Contact

UserHero: Exploring AI in MarTech

project details

UserHero

Project Description

AI-Driven MarTech for Cohesive Digital Advertising

Project Overview

UserHero was an innovative MarTech startup that I co-founded, aimed at revolutionizing digital advertising through AI-powered cohesive narrative creation. Our mission was to enhance the user journey from the first ad impression to conversion by ensuring consistent, personalized messaging across all touchpoints.

The Challenge

In today’s fragmented digital landscape, maintaining a cohesive brand message across various platforms and audience segments is increasingly difficult. Our challenge was to create an AI-driven solution that could analyze brand identity, generate targeted personas, and craft cohesive ad and landing page copy for micro-communities.

The Solution

We developed a comprehensive platform with four core features:

  1. Brand Identity Analyzer
  2. Persona Generator
  3. Community Identifier
  4. Cohesive Narrative and Copy Creation Builder for Ads and Landing Pages

Key Technologies Used:

  • OpenAI’s GPT-4 for advanced language processing
  • Google Vertex AI for up-to-date community insights
  • Langchain for AI orchestration
  • Single Page Application (SPA) with server-side rendering for the frontend (Vue, Nuxt, Tailwind)
  • Image generation AI (experimental phase)

Multi-Device Approach

A key aspect of our solution was the ability to create ads and landing pages on the fly for both desktop and mobile devices. We recognized that mobile content typically needs to be shorter and more quickly digestible, so our AI took this into account during the copy creation process. The system was designed to:

  • Generate ad copy tailored for specific platforms (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, Google Ads)
  • Create cohesive landing page content for both desktop and mobile views
  • Automatically adjust content length and structure optimizing for mobile devices, ensuring quick engagement
  • Maintain message consistency across all formats while optimizing for each platform’s unique characteristics

This multi-device, platform-specific approach ensured that the user experience remained cohesive and optimized, regardless of how or where they encountered the brand.

Experimenting with AI-Generated Images

In our quest to provide a comprehensive solution, we also explored the potential of AI-generated images to complement our copy. While the technology showed promise, we found that it hadn’t progressed enough at the time to meet the high standards required for professional marketing materials. However, this experimentation provided valuable insights into the future potential of fully AI-generated marketing content, from copy to visuals.

Development Journey

The Birth of an Idea

UserHero was born from the observation that effective, non-disjointed copy throughout the user journey converts best. We started by using AI to analyze the cohesiveness of content from the first touchpoint through the entire user journey, primarily using OpenAI’s GPT-4 for sentiment analysis.

Pivoting to Micro-Communities

Our biggest pivot came when we recognized the potential in hyper-segmentation. With the rising popularity of platforms like Reddit, we saw an opportunity to produce entry point copy tailored for specific micro-communities. We supplemented OpenAI with Google Vertex models for their more current training data.

Building the Product

We built UserHero as a SaaS platform, developing key features like the Brand Identity Analyzer, Persona Generator, Community Identifier, and Cohesive Narrative Creator for Ads and Landing Pages.

a few visuals

journey design

Market Validation

We continuously validated our concept through surveys, paper tests and interviews with potential e-commerce clients. A notable success was our interaction and user tests with Nectar Sunglasses, who were impressed with their User Hero generated copy and microaudiences identified, and committed to being our first customer.

Challenges and Hurdles

  • Complex integration phase, particularly with Shopify
  • Team misalignment during crucial development stages
  • Resource and time constraints typical of early-stage startups
  • Difficulty in finding specialized talent

Key Lessons Learned

  1. Adaptability is crucial in product development
  2. Balance AI capabilities with actual market needs
  3. Continuous market validation is key
  4. Team alignment is critical for startup success
  5. Focusing on a specific niche can provide a clearer path forward

Tools and Resources

  1. OpenAI’s GPT-4 for natural language processing
  2. Google Vertex AI for analyzing current trends
  3. Langchain for orchestrating AI components
  4. Figma for collaborative design work
  5. Atlassian Suite (Jira and Confluence) for project management
  6. Shopify’s Developer Resources for integration

What I Would Do Differently

  1. Start with a more focused niche from day one
  2. Invest more in team alignment and regular check-ins
  3. Develop a modular product for quicker market testing
  4. Prioritize strategic partnerships earlier
  5. Create a more robust, ongoing feedback system

The Numbers Speak

In our limited trials:

  • 22% average increase in click-through rates for AI-generated, micro-community targeted ads
  • 35% increase in landing page engagement time with cohesively aligned copy
  • 8 out of 10 potential clients rated our persona-generated copy as “highly relevant”

Outcome and Reflection

Despite strong initial interest and promising technology, we ultimately decided to discontinue the project due to resource constraints and team challenges. However, the experience provided invaluable insights into AI-driven MarTech development, startup operations, and the importance of adaptability in product vision.

Future Potential

While UserHero didn’t reach its full potential, the core concept of AI-driven, cohesive narrative creation for micro-communities remains relevant and promising. The lessons learned from this project continue to inform my approach to product management and startup operations in the rapidly evolving field of AI and MarTech.

The rapid advancements in AI-generated imagery since our initial experiments suggest that future iterations of a tool like UserHero could potentially offer end-to-end content creation, including visuals, further streamlining the marketing process.

My Role and Responsibilities

As Co-Founder and Product Manager, I was responsible for:

  • Developing the product strategy
  • Conducting market research and validation
  • Managing a cross-functional team of four using Agile methodologies
  • Overseeing the integration of AI technologies

Conclusion

The journey of UserHero, though shorter than we had hoped, was filled with valuable experiences and insights. It’s these lessons, rather than the final outcome, that truly define the entrepreneurial journey. As we look to the future, I’m excited to see how the next generation of MarTech solutions will build upon these ideas and push the boundaries of what’s possible in digital advertising.