In the dynamic world of public sector marketing — where the stakes are high and the audience is sophisticated— Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as a game-changer. As marketers dedicated to crafting campaigns that resonate with government buyers, we’re constantly seeking innovative ways to enhance our strategies, personalize our messaging, and streamline our operations. AI, with its myriad capabilities, presents an unprecedented opportunity to achieve these objectives, transforming the way we engage with government customers.

How AI Can Help You Market to Government Agencies

Government agencies operate within a unique ecosystem, characterized by specific compliance requirements, procurement processes, and mission-critical objectives. As marketers, our goal is to deliver compelling value propositions that align with these unique challenges and help move the government buyer forward on their journey.  AI tooling and the Large Language Models (LLMs) they are based on empower us to not only connect with the government buyer more effectively, but also help us up-level our game with:

  1. Personalized, high-value content creation: We know that the more you can tailor your message, the better your marketing campaigns will perform. Leveraging AI tools like ChatGPT is a massive game-changer in personalization. It enables us to easily generate customized content that speaks directly to the needs and interests of specific government audiences, from IT leaders to mission owners to procurement officers, all in different sub-segments (eg: Local Government, Intelligence, DoD, Civilian) and verticals.
  2. Data-driven insights:  AI-driven analytics provide deep insights into campaign performance, audience engagement, and market trends, allowing us to make informed decisions and adapt our strategies in real-time.  This is especially valuable in GovTech marketing, where the standard government sales cycle is 12-18 months. Keeping a pulse on the performance is critical to making the most of these longer investments.  But who wants to be mired in spreadsheets and pivot tables?  AI makes this so much easier.  All you need to do is create a clean spreadsheet (clear of any PII or other company-sensitive data) of your tactics and their performance, PDF it, and drop it into your favorite AI chatbot (we have two recommendations below), and let it do the work for you.
  3. Brainstorming and operations partner: From automating routine tasks to optimizing ad placements, AI enhances operational efficiency, freeing us to focus on strategic initiatives and creative ideation. It can even act as a brainstorming partner on government marketing tactics and content.  For example, you can provide information about an event, your target audience, and goal for the campaign, then ask for pre- and post- event connection and nurture recommendations.  Or, ask it to provide a topic cluster analysis around a core concept to surface creative content ideas.
Navigating the AI Chatbot Landscape for Government Marketing – Which Tool to Use?

The AI ecosystem is deep and varied, with different tools offering distinct advantages for government marketing.  The biggest areas of growth within the technologies are understanding how big the prompts can be (this is measured in tokens – fundamental units of data), what kind of content can be analyzed in the prompt (text, image, video, etc.), and how well the chatbot can understand your intent (reasoning).  As a marketer, we move fast and want to have as many options as possible available to us for prompting.  So you have to lift the hood a little bit on these systems and develop a better understanding of how they work.

Here’s how we can harness two of the most common technologies.  Before going too much further, it’s worth noting that while both have free versions, what you get for the paid version is substantially better – and well worth the $20/month cost.

  • ChatGPT: At the moment, there are two options for ChatGPT: 3.5 (free) and 4.0 (paid).  Both are good for creating engaging content, but 4.0 really stands out as a true content collaboration partner.  4.0 has superior reasoning skills, memory controls that allow it to remember information about your company and your desired prospects across different chats, and the ability to support multiple file uploads.  ChatGPT can also remember information about your company and your desired prospect and assist in drafting everything from press releases to email and social media posts, tailored with the language and priorities of the government sector.  Plus, it has a Team and Enterprise version that allows you to collaborate with peers. With all of these features, ChatGPT does a better job of supporting  the government marketers’ content needs.
  • Gemini: Gemini is Google’s follow-up to Bard, and also offers two options;  Gemini (free) and Gemini Advanced (paid).  Built on the incredible horsepower and capability set of the Google 1.0 Ultra AI model, Gemini Advanced has a superior understanding of language nuances and the ability to process diverse data types.  It is emerging as a powerful tool for data analysis and brainstorming, delivering superior content with real-time web searches that relate to your government marketing content and strategy. Gemini is also available in Gmail, Docs, and more, with 2TB of storage with the Google AI Premium plan.  And, if you haven’t seen what Gemini 1.5 Pro can do with multimodal, check out this video on YouTube.

While both of these chatbots have their strengths, remember that each of them treats the privacy of your data differently.   You’ll want to read their terms and conditions carefully to understand what content and data will be available to the public or used by the companies to further train their AI models.  It’s also important to note that if your company uses firms to draft content, you should be asking them (as part of their standard delivery model) to identify what content has been developed by AI, and what has been developed by a human.  You should set the expectation that anything developed by AI has been vetted and verified by a human.

Looking Ahead: Embracing AI in Government Marketing

As we look to the future, the integration of AI into our marketing tactics and strategies is not just an option but a necessity. AI’s ability to process vast amounts of data, understand complex patterns, and generate human-like content offers us an unparalleled opportunity to refine our approaches, engage more deeply with government clients, and achieve our marketing objectives with greater efficiency and impact.

There are a few keys to unlocking this magic:

  1. Think of AI as Robin to your Batman.  Don’t ask it to be the GovTech marketing expert in the room – that’s your job.  You need to be able to oversee what it executes so you don’t wind up using hallucinations in your marketing.
  2. If you’re not getting the response you want, look in the mirror.  With AI, the output is directly related to the prompt input.  Spend time building a good prompt library and you can save yourself hours on the backend.
  3. Don’t try to make a potato chip into a fruit cake.  When the AI doesn’t deliver the result you wanted, don’t ask it to try again in the next prompt.  After all, you got a potato chip – and now you want it to make that potato chip into a fruit cake?  No. Instead, if you didn’t get what you wanted, go back to the original prompt and edit that. You have to start with a good source prompt.  After all, a fruit cake has different ingredients, right?

Imagine a future where government marketing is smarter, faster, and more targeted. That’s the power of AI. By helping you create personalized content, uncover hidden data insights, and automate tasks, AI can revolutionize the way you connect with government agencies.

But here’s the catch: AI is a sidekick, not a superhero. You’re still the government marketing expert, and AI is here to enhance your skills. With a clear plan and some practice crafting prompts, AI can become your secret weapon for success.

So, are you ready to ditch the spreadsheets and unleash the potential of AI?  The future of GovTech marketing is bright, and it’s waiting for you.