Why CMOs Shouldn't Cut Content Budgets, In 2 Charts
Joe Lazer (FKA Lazauskas)
Fractional CMO | Best-Selling Author of The Storytelling Edge | Keynote Speaker | Storytelling Workshops & Trainings
Enjoying this newsletter? Then sign up to get the monthly secret edition here.
I’ve been attending a lot of AI events with founders and corporate execs lately, and there’s one big buzzword percolating:
Efficiency!?
Efficiency. It’s a word that the C-suite loves and everyone else hates because it’s often coded language for layoffs and resource cuts.?
For marketers, it’s a huge red flag. Especially after spending the last year hearing “DO MORE WITH LESS” shouted at them by a horrifying tribe of consultants in matching Patagonia vests.
Marketing is #1 on everyone’s list for AI efficiency gains, and understandably, a lot of marketing leaders are worried they’re going to be expected to drive the same results with fewer resources by replacing people with AI. Particularly on their content teams.?
But that’s the wrong way to think about things. And to help my fellow marketing leaders make the case for content this budgeting season, I created some handy CHARTS to explain why.?
The AI content equation?
AI, without question, makes creating high-quality content more efficient. When used right, It turbocharges brainstorming and creativity and automates or accelerates time-consuming work (data visualization, research, interview transcription, social video editing, landing pages, etc.).
Meanwhile, thanks to AI, the cost of creating bad and mediocre content will quickly approach zero. But so will the value of that content.?
As a result, we’ll see a fascinating dynamic play out that changes the content investment equation, which I captured in this ugly chart I made in about 30 seconds with ChatGPT:
Here’s what we'll see over the next year or two:
So tl;dr: AI will make mediocre content easy to create but also relatively worthless. That means brands will need to create better and better content as the quality bar rises. High-quality content becomes the affinity stone of growth.?
As the quality bar rises, your team must create better content more often to break through. Which means you absolutely cannot spend less resources on content.?
?Instead, the challenge is to empower your team to use AI to automate or accelerate time-consuming production tasks so they can invest more time and energy into telling badass stories.?
Realistically, even the best content teams today only spend 20% of their time on truly badass, breakthrough storytelling. The other 80% gets eaten up by time-consuming tasks.
But what if, with the help of AI, we could shift that ratio to 50/50? Or 60/40? Think of the incredible work we could accomplish then.?
As a final note: This is a very crude v1 of these charts and frameworks. Let me know in the comments:
-What resonates?
-What’s confusing?
-What do you disagree with?
Help me refine this for the future.
I'm the head of Marketing at A.Team and best-selling co-author of The Storytelling Edge. Subscribe to this newsletter for insights on content strategy, AI, and the art and science of storytelling.
--
1 年Great article- the AI Time Shift def leaves more time for badass work!
Built a $1B brand with Content | Now helping b2b startups in real estate & finance do the same. CEO @ Narrative Bent
1 年I’m counting on this. I’m betting that there will be a rise in demand for creative work only humans can do. Stuff with nuance, novelty, perspective, opinion, voice, lived experience, careful consideration, etc. In fact, I’m building a content marketing agency around the idea. Fingers crossed! I’m not sure the cost of high quality content will go down though. I think it will actually go up because of the rising demand. After working in writing for 15 years, I can say that there are not as many excellent writers as there are mediocre ones. Ai replaces mediocrity instantly and free. But good writers? They will be in way more demand than ever.
Content strategist and research-focused content writer with a keen eye for details. I enjoy strategizing and creating content that's impactful and adds value to the reader.
1 年I strongly believe that the rise in the quality bar is going to be the key here. The cream of writers who write from the heart are creative, and bring in a lot of personalization to the content are going to be worth so much more, thanks to AI. On the flip side, good writers may have to ensure their work isn't 'AI-style' every time and this may raise the creative bar constantly.
Director of Media & Communications ? Full-Stack Marketing ? Funnel Building, Visual Arts, Copywriting
1 年Do you think SEO and quality content will part ways (unaligned)? Or will SEO catch up and evolve to reward quality content?
ASSOCIATE CREATIVE DIRECTOR / WRITER
1 年I skimmed this but got the gist and the gist is bang on in my view. In the short term average shit to decent creative will be democratised and therefore its value will be lowered. But bear in mind it still requires humans educated in strategy, the creative arts and storytelling to prompt and sculpt AI’s output. To see it as a poor unpaid intern that gathers the raw material in a flash. A simple copy paste of a chat GPT blurb is embarrassingly obvious and increasingly white noise. It’s only those versed in the music of real creativity that will alchemy the hits from the flops. And it’s only human experience coupled with genuine craft that will enable one to clear this new bar to heights never thought of before. AND finally. If you start your exploration with an AI assistant and you rely on it, your creative muscles will atrophy, and you will be the one gone quickest.