of grammar, varied vocabulary and smooth transitions between ideas.
Concrete examples, statistics and narrative explanations are skillfully woven together to illustrate abstract marketing concepts in a tangible way that would resonate with the intended staffing/recruiting audience.
In summary, the promotional blog post adopts an engaging, informal writing style that still maintains a polished feel. It blends casual rapport-building with clear articulation of the core marketing message about measuring ROI and optimization. The overall effect is authoritative but very readable.
Thanks, Claude. You get me!
Next, I asked it to write you a newsletter.
Here's what I asked:
Please write an article using this same style on the following topic: how to support staffing sales professionals with marketing.
Be sure to address the use of marketing to build brand awareness, improve the efficiency of the sales process, help salespeople to create differentiation and maintain top-of-mind awareness with staffing buyers who may not have a current need.
And here is your first (and likely only) AI-written newsletter (unedited from Claude):
SMART MARKETING TO POWER YOUR SALES ENGINE
Catherine Clark | VP Marketing
Your sales team is stuck in a rut? Tired of chasing dead ends?
Listen up, I've got the solution right here...
It's no secret that sales is a grind. The hours are long, the rejections pile up. But strong marketing can be your selling secret weapon!
With the right strategies in play, marketing becomes a force-multiplier for your sales efforts. It builds brand awareness, warms up prospects, and keeps your firm top-of-mind when staffing needs arise.
In other words: Marketing makes selling way easier.
Let me break it down...
BRAND AWARENESS = CREDIBILITY
What's the first thing prospects want to know about you? That you're legit!
With solid brand awareness, half the battle is already won. Your salespeople aren'tintroducing themselves from scratch. Prospects have heard of you, maybe even get a general sense of what you're about.
Brand awareness translates to credibility. And buyers want to work with staffing partners they consider credible.
How do you build that brand muscle? A few big impact ideas:
- Review site presence (Glassdoor, Google, etc.)
- Thought leadership content (blogs, webinars, etc.)
- Consistent social media engagement
- Localized advertising (billboards, radio, etc.)
The more visibility and positive associations you can create through marketing, the warmer your sales conversations will be.
LEAD NURTURING = SALES ACCELERATION
Ah lead nurturing, a marketer's finest craft! This is all about priming prospects to buy through education and relationship-building.
For your sales team, that means...
- Shorter sales cycles (prospects are pre-sold)
- Higher close rates (they understand your value)
- Bigger deal sizes (you're a trusted partner)
Smart lead nurturing moves the heavy lifting away from sales. Through targeted email campaigns, helpful content offers, and marketing automation, you gradually guide prospects along their buyer's journey.
By the time they connect with your salespeople, they'repractically ready to ink the deal!
DIFFERENTIATION = COMPETITIVE EDGE
In a crowded staffing marketplace, differentiation is everything. You need clear, compelling reasons why prospects should choose you over rivals.
Marketing plays a pivotal role in defining – and showcasing– your unique selling proposition (USP). This spans everything from messaging to visuals to audience targeting.
Are you the niche experts in healthcare staffing? The go-to resource for high-volume hiring? Industry thought leaders in emerging AI roles? Whatever makes you stand out, marketing amplifies it!
For your sales pros, that differentiation is pure gold. It immediately elevates your firm above commoditized competition. And it provides a focused value proposition to hang the sales pitch on.
TOP-OF-MIND = FUTURE OPPORTUNITIES
Here's a truth about sales: Most prospects aren't actively buying when you first connect with them.
That's just reality. Hiring needs are sporadic, and there's always those clients that go AWOL for months (or years!) at a time.
Cue the strategists in marketing... Their goal is to keep your company prioritized in prospects' minds for when staffing needs do arise down the road.
This is all about being present and consistently nurturing mindshare through:
That way, when an HR manager needs to quickly hire a team of contractors, when an operations VP is ready to outsource recruiting...
...their first thought is to contact your sales rep!
Of course, there's a ton more nuances to align marketing and sales. But hopefully these big-picture strategies provide a helpful framework.
If you want to chat more about supercharging your sales force through marketing, give me a shout! I'm always happy to spill more ideas over coffee (or a cheeky afternoon beer).
So, there you have it.
Not a bad newsletter. Actually, it's pretty good content.
The writing style is close, but not quite me.
Now, I have no idea who "Catherine Clark" is…maybe my new pseudonym?
And I would never suggest a "cheeky afternoon beer."
But other than that, the article is good.
Good enough? Maybe.
Good enough if I spend 30 minutes editing. Absolutely.
What does this mean for you?
If you are reading this, you are probably already using AI in some ways to create content. You're using it to accelerate your work. To improve the quality of your writing. Or even to expand your thinking.
But (at this point at least), AI won't outperform you.
It still needs your guidance. It needs your editing,
And for now, people like you and me can still add value bringing our expertise, our experience and our personalities to the content we create.
And now I had better start working on next week's newsletter! |
