How I use AI for writing epic content
AI (Artificial Intelligence) tools are popping up everywhere online. And while the uninitiated scramble to make sense of this software that will apparently take over their jobs and lead a caucus of red-eyed robots to world domination, there are a tonne of ways to make these incredible tools work for us. Especially when writing epic content. Here’s how.
The names of AI tools like ChatGPT are flooding everybody’s LinkedIn feed, and for good reason. AI is the most powerful marketing tool in the world. Most people just don’t see it that way.
AI will play a massive role in an unspeakable number of industries and the positions within them, currently occupied by people like you and me. But is there a need to worry? Instead of fearing these ‘weapons’ that will apparently take our careers hostage… can we use these weapons for our own battles?
What is ChatGPT?
Chat GPT describes itself (really, I just asked it) as an AI-powered conversational agent. It’s a language model that draws on unimaginable amounts of data to produce answers to almost (almost) any queries we fire at it. People are scared of it. People are excited by it. People are going to be unable to escape it (or at least AI) in the future.
I love ChatGPT. I’m not worried about it in the slightest, even as a writer, because I’m aware of two ironclad facts:
AI is amazing as a research tool; it is awful as a content production tool.
AI will never (at least not in our lifetime or our kids’ or kids’ kids’ lifetimes) replace our ability to truly describe human emotions, feelings and experiences.
There are ways to use AI software like ChatGPT to your advantage. These are the ways I use it (and don’t use it).
How I use AI for writing content
1. Audience research
I was in the real estate and finance industries for well over a decade, and I know what makes real estate investors tick. But sometimes AI’s data has new points of view I hadn’t considered before.
I’ll take an idea, maybe an objection a client’s customers are likely to have, and then I’ll see if ChatGPT can expand a little… using the millions and millions of sources it can instantly access, digest and summarise to me.
Now, I could’ve come up with a lot of these objections (i.e. fears) myself, especially given the chance to interview a member from the client’s target audience. But the data ChatGPT used is sourced from both audience search queries and popular blog posts – two ironclad indicators that I’m on the right track.
2. Industry and competitor research
When I take on a client in an industry I’m unfamiliar with, there’s always a list of questions I have about their segment that could easily make my voice hoarse if I asked every single one. Thankfully, I usually don’t have to.
Now, I can easily work out when a client’s had enough of the questions, and they’re bordering on using their ballpoint pen as a shiv. I’m also flattered to hear that I’ve shed light on their own segment after firing my queries at them. But I like to stick to a buffer and wrap up my interview long before they consider poking their – and perhaps my – eyes out with their retractable Bic.
If I’m working with a business providing agricultural solutions, but the owner and employees can’t lend me their time, I won’t have any trouble understanding how the Internet of Things (IoT) is influencing agriculture in Australia. ChatGPT will tell me about precision farming, remote farming management and livestock monitoring. With a bit more probing, it’ll tell me about the biggest issues with supply chain management in the 2020s, and maybe about what to look out for when purchasing IoT equipment. Within four search queries, I feel like I could write get started on a blog about precision agriculture – and I haven’t even bothered the client.
3. Coding
Coding is an essential part of the good copywriter’s quiver. If your copywriter doesn’t know how to code (even basic HTML), then it could be time to send them packing and come to me. That’s because quality content production for digital marketing purposes is as much about how customers relate to your stories, tone and wording as it is about how search engines understand what you’ve published on their results pages.
And the language of search engines is indeed code. Specifically, if we’re talking page structure, it’s HTML.
I can custom code things like lists, headings, colours, image sizes and layouts (and much more). But I’ll take the offer of ChatGPT to code something tedious. So,when my client has a bunch of great images they want on a carousel in the middle of the blog post, I’ll save a lot of keystrokes by getting my virtual assistant (ChatGPT) to do it for me.
And I’ll save my client about $300 in web developer fees.
How I don’t use AI for producing content
1. Copying and pasting information
If I need to explain why copying and pasting is the worst idea in the world, then humanity is doomed. Plagiarising is content genocide, an abomination on our industry. But let’s just say I didn’t have an ethical bone in my body, and I decided to pinch every word produced by a ChatGPT response. Here is the catastrophic domino effect it would have:
No keywording, means the plagiarised post has buckley’s chance of finding its way to page one of Google.
The information has been plucked from other sources, meaning I’m likely violating Google’s ‘duplicate content’ policy and will be whacked with serious penalties.
The tone and colour of the post will be so lackluster that my client will be reluctant to hire me again.
After three to six months of zero commercial impact, the client will pull the content from their webpage and will (rightly so) never speak to me again.
2. Technical research and real-time data
The current ChatGPT only provides data up to a point in 2021. And for most businesses looking for relevant content, that simply won’t fly. With all that info out there, who wants outdated statistics and data?
Nothing will beat insights gained from professional interviews or a deep-dive into a client’s industry via traditional research.
3. Tone and personality
ChatGPT is infamous for providing snore-worthy drool. Yes, you can ask it to provide a response in the voice of colourful personalities, likee Joe Rogan or Snoop Dogg. But the choice of words is typically unflattering, unstrategic and unlike any sequence of words a real person with a real ticking heart under their real skin would ever use.
4. Personalised stories
Do you remember what it felt like when you received really, really good service? From a shop assistant, or maybe a mortgage broker? Because ChatGPT doesn’t… it can speculate. But it has no idea how to convey its experience when it’s never experienced anything.
It’s a shame. Because there’s nothing like a super positive customer experience. When all the questions you have are answered and all those that can’t be are met with an honest, ‘I’ll get back to you on that ASAP.’ The feeling of honesty, transparency. Relatability. When you give your wife or husband that brief ‘look’ – the one with the half-smile, the raised eyebrow, the subtle nod – that says, ‘How good’s this girl?’ The feeling that small talk isn’t actually small talk, and that you’re not just laughing politely at their jokes. That awesome service that makes you feel good when you drive past that person’s business again…
It’s unbeatable.
ChatGPT won’t ever experience it. But of course, you can.
You can experience good content marketing services. The best, in fact. It’s a call, email or form submission away. Want a savvy content marketer who knows all the tools to give you A-grade content that’ll win you more business? Get in touch with me today.