Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming the way businesses operate, and marketing is no exception.
But what are the opportunities? How can you navigate the pitfalls? And should you be worried about bots taking over the world?
Read on for the full story.
The brand-new thing that isn’t brand-new at all.
Despite what AI-clogged news feeds may suggest, Artificial Intelligence isn’t new to marketers. We’ve been leveraging for years with chatbots, personalization, predictive analytics, dynamic pricing, content curation and recommendations, ad targeting, and more.
But Generative AI has reached a tipping point: Artificial Intelligence is not just smarter than ever; it’s now now in the hands of the consumer. So let’s dig in to some of the more popular tools and how they can be leveraged for your marketing program.
ChatGPT.
Open AI’s ChatGPT has been likened to a robot friend who can talk to you and answer your questions. Whether or not you’ve actually wanted a robot friend, this free (for now) tool can answer nearly any question and engage in casual conversation, which makes it more than a little handy.
In the spirit of overachievement, it also provides information, assists with code completion, and generates information, content, creative writing, mathematical expressions, new music tracks, sound effects and much more–making it truly live up to the “generative” label.
AI Content Generators.
If you read our recent blog post, we have many Thoughts and Feelings about new AI content generator tools such as JasperAI, Copy.ai, Writesonic, copysmith. In a nutshell, content generators use machine learning to create content based on user input. Although they offer similar functionality to ChatGPT, these tools are designed specifically for content creation that’s grammatically correct, plagiarism-free, and optimized for SEO.
How marketing pros can use ChatGPT and content generators.
How can marketers use free ChatGPT or the paid content generators? Let us count the ways. No, really. Here’s how we’re using JasperAI, for example:
- Content idea generation and thought starters for blogs and articles
- Keyword research and analysis
- Hashtag ideas
- Better understanding of search intent
- Strong SEO titles and meta descriptions
- Help with composing and managing analytics/reports
- Assist sales in responding to inquiries
- Ad copy
- Social posts
- Landing pages
- Email copy
- Product descriptions
- Video descriptions and titles
- Localization/language translation
We’ve found these tools to be great starting points for all the above applications. But there are drawbacks. (cue the dramatic music)
Mistakes and misinformation: aka the opposite of truth in advertising.
Chatbots recapitulate things they’ve absorbed elsewhere, so they can “lie” or “hallucinate,” producing content that is completely untethered from sources or reality.
Here’s a list of just a few of the more important limitations and watch-outs:
- Can pull from data that is biased and perpetuates stereotypes.
- It doesn’t provide attribution or sources so hard to fact check.
- It can generate answers that aren’t rooted in reality (hallucinations).
- Lacks emotional intelligence.
Other misses.
Although they’ve come a long way, content generators aren’t still not entirely fluent in speaking Human. Yes, they can replicate conversational language, but because they’re aggregators and not “experiencers,” they can miss the mark in key ways:
- Tools don’t comprehend meaning, which means responses can be shallow and lacking in depth/insight.
- Thinks primarily from a product/feature perspective versus unique value propositions.
- Hard to generate copy with a unique/compelling brand voice.
- Copyright law has not yet caught up with the legal implications of using AI generated art and language.
- Currently google algorithms can identify and penalize ai-generated content, so don’t use it as a replacement for your blog writing.
AI generated art.
Similar to content generation tools, AI art generators use machine learning to generate visuals based on user input.
The good news: these tools enable you to completely customize art without the help of designers. We’ve found it useful for imagery that needs to spun up quickly for social media posts and blog headers. If I want a line drawing of an executive sitting at a desk, a photo of a blond woman with windswept hair gazing at a Maui sunset, or a Monet-style landscape with a pond and red barn, I just need to ask. It’s like a genie, except I get more than three wishes.
The problems? Just as with content generators, you can very quickly dilute your brand standards by having art designed by amateurs. And legal IP has not yet caught up with the technology and its implications.
Bottom line: it’s still an incomplete picture.
SEO impact.
The biggest question we get from clients is how ChatGPT will impact their SEO program.
Our answer: It will definitely impact SEO in the long term, but just not yet. Right now it’s a useful addition to your SEO program, but not a replacement. It helps generate content more quickly, but you still need a human to help create helpful, reliable, people-first content that the Google algorithms value.
These tools can also augment your Google keyword planner, and for technical SEO, GPT should be able to offer suggestions for site hierarchy and navigation.
Digital marketers will also be keeping a close eye on Bing as its integration with ChatGPT may present additional opportunities to reach your target audience.
But as with other AI marketing tools, there are drawbacks. We anticipate reactive Google algorithm updates with the creation of tons of low quality, ChatGPT-generated content. We’re also sure to see a reduction in search traffic/rankings over time as ChatGPT grows in popularity.
So what is RFL doing?
A lot, actually.
True to our commitment to putting our clients first, we’re keeping a close watch on the new technology so we can leverage it to benefit your programs. We are following SEO influencers who are testing different approaches and uses for generative AI. We’re also keeping tabs on our own clients’ programs to evaluate impacts, particularly in regard to SEO.
From the content generation side, we’re using JasperAI to help us generate ideas and increase copy turnaround time. We anticipate that we’ll be able to generate more content, more quickly to benefit your programs.
Ask us
Want to talk more about how to leverage AI to accelerate your marketing program? Hit us up at [email protected]
