The current state of the online marketplace is that AI-generated stories and images are everywhere. If you used social media in the last year, you’ve seen stories and posts featuring pictures, audio or text generated by a computer rather than a person.
AI generation has been lauded as the next step in marketing, but is it really?
Artificial intelligence certainly may have its place, but for every positive that AI provides, there are several profound negatives. Let’s take a look at AI in marketing, and the role it plays in content creation and online branding. From benefits such as enhanced creation and efficient data analysis to worries about ethical concerns and homogenization, it’s vital to understand how AI can be used effectively in content creation. You want to avoid sacrificing human creativity and authenticity.
What is AI, Really?
Artificial intelligence is simply the next step in computational learning and output, allowing for the quick and relatively easily generation of images, sounds, and stories with minimal human involvement. For people or brands that want maximum output with minimal input, AI has its place. But in the grand scheme of marketing, the use of AI has some negative connotations to be aware of. First, we’ll address the good stuff.
Pros of Using AI in Content Creation
Understanding the good vs. the bad when it comes to artificial intelligence is nuanced, based not only on the end result but also on the intention of the person generating the AI content.
AI can provide some significant benefits:
AI-Enhanced Content Creation and Optimization
AI can help polish content created by a human. A popular example, likely used by someone at your agency, is Grammarly. Its AI technology checks spelling, determines better word usage, and offers other suggestions to clean up the content’s overall flow. It simply makes the process faster and cleaner, which is a huge boon if you’re writing thousands of words of content every day.
Other AI tools may help gather data at a speed that you could not on your own. This is not a generative process; rather it is a computational process that is highly complementary to work that you are already performing.
Ultimately, certain AI tools can make the type of work that you do faster, more efficient, and more accurate.
AI Can Analyze Data for a Data-Driven Content Strategy
AI also has the ability to compress and evaluate vast sums of data that a human could never process in a reasonable amount of time. This allows you to use that data to make decisions regarding future marketing efforts.
For instance, OwlyWriter can help evaluate the data of your prior social media post metrics to help you design new posts and articles that will resonate based on what went well in the past. Again, this is a use of AI that enhances your content — simply taking what you’re doing and making it better.
Personalization and Targeting: AI Helps You Understand Your Target Market
AI can also analyze the behavior patterns of your target market and help you tailor content and posting times, creating significantly better engagement and conversion for your business. TikTok for instance, has the ability to look at what demographics are watching your content and engaging with it. That data shows the times and regions with high engagement, helping you personalize content for your target market. Many social media platforms have these metrics available now, so you should be using the feature if you’re not already.
AI-Powered Content Distribution and Performance Analysis
Along with being able to identify your target demographic’s behavior and data, AI power tools like Sprout Social, HootSuite and Tailwind can help you streamline content distribution by automating scheduling and cross-platform posting. By identifying key times and types of posting, these tools can help you get the right posts out when they will have the most meaningful impact on your brand. You won’t need to remember to post at specific times on your own.
Cons of AI Tools in Content Creation
One of the main complaints about AI is that it is trained on the artistic, musical and literary works of actual humans, often without their approval, which many people consider theft. While there are legitimate concerns about generative AI, other problems can arise from relying on AI.
When Automation Goes Wrong: Over-Reliance on AI for Content
You’ve surely seen posts, read articles, or listened to YouTube shorts that were very clearly AI, either because they sound weird or stilted, or because they’re a jumbled mess of ideas. The efficiency that AI affords is wonderful, but if you use it too much, you lose your brand voice. People can tell when something is AI-generated. It often sounds stiff or impersonal. Use AI to simply spruce up your own words to keep your brand and your voice alive.
The Challenges of Ensuring Quality in AI-Generated Content
AI has come a long way in the last few years, when it really became mainstream, but it’s still full of errors. If you are using AI to fill in content or otherwise help with branding and marketing, you have to be vigilant about checking the work, because it could come out sounding like a garbled mess with factual errors.
Ethical Concerns
Because of the negative connotations of AI-generated work, even if it’s just using AI to improve upon your own concepts, a lot of marketers and businesses are hesitant to disclose the use of AI. However, when that fact is not disclosed and it comes to light later on, the backlash is often severe. It is important to be transparent about the use of AI. Many businesses are adopting a mission statement regarding the use of AI to get ahead of this concern.
The Problem of Homogenization: AI Content Can Hurt Your Marketing
If you’ve searched anything on Google in the last few years, you probably recognize that the first handful of results are extremely similar. Especially in certain fields, AI tends to cannibalize content created by other people and it has become so prolific that AI is now cannibalizing other AI-generated content. This means you get a homogenization effect that is pretty obvious. While using AI is great, human creatives can help you stand out in a crowded landscape full of robotic voices. Authentic content marketing is absolutely critical, now more than ever.
Understanding AI’s Role As a Tool in Content Marketing
AI has a lot of detractors with valid concerns about the legitimacy and ethics surrounding this new technology. However, AI should not be viewed as a friend or a foe — but rather as a tool.
Utilizing AI to improve the efficiency of your business is a great way to catapult you ahead with minimal effort or investment in data analysis. But avoid using artificial intelligence for all of your creative endeavors or risk turning people away from your business.
If you are struggling to get started with marketing, using AI tech effectively, or you just need assistance wading through the new online landscape, Yankee Custom Marketing can help. Our staff are experts on marketing trends, tools and strategies that will find your audience and convert them into customers.
Start on the road to authentic, effective marketing by contacting Yankee Custom Marketing today.