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Blessing or curse: what does AI really mean for content marketing?

Can AI help generate the high quality content Google and social media platforms are looking for, or is the future of content marketing already stuck in the past?

AI is the talk of the town – these days you can’t swing a virtual cat without hitting someone discussing the latest and greatest in artificial intelligence.

That first sentence was generated by ChatGPT with the prompt “a funny, colourful turn of phrase about how everyone is talking about AI these days” and I’ve got to admit it did a pretty good job. 

There’s no new tech that comes without considerable pangs of anxiety. Seeing AI write decent copy is nerve wracking for copywriters. Seeing it generate impressive images is concerning for graphic designers. It’s tempting to join one of two camps – the deniers or the doomsayers. 

Some people are predicting that soon AI will hit its peak, having flooded the internet with so much AI-generated content that suddenly it has nothing real to draw on, poisoning its own supply. On the other hand, others have already surrendered to the idea that AI will soon replace every content marketer, social media manager, graphic designer and even strategist, marking the dawn of a jobless pre-generated future for digital marketing.

As it tends to go with extremes, the truth is somewhere in between (a sentence so cliche I’d forgive you for thinking I’d left it to the chatbot and logged out for the weekend). AI presents opportunities and has its limitations, but its meteoric rise also reveals something interesting about the changing world of content marketing and how businesses can keep ahead of the curve. This article will avoid making sweeping statements about the implications of AI for the fate of the industry – instead, let’s look at what it does well, what it does poorly, how it can benefit us and what we can learn.

AI strengths

Creating copy

AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Notion’s AI are great for generating short copy, especially for people who struggle to get started writing. If you’re finding it difficult to get your team to post Thought Leadership content on LinkedIn, for example, putting their prompts and ideas into a chatbot could help give them a foundation they can edit and personalise. Here’s an example of ChatGPT writing some great copy – a new intro to this article – that a human writer could build on: 

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly becoming a key player in the world of content marketing, with many businesses turning to AI-powered tools to optimise and personalise their marketing efforts. In this article, we’ll take a look at how AI is changing the game for content marketers, the benefits and challenges it presents, and how you can incorporate AI into your own content marketing strategy.

Brainstorming

AI can also help you get started quickly if you’re stuck trying to generate content ideas. Here are some TikTok ideas generated for a law firm using Notion’s AI:

  • Create a series of 15-second videos that explain common legal terms or concepts.
  • Use TikTok to showcase successful case outcomes, offering tips and advice to followers.
  • Use TikTok to highlight the benefits of working with a law firm, such as access to legal resources.
  • Create a series of videos that feature legal professionals discussing current topics in the news.
  • Sponsor TikTok challenges related to the law, such as creating a video about a certain legal issue.
  • Use TikTok to solicit questions from followers and then answer them in a “Q&A” video.
  • Create a series of videos that profile the lawyers and staff working at the firm.
  • Post educational content about various areas of law, such as criminal, family, or business law.
  • Host a weekly livestream with a lawyer to answer questions from followers in real-time.

Pretty fantastic start. Of course, someone still has to create this content – this has far from automated the process. This is where AI begins to run into its current limits. Social media trends are pointing in two directions at the moment – video content and thought leadership (not mutually exclusive) – and AI isn’t quite up to the task for either.

AI weaknesses

Thought leadership

Google’s August 2022 Helpful Content Update aimed to prioritise the most relevant and unique Google Search results over more repetitive and less relevant content. AI-generated content sometimes falls foul of some of the things the update seeks as signifiers of bad content: 

  • Are you using extensive automation to produce content on many topics?
  • Are you mainly summarising what others have to say without adding much value?
  • Did you decide to enter some niche topic area without any real expertise, but instead mainly because you thought you’d get search traffic?
  • Does your content leave readers feeling like they need to search again to get better information from other sources?

Strong content which will both fulfil Google’s criteria and draw attention to your business and the people at it requires unique insights, which AI still struggles to generate. It can help build a base for your copy by looking at other examples from across the internet, but for now at least it can’t be relied on to add the necessary niche expertise and personality which is required to stick out from the crowd online.

Video content

While AI is now great at brainstorming ideas and writing basic but believable copy, we’re still far from easily accessible and high quality AI-generated video. AI has a role to play in creating good video content – it can help add automatic captions, for example.

However, AI-generated video isn’t nearly as advanced as the current open-source text and image-based AI. With TikTok’s massive success and other platforms increasingly prioritising video content, the best AI generated content is still stuck in the past.

Integrating AI into your strategy

AI isn’t your enemy – it can be a great tool. However, if AI risks surpassing you to create content which is greater quality and just a relevant to current trends, it probably means you’re standing still.

Let AI pick up the slack and save you time while you focus on creating high quality thought leadership and video content. One day (perhaps soon) AI might be able to take over on those fronts as well. By then, however, the landscape will have changed, and the content marketers keeping on top of new trends will have moved elsewhere.

More help

Want to get in touch about content marketing? Drop me an email at [email protected].

Charlie Stewart

Charlie Stewart

Content Strategist

Charlie brings his creative flair developing content and copywriting across all of our campaigns.

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