Using artificial intelligence to improve your marketing efforts

July 23, 2025 By Christopher Caywood 0 Comments

Propane is a traditional industry with traditional marketing.

Using artificial intelligence to create videos can be an effective and affordable tool for propane retailers looking to expand their marketing efforts. (Image: Kulpreya Chaichatpornsuk/iStock/Getty Images Plus/Getty Images)

Marketing is always a bit painful for us, and we have tried it all. Traditional newspapers, local sports posters, direct mail, radio, live television, streaming video and social media. The pain points always seem to be the same. It’s challenging to find time for the creative process, pay expensive freelancers to create content and pay to place the content, especially for small marketers with limited time and financial resources.

That’s changing fast, especially at Caywood Propane. Our marketing department was recently directed to up its creative game and reduce its budget (visualize me delivering this message while facing the mirror looking at the marketing department). We turned to artificial intelligence (AI) for help.

As it turns out, there are a number of options, including seven or eight that even fit into the typical propane marketer’s budget. Basic plans range from $25 to a few hundred dollars a month, and more sophisticated options are available at much higher price points. We started with a basic, generative AI plan for about $125 a month with the goal of producing a video that wasn’t embarrassing.

Over the last few weeks, we (that’s AI and I) developed several video scripts together, each serving a unique purpose – brand awareness, seasonal offers, service differentiation. From a warm, wintry living room scene highlighting automatic delivery to a high-stakes casino metaphor illustrating the value of price protection plans, each script has become sharper and more effective as both AI and I worked our way up the learning curve.

The learning curve has been fast and deliberate – even for me. I started with basic prompt inputs and progressed to carefully structured scene-by-scene scripting. My first video, a 15-second clip for Instagram, took several hours to produce. My second video, a 10-second spot, took only a few hours to produce. My third spot, a 30-second clip for YouTube TV, will only take a few hours of production time. The total production time for the three videos probably adds up to about 30 hours, with most of the time spent on the first video. The good news is that the total production cost (if one overlooks the value of my time) was about $125. And the value of what I’ve learned? Priceless.

AI has limits, and it can make mistakes. Not just little mistakes, but big mistakes. It will make changes you didn’t ask for, even if you tell it not to make any changes except those you specify. I have stopped relying on the AI to “just get it” and instead started specifying every detail – from camera angles to subtitle styling to brand kit enforcement. That shift matters.

We are just getting started, but we think our videos look and sound as professional as most propane marketers’ campaigns – without a bloated budget. The real test, of course, will be the reaction we get from the market in the form of increased website traffic, social media recognition and ultimately, new customer applications.

Christopher Caywood is a co-owner of Caywood Propane Gas Inc. Contact him at chris@caywoodpropane.com.

How are propane industry leaders using AI to help their businesses?

Leveraging artificial intelligence for HR functions

Artificial intelligence: Pros and cons for propane