As you may have heard a couple thousand times by this point, the rise of AI-generated content presents businesses with a slew of potential benefits. Artificial intelligence (AI) has rapidly transformed various industries; AI for content marketing is no exception.
But amidst the hype, a cautionary tale arises for businesses entrusting their brand’s voice to these non-human writers. While AI offers many benefits to content marketers, it can often fall short compared to human-written content regarding accuracy, style, and branding guidelines.
In this article, we explore the pros and cons of AI-generated content, explain how to marry AI writing tools with human content marketers, explore the future of AI for content marketing (and beyond), and provide tips for brands who want to leverage AI for content marketing.
Table of Contents
What Is AI-Generated Content?
AI-generated content refers to text and written materials created with the assistance of artificial intelligence. AI writing tools and AI chatbots, like Google’s Bard or Open AI’s ChatGPT, utilize sophisticated algorithms to analyze vast amounts of data, extract relevant information, and generate coherent text that aligns with a given topic or context.
This technology has been leveraged in various content formats, from blog posts and articles to social media posts and content marketing materials. By automating the content creation process, AI-writing tools offer businesses an efficient and time-saving solution.
[Related readings: How Does Content Marketing Work?]
The Pros of AI-Generated Content
Savvy marketing agencies have figured out that AI marketing tools can have a big impact on their content marketing process over the long haul. Mainly because these AI tools offer automation and efficiency, reducing the need for manual labor and streamlining various marketing processes.
Lightning-Fast Content Creation
One of the key advantages of AI-generated content is its remarkable speed. AI-writing tools can process and analyze extensive datasets within seconds, producing text at a rate far surpassing human capabilities. This accelerated content creation process enables businesses to keep up with the demand for frequent and timely content updates.
Creates Cost-Effective Content
AI-generated content often proves more cost-effective compared to human-written content. While employing human writers may require substantial financial investments for expertise and training, AI-writing tools offer a more affordable alternative. The lower cost of AI-generated content can be particularly advantageous for businesses operating on tighter budgets or seeking to scale their content production efforts.
Enhanced Creativity and Novelty
Content generation tools like Bard and ChatGPT analyze huge amounts of existing content to offer unique combinations of ideas and perspectives that might get overlooked by human writers. This fresh perspective can bring a new and exciting dimension to your content creation. While it allows you to stand out from your competition with fresh ideas, this is a great segway to some disadvantages of using AI for content marketing.
The Cons of AI-Generated Content
Now, let’s consider some drawbacks of using an AI tool for content marketing. Many brands build up their reputation as trusted authorities or experts in their industry. A few errant/incorrect sentences in a blog post or improperly automated tasks (such as AI chatbots for customer service) can undo that hard work in a flash.
Suspect Factual Accuracy
While AI content generators have made significant strides in generating coherent text, they are not infallible regarding factual accuracy. Particularly in complex or technical subject matters, AI-generated content may lack the nuanced understanding and contextual interpretation that human writers possess. In short, businesses should exercise caution when relying solely on an AI content generator for topics that require precise and accurate information.
Stuffy Style
One of the notable challenges with AI-generated content lies in its ability to replicate the style and tone of human-written content. Writing encompasses conveying information and engaging readers on an emotional level through a distinct voice and style. AI content generator tools often have difficulty capturing human writers’ creative flair, wit, and cultural nuances. This limitation can impact the ability to connect and resonate with the intended audience.
Hurts Engagement
Human writers possess an innate understanding of human psychology, enabling them to craft content that resonates, evokes emotions, and encourages interaction. While proficient at generating coherent text, AI-writing tools lack the intuitive grasp of human emotions, making it challenging for them to replicate the same level of engagement and connection. Take topical news events or pop culture references, for example. In particular, ChatGPT only works on data up to 2021.
Comparing AI-Written Content and Human-Written Content
Here’s where things get interesting: AI’s ability to autonomously churn out content has everyone talking. It’s captivating, no doubt, but it raises some key questions.
How does it stack up against good ol’ human-written content? Is it as effective? Can it be trusted for important, client-facing tasks? Let’s take a look.
To better understand the differences between AI-written content and human-written content, let’s compare their key attributes, starting with the table below:
As the table shows, human-written content possesses certain advantages over AI-generated content. Human writers are generally perceived as more trustworthy, protecting sensitive information and offering high-quality content and creativity.
On top of those variables, human writers excel in establishing emotional connections with the audience and can adapt to changing requirements more effectively than AI writing tools.
Tips for Businesses Considering AI in Content Marketing
While AI undoubtedly offers significant support to content marketers, it is important to balance human creativity and AI-powered efficiency. Here are a few ways to blend AI-generated content tools without losing the personal flair of human content writers and creators.
Use AI as a Tool, Not a Replacement
Try to view AI-writing tools as just that: tools. They offer a way to augment the content creation process rather than completely replace human writers. Human writers bring creativity, expertise, and a deep understanding of the target audience, allowing them to infuse content with authenticity and emotional appeal. Combining the strengths of AI-generated content with the human touch can result in a powerfully efficient content marketing strategy.
Supplement Your Content Marketing Strategy
In a well-rounded content marketing strategy, AI-generated content plays a supportive role. Brands can utilize AI-writing tools to produce evergreen or data-driven content that can be repurposed across multiple marketing campaigns. By automating certain aspects of content creation (such as short-form content, a blog post outline, or ad copy), businesses can free up time for human writers to focus on more complex and creative tasks.
Monitor Performance
To ensure the effectiveness of AI-generated content, monitor its performance and evaluate its impact. Tracking key metrics such as engagement, conversions, and audience feedback can provide insights into the effectiveness of AI-generated content in achieving business goals. Regular evaluation allows you to fine-tune your content strategy, find the right balance between AI-generated and human-written content, and ensure optimal results.
What’s the Future of AI in Content Marketing?
As technology advances, AI’s future in content marketing holds immense potential. Here are some areas where AI is already making impressive strides:
- Personalization and Audience Segmentation
AI-powered tools can analyze vast amounts of data and provide valuable insights into audience preferences, behaviors, and interests. This data-driven approach allows human writers to create highly personalized content tailored to individual audience segments. By understanding their target audience’s specific needs and desires, businesses can deliver content that resonates on a deeper level, resulting in increased engagement and conversions.
- Content Optimization and SEO
AI can be a powerful ally in optimizing content for search engines. AI-powered tools can analyze keywords, identify trends, and provide recommendations for improving the visibility and ranking of content. You can expand your reach to a broader audience by utilizing AI, specifically Bard, which has web connectivity, to optimize your web content and improve your overall search engine optimization (SEO) strategies.
- Content Curation and Recommendations
AI can streamline the process of content curation by automatically gathering, categorizing, and recommending relevant content to users. It’s like an automated BuzzSumo, the trend-finding social listening software you can use for free. By leveraging AI curation tools, you can provide your audience with a curated selection of articles, blog posts, videos, and other content that aligns with their interests and keeps them engaged.
- Language Translation and Localization
In our increasingly globalized world, brands often need to communicate with audiences in different languages. AI-powered language translation tools streamline content localization by quickly and accurately translating it into various languages on demand. This enables businesses to expand their reach and connect with more of an international audience to spur brand growth and establish a more global or culturally-inclusive brand presence.
- Data Analysis and Insights
When it comes to content marketing, the more data you have, the better the decisions you can make. AI’s ability to analyze vast amounts of data provides insights into content performance, audience behavior, and market trends. By leveraging AI-powered analytics tools, you can make more data-driven decisions to optimize your content strategy, identify gaps or opportunities, and refine your marketing approach.
- Content Generation and Collaboration
If it wasn’t clear by this point, AI-generated content is not limited to written text alone. Advancements in AI technology offer audio and video content creation as well. These tools can generate voiceovers, video scripts, and animated videos. This opens up new possibilities for content creation and collaboration, allowing businesses to experiment with different content formats and engage with their audience innovatively.
Wrapping Up
AI-generated content has emerged as a game-changer in content marketing, offering speed, cost-effectiveness, and accuracy. However, it is essential to recognize the limitations of AI-generated content in terms of factual accuracy, style, and engagement.
By using AI as a supplementary tool and harnessing the unique strengths of human writers, businesses can leverage the full potential of AI to enhance their content marketing strategies and achieve meaningful results in the ever-evolving digital landscape.
Elevate Your Content Marketing – With Credo
Achieving the optimal blend of AI and human-written content is paramount for successful content marketing. But unleashing the power of AI-generated content requires a thoughtful approach.
Credo matches you with pre-vetted content marketing agencies that guide your business through the AI integration process (and create incredible content for you along the way).
Get started with Credo today – fast and for free.
