How I Used AI to Build My Marketing Strategy – SOSTAC and the Penny Drop Moment
In part one, I looked at how I used AI to speed up and refine the process of identifying my target audience and their digital personas – Jamie Fraser and Sarah Campbell. In part two, I want to show you how AI helped me with my marketing strategy using SOSTAC and the Penny Drop Moment.
The next step was to create my marketing strategy using the SOSTAC model, now that I understood exactly who my marketing effort was aimed at. And that process led to what I now call my “Penny Drop” moment – an experience that completely transformed the way I use tools like ChatGPT. More on that shortly.
The SOSTAC Model
I’ve used this model for over 20 years, and it still stands the test of time. The way we reach prospects, clients and stakeholders has changed – but the fundamentals of marketing haven’t.
Here’s a quick summary of the model:
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Situation Analysis – Where are we now?
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Objectives – Where do we want to go?
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Strategy – How do we get there?
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Tactics – What tools do we use?
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Action – Who does what and when?
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Control – How do we measure success?
For me, the Situation Analysis stage is the most important. It lays the foundations for everything that follows. I’ve often found it’s the most enlightening part of the process for clients, because it forces them to assess their business honestly and from all angles.
One of the most useful tools during this stage is the good old-fashioned SWOT analysis – and it’s also where my “Penny Drop” moment happened.
The Penny Finally Drops
I was preparing a SWOT analysis for a client and using AI to summarise a mix of notes and previous insights. In the output, I noticed a contradiction: the company was said to be aiming for national growth (an Opportunity) while also promoting its local heritage (a Strength).
In the past, we’ve all become used to using search engines – if we don’t like the answer, we tweak the search terms and try again. That’s what I was about to do. But instead, I paused. And I started a conversation with ChatGPT.
I questioned the output. ChatGPT reasoned through the contradiction, acknowledged the conflict, and even asked me a few questions to clarify the business position. After a bit of back and forth, we landed on a much clearer summary.
That was the moment I realised: this isn’t a search engine. It’s a smart colleague.
You’ve probably heard others say that – but it’s only when you try it yourself that you truly understand the shift. Once you stop treating AI like a search engine and start treating it like a thinking partner, everything changes.
That shift completely transformed how I work. It didn’t just make me more productive – it helped me think more clearly.
Applying AI to My SOSTAC Model
Here’s a quick summary of how I applied ChatGPT to each stage of the model in my own business:
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Situation Analysis: AI helped me summarise where I am now – and even pulled in some helpful market context from my existing content.
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Objectives: These were mine to set – but ChatGPT helped me reframe them more clearly and sort priorities.
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Strategy: I leaned on my experience here, but AI offered useful prompts to challenge and refine my thinking.
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Tactics: This is where AI really excels – helping generate tools, content ideas, email plans, and more.
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Action: It helped break tasks into logical steps, draft templates, and suggest a rollout timeline.
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Control: ChatGPT even proposed sensible ways to track performance, which I then adapted to suit my tools and process.
Final Thoughts
Normally, this entire process would have taken me much longer. But with AI involved, I got through each stage faster and ended up with better quality insights. The time-saving alone is valuable – but the real benefit is the enhanced thinking it enables.
Next Time…
In the next blog, I’ll show how I moved from strategy to implementation – starting with how I used AI to help build my new website.
In the meantime, if you would like to discuss SOSTAC and the Penny Drop Moment for your business, please get in touch. Or have a look at the other blogs on how AI might help with your business too.
