Artificial intelligence (AI) is cropping up everywhere these days. Across industries, business leaders are incorporating AI tools into their organizations to become more efficient and competitive.
Businesses now have many AI marketing software options they can use to improve their work, but one area that stands out is AI-generated content. If you’re using any kind of content marketing, whether it’s blog articles, social media posts, or email marketing, AI-generated content can make a big difference.
Learn how to use AI technology to support your content marketing strategies in this guide.
What is AI-generated content?
Despite how common it’s become, many people still wonder what generative AI content is.
AI-generated content is writing or images that artificial intelligence tools produce based on some input from users. The AI tools are designed to generate content that mimics what humans produce.
For example, you can give an AI writing tool the prompt, “Write me a funny Facebook post about smoothies,” and it will automatically write that post. The prompt you give the tool determines the output.
AI content tools use large language models that analyze incredible amounts of human-produced text. The software finds patterns in these texts that it can then replicate to produce content that sounds like something a human would write.
Over the last few years, AI-generated content has made huge strides. These AI tools can now generate very convincing content that has tons of applications, especially in marketing.
Why is AI-generated content important?
Producing content is often time-consuming and expensive for organizations. You need to decide what type of content you’re going to make, have someone create that content, and review the content to ensure it meets your standards. Sometimes, you even need a team of people to produce more in-depth content like ebooks or videos.
AI saves you time by producing the content automatically. You still need to come up with some ideas and review the final product, but you don’t have to write or make the content yourself. You won’t get stuck in the middle of a project with writer’s block or have to spend hours painstakingly rewriting each word of content. The AI tools handle content creation for you.
Benefits of AI-generated content
If you already have an effective system for creating content, you might wonder whether it’s worth shaking things up. Here are some of the benefits of AI-generated marketing content that might persuade you:
- Increased speed and efficiency: From start to finish, writing is a time-consuming process. With AI tools, you can have a piece of writing, even long-form content like ebooks and guides, in just minutes.
- Cost savings: Paying in-house writers or freelance marketing content creators to produce content for your business can quickly get expensive. By comparison, AI tools are often cheaper and can provide cost savings for your content marketing initiatives.
- SEO advantages: A common question about AI writing is: Is AI-generated content good for SEO? The answer is yes. AI-generated content can be good for your search engine optimization efforts as long as you follow web content best practices.
- Overcoming writer’s block: Dealing with writer’s block is incredibly frustrating, especially when you’re on a set timeline to produce content. AI tools help eliminate this problem by writing the text for you and creating different versions of the same text if necessary.
Challenges of AI-generated content
There might be some growing pains when you first start using AI content generators, just like with any new software tools. Be aware of these challenges so you can overcome them to get the most out of your AI-generated content.
Quality and accuracy issues
One of the biggest concerns with AI-generated content is the risk of inaccurate or otherwise low-quality writing. Google’s AI Overviews tool, which uses AI to write a summary of the search results, is a prominent example of these accuracy issues. Drawing from some less reliable sources and misunderstanding sarcastic writing as sincere, the Overviews tool generated some questionable content.
If you publish AI-generated content, you need to be confident that it’s up to your usual brand standards. AI tools produce impressive, human-sounding content, but they’re imperfect. Avoid embarrassing inaccuracies and quality issues by reading every piece of AI-generated content before you post it. Having a human editor or editing team will protect you against these risks.
Plagiarism concerns
Some people worry that AI-generated content is plagiarised because AI tools are trained on existing content. Many colleges and universities, for example, consider AI-produced essays and written responses a form of plagiarism.
The content you create using generative AI tools is not your own original work, that’s true. However, that content is original in that it’s new writing that doesn’t appear anywhere else online. Even given similar prompts, AI tools produce distinct texts for each user.
If you’re concerned about plagiarism but still want to use these tools, learn how to check AI-generated content. Simply plug in the finished AI-generated content to a plagiarism checker like Grammarly or Copyscape to see if any parts of the text appear verbatim in other online sources. Change or delete any text that’s too similar to other content.
Limited creativity and originality
The best marketing content is original, engaging, and human. Generative AI tools lack the creativity to create truly standout content. However, they still have a valuable role to play in creating marketing materials.
Use generative AI tools to help come up with ideas and play around with different versions of a text. For example, you can ask the tool to write one version of your content in a fun, friendly tone and another in a more matter-of-fact tone to see which you like better. Take AI-generated content and infuse it with your team’s original ideas and creativity for the best results.
What can you use AI-generated content for?
When people hear AI-generated content, they often think of long-form content like ebooks and digital articles. Actually, you can create all sorts of written content using generative AI tools. Here are some examples of ways you can use AI-generated content to support your digital marketing strategies:
Blog posts and articles
Brand blog posts show your expertise and provide valuable information to your target audience. With AI tools, you can simply input the topic and length of your article alongside any keywords you want to include for SEO purposes. Then, the tool will generate a complete post about that subject for you to publish on your company blog. Just read it first and correct any potential inaccuracies or tone issues so it meets your publication standards.
Social media content
Social media campaigns are some of the most popular marketing campaigns today. Posting on social media allows you to reach a wide audience, establish trust, and directly engage with customers. The tricky part is consistently coming up with and writing posts to publish on your social media accounts.
Step up your social media content creation by using generative AI tools. With some simple prompts, these tools can create compelling social media posts that fit in with your existing content.
Email campaigns
Email campaigns deliver your marketing messages to customers immediately and offer a very strong return on investment — $36 per dollar spent. However, getting the wording right for these messages can be a challenge.
Emails are generally quite short, so you have to make every word count. Generative AI tools will help you find the perfect text to get your message across in promotional emails. You can even use these tools to generate several different subject lines for the same email, and then A/B test them to see which one produces the best open rates.
Product descriptions
Even when you know you have excellent products on your hands, it can be a struggle to write descriptions that fully capture how great they are. You want to write exciting, compelling product descriptions but get stuck searching for the right words. Generative AI tools can help.
Input a few basic details about your products into a generative AI tool, and it will produce product descriptions for you with just a click. As always, you can also ask the tool to create multiple versions until you find one that fits your needs.
Popular AI content generation tools
As AI grows more and more popular, it seems like there are new AI content generation tools every day. The following are some of the most popular generative AI tools available right now.
- Jasper.ai
- Copy.ai
- Writesonic
- Article Forge
- GrowthBar
These are general AI writing tools that can generate several types of content to support your marketing efforts. Alternatively, you can use software geared toward specific types of marketing campaigns, like Constant Contact’s email marketing tools.
Constant Contact helps you with every aspect of your email marketing campaigns, including writing your messages. By entering a few keywords and making some simple selections, the Content Generator automatically creates message options for you to use or adjust.
It will also generate subject line suggestions that persuade recipients to open your message. Get started with Constant Contact for free today.
Choosing an AI content generation tool
Before picking a tool, consider completing a free trial with a few of your top contenders. Playing around with some tools will help you decide which is the most user-friendly and useful for your needs.
Other factors to weigh before selecting an AI content generation tool include:
- Price: Most generative AI tools have monthly or yearly subscription costs based on how much content you want to create. Make sure the cost of the tool you choose fits into your marketing budget.
- Compatibility: Some tools integrate with other software, like content management systems, for greater convenience. Check whether the tool you select integrates easily with your existing software.
- Content quality: All AI-generated content is not created equal. Your AI content tool should reliably produce accurate, engaging content in line with your prompts. Choose a tool with a strong reputation for generating quality content.
How to use AI for content generation
Before you jump into AI content generation, keep these best practices in mind.
Content ideation and planning
While AI content generators can produce complete drafts, sometimes they’re more useful as tools for conceptualizing and planning your content. For example, you could ask the tool to produce several blog post ideas related to your industry.
You can even automate custom, multi-channel marketing campaigns with Campaign Builder in Constant Contact, including fully drafted messages.
Generating SEO-friendly content
To rank in search engine results, your content needs to include relevant keywords. With AI content tools, you tell the tool which keywords you want to include, and it inserts them wherever they fit best in your content.
Editing and refining AI-generated content
No first draft is perfect, including first drafts of content produced by AI tools. Make sure someone is reading and editing every piece of AI-generated content to eliminate any errors. Your editors should also add a human touch to the content wherever possible since AI writing can sometimes be a bit stiff.
Everything you publish should meet the same high editorial standards, whether an AI tool or a person wrote it. Reading and editing every piece of content is the best way to ensure it all supports your marketing efforts.
Upgrade your marketing campaigns with AI-generated content
AI tools make marketing tasks like writing content easier than ever before. Save time and effort by using AI content generation tools to write your blog articles, social media posts, emails, and other marketing materials.
Be aware that AI content generation is just getting started. The market for AI writing tools is growing rapidly, and you’ll probably see many new developments in this space over the next few years. Stay on top of changes like Google’s new guidelines on AI-generated content or advanced writing features.
AI is nothing to be afraid of. If you use these tools the right way, you can create more impactful, cost-effective campaigns.
