In May, Nitrogen rolled out a tool that complements human capabilities for client communication, content creation, research and more.
"Artificial intelligence can shorten the time to do things that you're already doing," Craig Clark, chief marketing officer of Nitrogen, told ThinkAdvisor in an interview.
Nitrogen AI, a virtual marketing content assistant, as the company dubbed it, initially was powered by OpenAI's GPT-3.5 Turbo, now upgraded to GPT-4.0.
The tool stems largely from a survey of 1,000-plus financial advisors that the company conducted last spring.
It found that "firms that are growing at a hyper-growth rate — 21% annually — actively market their firms and services.
"They create a lot of engagement mail," Clark said in the interview.
Now, more than 600 advisors are using Nitrogen AI, available to the firm's customers by subscription.
"AI gives you time back, allowing you to do marketing at scale," Clark said. It enables advisors to "reach out to clients more often and more consistently."
Nitrogen's AI tool can create first-draft content of marketing letters and newsletters, for instance, which the financial advisor then edits and customizes.
An interesting feature, Clark said, is "tone customization," which personalizes the advisor's style or brand.
"Some firms or individuals want to present a really conservative, staid kind of perspective in their marketing communications," he added. "Others might be communicating with, say, tech company CEOs who might appreciate a little lighter tone."
On the drawing board is another major use of Nitrogen AI: helping advisors get ready for client and prospect meetings.
"Our research finds that a huge amount of time is spent on meeting preparation," Clark said. "So shortening that would be helpful in terms of increasing client satisfaction and getting more referrals."
ThinkAdvisor recently interviewed Clark, who was speaking by phone from British Columbia, Canada, where he is based. Here are excerpts from the interview:
THINKADVISOR: Can you describe Nitrogen AI?
CRAIG CLARK: It's not an email marketing engine or a marketing program. It's a content assistant to help advisors develop content to send through email or social media or other channels they might use in marketing.
It generates first-draft content you can personalize. It takes the job of creating marketing [content] from agonizing hours and days down to just a few seconds.
And the advisor can put their own spin on it.
Can advisors just say to it, "I want to write a marketing letter to my clients"?
They literally could do that. We've trained [this tool] on financial advisor content we've produced over the years.
So the advisor could say, for example, "I'd like to create an email on [subject], and I want to appeal to young [prospects] in Memphis."
Our tool will set up that email in seconds.
But it creates only the first draft. So the advisor needs to edit it before sending it out?
That would be our guidance. For sure, you'd want to read it and very likely customize it and tailor it to a certain situation.
There may even be a compliance layer that needs to review it before you send it to clients.
Please explain how it allows users to select a tone of voice for their communication.
It's very much about a personal style or brand. Some firms or individuals want to present a really conservative, staid kind of perspective in their marketing communications.
Others might be communicating with, say, tech company CEOs who might appreciate a little lighter tone.
How does your tool achieve that?
It chooses different words and different combinations of words. If the topic is retirement savings, say, it might [generate] different examples based on the degree of conservatism that you want to have in the draft.
