5 Ways Tech-Savvy Marketers Are Using AI Writing Tools
Anisha Sagar
CMO //CRM & Digital Media Management //Multi Speciality Campaign Specialist //Performance Marketing // Brand Growth Expert //Change Management //Storyteller //Leadership & Strategy
First released by OpenAI in 2022, ChatGPT is the tech that everyone’s talking about – including the bot itself. Built on Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3 (GPT-3) and natural language processing, it’s a chatbot like no other. Its neural networks, fed by vast amounts of data, have been trained to respond to prompts in an uncannily human way.
What sets ChatGPT apart from its predecessors and competitors is its ability to handle follow-up questions, challenge premises, reject inappropriate requests, and even admit to its own mistakes. With plausible, human-like, real-time answers, it has been seized upon by businesses looking to enhance their customer support. But what happens when you put this tech in the hands of marketers?
ChatGPT – In Its Own Words
AI writing tools are nothing new. Tools such as Grammarly use a combination of natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) to enhance writing. You might also be familiar with AI Content Generators such as Jasper, which spark ideas and help create short-form and long-form marketing content. So before investigating how ChatGPT can aid digital marketers, we started with the obvious question.
We asked: What is ChatGPT?
ChatGPT replied: ChatGPT is a conversational language model developed by OpenAI. It uses deep learning techniques to generate human-like responses to text-based input and is trained on a large corpus of text data from the internet. The model is designed to generate text that is coherent, relevant, and contextually appropriate for a given prompt, allowing it to be used in a variety of applications such as chatbots, customer service, and content generation.
What It Won’t Do
Making the best use of any AI writing tool relies on human common sense. It’s a bit like using satellite navigation in driving. Regardless of whether the driver is autonomous or human, safe driving relies on real-time and real-world connections with transport infrastructure, such as road signs and traffic lights.
That’s because, like humans, AI is not infallible. Based on language prediction, it can create plausible-sounding answers that sometimes prove nonsensical or factually incorrect. An AI writing tool needs a reliable source of information, and it also needs to generate answers based on its own body of knowledge rather than that of a human.
ChatGPT and similar AI writing tools can be great at creating realistic-sounding copy, but they sometimes come unstuck with the finer nuances of language – especially in a marketing context where you might be addressing a specific market segment. See what you think of this example.
We prompted ChatGPT to explain the concept of vertical farming to a child.
It replied: Vertical farming is like growing plants in a big building instead of outside in the ground. Imagine a tall, skinny building with lots of shelves. On each shelf, there are plants growing under special lights that help them grow strong and healthy, even if it’s dark or cloudy outside. And because everything is inside, there’s no need to worry about bad weather or pests. It’s like a magic garden that you can grow all year round!
Not bad? There’s clearly an attempt to explain using child-friendly language. But does the first sentence need the word ‘like’? Would you describe a building as tall and skinny? Do pests always stay outdoors?
It’s clear that, left unchecked, AI-generated content, such as blogs and social media posts, might not fully engage the target audience, whether due to technical inaccuracies or a lack of emotional intelligence. The material might also alienate Google’s search algorithm, which is trained to penalise auto-generated content because of its perceived low-quality.
On that note, companies invest a lot in brand strategy and brand identity – including tone of voice. Auto-generated content can lack the subtlety of the brand voice and messaging set out in your brand guidelines. At the same time, if your business operates within a highly-specialised niche in a market, outside the AI tool’s body of knowledge, the content is likely to require substantial human editing to make it usable.
Where ChatGPT Shines
ChatGPT has piqued the curiosity of digital marketers and tech-savvy business leaders looking to optimise content for specific audiences, producing more relevant content faster. Let’s look at five of the proven ways in which AI writing is adding value to marketing efforts.
1)??Basic Coding
Not an obvious one, until you consider the more technical aspects of digital marketing, such as email and landing page creation. While there are no-code and low-code solutions on the market for these activities, marketers sometimes need a little extra know-how to get the job done. Prompt ChatGPT with a specific request, and it can auto-generate HTML. Not only that, but it can also check your code for obvious errors and provide recommendations for correcting it.
2)??Search Engine Optimisation
ChatGPT isn’t going to optimise your web content for you – at least not yet. But it is a nifty tool for helping with different aspects of SEO. As we’ve already mentioned, the Google algorithm is programmed to spot auto-generated, low-quality content. So it’s not a good idea to depend on AI to create your on-page copy. However, it’s a handy tool for getting started and generating rough drafts of copy that will speed up the content creation process and give you a competitive advantage.
Two obvious applications for AI of this kind are keyword generation and answers to frequently Googled questions. Prompt ChatGPT to deliver keywords related to a particular topic, and it yields results like a thesaurus (remember those?) wired for sales and marketing.
We typed: Tell me some keywords for the topic ‘quick commerce’.
?ChatGPT replied:?
When it comes to delivering what users are looking for, ensuring you’ve got some of the top-ranking questions covered is always a good idea. However, you can’t just copy the answers that are already there. ChatGPT gives you a fresh starting point. Prompt it with a ‘people also ask’ question, and then adapt the results accordingly. Here’s an example.
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We asked: How does a free zone work?
ChatGPT replied: A free zone, also known as a free trade zone or special economic zone, is an area within a country that operates under different economic and trade laws than the rest of the country. The aim of free zones is to encourage foreign investment and trade by offering tax breaks, relaxed regulations, and other incentives to companies operating within the zone. Here’s how free zones typically work:?
Overall, the goal of a free zone is to create an environment that is attractive to businesses, promoting economic growth, job creation, and international trade.
3)??Names And Taglines
From time to time, we all need a spark to get our creative ideas going. One of the challenges facing marketing and advertising professionals is being creative on demand. Sometimes, ideas don’t flow, or the right ideas escape you.
That’s where ChatGPT comes into its own. Admittedly, some of the ideas it churns out can be simplistic or clichéd. However, what it does provide is a creative launch pad and several suggestions to disregard or get you started.
We prompted: Create taglines for a sustainable delivery company based in the Middle East.
ChatGPT replied:?
4)??Article Research
Like all AI-generated content, using ChatGBT to generate your next piece of long-form content – be it a blog post or article – comes with a caveat. Whatever you receive back needs to be carefully proofed and edited by a real person. That said, given the right prompt, ChatGPT can generate some surprisingly useful results, especially when it comes to wiki-style content around a well-known topic such as people or places.
We said:?Suggest things to see and do for tourists in Dubai.
ChatGPT replied: Dubai is a city with a lot of things to see and do! Here are some popular tourist attractions and activities:?
However, it’s worth noting that when it comes to uncovering realistic human experiences of a particular place, such as a city or restaurant, Google is still your best friend because it provides human-generated responses, including user reviews, which are more nuanced and pick up on real-world details outside the AI’s body of knowledge.
Even so, it’s fair to say that AI-generated content – checked by a human – is a great way to begin drafting long-form content. This brings us nicely to the next application.
5)??Creating Copy
Scratching around for ideas for a tagline or advertising copy is one thing; pulling together ideas, structure, and the correct messaging for a blog post or marketing email is another. As we’ve seen, utilising ChatGPT for longer pieces of copy comes with the caveat that an informed human will need to carefully edit the content. This is good news for content writers, who will see their roles become increasingly editorial rather than losing them altogether.
Giving a human editorial control ensures stylistic consistency, factual accuracy, alignment with the brand voice, and sense-checking. Where tools such as ChatGPT come into their own is in creating a rough draft or outline, which can then be worked or reworked into engaging and targeted content by a human marketing professional. We’ve included an example at the end of this article.
The Future Of AI In Marketing
The question many marketing professionals and copywriters will be asking themselves is, “How can AI can elevate my marketing efforts and create better value for the business?”
Based on the current ways AI writing tools such as ChatGPT are being harnessed by digital marketers, it’s clear that robots won’t be taking over anytime soon. Instead, like other industries leveraging the potential of AI, marketing best practices will be increasingly enhanced by AI technology to drive efficiency and support creative teams. Right now, the signs are that AI and humans will take a collaborative approach to content creation, with old-school content writers increasingly becoming content editors.
As we’ve seen, with the arrival of AI art-generating tools such as Dall-E2, there will also be demand for creatives who can formulate prompts that get the best from AI. Some people are even calling it ‘prompt engineering’.
So, what are the main implications for marketers? The signs are that AI can help them produce better quality content and become more productive – and that’s got to be better for business. But why don’t we let ChatGPT have the last word?
We prompted: Compose the final paragraph/conclusion to a blog called ‘5 Ways Tech-Savvy Marketers Use AI Writing Tools In 2023 And Beyond’ aimed at entrepreneurs in Dubai and the wider MENA region. In two or three sentences, explain how AI can benefit marketing teams, and make them more productive.
ChatGPT replied: In conclusion, AI writing tools are set to revolutionise the way marketers approach their craft in 2023 and beyond. By automating repetitive tasks and streamlining processes, AI writing tools allow marketing teams to focus on the creative aspects of their work and produce high-quality content faster and more efficiently. As a result, businesses in Dubai and the wider MENA region that adopt these tools are likely to see a boost in productivity, creativity, and overall success.
Not bad – for an AI!