How ChatGPT Can Improve Your Marketing...and Its Limitations

I recently published this blog on the Wild Plum Marketing website, whose Insights page has a wealth of useful branding/marketing/business information. Thanks to Danah Ditzig for the opportunity. Republishing here for my network.

As ChatGPT sprang into our collective consciousness this year, many of us in the creative professions realized it can help us do our jobs more efficiently. Whether you are a graphic designer aiming to elevate your work, a marketing manager planning a campaign, or a business leader planning and developing your team, ChatGPT is a free ticket to greater efficiency. Here are some of the benefits ChatGPT offers marketers today.

Why ChatGPT Is a Fantastic Marketing Tool

1. Create Content Quickly

The iterative process is a hallmark of design and marketing, and ChatGPT can be a secret weapon for quicker turnarounds. It is a phenomenal solution to generating contextually relevant text quickly, empowering professionals to fine-tune designs and campaigns with agility. This dynamic approach to content creation helps get projects off the ground fast and speeds up the approval process.

2. Focus on Creativity

Do you find your team bogged down by repetitive tasks, hindering their creative potential? ChatGPT alleviates this burden by automating content generation, freeing up time to focus on the creative aspects that truly differentiate your company. Whether you are pulling together thought leadership pieces or curating social media posts, ChatGPT handles the textual groundwork, enabling marketers and other business leaders to pour their energy into strategic innovation, optimizing the messages, and the plan to disseminate it for the most impact.

3. Stand Out from the Crowd

ChatGPT can help anyone be their own creative hub, self-producing unique and engaging content from the start. Whether you need inventive marketing copy for a brochure, tailor-made product descriptions, or thought-provoking headlines, ChatGPT can serve up almost any text you need. The ability to produce text yourself can be a nice addition to a professional’s toolkit and help them stand out from those not utilizing AI.

My prediction is that within the next few years, everyone in a creative occupation will need to know how to use ChatGPT for their job, or some newer AI variation. It is easy to use, and boosts productivity so much that it is a waste not to utilize it. But of course, ChatGPT is not perfect. You should not expect it to produce flawless, final copy the first time you use it. And it cannot fully replace some important aspects of marketing content. Here are some common issues to be mindful of when using the platform.

What to Watch Out For

1. ChatGPT Is Only a Productive First Step

While ChatGPT is a remarkable tool, it is important to remember that it is just the first step. The content it generates serves as a foundation that requires a creative touch to refine and finalize. You will still need a writer/editor to inject your brand voice and other stakeholders to help you edit the text, ensuring your key points are clear. It should also be noted that text generated by AI is not copyrightable. So, ensure you are using the tool only as a kick-starter, particularly on content meant to promote your brand, products, or demonstrate thought leadership.

2. Accuracy Matters So Always Review the Text

As convenient as AI-generated content is, accuracy is paramount in the voice of your company. While ChatGPT produces impressive results, it is essential to review and edit the text to ensure it aligns perfectly with your intentions and accurately confers your point of view. While the overall goal is to produce content that reflects your brand identity and resonates with your audience, it also must be true.

3. Refine ChatGPT Results Through Iterative Collaboration

ChatGPT is not just a one-way street. It thrives on collaboration and iterative refinement. It is best to engage in a back-and-forth with the platform to refine the generated content until it aligns with your vision. This iterative process ensures that the AI learns from your inputs, improving the quality of its outputs over time, but it always will need a human touch.

4. Effective Prompts Are the Key to Success

Getting the best out of ChatGPT starts with crafting effective prompts. Experimenting with different prompts can help elicit the desired type of content. For instance, using specific instructions like "Generate a catchy tagline for a fitness app for seniors" will yield more targeted results compared to a more general prompt. Speaking of prompts, you will need human talent to ensure the text includes the call-to-action prompts that entice your readers to do what you want them to do, i.e., take the next engagement step.

5. Speak in Your Own Voice

The biggest challenge of AI-generated content is to make it sound like your personal or brand voice. Your uniqueness is what sets you apart from others, and it is the hardest part to replicate via machine. Taking the time and effort to inject your own voice and style into the material is a key step that will help you differentiate yourself from competitors – as will your decisions about how the content should be distributed.

The bottom-line is that ChatGPT is a great tool for producing text, but it is only a tool, and not yet a replacement for human creativity. Its greatest benefits are efficiency gains. The biggest drawbacks are accuracy and brand voice. Even though it is imperfect, it is a powerful addition to a marketer’s toolkit. I suggest anyone in a creative field starts to experiment with ChatGPT now. AI is here to stay and learning how to get the most out of the tool as a supplement to your own skills is key to staying relevant. After all, two brains (human and machine) are better than one!