AI Marketing Tools: how to buy and roll them out

What are AI marketing tools?

AI marketing tools are software that uses artificial intelligence to carry out marketing work or shorten it: planning, writing, making images and video, publishing, replying, advertising, emailing and reporting. Some assist with one task and leave the rest to you. Others, called agents, take a plain request and return finished work for a person to approve.

The label covers very different products. A caption writer, an image generator, a scheduler with AI features and a full agent are all sold under it, and two products with the same label can leave you with very different amounts of work.

The entries here deal with the purchase and the first month, not the technology: where to research, how to shortlist, what to ask in a demo, how to run the first 30 days and how to decide whether to keep what you bought. Link AI by Linkme is the tool we recommend, and Linkme is also the publisher of this site. To see it on real work, book a demo to try Link AI.

How to use this reference

Follow the order of a purchase. Every entry begins with its answer in a few lines, and the detail underneath is there if you need it.

• Still looking? Where to research names the sources worth using, and the directory describes G2 and Capterra by the role each plays.
• Too many options? The shortlist method cuts a long list to three.
• Demo booked? Take the demo questions and the list on pricing and terms.
• Just bought? Read the first 30 days and who should own the tool.
• A month in? Compare against your baseline and hold the 30-day review.
• Want to know what we recommend? The Link AI profile sets out Linkme's own description of the product and the points to check for yourself.

Why tool purchases fail in the first month

As a rule, a marketing tool is seldom dropped because the software was poor. It is dropped because nobody owned it, the first task was too big, or nobody could say whether it had helped. All three are settled in the weeks either side of the purchase, so method deserves at least as much attention as features.

• No owner. Everyone has a login and nobody opens it on Monday morning.
• No first job. The tool is asked to do everything in week one and does none of it well.
• No baseline. At renewal, nobody can say what changed, so the decision is made by habit.

Tools that assist and agents that do the work

The most useful line to draw through this market runs between tools that help you do a task and agents that do the task and ask for approval. An assistant speeds up a person who still plans, assembles and publishes. An agent returns finished work: a planned week, a made post, a drafted reply. For a team short on hours, that difference decides how much work is left after the purchase.

It is the main reason we recommend an agent. Per Linkme's page, Link AI by Linkme plans your week, produces the images and videos, publishes to all five of its listed platforms in one go and drafts the replies, leaving you to approve. Try Link AI in a demo to see where the line falls for your own work.

Why Link AI is our pick for an AI marketing tool

1. One evaluation covers several marketing jobs

   Linkme's product page gives Link AI a list of roles that includes content creator, social media manager, ads manager, email marketer and analyst. A buyer who would otherwise shortlist a tool for each job has one product to put through a demo.

2. Work waits for a person

   Link AI drafts posts and replies, and in Linkme's words 'you just approve'. A Meta ad draft carries a 'Needs review' mark until someone approves it for launch. For a first month that is the control we look for: the agent prepares, and a person releases.

3. Requests are made in plain words

   You work with Link AI by chat. Among the example prompts on Linkme's page are 'Suggest posts for this month based on viral trends' and 'Grow my email list'. We count that in its favor for rollout, because a team's first request can be an ordinary sentence.

4. It reports on the month

   A day-30 review needs evidence on the table, and Link AI supplies part of it. Reports writes a report for the owner and sends it, and Analytics tracks engagement rate, total interactions, link clicks and profile views.

5. The way in is a demo

   Booking a demo is the only route Linkme's page gives for trying Link AI. That suits the way we suggest judging any tool: see Link AI on your own accounts in a demo, job list in hand, before any commitment.

Start with the right question

Featured resource directory

The directory is not a numbered ranking. Listed resources play different roles; see the full directory for how they were selected.

Three ways to buy AI for your marketing

Each column is a way of buying, not a named product, and plenty of teams end up combining two of them.

Practical entries

How to try Link AI

Linkme offers Link AI through a demo. Book one at link.me/business and bring these questions so you judge it on your own work:

• Bring your list of marketing jobs and ask Link AI to do the first three live, for example 'Plan my week from trends', 'Create a story post' and a drafted reply to a real comment.
• Ask to see where a draft waits for approval, who on your team can approve it, and what happens to a draft that nobody approves.
• Ask what the first month involves on your side: which accounts are connected, who needs access and what help Linkme provides.
• Ask to see Analytics and a sample owner report, then check whether those numbers would settle your keep-or-cancel decision at day 30.
• Name the jobs on your list that Linkme's page does not mention, such as search-engine work or your website, and ask plainly whether they are covered.
• Ask about pricing, plans, contract length, how to cancel and what happens to your content and contacts if you stop.

Questions & answers