Many entrepreneurs hit limits not as a result of they lack concepts, however as a result of they will’t execute or scale them.
Not everybody has the luxurious of builders, designers, or analysts who can assist flip large concepts into actuality. Even in case you do, you continue to must compete for time and assist with the remainder of your organisation.
However occasions have modified. AI instruments like ChatGPT make technical studying radically extra accessible. It’s now attainable to grow to be “technical” even in case you’re a humble author, social media marketer, or model strategist—as a result of all of us have entry to a affected person, succesful technical tutor within the kind of a giant language mannequin.
I’m a lifelong marketer and non-technical individual. I all the time wished to discover ways to code, however by no means knew the place to begin. I bounced off half a dozen coding programs, till I realised that ChatGPT is the right instructor and troubleshooter. Now I can name APIs, write easy scripts, and automate components of my workflow:
If I can do it, you’ll be able to too.
Ever wished you would pull dwell information from instruments like Ahrefs, social platforms, or inside product analytics—with out ready on engineers?
The reply: APIs (Utility Programming Interfaces) are instruments that permit totally different software program discuss to one another. They unlock entry to information that may velocity up aggressive analysis, automation, and even constructing customized dashboards.
I used ChatGPT to discover ways to use the Ahrefs API to fetch my top-performing content material, observe SERP volatility, and monitor backlinks mechanically. We break down the way it works in our Ahrefs API information.
Use the API button in Ahrefs to get a way for a way API requests are structured. If in case you have entry to the Ahrefs API, you’ll be able to learn our documentation and even make free follow requests.
Methods to get began:
- Study the fundamentals of HTTP requests, authentication (like API keys), and response parsing (normally JSON). Strive Mozilla’s API information, Postman Studying Heart, or RapidAPI’s newbie tutorials.
- Strive your first dwell request utilizing Postman to hit a easy endpoint, like fetching climate or headlines. For additional follow, strive calling a public endpoint just like the Information API to fetch the newest articles on any key phrase—helpful for content material ideation or monitoring trade tendencies.
- Use ChatGPT to put in writing a Python script utilizing requests, clarify every line, and deal with API authentication. Paste in API docs—it might assist translate them into working code.
What in case you didn’t have to attend for an analyst to drag your numbers? That’s the ability of SQL—a common language for asking questions on information.
I exploit ChatGPT to assist write SQL queries that pulled weblog publish impressions, clicks, and common place from Google Search Console—damaged down by URL and date. Then I used these insights to prioritize which articles to replace and re-promote.
(This works nice alongside a full content material audit course of.)
Considered one of many SQL queries I exploit as a part of my weblog reporting course of. This instance selects URLs from our worldwide blogs (/es/ is Spain, and so on).
Methods to get began:
- Deal with studying SELECT, WHERE, GROUP BY, JOIN, and CASE statements. For a wonderful beginner-friendly walkthrough, strive Mode’s SQL tutorials or LearnSQL.com’s SQL Fundamentals Observe.
- Use free instruments like Mode, DB Fiddle, or BigQuery sandbox to put in writing and check your queries.
- Paste your desk schema (column names and kinds out of your spreadsheet) into ChatGPT and describe what you need to measure—it’ll write and clarify the complete question.
Sick of repetitive duties clogging up your day? Discover ways to automate your most mundane, repetitive duties, and you’ll unencumber your time for extra thrilling issues.
Automation platforms like Zapier and Make allow you to construct “if-this-then-that” logic throughout all of your advertising and marketing instruments—with out touching code. It’s technically “no-code,” however don’t be fooled—it nonetheless teaches you how you can suppose like a programmer: setting situations, chaining steps, dealing with exceptions, and reasoning by logic flows.
Right here’s an excellent easy Zap that syncs adjustments in our grasp content material spreadsheet with spreadsheets for every of our worldwide blogs—on this case, notifying the Japanese advertising and marketing workforce that new articles are prepared for localization:
I’ve used Zapier for 100 various things: managing contact kind submissions, triaging leads, triggering editorial workflows for content material, syncing information between totally different spreadsheets, creating notifications in Slack, you identify it.
Methods to get began:
- Begin with Zapier’s template library or Make’s visible situation builder.
- Construct a easy multi-step automation that makes use of filters, situations, and formatting. Zapier’s getting began information is useful in case you’re new.
- Ask ChatGPT to map out logic flows or generate JSON webhook payloads for extra superior steps. You may also paste in present Zap or Make configuration particulars and ask it to optimize or troubleshoot them.
Apps Script (a type of JavaScript) enables you to create automations and integrations inside Google Sheets.
You should utilize Apps Script to ship automated electronic mail summaries, archive kind responses, merge information from a number of Sheets, or set off Slack alerts when new information seems. I exploit a script that mechanically fetches creator information from newly printed weblog posts in our CMS and logs it to a shared Google Sheet—so I might observe who was publishing what, with out chasing down teammates or manually copying information.
Apps Scripts additionally work in Google Docs. Right here’s a easy script that I run to mechanically add WordPress shortcodes into my completed drafts. ChatGPT wrote the script in about ten seconds flat, and this protects me about ten minutes per article draft:
Methods to get began:
- Study key strategies like SpreadsheetApp, getRange(), and triggers like onEdit(). You may discover these within the Apps Script documentation or look by examples on GitHub to see how actual tasks are constructed.
- Construct a script that sends electronic mail alerts or fetches information from one other Sheet. Should you’re new to JavaScript, strive beginning with JavaScript.information, MDN’s JS tutorial, or W3Schools JavaScript fundamentals. These will show you how to perceive the core programming ideas that Apps Script depends on.
- Use ChatGPT to put in writing, clarify, and debug your Apps Script line-by-line.
Should you’ve ever imported electronic mail lists or GA4 exports, you already know: uncooked advertising and marketing information is chaos.
Python’s Pandas library is constructed to wash and rework that chaos into clear, structured insights. It’s a Python library that makes it straightforward to filter, clear, and reshape spreadsheet-style information.
I’ve barely scraped the floor of the Pandas library, however I already use it deduplicate rows, normalize UTM parameters, and mechanically reformat uncooked exports into the appropriate format for my month-to-month reporting.
Pandas’ information frames are essential for my weblog reporting automations.
Methods to get began:
Having the ability to construct dashboards or charts helps you get buy-in quicker and uncover patterns that uncooked spreadsheets miss.
Looker Studio is among the best methods to construct customized dashboards out of your advertising and marketing information—while not having to code or use BI instruments.
Ahrefs now gives a direct integration with Looker Studio, so you’ll be able to pull in search engine optimisation metrics like visitors, backlinks, key phrase rankings, and website audit information to construct real-time dashboards with out exporting CSVs. Meaning much less guide reporting and extra time spent analyzing tendencies throughout content material, campaigns, or competitor domains.
You may discover ways to set it up on this information.
Methods to get began:
- Join Google Sheets, GA4, or Ahrefs on to Looker Studio. Comply with this information to get began.
- Create visualizations like bar charts, pie charts, and time sequence with calculated fields.
- Use ChatGPT to assist write Looker formulation, mix information sources, or troubleshoot damaged charts.
Want structured information from web sites that don’t provide APIs? Scraping public pages is one possibility—whether or not you’re gathering occasion listings, job boards, or weblog metadata at scale.
(Simply take into accout: not each web site desires to be scraped. At all times verify their robots.txt file and phrases of service earlier than you begin.)
If you’d like a secure begin challenge, strive utilizing BeautifulSoup and ChatGPT to scrape publicly accessible product information from the Books to Scrape demo website, which is designed particularly for training net scraping. Attempt to extract titles, costs, and star rankings, then set up the information right into a spreadsheet for evaluation. As a result of the positioning is constructed for studying, it’s a secure and accountable place to sharpen your scraping expertise.
Books to Scrape is a website that actively encourages scraping.
Methods to get began:
- Study Python fundamentals and set up libraries like BeautifulSoup and Requests.
- Apply scraping your individual website to keep away from breaking something. You may also check your expertise on websites that explicitly enable scraping—like Books to Scrape, a demo e-commerce website constructed for this objective.
- Ask ChatGPT to generate scraper scripts, clarify the logic, and deal with pagination or user-agent headers.
You’ve most likely seen that I like Python. Python is the spine of tons of cool workflows—it’s the way you go from spreadsheets and guide processes to actual automation.
Studying any coding language is clearly a giant ongoing dedication, however even a small quantity of fluency can allow you to construct very cool issues.
With assist from ChatGPT, I’ve automated duties like exporting weblog efficiency information from Google Search Console and visualizing it for my month-to-month content material report, downloading favicons for my “high corporations” lists, and extracting attainable key phrases from podcast transcripts.
A handful of my novice Python tasks.
Methods to get began:
- Study fundamental syntax (variables, features, loops). One excellent place to begin is Replit’s free 100 Days of Python, which mixes bite-sized classes with hands-on coding workouts proper in your browser—no setup required.
- Use os, csv, and re libraries to automate duties like renaming, cleansing, and categorizing.
- Ask ChatGPT for Python scripts tailor-made to your workflow and have it clarify the code.
Whereas Airtable and Notion are no-code instruments (therefore “non-technical”), they assist clarify how relational databases work: how totally different tables join, how information sorts affect habits, and how you can construction your info for straightforward querying and automation.
These are foundational ideas that not solely make you higher at utilizing Airtable, but additionally dramatically enhance your spreadsheet sport and prep you for extra superior instruments down the line.
I’ve used Airtable specifically to construct light-weight CRMs, programmatic search engine optimisation methods, and whole content material administration methods, able to monitoring briefs, drafts, publish standing, and efficiency.
Right here’s an instance content material administration system we constructed for our advertising and marketing company, means again in 2017.
Methods to get began:
- Create a base in Airtable or desk in Notion with fields like standing, proprietor, due date.
- Construct views to filter by content material kind, creator, or due date.
- Use ChatGPT to draft formulation, counsel schema enhancements, or automate with buttons.
Pivot tables are probably the most highly effective methods to research giant units of spreadsheet information—with out writing a single system.
I used to make use of them a ton in my weblog reporting: to summarize content material efficiency by creator, spot tendencies throughout totally different content material sorts, and even discover correlations between publish cadence and visitors.
Right here’s an actual pivot desk from our latest AI in content material advertising and marketing survey. The pivot desk turns tons of unwieldy information into particular, helpful analyses.
Methods to get began:
Regex (brief for Common Expressions) is a compact language for locating patterns in textual content. Whereas it appears to be like intimidating at first, it’s probably the most helpful technical expertise you’ll be able to decide up—and it’s excellent for entrepreneurs drowning in messy information.
I’ve used regex to wash UTM parameters, extract domains from referral URLs, filter URL lists to search out simply worldwide subfolders, validate electronic mail codecs, and even pull key phrases from content material briefs. It’s particularly helpful for filtering in Ahrefs: Web site Explorer and Web site Audit each settle for regex queries:
Methods to get began:
- Strive free RegEx testing instruments like Regex101 or RegExr, which spotlight matches and clarify the logic.
- Begin small: match electronic mail addresses, isolate URL slugs, or clear marketing campaign tags.
- Use ChatGPT to put in writing expressions for you—simply describe the sample you need, and it might generate and clarify it line-by-line.
- Study the place Ahrefs accepts regex.
- For hands-on guides, take a look at Common Expressions for Newbies and JC Chouinard’s Regex for search engine optimisation.
Spreadsheets aren’t simply for easy sums—they’re probably the most highly effective (and underutilized) platforms for logic-driven advertising and marketing automation.
Whenever you mix formulation like ARRAYFORMULA, QUERY, REGEXMATCH, and IMPORTRANGE, you’re mainly writing light-weight code. It’s structured considering, modular logic, and information manipulation—all with out touching a programming language.
I’ve used superior formulation to automate month-to-month reporting dashboards, analyze search visibility tendencies, and even construct key phrase clustering workflows straight in Google Sheets. This bizarre nested system is a vital a part of my weblog workforce reporting dashboard:
This sort of fluency opens up enormous leverage, particularly when paired with information from instruments like Ahrefs. In actual fact, we wrote a complete publish about it: 29 Google Sheets formulation each search engine optimisation ought to know.
Methods to get began:
- Learn the way ARRAYFORMULA, QUERY, and FILTER can change guide copy-pasting with dynamic updates.
- Use IMPORTRANGE to mix information from totally different Sheets.
- Strive REGEXMATCH or REGEXREPLACE to wash up messy UTM parameters or flag branded key phrases.
- Ask ChatGPT to assist clarify formulation, debug errors, or optimize sluggish Sheets.
Let’s wrap-up with a meta talent: prompting.
There’s plenty of pseudoscience round prompting giant language fashions (LLMs)—individuals speak about it like magic spells. However the reality is, there’s a science to good prompting. It’s a technical talent that amplifies all of the others on this record.
Whether or not you’re asking ChatGPT to put in writing Python scripts, clarify SQL joins, or debug a system, the way you ask determines the standard of the response. Under is an inventory of prompting methodologies gleaned from my expertise and the tutorial literature:
Methods to get began:
- Present grounding context. Should you’re utilizing ChatGPT or Claude, contemplate importing paperwork (by way of Tasks) so the mannequin has entry to related examples, information, or model guides. That is basically a light-weight model of RAG (retrieval augmented era).
- Use structured prompts. Body your request with sections like: overview, examples, what to keep away from, and desired output format. This helps the mannequin motive extra clearly and ship constant outcomes.
- Use delimiters to separate content material. Enclose code, pattern information, or reference textual content in triple backticks (“ ‘) to keep away from confusion and enhance output formatting.
- Lean into emotional tone when applicable. Language like “you’re a world-class Python tutor” or “I’m actually caught—please stroll me by this like I’m new” can have an effect on how the mannequin prioritizes readability and tone.
- Study from greatest practices. OpenAI’s information and Simon Willison’s article on prompting provide nice frameworks for bettering reliability and output high quality.
Closing ideas
One of the best entrepreneurs aren’t simply inventive thinkers—they’re technical sufficient to really execute, too. And now, with LLMs like ChatGPT, there’s no excuse. You have got a 24/7 tutor, debugger, and strategist in your pocket.
Don’t simply ask AI to do issues for you. Ask it to show you. That’s the way you construct actual, sturdy expertise. So decide one among these technical expertise, give your self a weekend challenge, and use AI to degree up.
