Does “AI” mean “all in” to you? How tight is your embrace of ChatGPT (and does it hug you back)? AI-powered tools has re-defined the ways we conceive, craft, and deliver marketing content. Just like that, we’re in a new era of efficiency and innovation.
But it’s no secret that there’s room for improvement — sometimes considerable room. As we close in on the one-year mark since ChatGPT dropped, let’s take stock.
Where AI is winning for marketing content creation:
Enhanced personalization: AI algorithms analyze vast amounts of data to understand consumer preferences and behaviors. This enables you to tailor content to individual users, delivering a personalized experience that resonates deeply with their needs and desires.
Efficient content generation: AI-driven tools, such as language models, generate high-quality, coherent content at an unprecedented speed. By expediting the content creation process, AI frees you to focus on strategy and creativity.
Data-driven insights: AI algorithms can analyze consumer data to uncover insights that were previously the exclusive province of a select few. With this information now in reach, it’s easier for you to identify trends, anticipate customer needs, and fine-tune their content strategies accordingly.
Automated content curation: AI can curate content from diverse sources, offering a consistent stream of relevant material for your brand’s audiences. As a result you can maintain customer and prospect engagement and keep your brand top-of-mind with much less effort.
Optimized SEO: AI tools can analyze search trends and assist you in optimizing content for better search engine visibility. AI can improve the odds of your content reaching the right audience, boosts organic traffic to your brand.
Multimedia innovation: AI algorithms can create and manipulate visual and audio content, leading to the development of interactive and engaging multimedia experiences that captivate your audiences. (Which can translate to that much-desired quality, “shareability.”)
Where AI can do better with marketing content creation:
Contextual understanding: Sure, we know AI can generate content, and often it’s pretty good. Yet it often struggles with understanding nuanced contexts. Marketers, you have to intervene with your awareness of the subtleties in language, culture, and emotional tone that can make your content more resonant.
Human touch: This is a corollary to contextual understanding: A great deal of the AI-generated content I’ve seen lacks a discernible, genuine human touch that connects with audiences on a personal level. Only you can forge that connection.
Ethical concerns: AI-generated content doesn’t know if it’s adhering to ethical guidelines, spreading misinformation, or giving biased narratives. You do, however.
Limited creativity: AI can generate content based on patterns it has learned, but it may struggle with truly original and creative ideas. After all, the tools are drawing from information that’s already out there. So keep on showing your creative stuff (and collaborating with other humans to make the stuff even better).
Adapting to trends: The digital landscape is fluid, with trends and consumer preferences shifting rapidly. You still have the upper hand in this respect.
Cultural sensitivity: Again, AI-generated content draws from what’s already out there in cyberspace (is that still a word?), and it doesn’t reliably sort out the nasty stuff. As much as ever, it’s on you to keep close watch on your content to ensure it reflects your brand’s values — and doesn’t cross lines of acceptability in different cultures.
Take full advantage of AI’s capabilities — but also stay awake to YOUR role in marketing content creation.
I kicked hard (it’s my nature) against ChatGPT when it came on the scene last November. But I made my peace when I realized that large-language models can’t get your content all the way across the finish line. Remember: You need to play an active role as editor and even creative director in order for AI-generated marketing content to portray your brand in its best light. Good luck, and good writing.