What Content Marketers Need to Know About Using AI

Picture this: a tool that can help you churn out high-quality content, repurpose existing content and even research new ideas while focusing on strategy and creativity. Large language models like ChatGPT promise that and more to marketers looking for new ways to scale the reach and impact of their content. 

But are these tools really all they’re cracked up to be? Can AI truly replace humans in creating content that fosters genuine human relationships? What are the risks associated with relying on AI and how can content marketers navigate these challenges to generate quality, high-impact content – at scale? 

What is generative AI?

Let’s start with the basics. Generative AI is artificial intelligence that uses deep learning techniques and data sets to summarize, predict and generate written and video content. It recognizes patterns within large language models and uses them to finish thoughts or develop new concepts based on human inputs (or prompts). 

By prompting these tools with information about your program, topic, audience and value proposition, you can generate new content with the click of a button. The more context you give, the better the AI understands what you’re looking for and the more impressive the results become. Generative AI is already helping marketers work smarter and more efficiently and has the potential to revolutionize content marketing as we know it altogether.

How can content marketers use generative AI? 

Ideation and research  

Marketers are pressured to keep up with industry trends, brainstorm fresh concepts and produce fresh content. Generative AI simplifies the ideation process by sifting through mountains of information in seconds to kick-start your ideation process. It can help you brainstorm new topics and outline long-form content and presentations. 

Campaign and promotional content 

Many marketing campaigns are built around a piece of hero content which serves as the central pillar of a campaign, capturing the audience’s attention and conveying a core message. However, one piece of content is not enough to power an entire campaign. With AI, you can repurpose one hero asset into countless pieces of content, including blogs, webinars, e-books, videos, and social media captions and hashtags. 

It can even generate the content you need to power your promotional strategies. Generative AI is a content marketer’s best friend when it comes to crafting attention-grabbing subject lines, catchy promotional emails, and social posts that engage audiences, improve click-through rates, and drive results. 

Optimize your promotional content by testing different subject lines, CTAs and email formats. With generative AI, you can create different versions of your promotional assets to A/B test and learn more about your audience. 

With the power of generative AI, you can create differentiated promotions for unique target audiences without overly taxing your content teams by asking them to create countless promotions for every program. 

Can generative AI replace humans? 

Not quite. While AI is a powerful tool, it still requires human oversight to maintain your brand’s unique perspective. 

Brand voice and misinformation

One of the biggest challenges content marketers face when using AI for content generation is figuring out how to preserve their brand’s unique voice and style. Nuances that make the brand’s messaging distinct might be lost, and misinformation or “AI hallucinations” can and will creep into your content without proper human oversight. 

To tackle this, content marketers must carefully review and fine-tune AI-generated content to ensure it aligns with their brand’s messaging guidelines. Always fact-check and validate information and sources to avoid sending false information into the world and potentially breaking trust with your audiences. 

That said, the more you use AI, the better it will become at crafting content that aligns with your brand and engages your target audiences. 

How to get started with generative AI 

Build it into the team workflow 

First things first, you need to get your team on board. Within your organization, you will want to establish how AI should be used in the content creation process so you can start implementing necessary updates to the team workflows and establish a set of AI guidelines to enforce governance of all AI-generated content. Identify each area of content creation where AI can be integrated into the process and create step-by-step procedures for its use and development, including campaign content, editorial material, blog posts, and more. 

Offload tedious tasks

You might start by using generative AI to offload repetitive and time-consuming tasks, such as promotional copywriting, derivative assets and social media blurbs. By delegating these tasks to AI, you will free up time and creative energy for your team to focus on strategic planning, content quality and audience engagement, ultimately leading to more effective and efficient content marketing efforts.

Start with existing assets 

Start with the resources you already have at your disposal, like existing webinars or presentations and use AI to repurpose them into brand new content streams like blogs, e-books, video clips and more. This will help you maximize the value of existing materials while accelerating the creation of new content that you can use to nurture your audience and feed a continuous content journey to improve conversion. 

Stay up to date 

Content marketers can get the most out of AI by staying current on its developments and capabilities. Keeping tabs on AI advancements will enable you to explore new possibilities and stay ahead of the curve. Remember that we have just scratched the surface of what generative AI is capable of and should expect rapid evolution over the next few years. 

Using AI to optimize engagement 

From crafting engaging subject lines to offloading time-consuming tasks, generative AI empowers marketers to elevate their strategies and streamline their workflows. However, with those possibilities come new challenges like preserving brand voice and ensuring accuracy across every asset we deliver. By integrating AI into our daily workflows, content marketers can create and scale and personalize content in new and innovative ways that were never possible before – and we’re just getting started. 

To learn how ON24 generative AI can get you started, click here.