4 Best AI Marketing Tools, Software, and Platforms in 2023
AI is disrupting marketing campaigns globally, with Large Language Models (LLMs) and cutting-edge machine learning and natural language processing (NLP) practices propelling productivity. Whether it’s AI writing tools, image editing, or content optimization, there’s an option for everyone throughout all stages of the marketing process.
Augmenting your process with the best AI marketing tool allows you to concentrate on core offerings while enjoying operational efficiency.
While selecting the right AI marketing tools can be tricky with all the options available, this article will outline the top AI tools currently available for startups to enhance their workforce and boost innovation and efficiency.
What are the best AI marketing tools?
Truly unique and one of it’s kind, Content at Scale helps you write full-length blog posts that need to be minimally edited, cutting down on your long-form content spend.
The reigning champion of generative AI and one of the first to come to market – Jasper is the most comprehensive platform for all things marketing.
SurferSEO helps you write content that search engines love, and you’ll have fun while you do it with it’s innovative real-time content score.
Jasper.ai: Best Overall
Jasper is a marketing AI tool designed to help startups create various types of content 10X faster, improving productivity and efficiency. Jasper is trusted by over 100,000 teams globally, including Airbnb, HubSpot, Autodesk, and iHeartMedia. Jasper is an extremely widely used AI-powered tool and an excellent choice for scaling your business.
What I Like
Jasper was one of the first GPT-3 AI-powered tools to be released, and they’ve kept their stranglehold on the early lead they established. Jasper traditionally has been focused heavily on copywriting, but they are quickly expanding to cover all types of marketing, including art.
As a result of their traditional focus on copywriting, Jasper offers 50+ templates for writing. Their Chrome extension is also unmatched. Hit a rut and run into writer’s block? Prompt Jasper to continue the sentence to get you “unstuck.” I enjoyed the game-changing integration of Jasper and SurferSEO while still being able to use Google Documents for my writing.
For a while, many claimed Jasper to be on the decline, with competitors offering more from a “bang for your buck” perspective.
However, Jasper went through a major update recently, lowering the price, offering unlimited words, and adding new functionality to maintain a “Brand Voice,” which is sure to be appreciated by your social media marketing team. Additionally, it’s something few other AI-powered digital marketing tools offer.
Uniquely, Jasper offers API access. This is rare in the generative AI space and only available for their business plan. Knowing what I know about how all of these generative AI startups live on top of OpenAI’s GPT-3 and GPT-4, I am a bit skeptical, but it is intriguing.
Jasper could be a good option if your company needs API access and doesn’t want to deal with multiple vendors.
What I Don’t Like
The Chat functionality. I’ll be honest – ChatGPT is just better and more flexible. I don’t have any proof, but anecdotally, Jasper doesn’t allow you to look as far back as ChatGPT. If you’re looking for a chat AI to interface with, use ChatGPT instead – which also has much more informative material available online around prompt engineering.
Top Features
- Create content in 30 languages, including English, Spanish, and Japanese.
- Generate social media content, marketing copy, articles, art, and more.
- Collaborate with team members in real-time.
- Chrome extension for seamless integration into your workflow.
- Rated 4.8/5 stars in 5,000+ reviews, showcasing its effectiveness.
Differences between Copy.ai and Content at Scale
- Offers a Chrome extension for seamless integration into your workflow.
- Provides real-time collaboration features for teams.
- Jasper.ai can read and write content in 30+ languages, including English, Spanish, Japanese, and Portuguese.
- Doesn’t include content management and CMS integration features like Content at Scale.
Pricing
- Creator: $39/mo with unlimited monthly words, tailored to individuals (only one seat available).
- Teams: $99/mo with unlimited monthly words, tailored to small marketing teams (3 seats, $49/mo per seat after that).
- Business: Custom Plan & Price, designed for growing teams and businesses with custom features and support.
My Take
When I first wrote this product roundup and used Jasper, I had a gripe with Jasper’s pricing compared to the rest of the market. To be honest, I dropped it out of my workflow for a little bit, going with cheaper options that provided 90% of the functionality.
But guess what – unlimited words has me back. As a result – there’s not much to dislike here for Jasper, leading it to be my top pick. I find any AI-generated content needs to be heavily edited anyway to be helpful. Jasper seems to understand that and allows you to augment your workflow efficiently.
With the recent update, Jasper is back in my top spot as the king of AI marketing tools – it can accelerate your digital marketing campaigns like no other.
Content at Scale: Best for Long-Form Content
Content at Scale is an AI marketing tool designed to help startups scale their content marketing efficiently, with human-like content with its own voice that bypasses AI detection. By integrating Content at Scale into your marketing strategy, you can increase the throughput of your content.
What I Like
Content at Scale is the most flexible when it comes to long-form, allowing you to specify parameters (such as the total length of the article), and the AI technology attempts to hit them. The in-app content editor is delightful and reminds me a lot of AI-powered marketing tools like SurferSEO.
I didn’t attempt to use the WordPress integration feature, but it’s certainly a nice to have that is not present in all of the content marketing tools on this list.
What I Don’t Like
While it’s truly first in class, they claim to create SEO-optimized content that is ready for publishing. I did not find this to be the case. I found their platform to be a bit buggy as of early 2023, which I found problematic when it comes to the premium you pay compared to other platforms.
In the test article I created for this review, Content at Scale generated duplicated sections, defeating the purpose of specifying the content length.
That said, if you have an involved editing process, this shouldn’t be a problem. Content at Scale is still much cheaper than hiring dedicated marketing teams to do your writing, and definitely can replace first drafts without much of a change in your process.
Top Features
- Produce many long-form, SEO-optimized blog posts in a single day.
- Bypasses AI content detection for a more authentic feel.
- Direct integration with Copyscape for plagiarism checks.
- WordPress plugin for seamless content syncing and automatic internal linking.
- Cost-effective solution for scaling content production without hiring additional writers.
Differences between Jasper.ai and Copy.ai
- Focuses on scalability for businesses of varying sizes.
- Emphasis on content optimization for better user engagement.
- Offers content management and CMS integration features.
Pricing
- 4 blog posts at $37.50/post, totaling $150/month.
- 8 blog posts at $31.25/post, totaling $250/month.
- 20 blog posts at $25/post, totaling $500/month. (Est. $0.009/word)
- 50 blog posts at $20/post, totaling $1,000/month.
- 100 blog posts at $15/post, totaling $1,500/month.
My Take
Content at Scale is great for startups that need to scale their content marketing quickly and efficiently without the hassle of hiring and managing writers. Their long-form content management & generation system is unmatched, and the built-in plagiarism detection is a nice perk.
Copy.ai: Best Budget Option for Additional Seats
Copy.ai is an AI-powered content generator designed for startups seeking rapid growth. This AI writing tool and platform helps create various types of content efficiently, enabling users to write better content faster and streamline their content production process.
What I Like
Did someone say free? Sure, it’s not a lot of words (less than a blog post!), but c’mon, there are not many useful artificial intelligence tools out there that have a free option. If you’re looking to scale your content, you’ll likely want to go with a paid plan, but it’s nice to have the free plan to try things out for yourself.
In addition, the Pro plan ($36 / mo) offers 5 seats. If you’re a small freelancer who occasionally outsources, Copy.ai could be a good option for gaining additional seats without breaking the bank.
Like many of the other generative artificial intelligence marketing tools out there, when you first open up the Copy.ai dashboard, you land in their Chat. This chat, however, is different – in that it connects you directly to the internet. My feelings are mixed. It’s good, don’t get me wrong, but not the best.
Something I found interesting that I haven’t seen elsewhere is Copy.ai’s “fun” templates. Want to generate your Dating Profile or Wedding Vows with AI? Give it a try (let me know how it goes!)
What I Don’t Like
Copy.ai feels like a budget version of Jasper. While this used to be true in price, with Jasper’s recent update, Jasper’s value proposition is much more competitive. Copy.ai is still an incredible product, don’t get me wrong. I just feel there are better options out there.
Top Features
- 2,000 free words per month for the free plan.
- Over 90 tools and templates for various content types.
- Write content in 29+ languages.
- Supports blog writing, social media management, and email marketing.
Differences from Jasper.ai and Content at Scale
- Offers a free plan with 2,000 words per month, which Jasper.ai and Content at Scale do not.
- Offers additional seats at the same price.
- Less focus on team collaboration features compared to Jasper.ai.
- Lacks content management and CMS integration capabilities that Content at Scale offers.
Pricing
- Free: $0, 2,000 words per month, 1 user seat.
- Pro: $36/mo (billed $432/year), unlimited words, 5 user seats.
- Enterprise: Custom pricing with API access and advanced features.
My Take
Copy.ai is the only one on this list that has a free plan, making it an attractive choice for those who want to test artificial intelligence-powered marketing strategies before committing to a paid plan. If you have a use for only 2000 words a month or need additional seats on the cheap, Copy.ai can be a good selection for you that helps you save money.
Otherwise, I’d go with Jasper, a more feature-complete product.
Surfer SEO: Best AI Marketing Tool for SEO Optimization
Surfer SEO is a powerful tool designed to help content creators and website owners write well-structured, highly optimized articles that help you improve your search engine rankings. It offers a comprehensive workflow to boost organic traffic, increase visibility, and improve rankings.
What I Like
SurferSEO is a bit different than some of the AI writers on this list, although they do have plans to bring an AI writer to the market in the future. SurferSEO is focused on optimizing content. Surfer’s dedicated content editor is first-class and somehow manages to make content optimization fun.
The content editor provides a Content Score, matching you up against the top-performing articles on Google. It provides actionable insights through its Content Structure section, giving you the optimal word count, heading count, paragraph count, and image count to target.
Similar to Jasper, it offers real-time collaboration features as well as a Chrome browser extension that allows you to work in Google Documents if you’d like (my personal favorite).
SurferSEO also provides an auditing tool, which allows you to check up on published articles and compare them to the performance of more recent articles. While I found this to be very similar to my in-editor content score, I did find it sometimes differed, leading to some confusion.
Surfer is clearly continuing to improve their offerings, adding a Keyword Research tool, as well as a Domain Planner and a SERP Analyzer. The clustering tool was actually pretty helpful, comparing to something like AnswerThePublic. These tools are normally offered in more comprehensive SEO tools that are less focused on content creation, such as Ahrefs or Semrush.
In addition, by using artificial intelligence, SurferSEO offers unique insights when compared to some of the other options on the list.
What I Don’t Like
I haven’t seen the Grow Flow functionality yield any results. Anecdotally, I’ve also seen others online claim the same, so if you’re making a point to purchase SurferSEO for this feature, be sure to have a backup plan.
Top Features
- Real-time content optimization with Surfer’s Content Score
- Built-in Outline Builder for structuring articles
- Multilingual support for writing and optimizing content
- Plagiarism checker to ensure authenticity
- Seamless integration with Google Docs, WordPress, and Jasper
Pricing
Surfer SEO offers four pricing plans:
- Basic: $49/month (yearly)
- Pro: $99/month (yearly)
- Business: $199/month (yearly)
- Enterprise: Custom price
Wrap Up
I’ve never had a look behind the search engine black box, but my guess would be that search engines love Surfer’s content. As the leading search engine optimization tool (in my opinion), SurferSEO has plenty of customer data to continue to improve its product. This leads to a better experience for you.
SurferSEO is perfect for content creators, bloggers, freelancers, and businesses of all sizes looking to enhance their SEO strategy and improve organic traffic, reaching their target audience for cheaper.
With a 30-day money-back guarantee, it’s somewhat risk-free to explore what SurferSEO has to offer.
Why you should trust me to rank the best marketing tools
I sit directly at the intersection between marketing and technology. I’ve spent years as a software engineer building consumer products, qualifying me to evaluate technology not only from a user’s perspective but also from the ground up.
As a marketer, I am hyper-focused on achieving the best outcomes for all my clients. With the onset of new machine learning techniques and language models such as GPT, the world is changing – and fast. If we don’t continue to improve our skills and find the best tools for the job, we will be left in the dust by those that will.
I am huge on not wasting any time we have in this world. To only present you with only the best AI marketing tools worth your time, this guide only contains four options.
Don’t waste your time evaluating tools. After this guide, you’ll feel comfortable and confident selecting one of our options from this list – allowing you to get back to where you belong, building your business.
How I picked and tested
In search of the best AI marketing platform, I’ve spent the last 6+ months testing and trying each of these AI marketing tools for my own use.
In addition, I’ve consulted and discussed with numerous industry experts to learn more about what tools they use, as well as what strategies and workflows they’ve found effective.
While other guides read off the product page and paraphrase marketing material, this guide is a culmination of my own experience, distilled into the absolute must-know facts.
The result is a guide that will give you all you need to make the absolute best selection for your use case.
What to look for when selecting AI marketing tools
Before selecting an artificial intelligence marketing tool, make sure you identify your marketing objectives and the specific use cases for AI in your marketing strategy. Some common use cases include content generation, content optimization, and email marketing tools.
The AI software should allow for customization to meet your specific business requirements. One example of this is Jasper’s Brand Voice feature, which adapts its writing to fit your brand. If you require API access, that’s another thing to consider looking out for.
Prior to committing to a long-term plan, you might want to assess the tool’s performance in your own workflow. All of the above options offer shorter-term plans, case studies, testimonials, or even in the case of Copy.ai or SurferSEO, a trial period or money-back guarantee.
Leveraging these plans will give you a good idea of not only the customer support but also the cost and time it will take to train your team.
Taking these factors into account when selecting an AI marketing tool will help you find the most suitable solution for your business.
Frequently asked questions
What is an AI marketing tool?
An artificial intelligence marketing tool is one that leverages technology in order to further the objectives of a marketing team.
This may seem pretty broad, so to give some concrete examples, AI marketing tools can assist digital marketers in things like writing content (content generation), optimizing content for search engines (SEO optimization), or even improving existing marketing strategies through customer segmentation and ad-targeting and retargeting.
Additionally, in recent years, AI technology has been built in order to help you reach your proper target audience on social media apps, such as Twitter, Instagram or TikTok. As I’m writing this, I realize that the possibilities are actually endless. New AI marketing tools are popping up daily.
How profitable is AI marketing?
Utilizing AI marketing tools in your business can help you improve your margins. In the past, large teams have been focused on optimizing their content strategy.
With some of the marketing automation tools coming to market today, employees can cut down on repetitive tasks. As a result, it’s becoming much more cost-effective to grow, as each employee on the team can be more productive and contribute more, in less time.
What are large language models?
A large language model (LLM) is a type of artificial intelligence model specifically designed for natural language processing (NLP) and natural language generation (NLG) tasks.
These models are trained on massive amounts of text data, which enables them to understand in a variety of languages and contexts.
The primary purpose of a large language model is to process and generate natural language text in a way that mimics human language comprehension and communication. By analyzing patterns in the text data they’ve been trained on, LLMs can generate coherent and contextually relevant responses.
For more detailed information on what LLMs are, refer to our existing blog post on large language models.
What companies use artificial intelligence in their marketing strategy?
As of late, many different companies are integrating AI tools into their digital advertising strategies. From building landing pages to AI email marketing tools, there are tons of opportunities to take advantage of the new advancements (and multiple platforms) in artificial intelligence.
To give some concrete examples, Airbnb, HubSpot, Autodesk, and iHeartMedia all use Jasper. Organizations like Microsoft, eBay, and Nestle use Copy.ai. Finally, customers at SurferSEO include Lenovo, ClickUp, Intuit, and Shopify.
It’s safe to say if you’re not using artificial intelligence in the workforce to improve your marketing efforts in some capacity, you’re likely to be left in the dust by the competition.
Wrapping up
In this article, we highlighted the top AI marketing tools to help accelerate your market efforts and content strategy. By selecting an AI tool from our list, we’re confident that you’ll find something that fits the needs of your business.
