Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the way we live and work, and the marketing industry is no exception. AI is being used by marketing departments in a variety of ways, and its impact is only going to grow in the years to come. If you’re a content marketer, you’re probably already using AI in your daily life (Grammarly anyone?). Maybe you’re a seasoned AI pro or maybe you’re just starting to dip your toe in the bot waters. Either way, read on to find some inspiration for streamlining and improving your content marketing with AI.
Why Use AI for Content Marketing?
One of the most exciting areas where AI is helping content marketers is in the creation and distribution of content. You always need more content, but how can you churn it out faster while making it more effective and more targeted to your audience? AI can help you to:
Generate ideas for new content
You can use AI to analyze data from a variety of sources, such as customer surveys, social media, and industry reports, to identify trending topics and customer pain points. This information can then be used to generate ideas for new content that is relevant and engaging to your target audience.
How to use this type of AI for content marketing: There are a number of AI-powered tools available that can help marketers generate content ideas. For example, you can use an AI tool like Bard, ChatGPT, or Jasper to generate a list of trending topics in your industry or to identify questions your customers often ask online.
Write and edit content
AI can also be used to actually write and edit content. There are many AI-powered writing tools available that can help marketers generate high-quality content quickly and easily. These tools can also be used to check grammar and style and to ensure that the content is optimized for search engines.
How to make this work for you: There are several ways to use AI to write and edit content. For example, you can use an AI tool like Jasper to generate a first draft of an SEO-optimized blog post and a tool like Grammarly to check for grammar and style errors in a finished piece of content. You can also use AI to generate personalized email marketing campaigns or create social media posts tailored to your target audience.
Promote and distribute content
AI can also be used to promote and distribute content on social media, email, and other channels. AI-powered tools can help you identify the best times to post content on social media and target the right audience. AI can also be used to create personalized email marketing campaigns.
How to use AI for marketing distribution: There are many ways to use AI to promote and distribute content. For example, you can use an AI tool like Sprout Social, Hootsuite, or Buffer to identify the best times to post content on social media. You can use platforms like MailChimp, Constant Contact, or HubSpot Marketing to create personalized email marketing campaigns. You can also use AI platforms like Semrush, Ahrefs, BuzzSumo, or Mention to track the performance of your content across different channels.
Specific examples of how AI is being used by content marketers today:
- BuzzFeed: BuzzFeed is using AI to generate personalized news feeds for its users. The company’s AI system analyzes user data, such as reading history and social media activity, to identify the topics that each user is most interested in. The system then generates a personalized feed of news stories, videos, and other content from across the web.
- Ulta Beauty: Ulta Beauty uses AI to power its virtual beauty advisor tool. This tool allows customers to ask questions about beauty products and trends and to receive personalized recommendations. Ulta Beauty is also using AI to personalize its email marketing campaigns and to generate personalized product recommendations on its website.
- JPMorgan Chase: Chase marketing execs say that AI has created better advertising copy than their human writers ever could. For the past several years Chase has used Persado’s machine-learning tool to rewrite copy and headlines resulting in higher click-through rates. They are also using the AI program for their internal communications and customer service prompts.
These are just a few examples of how AI is being used to improve content marketing efforts. As AI technology continues to develop, we can expect to see even more innovative and effective ways to use AI to create and distribute more relevant and engaging content for target audiences.
How to get started with using AI for content marketing:
If you’re a content marketer who is interested in using AI to improve your efforts, there are a few things you can do to get started.
Identify your goals
Who is your target audience? Which part of the funnel are you targeting? What do you want to achieve with your content marketing efforts? Do you want to increase brand awareness, rank as a thought leader in your industry, increase downloads, generate leads, or drive sales? Once you know your goals, you can start to identify specific AI tools and strategies that can help you to achieve them.
Choose the right tools
There are so many different AI tools available for content marketers. It can be overwhelming. Some tools are designed to help with content creation, while others are designed to help with content promotion and distribution. Choose the tools that are right for your needs and budget. Start with one or two. See some examples below.
Learn how to use the tools
Once you’ve chosen the tools you want to use, take some time to learn how to use them effectively. Most AI tools come with documentation and tutorials that can help you get started. Look for articles and videos that can give you specific prompts that work well for content marketers.
Experiment and track your results
Don’t be afraid to experiment with different AI tools and strategies. Try different things and see what works best for you. It’s also important to track your results so that you can see what’s working and what’s not (and AI can help you do that too!).
AI platforms for content marketers:
Don’t know where to start? Here are some popular AI platform examples that content marketers can use:
- ChatGPT: ChatGPT is a large language model chatbot developed by OpenAI. It can be used for a variety of tasks, including generating text, translating languages, writing different kinds of creative content, and answering your questions in an informative way.
- Bard: Bard is a large language model chatbot developed by Google AI. It is similar to ChatGPT, but it is trained on a different dataset of text and code. Bard is also capable of generating different creative text formats, like poems, code, scripts, musical pieces, emails, letters, etc.
- Jasper: Jasper is an AI-powered writing assistant that can help marketers generate high-quality content quickly and easily. Jasper can be used to write a variety of types of content, including blog posts, articles, social media posts, and email marketing campaigns.
- Grammarly: Grammarly is an AI-powered writing assistant that helps users improve their grammar, style, and clarity. Grammarly is used by millions of people around the world, including many professional writers and editors.
- Hootsuite: Hootsuite is a social media management platform that uses AI to help marketers schedule and publish their social media posts. Hootsuite’s AI system analyzes social media data to identify the best times to post content and the best hashtags to use.
- BuzzSumo: BuzzSumo is a content marketing platform that helps marketers find trending topics and identify the content that is performing well on social media. BuzzSumo also provides insights into the influencers who are sharing particular types of content.
- Semrush: Semrush is an SEO tool that helps marketers improve their website’s visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs). Semrush provides insights into keyword research, competitor analysis, and link building.
- Ahrefs: Ahrefs is another SEO tool that is similar to Semrush. Ahrefs also provides insights into keyword research, competitor analysis, and link building. Ahrefs has a feature called Content Explorer, which can be used to find popular content on a given topic.
- Surfer SEO: Surfer SEO is an SEO tool that helps marketers to optimize their content for search engines. Surfer SEO provides insights into keyword density, topic clusters, and related keywords.
- CoSchedule: CoSchedule is a marketing calendar and social media management platform that helps marketers plan and organize their marketing campaigns. CoSchedule’s AI system can help marketers find the best times to publish their content and identify the topics that are most relevant to their target audience.
- Canva: Canva is a graphic design platform that allows users to create a variety of visual content, such as social media posts, infographics, and presentations. Canva’s AI system can help users to create professional-looking visuals without any design experience.
- Synthesia: Synthesia is a video creation platform that allows users to create videos using AI-generated avatars. Synthesia can be used to create educational videos, marketing videos, and even product demos.
- Podcastle: Podcastle is a podcast creation platform that makes it easy to record, edit, and publish podcasts. Podcastle’s AI system can help users remove background noise, transcribe their audio, and even generate subtitles for their videos.
- Beautiful.ai: Beautiful.ai is a presentation creation platform that helps users create professional-looking presentations without any design experience. Beautiful.ai’s AI system can help users choose the right fonts, colors, and images for their presentations.
These are just a few examples of the MANY AI platforms that content marketers can use! When choosing an AI platform, it is important to consider the specific needs of your business and the types of tasks you want to automate.
How to use AI for content marketing to improve your results:
By using AI to improve your content marketing efforts, you can expect to see several benefits, including:
- Increased traffic: AI can help you create content that is more relevant and engaging to your target audience. This can lead to increased traffic to your website and blog.
- Improved conversion rates: AI can help you to create content that is more persuasive and effective, as well as targeted to your ideal audiences. This can lead to improved conversion rates on your website and landing pages.
- Reduced costs: AI can help you to automate many of the mundane tasks involved in content marketing. This can free up your time to focus on other tasks and can also reduce your costs.
Additional tips for using AI to improve your content marketing efforts:
- Start small. Don’t try to use AI for everything all at once. Start by using AI for one or two tasks, such as generating content ideas or editing your content. Once you’re comfortable using AI for those tasks, you can start to use it for other tasks as well.
- Use AI to enhance your efforts, not replace them. AI is a powerful tool, but it’s important to remember that it’s not a replacement for human creativity and expertise. Use AI to enhance your content marketing efforts, not to replace them.
- Use AI responsibly. It goes without saying that it’s important to use AI responsibly. Be mindful of the ethical implications of using AI in your marketing efforts.
AI is a rapidly evolving field, and new AI tools and strategies are being developed all the time. By staying up to date on the latest AI trends and developments, you can ensure that you’re using AI to its full potential to improve your content marketing efforts.
