Nearly every agency in the digital marketing space is having to adapt to AI trends and technologies. AI will continue to fundamentally reshape digital marketing over the next three to five years, and the agencies that work with this trend rather than against it will remain competitive.
At Seven Figure Agency, we’ve seen two types of agency behaviors: AI-supported agencies, which use AI tools occasionally, and AI-powered agencies, which redesign their businesses around AI. The second group will dominate the market over time.
Learning to leverage AI in digital marketing is important for modern agencies. Explore tips for setting up your agency to thrive in the age of AI, then work with an agency coach for personalized guidance and mentorship.
Understanding the Biggest AI Mistakes Agency Owners Make
AI still feels relatively new to many agency owners, which means many are still going through a trial-and-error stage to figure out how to actually incorporate this technology into their offerings. At Seven Figure Agency, we have been teaching our members how to leverage AI since the beginning, and we’ve seen what happens when owners don’t approach this process effectively.
These are some of the biggest mistakes we’ve seen agency owners make:
- Believing that AI will replace every employee: Some owners see AI as a way to replace almost all of their staff and save a significant amount of money on payroll. But AI can’t replace responsibilities like strategic thinking, quality assurance, client communication, and decision making.
- Ignoring AI altogether: Continuing to turn a blind eye to AI is dangerous. While your competitors become significantly more efficient and increase their margins, you struggle to maintain a competitive advantage and begin losing clients.
- Having only the owner experiment with AI: Leveraging AI in digital marketing often starts with the owner experimenting with different use cases, but it shouldn’t end there. Owners should ultimately train the entire company and make AI part of everyone’s workflow.
Preparing Your Agency Team To Adapt to AI
Surviving the AI shift involves finding a balance between replacing your entire team with AI and ignoring it altogether. For many agencies, the shift involves “flattening” their teams, where low-level production work gradually becomes automated.
Instead of having many different fulfillment specialists, teams will consist primarily of leadership, managers, AI operators, and quality control roles. When making hiring decisions, owners should prioritize candidates who enjoy learning AI, can supervise AI output, and think strategically.
Human relationships are more important than ever in the age of AI, so team members should also be excellent communicators.
AI Use Cases Many Agencies Have Already Adopted
Marketing agencies are already using AI across a wide range of use cases:
- Content generation: Blog writing, service pages, press releases, city pages, SEO content
- SEO strategy: Identifying missing pages, writing title tags and meta descriptions, generating page outlines, creating keyword plans
- Paid advertising: Monitoring campaigns, generating predictive analytics, suggesting optimizations, aiding data-driven decision making
- Website development: Assisting with building websites, creating landing pages, optimizing pages for desktop and mobile, and adhering to brand guidelines
- Account management: Summarizing work completed, drafting client updates, improving reporting
- Leadership: Analyzing employee performance, Slack conversations, time tracking, KPIs, and SOP adherence internally
Learning AI at the Leadership and Team Levels
Exploring AI in digital marketing can feel overwhelming, and it takes time to learn all of the ways you can leverage this technology in your agency. We recommend that agency owners begin by immersing themselves in one to three months of intensive AI learning. With this strong foundation, you can better empower your team to use the technology and delegate AI implementation.
Every employee in your agency should learn AI. Offering company-wide training and weekly education will help everyone stay on the same page about how to use this technology. Encourage every team member to look for ways to automate repetitive work with AI.
Because employee opinions about AI are often mixed, approaching conversations with transparency is important. Tell employees that AI is changing the industry and that your company intends to adapt. Employees who learn AI will gain more valuable skills, while those who are unwilling to adapt may naturally exit. This frames AI as a career advancement opportunity rather than just a cost-cutting initiative.
Seek Guidance From Seven Figure Agency
AI is both the biggest disruption and the biggest opportunity in marketing agencies today. If you need guidance on utilizing AI in digital marketing, Seven Figure Agency can help.
We offer weekly training sessions and quarterly intensives, teaching members about everything from using Jarvis in marketing agencies to hiring the right team members. Get started today with a free strategy session.
