AI Writing For Marketing

Planted 02020-11-12

This is the script for my Developing Technologies in Business Video for BUS 284.

I think if there’s one thing we can all agree on, it’s that starting is hard.

You might not know it, but AI is all around us in our day-to-day lives.

It works behind the scenes to determine the ranking for every Google search and social media feed, block spam from our email, suggest products we might like, and what show we’re gonna watch next.

But, despite all the hype and everything you’ve heard, the AI of today is pretty weak compared to the dream of general intelligence depicted in movies and shows.

But to the point of the hype, there is a line of thinking that predicts once we achieve the lowest level human-level intelligence, we’ll rapidly achieve superintelligence—which doesn’t mean Einstein AI, it means much smarter than the best human brains across every field. But we’re not there yet, and no one knows if we’ll get there.

So what is AI?

AI stands for Artificial Intelligence.

And there’s two problems with that:

• First, How do you measure the intelligence of an artificial intelligence? Some companies and marketers exploit this by referring to their products as “AI-enabled” when they aren’t. And for most of us, it’s not something we can merely audit.
• Second, Current AI is not intelligent enough to efficiently achieve goals in a wide range of domains. So the uses and achievements of AI tend to focus around specific tasks like playing chess

I suck at chess, but AI beat the Word Chess Champion before I was even born.

So what about tasks that aren’t as limited in options as chess? The ancient game Go has significantly more possible moves than Chess.

And of course, in 2016 Google’s AI beat the world champion of Go.

On June 11, 2020, OpenAI released GPT-3.

GPT stands for Generative Pre-trained Transformer.

And what this means is that the AI generates text using algorithms that are pre-trained—sort of like putting the AI through a metaphorical school so that when it’s given a task, it already has what it needs to carry it out.

And I think this is currently the biggest impact of AI on marketing.

AI writing for marketing

Marketing is how businesses find and connect with those they seek to serve.

Marketing is an opportunity created by a single amazing thing people have achieved: and that is the capacity to share.

But many businesses have a problem: they don’t have anything to share—or at least think they don’t.

Most of us have no trouble at all with sharing, it’s the creating part that brings us to a halt.

And this is where we’re seeing AI beginning to step in.

Companies often outline projects in a content brief for jobs involving the creation of content.

The goal of these briefs is to give people more information at the outset, so they don’t have to stare at a blank page thinking, “what now?” Some briefs are full of critical editorial guidelines, while others provide title tags, meta descriptions, linking recommendations, and anchor text. The practical goal is to give writers a head start on their work.

And this is where I see AI helping companies ramp up their content marketing efforts to have more touch points across digital platforms.

Sitenote: I think it’s critical as a marketer to be aware of the algorithms that affect your strategy’s surface area. A few examples include:

• Understanding how and when Search Engines (like Google) put your content in front of people and what people are searching for.
• Understanding how platforms like Google Ads use data on people to find and segment audiences, continuously test variations and dynamically adjust spend for advertising.
• Understanding how email spam filters work.
• Understanding how Social Media platforms personalize feeds.

Most importantly, Marketers need to understand:

1. how data is collected
2. how these mechanisms work
3. and where and how they don’t work.

Sidenote over.

Utilizing AI, companies can speed up the process of creation by getting a head start on content outlined and even created by AI.

A few examples I hear about frequently in Marketing circles are MarketMuse, Clearscope, Usetopic, and Content Harmony.

MarketMuse defines itself as an “AI Content Planning and Optimization Software.”

Clearscope defines itself as a “Content Optimization Software for SEO.”

Usetopic defines itself as “The Best SEO Content Optimization Tool.”

Content Harmony defines itself as “a new content brief creation workflow that helps SEO & Content Marketing teams build data-driven creative briefs for writers and clients.”

The point across these tools is this:

Currently, we have to travel around to come up with every single outline or content idea from a blank page.

But generated content enables people to immediately start moving pieces around and add in what’s missing.

And seeking that empowered starting point, will enable more businesses to have something to share.