Content marketing is getting weird – but the basics remain the same. Halfway through 2023, changes in the marketing zeitgeist are coming fast and furious. This year has been wilder than most with Artificial Intelligence (AI) dominating headlines and fully entrenched in upsetting everyone’s apple cart. There’s a bit of fatigue around the topic if we’re being honest, but with the future implications unknown, it’s important to explore what it means for your business right now.
Should you do your marketing with a little help from ChatGPT, or do you still require an in-house marketing team, or help from a strategist, writer, designer, or agency? The latest advancements often bring more questions than answers.
Back to basics
Let’s take a deep breath for just a moment. The foundations of marketing have not changed. Along with these principles, two things must happen for your digital marketing to work in today’s market:
- Your personality should be infused into everything you do – this is the major factor in making your business unique and competitive; and
- You must understand content marketing strategy in addition to having organic and quality content.
When developing your digital campaigns, the key questions you need to address are static, and those are:
- What do your clients and customers want?
- What is the core problem, need, or pain point you are solving for a customer when they buy your product/service?
- What are their fears, frustrations, or desires?
- What makes your solution the best choice?
Don’t stop at a superficial answer. Imagine an annoying scenario of a toddler in front of you asking, “Why?” or “So what?” to any answer you give. Then keep answering the question until you have nothing left. When you have exhausted this exercise, you will know why you are uniquely qualified to satisfy your target audience – and who that target audience is. You may come away surprised at what you uncovered.
Only then can your story be told in such a way that your clients and customers understand why you are the undisputed choice when it comes time for them to spend their money. Knowing these answers backward and forward before you engage AI will enhance your efforts and get you something of quality.
Due to the mass adoption of AI, marketing professionals and laymen are cranking out copy at light speed. Yet…how truly authentic is it? With millions pulling from existing databases, is it specific and organic for your audience, or just more noise that makes us fight even harder to be heard? Are customers experiencing true engagement, or being drowned in a tidal wave of mass-produced content?
What AI can’t do
AI does not know who you are – it needs to be taught what it cannot search for. AI does not know who your target audience is, or your personal story. AI struggles with information that only you or your clients have in your gray matter. And, not all AI tools are completely up to date, such as the way Google can search immediately through current information.
For example, the wildly popular ChatGPT writes from data before 2021. Therefore, any events, developments, or advancements that have occurred after September 2021 would be unknown to ChatGPT unless they have been explicitly provided in the conversation.
The human touch
AI still needs some hand-holding, and it’s just not as satisfying as working with a real person who has your back. The feel-good satisfaction of a brainstorming session with a colleague can bring far more insights. Use your instincts when using AI just as you would with your human team if something seems a bit off. AI is quite useful while assembling research – but it does make mistakes. You need to check and double-check references.
So much of marketing requires a human touch, especially when public relations overlap with your plan. If you are a company that promotes live and virtual events, that ultimately will require a face. This person should preferably be someone who has had a hand in the entire marketing life-cycle.
What types of content are hardest for AI to produce reliably?
- About pages
- Biographies
- Case studies
- Interviews
- Opinions / Editorials (OpEd)
- Personal essays
- Responding to client/customer queries (how often have you been frustrated with generic chatbots)?
- Strategic planning
- Technical writing
- White papers (very customized to client).
Strategic marketing
Most importantly, any information you collect or create from any resource needs to have a strategy behind it. You don’t just toss content into the ether and hope it lands on the right platforms, at the right time, and in the correct order.
This type of support takes training and experience. If you find yourself in need of an assist honing any of the foundational marketing answers above, help to create and disseminating your content, or formulating an overall strategic plan for your outreach, we are just a phone call, email, or text away. And yes, we do answer our phone if you’re in the midst of a digital crisis.
Post written by Jonna Jerome // WordsWerk.
