Tracey Hall on using AI for charity marketing without losing values
Tracey Hall is CEO/Founder of Heroes of Today, a registered charity that runs face-to-face groups for people under 30 to combat loneliness and isolation and support mental health. Hall discusses how shared activities help people connect, where AI fits into the charity’s marketing work, and why consistent messaging should still reflect an organization’s values.
AI can help with marketing strategy and the hard yards, but Tracey Hall’s advice is to keep messaging consistent and make sure AI work reflects the organization’s values. Heroes of Today’s work remains rooted in face-to-face groups and shared activities.
What’s the quick origin story of your business, and what makes what you do genuinely different from the other options your customers are looking at?
Heroes of Today is the brainchild of Tracey Hall, who realised first-hand that having a supportive community makes you feel like you can conquer the world, achieve anything, and come out on top.
Tracey knows more about loneliness than most. She went to 17 schools — 13 primary and 4 high schools — across two states in Australia. Constantly being the “new kid” gave her a deep understanding of what it feels like to be disconnected, unseen, or left out.
What makes Heroes of Today different is that connection is the whole reason we exist. Cooking, creating and sharing a meal give people an easy way to get to know each other, without the pressure of walking into a room and having to make conversation.
Our groups give people somewhere to return to, with familiar faces and friendships that have time to grow. Members help shape what we do, because it’s their group too.
For me, it comes back to something simple: having somewhere to go, people to connect with, and a community that knows your name.
Where does most of your new business come from today, and where do you wish it came from?
Facebook Groups Word of Mouth
What’s one thing you’ve actually handed over to AI in the last year, and one thing you tried it on and went back to doing the human way?
Marketing Strategy human way, nothing yet
Have you noticed a change in how customers find you or what they already know before they reach out? Is anyone arriving through AI assistants like ChatGPT yet?
It is interesting to see that we are found in many ways and not just one way. Not yet
If you were advising someone in your industry on all of this for the next 12 months, what would you tell them to actually do, and what would you tell them to ignore?
be very consistent in your messaging, use AI to do the hard yards and that it stiII has your values in mind.
Thank you to Tracey Hall and the team at Heroes of Today for sharing what actually worked with Leaders Perception readers.
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