AI is everywhere right now. And with it comes plenty of scepticism - especially when it comes to marketing. For every person excited about the possibilities, there’s another who’s convinced AI means soulless, spammy content.
But the problem isn’t AI itself. It’s how you use it.
At Strictly Savvy, our marketing manager built an entire team of custom GPTs to take on the grunt work, leaving her free to focus on strategy, creativity, and growth.
Here’s exactly how it works.
Why AI Matters in Marketing
Running marketing across multiple platforms (websites, social media, blogs, lead magnets, emails, and podcasts) requires a huge amount of consistent, high-quality content. Without help, creative work often gets pushed aside for the sake of speed and output.
AI solves that by handling repetitive drafting and structure. The big ideas, strategy, and creative direction stay firmly human.
So, What's a Custom GPT?
ChatGPT "out of the box" is a generalist. It can write a caption or email, but the result will sound generic and flat. Of course, you can give it additional context in your prompts for better outputs, but keeping a brand voice consistent over time when using ChatGPT this way can be tricky.
A custom GPT is different. Think of it as onboarding a new team member: you give it strict training, detailed context, and plenty of examples until it can reliably perform one specific task in your brand’s voice.
With the right setup, a custom GPT becomes a specialist that delivers consistent, on-brand results every time.
The Setup: Training a Custom GPT
(Tip: to find Custom GPTS, log into your ChatGPT account, click 'GPTs' in the left hand menu, and then the '+ Create' button in the top right hand corner.)
Building a custom GPT takes more work upfront than just typing into ChatGPT. But the time savings down the line can be significant.
To give you an example of the setup involved, we'll look at one of our own custom GPTs. This bot drafts on-brand Instagram captions for us, based on a concept given to it by our marketing manager.
We provided it with 3 documents:
Brand Voice Document – Our tone, style, word choices, and examples of how it all comes together.
Ideal Client Profile – A deep dive into our target audience: who they are, what they struggle with, what they want.
Content Examples – Real posts, blogs, and captions that nail our voice.
On top of that, we set strict rules or instructions:
No rhetorical questions or obvious AI 'buzzwords'.
Structural templates (for example, captions that always follow a hook → insight → CTA flow).
Provide multiple options (e.g. one emotional angle, one practical angle).
The more context you give, the stronger the results. If it’s not working, it’s usually because it hasn’t been trained enough!
From One Bot to a Whole Team
Once you've got the hang of it, one custom GPT can quickly turn into many! Each can be trained for a specific role. For example, our marketing manager uses:
A caption bot for Instagram.
A second caption bot Wildhouse with its own voice.
A podcast bot for drafting show notes.
A blog and email bot for first drafts.
Each bot sticks to its role, never drifts off-brand, and consistently produces solid drafts to refine rather than rewrite.
The Real Value: Headspace
The obvious benefit is time savings. But the bigger payoff is more mental space.
With repetitive tasks handled, there’s room for the most valuable part of marketing: creative thinking. Instead of burning out on drafting, you have time to explore new ideas, develop strategies, and create campaigns that stand out.
That’s the real win. AI creates space for creativity instead of replacing it.
Beyond Marketing
The opportunities don’t stop with marketing. Any repeatable task with clear parameters can be handed to a custom GPT.
At Strictly Savvy, the sales team uses one to draft tailored follow-up emails that pull in relevant blogs and resources. Other VAs are experimenting with GPTs for client communications.
The rule is simple: if the task is repeatable and follows clear rules, a GPT can be trained to handle it.
How to Get Started
If you’re curious about using custom GPTs in your own business, start here:
Pick one repeatable task. Something small, with strict boundaries.
Overtrain it. Give more context, examples, and rules than you think it needs.
Expect iteration. Just like onboarding a staff member, you’ll need to tweak instructions and give feedback.
Above all, it's time to stop hiding the fact you’re using AI. It’s here to stay, and knowing how to use it well is going to be an essential skill in business.
With a team of custom GPTs in place, the grunt work disappears - and the creative, strategic, growth-focused work finally gets the space it deserves.
