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Insights and Expertise

StreetSmarts SM

How you can use AI to strengthen marketing

and merchant engagement

By Jaki Kackert foundation for an article, email campaign or social media
Kackert Marketing series. Of course, AI should not replace industry expertise
or compliance oversight. Payments is a highly regulated
rtificial intelligence (AI) is becoming a practi- industry, and accuracy matters. However, AI can dra-
cal tool for payments organizations. For many matically reduce the time spent developing content from
ISOs and merchant level salespeople (MLSs), scratch, allowing marketing and sales teams to focus on
A marketing often takes a back seat to the day-to- refining messaging, tailoring communications to their au-
day demands of managing portfolios, supporting agents, dience and strengthening their overall strategy.
onboarding merchants and maintaining processor rela- Making professional design more accessible
tionships. Yet in an increasingly competitive payments
landscape, consistent communication and brand visibility Graphic design is another area where AI is making mar-
can be critical differentiators. keting more accessible for smaller organizations. Many
ISOs do not have dedicated designers or the budget to
The challenge is that most ISOs operate with lean teams outsource every marketing project. Platforms like Canva
and limited marketing resources. Developing original AI now allow users with little or no design experience to
content, maintaining social media channels, building create professional-looking flyers, social media graphics,
email campaigns and analyzing results all require time presentations, email banners and tradeshow materials.
that many small organizations simply do not have. That is These tools help organizations maintain a polished and
where AI is beginning to reshape how payments organi- consistent brand presence without investing heavily
zations approach marketing. in creative resources. For ISOs and MLSs competing in
crowded markets, professional branding and presentation
AI is no longer just a buzzword reserved for large enter- materials can play an important role in building merchant
prises with extensive budgets. Today, affordable and ac- confidence and credibility.
cessible AI-powered tools are helping ISOs automate re-
petitive marketing tasks, create content more efficiently, Improving email marketing efficiency
improve customer engagement and uncover valuable in-
sights from merchant data. For organizations looking to Email marketing continues to be one of the most effective
grow without significantly increasing overhead, AI can tools available to ISOs, particularly when it comes to mer-
offer a practical advantage. chant retention and lead nurturing. Most email market-
ing platforms already include AI-driven functionality that
Streamlining content creation and many organizations may not even realize they are using.
merchant communications
Platforms such as Mailchimp, HubSpot, Constant Contact
One of the most immediate benefits of AI is content cre- and Klaviyo can automatically optimize send times, per-
ation. Many ISOs struggle to consistently produce news- sonalize subject lines, segment audiences and even gen-
letters, blog articles, social media posts, merchant educa- erate portions of email copy. This functionality becomes
tion materials and sales collateral. AI writing tools such as especially valuable when building automated drip cam-
ChatGPT, Jasper and Copy.ai can help generate first drafts paigns. Rather than manually following up with every
for these materials in a matter of minutes. An ISO can prospect or merchant, ISOs can create campaigns that au-
input topics such as surcharging, PCI compliance, fraud tomatically send educational content over time based on
prevention or contactless payments and quickly receive a user behavior or interests. A prospect interested in cash
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