If you speak to any marketers, you’re bound to get conflicting opinions when it comes to the rise of Artificial Intelligence. Some think AI is the best thing since sliced bread- completely revolutionising how we think about and approach our content.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, you have marketers who absolutely despise AI and would rather spend 8 hours finding a statistic or answer than use ChatGPT.
At Blaze, we maintain a balanced perspective on AI. While we recognise that AI can significantly enhance certain marketing tasks, we firmly believe that our talented staff can’t be replaced by technology.
However, we do like the idea of having a robot on staff.
The world of AI is just at the beginning stages of its evolution, and there is no way of telling how it will advance in the coming years or how it will change the marketing world.
Until that day comes, we will continue using our premium ChatGPT account to prove each other wrong about random trivia, and we’ll continue to say please and thank you- just in case AI goes all Westworld on us.
Keep reading if you want to learn more about the impact of AI on content marketing, and hear from industry experts about when you should and shouldn’t use AI in your content marketing campaigns.
The Growth of AI in Marketing
It’s no secret that AI has become a huge part of digital marketing. Even if you don’t necessarily agree with the use of AI, if you continue to reject the part it has to play in marketing, you’re just going to fall out of touch with the industry.
In this constantly evolving industry, there are bound to be things you don’t understand, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re bad.
AI has been implemented throughout the marketing industry, from competitor analysis to AI chatbots. Running a successful marketing campaign is hard work, so why wouldn’t you want something there to help you along the way?
Why Are More Marketing Agencies Using AI?
Marketing agencies are increasingly adopting AI for various reasons, often sparking moral objections. A significant concern is that this shift primarily aims to reduce labour costs and save time.
Look, we get why some smaller businesses would need to do that, but at Blaze, we’re strongly against replacing industry professionals with zeroes and ones. We think that marketing agencies should nourish up-and-coming marketing talent while using AI technologies as a supportive tool to meet high demand.
Another reason is to improve productivity. Let’s face it: past the fun videos and fantastic conversions, some aspects of marketing can be, dare we say, boring.
Just ask our poor SEO Manager; he spends a good amount of time looking at numbers and statistics that would make the rest of us in the office cry, so if he can automate some of the more time-consuming SEO tasks, why wouldn’t he?
AI powered tools are being employed across marketing agencies around the globe to enable team members to concentrate on essential tasks with that valuable human touch, while passing on the more tedious tasks.
Now, we just need to figure out how to get our coffee mugs to fill themselves and march to our desks; then, we will have truly made it.
No matter how you feel about AI, there is no disputing that it has a role to play in marketing. Keep reading to find out when you should and shouldn’t use it.
When You Should Use AI
If you are a marketing agency and you’re trying to gauge the appropriate time to use AI models, we have you covered. We get it; it can be a careful balancing act between using AI to support your campaigns and sitting back and relaxing while AI runs your whole business and, eventually, your whole life, too… it’s a slippery slope.
Here are some examples of when you should use AI.
Identifying Opportunities
AI can be an incredibly powerful tool for identifying opportunities. AI tools can help you analyse market trends, identify gaps in the market, and find fantastic opportunities for your business.
There are AI tools that you can use to analyse historical data to predict future marketing trends, allowing you to get a better idea of what may be a success soon based on customer behaviours.
The world of marketing, especially content marketing, is very fast-moving and can go through frequent cycles of what’s popular and what’s not, so having these predictions can help to ensure that you’re staying ahead of the competition.
Competitor Analysis
Competitor analysis is an essential part of running any successful marketing campaign. It is important to have an understanding of your competitors so that you can get a good idea of their strengths, weaknesses and strategies.
Think of it this way: If a boxer is about to fight a new opponent, they will watch their games to get an idea of the usual moves and behaviours. Analysing your competitor is a lot like that, only less violent (most of the time).
The problem with completing a full analysis is that it can take hours to complete and require a plethora of different software, so why wouldn’t you want AI to be able to take care of it based on one simple command? Again, using AI solutions alongside marketing work frees up time to work on the crucial, creative tasks that matter.
Recommendations For Content
Think of AI as somewhat akin to Basil Fawlty- brimming with good ideas but not quite having mastered the execution. We get that the creative well can run dry sometimes and you need a good source of creative ideas and suggestions.
This is where AI can be incredibly useful, generating ideas that you can then bring to life. At Blaze, we often use AI to provide us with content ideas, and then our content marketing team turns these ideas into brilliant results.
For example, some of the videos that have found success on our Instagram page were actually based on AI suggestions, which shows that you can create some pretty great content by collaborating with AI.
Technical Issues and Formatting
When you hear people talking about the glamorous world of marketing, they fail to mention the constant technical issues and formatting that you have to take care of.
Say you had to write a long article about the use of AI in content marketing (no complaints here) to market your business, a big part of drafting the perfect piece of copy is getting your formatting down. Now, if you’re transferring and converting files, this can be ruined and take ages to fix.
With AI’s support, you can have the full thing formatted in seconds and then jump to your next brilliant blog.
People tend to forget that there is a whole technical aspect to marketing, with website management and ad analysis, things can go wrong and sometimes it can be hard to identify what that is.
AI can identify broken links or issues in your content, ensuring that it performs optimally. If you are running Google and Meta Ads (which you probably should be), you can use AI to analyse data and tweak bids based on performance data.
AI exists to simplify our lives rather than replace our roles, so utilising it in this way is the most effective approach.
Bulk Editing
Say you’ve created ad content and fantastic imagery… only for a client to say they want changes. We know some temples began to sweat while reading that.
The idea of going into every image or video and making an edit can seem impossible, especially when you have other work you need to focus on. We are sure that plenty of content creators have abandoned the industry altogether because of times like this.
Fortunately, AI software, including options linked to platforms like Canva, can edit your images with a simple command.
Isn’t that handy?
Product Merchandising
If you have an eCommerce store or are looking to showcase your products online, you will need to do product merchandising. This means cataloguing your products, adding images and providing descriptions.
This can be incredibly tedious and take up time better spent elsewhere. Luckily, you can have full product merchandising in less than a minute by inputting your catalogue into AI software such as Intercom or Crownpeak, and from there then go and manually edit products based on priority.
When Not to Use AI
We have established that AI can be a brilliant tool for running your content marketing campaign. However, a recurring problem that we have noticed is that some marketing agencies just don’t know how to use it right, using AI to complete every little task.
We’re sure that there have been times when you have seen adverts or even blogs that just feel heartless, and that’s because they’ve been created by AI incapable of human emotion.
Here are some instances when you shouldn’t use AI.
With Personalised Copy
We can see how it might look like we have a bias in this area, considering you’re currently reading a blog written by our in-house copywriter (hi!), but we strongly believe that AI should never be used to write personalised copy.
First of all, the apparent reason: people who are in thousands of pounds of debt after pursuing writing degrees have a hard enough time, so why take away one of the few job opportunities they have? Promise, no bias here…
When it comes to copy, you can tell when AI has written it from a mile away; it’s pretty obvious.
With long form blog posts and guides in mind, there is also evidence to suggest that informative copy written by content writers with a distinct brand voice will have priority over mass-produced, automated content, as it should.
While Google has stated in its policies that it doesn’t penalise AI content, its algorithm should be able to detect AI-written pieces and often favours the human touch. A study from Gotch SEO revealed that 83% of top Google search results were not using AI-generated content (albeit from a relatively small sample of 487 queries).
When Building a Brand Identity
How are you supposed to understand your brand identity when an ambiguous digital entity has dictated it? Knowing that AI has developed your branding, logo, and even company tagline might not inspire confidence in your clients.
Building a brand identity through AI might also present challenges for you; how are you supposed to understand your business when you haven’t had any part in putting it together?
Imagine you’re at a networking event, and someone compliments your branding and asks what inspired you. It would be a bit awkward to tell them that you were heavily inspired by the artistic flair of ChatGPT.
With the industry becoming so oversaturated with AI, industry professionals do hold a certain level of judgment when it comes to the overuse of AI, which could impact your business if discovered.
When Engaging With Customers
We understand that constantly replying to customers can be overwhelming, especially when trying to run a business. However, if you have posted some content on Instagram and a customer has gone out of their way to engage with it, the least they deserve is a response from a real person.
We understand using chatbots for general customer service on your website for general questions, but you should make sure that you are actively communicating with your clients. This will not only help you build your brand identity, but also encourage customer trust. Unique, helpful interactions with customers and clients across social platforms can also benefit your brand’s SEO long-term.
Meeting Google’s E-E-A-T Guidelines
Though it is true that Google can’t accurately detect AI content, there are standards in place that prioritise quality content. This means that AI must meet the same standard as human content, which it simply cannot do.
Content published on Google must showcase experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness. Unfortunately, AI content cannot be considered entirely trustworthy because it is essentially recycled content, so you may run into problems.
Will AI Replace Copywriters?
In short, we sure hope not. Our Copywriter has holidays to pay for this year, and sangria isn’t cheap.
But really, the debate within marketing over AI’s potential to replace copywriters is significant, and it’s undeniable that AI-generated copy is improving. However, it is unlikely that AI will fully replace copywriters anytime soon.
This is because to be a good copywriter, you need to be able to demonstrate creativity, empathy and a deep understanding of the target audience that you write for, which AI simply isn’t capable of doing. Human emotion can’t be replicated, no matter what WALL-E may have you believe.
People tend to prefer to work with marketing agencies with an in-house copywriter, like Blaze, as this allows them to bring their identity to life authentically.
Copywriters:1 Ai:0 (and 1s).
Is AI Content Copyright Free?
Utilising generative AI may infringe copyright laws since no AI-generated content is genuinely original. This is particularly relevant for AI art, which combines elements from pre-existing artworks.
This is why there are so many debates around whether or not AI art is ethically acceptable, with many artists unhappy that their art is being used to make effortless art.
The same can be said about AI-generated content. When you use ChatGPT to write a blog for you, it is essentially regurgitating the hard work of copywriters all over the internet, not creating anything genuinely unique for your brand.
When you create a brand, you do it to stand out in your industry, how can you stand out if your brand is built on the recycled efforts of other brands?
Make Content With The Help of Industry Experts at Blaze
Hopefully, from this blog, you have gathered that AI is a huge part of the marketing agency and should be used to automate tasks and take care of tedious work, but it by no means has the capability to step in the shoes of a creative mind with expertise in the industry.
If you are struggling to produce the right content for your business and don’t know where to turn, consider moving away from AI and towards a creative marketing agency that can provide the support you need.
At Blaze, our team of industry experts are more than qualified to help you produce content for your business that will have an impact. More and more people are turning to agencies for support, and with good reason.
Get in touch to find out how we can help you.