AI for Marketing

Course Overview & Objectives

Marketing is one of the areas where AI adoption is fastest, because it directly supports visibility, customer engagement, and revenue growth. For SMEs with small teams and limited budgets, AI offers a way to produce professional-quality campaigns without the cost of an agency.

This course introduces how SMEs can use free AI tools to generate ad copy, visuals, and branded layouts. Learners will walk through a complete campaign workflow: from generating a product image, to writing text, to finalising a branded social media post.

Learning outcomes

By the end of this course, learners will be able to:

  • Explain how AI supports SMEs in marketing and campaign design.
  • Generate campaign visuals using free AI image-generation tools.
  • Create ad copy and captions with Canva’s Magic Write.
  • Combine visuals and text into a branded social media design.
  • Reflect on how AI-generated content can be edited and adapted for brand tone.

Tools Introduced

 Generates unique visuals for products, ads, and campaigns from simple text prompts.

Allows SMEs to create branded designs, layouts, and social posts with AI assistance, even with no design background.

Step-by-Step Activities

You are launching a new eco-friendly reusable coffee mug for your shop. You need a full Instagram campaign: an attractive product image, a catchy caption, and a branded design.

Activity 1 – Generate a Product Image with Bing Image Creator

  1. Go to Bing Image Creator: https://www.bing.com/images/create
  2. Create an Account 
  3. In the prompt box, type:
    “A sleek eco-friendly reusable coffee mug with minimalist design, natural wood table background, lifestyle photography style.” It should look something like this:
  4. If you do not like the image generated, click “recreate” until the AI creates an image that suits your campaign.
  5. Click on the image you want to use, and download it to your device.

Activity 2 – Design a Social Media Post with Canva AI 

  1. Open Canva and log in or register (free account).
  2. Go to the homepage, and click “Canva AI”. It should look like this:
  3. Using the ‘+’ icon, upload the picture of the coffee mug you downloaded to your computer.
  4. Use the text field to type a short description of the campaign, for example: “Instagram post promoting an eco-friendly reusable coffee mug”. 
  5. Click “submit”, and allow it to generate some post designs for you. Here is an example of what it can look like:
  6. Click on the design you would like to use, and then click “Canva Editor”, which will bring you to a page where you can refine the design and make any tweaks needed to the text. 

Activity 3 – Final Tweaks 

  1. If you do not like the text generated for you, you can click the “text” icon on the left side, and click “Magic Write”. Your screen should look like this: In the prompt box, write some instructions for the AI. Here an example:“Write a short, friendly caption for Instagram promoting an eco-friendly reusable coffee mug. Emphasise sustainability, convenience, and style.”
  2. Review the generated text. You can use the “More like this” button, to generate new text. Or if you would like to give the AI further instructions, to refine your text, click the “This but….” button, and give it some extra information. 
  3. Edit or rephrase to fit your brand’s tone. AI is a draft, not the final word.
  4. Make the final adjustments to fonts, colours, or tone so the post matches your brand style. 
  5. Export the finished design as an Instagram-ready post.

Outcome: By the end of this activity, you will have produced a full campaign asset: a product image, a marketing caption, and a branded design, using only free AI tools.

Assessment

Reflection:

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them. [Project number: 2024-1-AT01-KA220-VET-000245796]

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