Top 10 AI Tools Every Marketing Professional in Virginia Beach Should Know in 2025

By Ludo Fourrage

Last Updated: August 28th 2025

Virginia Beach marketer using AI tools like ChatGPT and SurferSEO on a laptop with the ocean skyline in the background.

Too Long; Didn't Read:

Virginia Beach marketers in 2025 should master AI for personalization, creative automation, and real‑time ROI. Top tools include ChatGPT, Jasper, Surfer, Canva, Google Performance Max, Meta Advantage, HubSpot Breeze, SEMrush, Optimizely, and Gong - pilot tests, measure lift, and train teams (15‑week course costs $3,582–$3,942).

Virginia Beach marketers in 2025 are operating at the intersection of booming tourism, bold civic investment, and a fast-growing tech scene - think The Dome and the Wavegarden driving summer crowds (about 14 million projected visitors) while undersea fiber and startups like Kilsar position the city as a “digital gateway” to the East Coast; local programs are already fueling this shift, from the Virginia Beach Development Authority's small business grants that funded AI video tools to startups modernizing skilled-trades knowledge, so marketers must learn practical AI skills to scale personalization, automate creative production, and measure ROI in real time.

Explore the city's grant programs and tech growth in the Virginia Beach Development Authority coverage and the reporting on the local tech renaissance, and consider hands-on training like Nucamp's 15‑week AI Essentials for Work to build prompt-writing and tool‑use abilities that turn local momentum into measurable campaigns.

AttributeAI Essentials for Work - Details
DescriptionGain practical AI skills for any workplace; learn AI tools, write effective prompts, apply AI across business functions
Length15 Weeks
Courses IncludedAI at Work: Foundations; Writing AI Prompts; Job Based Practical AI Skills
Cost$3,582 (early bird); $3,942 afterwards; paid in 18 monthly payments
Syllabus / RegisterAI Essentials for Work syllabus (Nucamp)Register for AI Essentials for Work (Nucamp)

“Virginia Beach's entrepreneurial spirit is getting a significant boost. These grants are fuel for innovation, job creation and economic vitality in our community.” - Amanda Jarratt, Virginia Beach Deputy City Manager

Table of Contents

  • Methodology: How These Top 10 Tools Were Selected
  • 1. ChatGPT (OpenAI) - AI Content Generation & Brainstorming
  • 2. Jasper - AI Copywriting for Marketing Campaigns
  • 3. Surfer SEO - AI-Driven SEO Content Optimization
  • 4. Canva with Magic Media & Runway - AI Creative & Short-Form Video
  • 5. Google Marketing Platform & Performance Max - AI for Paid Media Optimization
  • 6. Meta Advantage Suite (Advantage+ & Ads Manager AI) - AI for Social Paid Media
  • 7. HubSpot AI - Marketing Automation & Email Personalization
  • 8. SEMrush (with AI features) - Competitive & Market Analysis
  • 9. Optimizely - AI-Powered A/B Testing & Experimentation
  • 10. Gong (or Chorus.ai) - Conversational AI for Sales & Marketing Insights
  • Conclusion: Next Steps for Virginia Beach Marketing Professionals
  • Frequently Asked Questions

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Methodology: How These Top 10 Tools Were Selected

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Selection prioritized tools that solve real Virginia Beach marketing problems - speeding up insight, personalizing outreach to local audiences, and plugging into first‑party systems - by following a practical, vendor‑agnostic rubric: start with clear purpose and goals, check data sources and integration, test ease of use and onboarding, verify scalability and pricing, and validate real‑time NLP and predictive signals so teams can act before a trend becomes a crisis.

Criteria and workflows were drawn from market‑research best practices like Fibr.ai's guidance on matching purpose to tool and integration needs (Fibr.ai AI marketing tool selection guide references) and Reply.io's playbook for tools that monitor live conversations, draft on‑demand surveys, and surface themes; emphasis was placed on tools that deliver actionable output (not just charts) and low friction for non‑data teams, per MarTech's framework comparing intelligence level and structural fit.

Final shortlists were pilot‑tested against local use cases - campaign creative, paid media, and CRM personalization - so a missed insight won't be revealed only after a weekend surge of visitors; instead, alerts and test cells prove the tool moves from insight to measurable action.

Selection CriterionWhat it ensures
Purpose & GoalsTool maps to a clear marketing outcome
Data & IntegrationConnects to CRM/analytics for local first‑party signals
Ease of UseRapid adoption without heavy data science needs
Scalability & CostGrows with campaigns and fits budget
Real‑time NLP / PredictiveSurface trends and recommend actions

Fill this form to download the Bootcamp Syllabus

And learn about Nucamp's Bootcamps and why aspiring developers choose us.

1. ChatGPT (OpenAI) - AI Content Generation & Brainstorming

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ChatGPT (OpenAI) is the go-to ideation engine for Virginia Beach marketers who need fast, localized content - from blog outlines and SEO meta descriptions to platform-specific ad copy - so teams can spin up testable creatives before the next weekend surge of visitors; practical guides like Knack Top 23 ChatGPT Prompts for Marketing guide show how specific prompts unlock useful outputs, while ad-focused walk-throughs explain how to use customer transcripts and real conversation snippets to craft higher-performing ads (feeding a sales call or testimonial into the prompt often yields stronger hooks than a product page alone).

For paid search, experienced prompts can produce the 15 responsive-search headlines and four descriptions advertisers need in minutes, and beginner best-practices recommend specifying length, audience, tone, and CTAs to avoid bloated or off‑brand copy (Adzooma ad copy tips for beginners).

Remember: treat ChatGPT as a rapid-draft partner - iterate prompts, A/B multiple variations, and always apply human editing and fact‑checking - then layer in local proof (the quick local-social-proof tactic used by Virginia Beach teams) to turn AI drafts into conversion-ready ads that actually feel like they belong on the boardwalk, not in a boilerplate template.

Learn starter prompts and examples at the Knack prompt guide and the Adzooma beginner ad copy resource, and see a Virginia Beach local social‑proof tactic for Virginia Beach marketers here.

2. Jasper - AI Copywriting for Marketing Campaigns

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Jasper is a practical workhorse for Virginia Beach marketing teams that need high‑quality landing pages, ads, and long‑form SEO content at scale: follow the Passive Tactics playbook - define audience, benefits, tone and objectives, pick a template, then “press compose” to generate headlines, descriptions and CTAs in minutes - and you can have multiple testable variants ready before a weekend event (see Writing Landing Page Copy with Jasper AI).

Its strengths for local campaigns are its recipes and workflows for cohesive long‑form content, a built‑in chat for iterative prompts, and brand‑voice features that let agencies save consistent tones and facts for repeatable use (see the Jasper cheat sheet explaining templates, tones and prompts).

For teams chasing organic growth, Jasper's SEO integrations and long‑form tools make it a stronger pick than short‑form tools alone - Search Atlas's 2025 comparison highlighting Jasper's edge on SEO workflows, recipes and analytics - so use Jasper to draft, then human‑edit for local proof, civic events, and boardwalk‑ready CTAs that actually convert.

Fill this form to download the Bootcamp Syllabus

And learn about Nucamp's Bootcamps and why aspiring developers choose us.

3. Surfer SEO - AI-Driven SEO Content Optimization

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Surfer SEO brings AI-driven structure to content work that Virginia marketers already care about - local keyword discovery, on‑page NLP guidance, suggested word counts, competitor analysis and internal‑linking ideas - so teams can turn a weekend‑event landing page from rough draft to search‑ready in the same afternoon; detailed workflows show how to copy NLP keywords, pick five competitors, and paste a GPT draft into Surfer's editor until the content score hits the 70+ zone, then run Auto‑Optimize and humanize the output for local proof (a process laid out in the Surfer + ChatGPT playbook).

For Virginia Beach teams optimizing for neighborhood intent and tourism bursts, Surfer's Grow Flow and topic briefs plug directly into local SEO checklists used by Virginia agencies, and pairing Surfer with AI drafts keeps quality high while slashing turnaround - think of it as tuning a playlist for the boardwalk's Friday‑night crowd so every headline, meta tag and H1 hits the right note.

Learn more from the Virginia Beach SEO tools roundup and the step‑by‑step Surfer+ChatGPT process.

4. Canva with Magic Media & Runway - AI Creative & Short-Form Video

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Canva's Magic Studio tools make fast, local creative production realistic for Virginia Beach marketers who need polished social posts and short-form video before the weekend surge: Magic Media can generate images, graphics or short videos from a written description (pick style and aspect ratio), while Magic Design will spin up multi‑scene mobile videos and templates that can pull in brand colors and logos for a consistent look - perfect for turning a single cellphone clip of a sunset on the boardwalk into a shareable short.

The editor also includes Highlights to auto-select the best moments from longer footage, and practical limits to plan around (free users have limited Text‑to‑Video tries and generated videos are four seconds with a watermark until upgraded).

For a step‑by‑step walkthrough of these AI features see the Canva Magic Media image generation guide and a hands‑on Canva Magic Design multi-scene video tutorial, and pair generated assets with local social‑proof tactics for higher conversion.

Use Canva as a rapid starter - then humanize copy and swap in neighborhood details so each ad feels like it belongs on the Virginia Beach strip, not a generic template.

FeatureNotes
Magic MediaGenerates images, graphics, or videos from descriptions; choose style and size (Canva Magic Media image generation guide)
Magic Design (Video)Creates multi‑scene mobile videos, applies Brand Kit, uses Magic Write for copy (Canva Magic Design multi-scene video tutorial)
Usage limits & outputFree users have limited text‑to‑video attempts; generated videos are 4 seconds and include a watermark until upgraded

Fill this form to download the Bootcamp Syllabus

And learn about Nucamp's Bootcamps and why aspiring developers choose us.

5. Google Marketing Platform & Performance Max - AI for Paid Media Optimization

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For Virginia Beach teams juggling seasonal tourism spikes and local storefronts, the Google Marketing Platform's Performance Max campaigns are a practical way to let Google's AI stitch together search, video, display and local inventory into one goal‑driven engine that optimizes bids, audiences and creative combinations in real time; by supplying clear conversion goals, audience signals and high‑quality text, images and video you speed the learning curve and let Performance Max surface new customer pockets and asset insights you might not have found with keyword‑only campaigns (Google's Performance Max overview).

If the priority is foot traffic and local promotions, Performance Max for store goals makes it easy to promote locations across Maps, YouTube, Gmail and the Display Network, add promotion assets for in‑map offers, and even surface Promoted Pins or Map Suggest placements while Waze can show a promoted place pin to drivers heading toward a local spot (Performance Max store goals and store visits).

Bottom line: treat Performance Max as an AI‑powered amplifier - give it accurate conversions, strong assets and first‑party signals, then iterate on the creative and tracking so the campaign actually drives measurable visits and revenue.

Google SurfaceLocal benefit for Virginia Beach marketers
SearchMatches location‑relevant queries and complements keyword campaigns
YouTubeServes video to audiences likely to engage and drive in‑store interest
Display (GDN)Reaches users across sites/apps with visually relevant ads
Google MapsPromoted pins, map search ads and Placesheet ads to nudge nearby visitors
GmailDelivers promotions to users across mobile and desktop mail surfaces
Waze (US only)Promoted place pins on driving routes to capture nearby travelers

6. Meta Advantage Suite (Advantage+ & Ads Manager AI) - AI for Social Paid Media

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Meta's Advantage Suite - branded Advantage+ features plus Ads Manager automation - is now essential for Virginia Beach teams that need to scale social paid media without multiplying manual tasks: centralize pages, ad accounts and assets in Meta Business Suite to streamline setups and role-based access, then lean on Advantage+ for dynamic audiences, creative enhancements and placement optimization to let the algorithm find converts across Reels, Stories, Marketplace and more (Meta Business Suite guide for advertisers).

Best practice is pragmatic: simplify campaign structure, test Advantage+ Audience against a hand-built audience, and supply a healthy creative pool (Meta recommends many ad variants) so automation has material to work with; Advantage+ creative can boost CTR but should be vetted for brand safety and consistency (Meta advertising best practices from Search Engine Land).

Track click-through, conversion rate and ROAS closely, use Business Suite for day‑to‑day ad monitoring, and treat Advantage+ as an AI amplifier - one that performs best when given clear goals, strong assets and measured human oversight (Ignite Visibility Meta advertising guide).

7. HubSpot AI - Marketing Automation & Email Personalization

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HubSpot's AI layer - branded Breeze - is a practical play for Virginia Beach marketers who need to automate routine work, personalize email and nurture flows, and turn CRM signals into action without a data‑science team; Breeze Copilot behaves like an in‑app assistant that drafts emails, summarizes recent interactions, and suggests next steps while Breeze Agents (Content, Prospecting, Customer) create on‑brand blog and social drafts, personalize outreach, and handle 24/7 support so teams can focus on strategy instead of repetitive tasks.

Plugging Breeze into a Smart CRM unifies contact data and powers enrichment and buyer‑intent signals that improve segmentation and subject‑line personalization - useful when promoting a weekend boardwalk event or a local storefront promotion, where timely, relevant emails can move casual visitors to paying customers.

Start small (one agent or use case), measure lifts in open/click/conversion rates, then scale automations; learn more about HubSpot's Breeze AI suite and the AI‑powered Smart CRM to see how these tools map to local campaigns and lead workflows.

FeatureWhat it does
HubSpot Breeze Copilot AI assistant for marketingIn‑app AI assistant that uses CRM context to draft messages, summarize interactions, and suggest follow‑ups
HubSpot Breeze Agents (Content, Prospecting, Customer)AI specialists that automate content creation, personalized outreach, and 24/7 support
HubSpot Breeze Smart CRM with AI-driven data enrichmentData enrichment and buyer‑intent signals that power segmentation, lead scoring, and personalized campaigns

8. SEMrush (with AI features) - Competitive & Market Analysis

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SEMrush is the Swiss‑army knife for Virginia Beach marketers who need to watch rivals, spot local opportunity, and turn signals into action: use the Traffic & Market Toolkit to benchmark competitors' estimated visits, channel mix and top pages, Organic Research and Keyword Gap to find the search terms your neighbors are missing, and the Map Rank Tracker to monitor Google Maps rankings for storefronts and seasonal promotions along the boardwalk (SEMrush competitor analysis tools and features).

Its Advertising and Social trackers surface live ad creatives and top‑performing social posts so teams can learn what's actually moving traffic, while the newer AI Toolkit adds visibility into how generative assistants reference brands and even tracks AI‑driven market share and sentiment - useful when planning messaging for tourism bursts or weekly events (SEMrush competitive analysis guide and best practices and see independent reviews of the AI Toolkit for pros weighing value vs.

cost). In short: pair Semrush's data dashboards with local CRM signals and a clear test plan, and you'll stop guessing and start copying what works - only faster and more measured.

Semrush ProductLocal benefit / note
Traffic & Market ToolkitBenchmark competitor traffic, channels, top pages (Toolkit cited in Semrush product lists)
Advertising & Organic ResearchAnalyze competitors' paid ads and ranking keywords to find gaps
Map Rank TrackerTrack Google Maps rankings for locations and local intent
AI ToolkitAI search visibility, sentiment and market‑share insights (reviewed as a $99/mo add‑on per domain)

“If AI perceives our brand positively, it's likely customers do too.”

9. Optimizely - AI-Powered A/B Testing & Experimentation

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Optimizely brings enterprise-grade experimentation to Virginia Beach marketers who need to move fast around weekend tourism spikes and store‑front promotions: its AI features go beyond simple A/B splits by suggesting high‑impact test ideas, pre‑building multiple variations, helping pick the right metric and sample size, and even reducing developer bottlenecks so experiments ship faster (Optimizely's analysis of 127,000 experiments shows the biggest wins come from bolder, structured tests).

That means a local team can let AI pre-create variation code, run multivariate or targeted tests, and get plain‑language takeaways that point to

“so what?”

next steps instead of statistical fog - useful when tuning a boardwalk landing page or map‑driven promo before a busy weekend.

Start with Optimizely's practical A/B testing primer and read their AI experimentation write‑up to see how ideation, implementation and interpretation get accelerated without losing human oversight: Optimizely A/B testing guide for marketers and Optimizely AI experimentation guide for product and marketing teams.

10. Gong (or Chorus.ai) - Conversational AI for Sales & Marketing Insights

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For Virginia Beach teams that need to turn conversations into measurable wins, conversational AI like Gong or Chorus.ai brings a new kind of local intelligence - capturing calls, transcribing meetings, and surfacing deal-risk signals so marketing and sales can act together during tourism surges or last-minute event pushes.

Gong tends to lead on real‑time alerts, predictive deal intelligence and a broad ecosystem (162 integrations) while Chorus leans into deep sentiment and conversational analytics with a different pricing and setup profile, so the right pick depends on whether the priority is fast, integrated forecasting or richer post‑call emotion signals; see Forecastio's hands‑on Gong vs.

Chorus comparison for the feature tradeoffs and Avoma's breakdown of Revenue vs. Conversation Intelligence to weigh use cases. Pair either platform with CRM data and a clear playbook and you can spot an at‑risk deal in a morning review and feed that insight into a targeted email or ad before the weekend boardwalk crowd arrives.

MetricGongChorus
Integrations162 integrations~45 integrations
Ease of use (reported)9.3/108.9/10
Typical entry pricing (reported)Starts near $5,000 baseReported start ~$8,000 for 3 users

“Gong is an excellent tool for tracking customer interactions; provides a great format for scoring calls; AI-driven insights save hours.”

Conclusion: Next Steps for Virginia Beach Marketing Professionals

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Next steps are practical: treat AI as a toolkit, not a replacement - pick one or two priority use cases (creative production, paid‑media optimization, or CRM personalization), run short, measurable pilots tied to a single conversion metric, and instrument first‑party signals so insights turn into visits and revenue; Webolutions' practical AI platform evaluation guide explains how 78% of organizations are already using AI and offers a tight rubric for choosing platforms that actually move the needle (Webolutions practical AI platform evaluation guide).

Build internal muscle by training staff to write prompts, evaluate outputs, and govern data - consider a structured program such as Nucamp's 15‑week AI Essentials for Work to learn prompt writing, tool workflows, and real workplace applications so your team can, for example, turn a single boardwalk sunset clip into a polished short‑form ad by Friday night and measure its local impact the next morning (Nucamp AI Essentials for Work syllabus or Register for Nucamp AI Essentials for Work).

Start small, measure lift, and scale what proves ROI - local marketers who combine smart tool selection with repeatable training will outpace rivals in 2025.

AttributeAI Essentials for Work - Details
DescriptionGain practical AI skills for any workplace; learn AI tools, write effective prompts, apply AI across business functions
Length15 Weeks
Courses IncludedAI at Work: Foundations; Writing AI Prompts; Job Based Practical AI Skills
Cost$3,582 (early bird); $3,942 afterwards; paid in 18 monthly payments
Syllabus / RegisterNucamp AI Essentials for Work syllabusRegister for Nucamp AI Essentials for Work

Frequently Asked Questions

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Which AI tools should Virginia Beach marketing professionals prioritize in 2025 and why?

Prioritize tools that solve local marketing needs: ChatGPT for rapid content ideation and ad copy; Jasper for scalable long‑form and landing page copy; Surfer SEO for local on‑page optimization; Canva (Magic Media & Magic Design) and Runway for fast creative and short‑form video; Google Marketing Platform (Performance Max) and Meta Advantage Suite for AI-driven paid media optimization; HubSpot Breeze for CRM-driven personalization and automation; SEMrush for competitive and local market intelligence; Optimizely for AI-led experimentation and A/B testing; and Gong or Chorus for conversation intelligence. These were chosen because they accelerate creative turnaround, surface real‑time local signals, integrate with first‑party data, and scale cost‑effectively for seasonal tourism spikes.

How were the top 10 AI tools selected and tested for Virginia Beach use cases?

Selection used a vendor‑agnostic rubric focused on: clear purpose and goals, data sources and integrations (CRM/analytics), ease of use for non‑data teams, scalability and pricing, and real‑time NLP/predictive signals. Tools were pilot‑tested against local use cases - campaign creative, paid media, and CRM personalization - so each recommendation was validated for actionable output (alerts, test cells, measurable conversions) rather than just charts.

What practical workflows or best practices should local teams follow when adopting these AI tools?

Start with one or two priority use cases (creative production, paid‑media optimization, or CRM personalization), run short measurable pilots tied to a single conversion metric, and instrument first‑party signals. For content: draft with ChatGPT or Jasper, optimize with Surfer, then humanize for local proof. For paid media: feed clear conversion goals and high‑quality assets into Performance Max or Meta Advantage, monitor ROAS and iterate. For creative: use Canva/Runway to generate assets, then edit for neighborhood details. For experimentation: use Optimizely to generate and evaluate variations. For conversational insights: integrate Gong/Chorus with CRM to act on deal‑risk signals. Train staff on prompt writing, governance, and evaluation.

What training or programs can help Virginia Beach marketing teams build practical AI skills?

Structured, hands‑on programs are recommended - example: Nucamp's 15‑week AI Essentials for Work, which covers AI foundations, prompt writing, and job‑based practical AI skills. The program costs listed in the article are $3,582 (early bird) or $3,942 (regular) with an 18‑month payment option. Training should focus on prompt engineering, tool workflows, real workplace applications, and governance so teams can quickly convert local momentum into measurable campaigns.

How should marketers measure ROI and scale AI pilots across their Virginia Beach operations?

Measure pilots using a single, clear conversion metric (e.g., bookings, store visits, ticket sales, email conversions). Pair AI tool outputs with first‑party signals in CRM and analytics to attribute impact. Use A/B or multivariate tests (Optimizely) to validate creative and messaging lifts, monitor ROAS for paid channels (Performance Max, Meta), and track open/click/convert lifts for automated email (HubSpot Breeze). If pilot shows measurable lift and reliable integration, document workflows, train additional staff, and scale tools while maintaining human oversight and data governance.

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Ludo Fourrage

Founder and CEO

Ludovic (Ludo) Fourrage is an education industry veteran, named in 2017 as a Learning Technology Leader by Training Magazine. Before founding Nucamp, Ludo spent 18 years at Microsoft where he led innovation in the learning space. As the Senior Director of Digital Learning at this same company, Ludo led the development of the first of its kind 'YouTube for the Enterprise'. More recently, he delivered one of the most successful Corporate MOOC programs in partnership with top business schools and consulting organizations, i.e. INSEAD, Wharton, London Business School, and Accenture, to name a few. ​With the belief that the right education for everyone is an achievable goal, Ludo leads the nucamp team in the quest to make quality education accessible