It’s been a good week :-) The wind blew hard this week at my house. My yards look like I rolled out a carpet of leaves. Guess I’ll need to grab my leaf blower. Too bad I can’t just ask AI to do it.

I’d love it if you could forward this email to a friend who's in business and interested in content to help their marketing. I would appreciate it. And if you’re that friend? Subscribe today.

— Ann Gynn

I’ve always found making time to create content a major hurdle. AI has helped me publish more in far less time. But even though I publish more content, it still doesn’t feel like it’s working well enough.

Time may have been a problem, and AI solved it. But what if AI just treated the symptom without addressing the real problem?

The Content Marketing Institute released its B2B research this week, and AI dominated the questions. Speed (78%), efficiency (59%), and volume (44%) were the top benefits marketers attributed to AI. 

Those are real benefits. But I’d quibble with the idea that efficiency in producing content necessarily translates into more effective marketing. Getting something done more quickly or producing more of it doesn’t mean it’s accomplishing what you need it to do. You may just be creating more of what wouldn’t have worked in the first place.

So, let’s drill down on the problem. If you haven't done the foundational work to determine what content will help your audience and your business, AI's speed is a faux fix.

For me, when I can't find the time — or, let's be honest, don't want to devote the time — to creating content, it's often because I don't have a good idea, interesting sources, or a productive angle.

It's easier to say I don't have time than to admit (or even realize) that I haven't figured out what I want to say.

AI can quickly turn that uncertainty into a finished piece of content. But that doesn't mean it's content worth publishing.

For service-providing entrepreneurs, content works best when it helps build and grow the audience's trust. How do you do that? Here’s what the B2B marketers in CMI’s survey say:

None of those approaches depends on producing more content in less time. They require knowing what your audience values and delivering it.

So, the real question isn't, "How can I produce content more quickly?"

It's, "What content can I produce that will resonate with my target audience and help my business?"

Answering that requires knowing your audience, understanding what you want your content to accomplish for your business, and figuring out the stories and information that will serve both.

It also requires writing those things down. Otherwise, you're likely to revisit the same decisions every time you sit down to create something.

Once you've done that foundational work, AI can become a much more valuable assistant.

Give it the documents that explain your target audience, marketing goals, and content approach. Tell it how much time you have for content creation. Share your ideas, research, transcripts, and other available sources. Or ask it to suggest some.

Then ask AI to help develop a schedule, suggest angles and outlines, identify gaps, and challenge your thinking.

It may not speed up the process right away. Frankly, I find I sometimes spend more time doing it this way. I need to educate my AI tool about what I'm trying to accomplish. And when it comes back with suggestions, I debate them. Sometimes, I realize my original idea isn't worth pursuing. Other times, the AI recommendation just isn’t that great.

But as I repeat the process, I don't have to explain the foundational guidance every time. And I spend less and less time refining the tool's understanding of my preferences and style.

That's when AI's speed and efficiency become meaningful. It's not just helping me produce content faster. It's helping me develop content that's better positioned to serve my audience and my business.

AI may solve your time problem. But until you figure out what’s really keeping your content from working, all that extra speed may just get you nowhere faster.

Got a question you’d like me to answer in a future edition of The Hotline? Call or text Marketing By One Hotline: +1.440.661.3984.

This week: Before you ask AI to help create your next piece of content, take 20 minutes to answer three questions:

Share the answers with your AI tool. Ask it to suggest 10 content angles that serve both your audience and your business goals. Challenge them, refine them, or reject them until you have a good concept for one piece of content.

I’ve been working with Claude on a marketing plan for my business, G Force Communication. Instead of keeping a long to-do list, I asked it to estimate the time each task would take and schedule it on my Google Calendar. At the end of each day, I tell Claude what I didn’t finish and ask it to reschedule those tasks.

This works especially well now that Claude can mark calendar blocks as “free” instead of “busy.” That keeps my marketing work from blocking time on my client-facing booking calendar.

Have any AI tricks of your own? Hit reply, call, or text the Marketing By One Hotline: +1.440.661.3984.

Think of someone who expressed interest in your services but never became a client. Send a short, personal message to reconnect. Don't pitch. Just reopen the conversation.

☁️ Forget the tagline: Orbit Media’s Andy Crestodina shares his new research: AI doesn’t care about the marketing fluff on your site; it cares about the facts on it. And yet, I see so many new entrepreneurs spend a ton of time coming up with the perfect tagline. Now you have permission to spend your time on more substantive content (and it’s not just AI — your audience prefers that. too.)

📅 Calendar time: Get into your 2027 seasonal planning with Reddit’s newly released US 2027 Moments Annual Planning Guide.

🖼️ Better dash: Check out LinkedIn’s new post-performance table to see your posts and key performance metrics in one place.

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Got a question you’d like me to answer in The Hotline? Email me or DM me on LinkedIn. Even better: Text or leave a message on the Marketing By One Hotline: +1.440.661.3984.