Are we building a product that is 10x better?

A recent article by Influencer Marketing Hub states that most (69.1%) of marketers report incorporating AI into their marketing strategies.

Imagine the plight when you are at an early stage with a lack of funds, and marketing is the last vertical you want to spend on. Building your brand becomes a challenge, and then you end up where it's even harder to understand why marketing.

Surprisingly, 67% of businesses still need a marketing action plan. This is the case primarily due to a lack of expertise and time.

While working with venture capital firms and startups in my career, I realized that marketing has, for ages, taken a back seat. Further, funds are never allocated for it. But do you know founders sit on data that can be converted into sellable stories to gain consumers for your business?

A 2023 study among US marketers revealed that 73% have used generative AI tools, further strengthening the take on AI tools in marketing.

Does this mean a Virtual CMO built on AI with a data-driven solution solves the marketing needs of small and medium businesses at early stages?

What are we exactly building and how big is the game?

The central idea is to allow SMEs to market digitally on various channels without hiring a marketing team. The CMO regularly asks founders questions and pictures and creates ready-to-post content on social media such as Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. We plan to integrate it with a CRM tool for users in the future so they can run email campaigns as well.

Based on 100 dedicated interviews and our team's own experience in the digital marketing industry working with clients, we learned that founders and small business owners often already have a lot of marketable data that can be strategically placed to generate sales inflow but do not have time, money, or the 'language of the customers' for their offerings. Many small businesses, as a result, do not participate in digital marketing. Our virtual CMO solves this with a simple subscription system.

But before anything let us first analyse 10 companies in our industry

10 companies building AI based Marketing tool

Detailed Price Breakdown and Comparison

Some insights to note

ChatGPT:

Freemium Model: ChatGPT has the base model, which is free to use. Paid Plans: ChatGPT Plus is $20/month in order to have the extra features with it, such as faster answers, and access to GPT-4 Affordability: Very affordable compared with niche competitors. Good for general content creation and general marketing-related questions but not for specific marketing work, such as campaign optimization or emotional messaging.

Jasper AI:

Starter Plan: That's $49 per month and pretty simple templates for copywriting through ads, blogs, emails. Boss Mode: Costs at $99 a month with all the advanced features. Long-form content creation becomes accessible to users and team collaboration, etc. Business Plan: Charges on usage as the cost for this plan starts at $499 a month.Pricing Verdict: Pricier than Copy.ai . It could, however be justified by those companies that have well-exhausted workflows of copywriting and automation. Not good for small businesses in terms of price.

Copy.ai

Free Plan. You get very minimal features, which is alright for those testing the waters. Pro Plan. Pay $49 per month and get everything. Copy.ai is very affordable and would be a good solution for small freelancers or small teams looking to develop a massive volume of marketing content very quickly. However, compared to other more robust competitors, they lack specific controls and integrations.

Writer.com:

Team Plan: Ideal for small teams at $18/user/month. Enterprise Plan. Custom pricing; typically 100+ per user. It is low cost, team focused, and very good in brand consistency. The price is competitive to midsize businesses that need good content governance although it may be less viable for individual users or freelancers because the tool is quite focused on teams.

Persado:

Custom Pricing: Mainly enterprises; starting price $1,000/month. Affordability: High, but justified for enterprises that need emotionally optimized marketing messages based on high detail and customer insights. It is quite impossible for small businesses or individual creators though, as the price and emotional marketing focus are too high.

MarketMuse:

Standard Plan: AI-driven SEO content optimization tool at $149/month Premium Plans: Custom pricing at a minimum of $1,499/month. A full-scale team of content. Pricing Verdict: One of the more expensive tools for the content marketer, but gives incredibly valuable insight to businesses that are serious about SEO and topic modeling. Way overkill for the small business or users focused on non-SEO-based content.

Crimson Hexagon:

Freemium Model: Crimson Hexagon does not offer a free version; its tools are geared toward enterprise use with subscription-based access only.

Paid Plans: Pricing starts at enterprise levels (approx. $1000+/month), allowing access to high-end social media analytics, brand sentiment tracking, and data visualization tools.

Affordability: Crimson Hexagon is positioned as a premium analytics tool, making it affordable for large businesses with dedicated social media budgets but impractical for smaller firms or casual marketers.

Bard :

Freemium Model: Bard is fully free, making it a cost-effective choice for users seeking basic AI-generated content and answers.

Paid Plans: Bard currently does not offer paid tiers, making it accessible but limited in advanced functionality compared to paid counterparts like ChatGPT Plus.

Affordability: As a free tool, Bard is highly affordable and ideal for entry-level users who need straightforward responses.

Drift:

Freemium Model: Drift offers a limited free version with essential live chat features but requires paid plans to access advanced functions.

Paid Plans: Drift's pricing starts at $50/month and scales based on feature needs, including chatbot automation, AI-based conversation routing, and sales integration.

Affordability: Drift is relatively affordable for startups needing basic chat support but can become costly as automation and customization needs increase. It's particularly valuable for sales teams focused on real-time lead capture and customer engagement.

SEMrush :

Freemium Model: SEMrush provides a limited free version that offers restricted access to SEO tools. It’s primarily to get a taste of the interface and a few insights.

Paid Plans: Paid plans start at $119.95/month, which includes extensive features like keyword research, competitor analysis, and SEO audits. Higher tiers unlock advanced analytics and extra tracking.

Affordability: Priced towards the premium end but valuable for businesses invested in SEO, SEM, and competitive research. Affordable for small agencies but could be costly for solo entrepreneurs or businesses with limited SEO needs.

Aam Pannaa Creations starts at a monthly fee of $35 and is primarily targeted towards FMCG, healthcare, as well as small businesses which makes it affordable for early stage startups. The largest technology feature the company hosts is an AI-chatbot that was tailored for a market strategy then makes us move away from being a generalist and build an AI tool that makes founder write and create "sellable stories" to customers.

Defining features of Website to make us 10x better

Understandably these tools bring in way for us to better the tool we are creating for masses.

• Enterprise-Focused Platforms: Crimson Hexagon and Persado specialize in deep social insights and highly tailored marketing language, serving large enterprises.
• SEO-Centric Tools: Semrush offers a comprehensive suite for digital marketing, while MarketMuse zeroes in on content quality and SEO relevance.
• Conversational Solutions: Drift leverages AI-driven chatbots for B2B sales, enhancing lead generation and conversational marketing.
• Content Creation: Jasper, Copy.ai, Writer.com, and ChatGPT cater to diverse content needs, with Jasper and Writer.com focusing on brand consistency.

Aam Pannaa Creations’ Virtual CMO is creating a next-gen AI marketing solution that empowers early-stage businesses with streamlined strategies, reducing the need for extensive time, money, and knowledge in their growth phases.

The world is going to AI but with human intervention, let's us can a virtual CMO solve the problem with a question answer based approach.