AI for Business Masterclass Series

Streamline your operations, increase profits and stay ahead of the competition with our free AI for Business Masterclasses, courtesy of Miami-Dade County.

Stop Guessing, Start Growing:
Use AI to Build Your Marketing Strategy
Part of the From AI to ROI Masterclass

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Masterclass: Stop Guessing, Start Growing: Use AI to Build Your Marketing Strategy

Discover how to build a high-impact marketing strategy powered by AI –designed to bring clarity, confidence and measurable growth to your small business.
In today’s fast-moving digital landscape, guesswork is no longer a growth strategy. Small businesses need clarity, not chaos – and that’s exactly what this powerful BizHack Masterclass delivered.
Hosted by Bizhack Lead Instructor Angie Huffington and marketing powerhouse Anita Larsen, this session was a hands-on guide to ditching trial and error and designing a data-backed, customer-centered, AI-powered marketing strategy that’s tailored to your business goals.
Watch The Full Masterclass Replay
Anita Larsen brings two decades of experience helping business owners stop guessing and start growing. In this Masterclass, she guided participants to build clear, focused strategies, proving that with the right tools and mindset, small businesses can market smarter and scale faster

🎤 Meet Your Instructor: Anita Larsen

Anita Larsen, Founder, LITA Coaching | BizHack Certified Instructor

Anita Larsen is a business growth strategist and marketing coach who helps small-business owners simplify their strategies, streamline operations and scale with confidence. With more than 20 years of experience across business, marketing and operations, she’s known for her no-fluff approach and her ability to help clients move from chaos to clarity.
Anita’s work is grounded in empathy, customer insight and action. Through her company, LITA Coaching, she helps entrepreneurs get unstuck and get growing – on their own terms.

🔑 KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THE MASTERCLASS

💡 Strategy First, Always

Without a real strategy, marketing becomes a cycle of guesswork and frustration. This Masterclass helped participants break free from chasing trends by using AI to align every tactic with clear goals, audience insights and business outcomes.
🧠 “Start by defining where you’re going and who you’re speaking to. Then, use AI to map the journey.”
– Anita Larsen
Anita reminded us that behind every successful marketing effort is not just creativity; it’s clarity. In today’s digital noise, where AI tools can generate content at lightning speed and platforms demand constant engagement, strategy becomes your filter – helping you focus on what truly moves the needle. Before you post that next Reel, send that newsletter or launch your next ad campaign, you need a road map. One that’s rooted in your business goals. One that aligns your message with the right audience. One that turns effort into momentum and guesswork into growth.

🚀 How to Use Strategy to Simplify Your Marketing:

Every winning strategy starts with intention. These four building blocks (goals, customer clarity, targeted planning and measurable KPIs) form the foundation of an AI-powered marketing system that drives real, repeatable growth.
Instead of jumping into tactics, start by defining where you’re going and who you’re speaking to. Then, use AI to map the journey: clarify your ideal customer, craft messaging that resonates, and choose only the channels that make sense for your audience and goals. Because great marketing doesn’t start with more content. It starts with better direction.

🎯 7 Steps to Build Your AI-Enhanced Strategy

AI alone isn’t a strategy; it’s a catalyst. These seven steps show how to combine your expertise with AI tools to create a focused, customer-centric marketing plan that drives real results, not just more noise.
You don’t need a huge team. You need clarity, intention and the right tools. Here is the step-by-step blueprint Anita shared to help small businesses simplify their marketing and amplify results:
  • 1. Competitive Research: Know the landscape before you make your move. AI helps you quickly analyze competitors so you can identify gaps, opportunities and positioning.
Competitive research is the first step in strategic clarity. This AI-powered prompt helps small businesses uncover how their competitors position themselves so they can stand out with sharper messaging, smarter marketing and a stronger value proposition.
  • 2. Business Goals → Marketing Priorities: Set your “why.” Your business goals become the compass that guides every marketing decision, from messaging to channel choice.
Turning business goals into action starts with clarity. This AI-powered prompt helps small businesses translate big-picture objectives into focused marketing priorities—so every campaign, post, and dollar spent moves the business forward with purpose and precision.
  • 3. Ideal Customer Profile (ICP): Once you know your goals, define who you’re trying to reach. AI can help you build a rich profile of your ideal client so your message lands with the right people.
Knowing your ideal customer isn’t just good marketing; it’s smart business. This prompt helps you use AI to build a detailed customer profile rooted in data so that every message, campaign and offer speaks directly to the people most likely to buy.
  • 4. Buyer’s Journey: Map out how your ideal customer moves from unaware to ready to buy. Understanding their journey ensures your marketing meets them at the right moment with the right message.
Understanding your customer’s mindset at every stage – from awareness to decision – is what transforms content into conversion. This AI-powered prompt helps map your buyer’s journey so you can deliver the right message on the right platform at exactly the right moment.
  • 5. Messaging Pillars: Build trust and spark action. Develop key themes based on your customer’s mindset and needs. Then use those to anchor all your content.
Your messaging isn’t just what you say; it’s how you make people feel. This prompt helps businesses craft three to four powerful messaging pillars that speak directly to their customers’ needs, using emotional hooks and clear, compelling language that converts.
  • 6. Campaign Recommendations: Bring it all together. AI can suggest three to five targeted campaigns that align with your strategy and move you toward your goals.
Strategy without execution is just a wishlist. This prompt helps turn insights into impact by outlining three to five AI-supported marketing initiatives that align with your goals, audience and capacity – so you can act with focus and intention.
  • 7. 90-Day Plan + KPIs: Ideas mean nothing without execution. Break your strategy into a 90-day plan with clear timelines, tasks, owners and KPIs to stay focused and measure success.
A great strategy means nothing without execution. This prompt helps transform ideas into action by outlining a 90-day plan with milestones, team roles, KPIs and simple success metrics – so your marketing stays
🧠 “Most small businesses are purpose-driven if you want them to be. I have literally never found a company that doesn’t have the ability to be story-driven.”
– Dan Grech
🚨 Live Demo Moment: Anita built a strategy on the spot for an architecture firm. Big thanks to Maria Luisa for volunteering her firm, United Architects! Seeing the process live made the framework real and replicable.

🤖 Why AI Makes Strategy Stronger (Not Less Human)

AI is here to amplify your clarity and creativity, not replace it.
🛠 Ways to use AI in your strategy:
  • Brainstorm content ideas in seconds
  • Research your market and competitors
  • Build strong ICPs and customer personas
  • Generate smarter messaging with frameworks such as POP (Persona, Objective, Prompt)
“AI isn’t you, but it helps you be faster, sharper and more strategic.”
– Anita Larsen

📈 Magnetic Messaging That Converts

Stop guessing what to say. Start building messaging pillars rooted in your audience’s mindset.
📌 Examples from United Architects:
  • “We don’t just design. We get it approved.”
  • “Architecture that pays for itself.”
  • “Build a legacy you can live in – or profit from.”
  • 💡 Pro Tip: Use these types of magnetic messaging across your website, ads, social posts and even pitches. Message clarity = client magnetism.

📈 From Strategy to Execution: The 90-Day Plan

Break down your big goals into bite-size actions:
  • 🗓 Weeks 1–2: Define your goals, ICP and channels
  • 🗓 Weeks 3–5: Implement content and messaging
  • 🗓 Weeks 6–12: Optimize campaigns and track KPIs
  • 🎁 BONUS: Every attendee received Anita’s plug-and-play Marketing Strategy Spreadsheet. It’s editable, repeatable and designed for real business use.

📚 LIVE STRATEGY DEMO: United Architects

With real-time input from participant Maria Luisa, Anita used ChatGPT to build a full marketing strategy for Maria Luisa’s architecture firm, including:
  • 🎯 Business goals: attract investors, permit-ready projects, mixed-use buildings
  • 👤 ICP clarity: business owners, developers, real estate professionals
  • 🧠 Messaging: “We don’t just design. We got it approved.”
  • 📈 Channels: Referral system, SEO blog, case studies
  • ✅ 90-Day Plan: weekly actions + KPIs + ownership
The aha moment? Seeing how AI can turn a fuzzy idea into a concrete, clear action plan – in less than 20 minutes.

🛠 TOOLS & FRAMEWORKS DISCUSSED

This Masterclass wasn’t just theory. It was packed with practical tools and actionable frameworks you can start using today:
📌 Examples from United Architects:
  • The POP Framework: Learn how to write stronger, more strategic prompts using this simple formula: Persona + Objective + Prompt = Content that actually converts. Perfect for guiding AI to produce results aligned with your audience and goals.
  • ChatGPT Live-Demo Walk-Throughs: One of the highlights of the session was watching Anita bring the entire strategy framework to life in real time using ChatGPT.
Here’s how Anita applied AI to each of the seven key steps:
  • 1. Competitive Research
  • She prompted ChatGPT to analyze local competitors for an architecture firm. This saved hours of time in manual research and surfaced valuable positioning insights.
  • 2. Business Goals → Marketing Priorities
  • Anita showed how to input a business’s vision and goals into ChatGPT to generate aligned marketing objectives and content priorities.
  • 3. Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)
  • Using persona-building prompts, she guided ChatGPT to define the ideal customer’s demographics, pain points and decision triggers – creating clarity around who the marketing is for.
  • 4. Buyer’s Journey
  • She mapped out the customer's awareness-to-purchase path using AI, identifying what content is needed at each stage to move them forward.
  • 5. Messaging Pillars
  • Anita used customer objections and aspirations to co-create three to four messaging themes with ChatGPT – positioned to build trust and drive action.
  • 6. Campaign Recommendations
  • She asked ChatGPT to suggest three high-impact campaign ideas based on all previous steps – complete with channels, CTAs and goals.
  • 7. 90-Day Plan + KPIs
  • Finally, she used prompts to break the entire strategy into a 12-week execution plan with timelines, milestones and sample KPIs. It was all ready to drop into the included worksheet.
  • Download Your Free AI Marketing Strategy Toolkit. The toolkit includes the customizable 90-day plan, ChatGPT prompt pack and marketing worksheet to help you immediately
    implement what you learned.
  • AI Prompt Guide – For small-business marketing
💡 The demo wasn’t just informative; it was empowering. Participants saw how AI could become a true co-strategist, accelerating every part of the marketing-planning process.
The biggest shift isn’t just using AI. It’s thinking strategically before taking action. These final takeaways remind us that clarity fuels content, and AI’s true value lies in amplifying your impact, not replacing your intuition.

🧭 WAYS TO LEARN MORE ABOUT USING STORY-DRIVEN GROWTH FOR YOUR BUSINESS

🎓 Join the AI Marketing Accelerator Course. Discover the hands-on experience that helps small businesses and marketing professionals use AI tools to enhance marketing efforts and drive revenue and lead generation.
📺 Catch Up on Past BizHack Masterclasses. Access 150+ recorded sessions covering AI marketing strategies, tools and tactics.
🗓 Book a Free 20-Minute Story Strategy Session With Dan. Discuss your specific story-driven growth opportunities
The biggest shift isn’t just using AI. It’s thinking strategically before taking action. These final takeaways remind us that clarity fuels content, and AI’s true value lies in amplifying your impact, not replacing your intuition.

🗣 JOIN THE CONVERSATION

Are you still stuck in trial-and-error marketing, or are you ready to build a strategy that actually works? What role is AI playing in your business-growth journey today?
Ready to unlock your AI-powered marketing strategy? Book your free strategy session, or explore BizHack’s AI marketing resources to start building deeper connections with customers, partners and team members.
This Masterclass recap captures key insights from BizHack’s Stop Guessing, Start Growing session, part of the AI Marketing Masterclass series sponsored by Miami-Dade County’s Strive 305 initiative.
✨ For more tools, courses and strategies to grow your small business with AI, visit bizhack.ai.

👤 Meet the Instructor: Anita Larsen

Founder, LITA Coaching | BizHack Certified Instructor

Anita Larsen is a business growth strategist and marketing coach who helps small-business owners simplify their strategies, streamline operations, and scale with confidence. With more than 20 years of experience across business, marketing, and operations, she’s known for her no-fluff approach and her ability to help clients move from chaos to clarity.
Anita’s work is grounded in empathy, customer insight, and action. Through LITA Coaching, she helps entrepreneurs get unstuck and get growing – on their own terms.

🎙 Hosted by Angie Huffington

Founder, AI MKTG Academy | BizHack Lead Instructor

Angie brings more than 20 years of experience helping founders and marketers thrive with AI. She’s on a mission to make growth strategies more inclusive, accessible, and actionable.

Funders

Community Partners

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