Should you use AI (Chat GPT) in your content marketing?

Before I start – I know a lot of fellow business owners who DO use AI to generate a lot of content. I know business owners who TEACH other people how to use AI to generate content. I was probably one of the first people who got shiny object syndrome and bought a course on how to sell AI prompts to my audience! ( I still haven’t looked at it…)

If it works for you, saves you time, and sanity, and you’re generating leads from it – great!

I’m a massive advocate of you doing YOU. What works for you, might not work for someone else. We all require our own strategy and tactics because we are all unique. And one person’s business goals might differ from another.

I’m also only coming at this from a content generation perspective as a copywriter.

When would I use Chat GPT to generate marketing content?

For me – it’s when you need fast easy-to-access content and you’re not too bothered about your unique tone of voice. For example, If you need to get up Google search rankings FAST on a limited budget. Are time-poor. And are looking for SEO keyword-rich content that’s loosely based on your own language, with educational content that is generally already out there. Chat GPT is going to help you out. Chat GPT of course can only rely on the content that is already out there, OR the content that you put into it.

But I feel that the actual ‘relatable content creation’ part, when it comes to connecting with people – still needs to be generated by you.

That knowledge that you only have in your head, from your stories, your rich colourful experiences, the lessons you’ve learned. The things you want to share to show you are a thought leader (because it’s unique content that hasn’t been ripped from the internet). I do believe that needs to come from you.

Asking Chat GPT to expand on, or check your uniquely written content

 There is no reason why you can’t write something and ask Chat GPT to check it and make it sound a certain way.

But. Be aware that OpenAI do collect and store prompts and data that you enter, to improve their models. In fact, I even asked ChatGPT to clarify this for me, as I asked it quite a few times and it kept skirting around the issue!

Why is that important? Well - what if you’ve written a thought leadership piece that you don’t want re-shared? How ‘that’ works is a little grey when you look at the response above. And when I pushed Chat GPT about how it uses that information it told me to re-read their policies (which I had) or take it up with them, and that they take data privacy seriously.

Earlier this month (September 2023) The Guardian released this article about how major news outlets are protecting themselves from Chat GPT harvesting their content by blocking access to their harvesting bots.

The Publishers Association have just written to the government to address concerns over the access to their content stating “we ask that your government makes a strong statement either as part of, or in parallel with, your Summit to make clear that UK intellectual property law should be respected when any content is ingested by AI systems and a licence obtained in advance.”

If you are a content creator it’s also my belief that you shouldn’t be producing any AI generated content FOR your clients without their express permission (and knowledge)

There are a lot of questions and it doesn’t seem like, in my opinion, enough answers when it comes to privacy around data and intellectual property that is harvested from the web or through inputs into the AI.

So before you pour the content that you worked really hard to create, into Chat GPT, think about whether or not it’s content that you want to protect when there is still little understanding of how it’s used.

Note: There are ways to block AI from crawling your website and harvesting your content but they might be best left to a developer to do unless you are a dab hand at coding.

 Using Chat GPT for Idea Creation

I personally have used Chat GPT for idea creation when I have a creative block. Let’s say you want to create a course and you’re stuck on sub-topic ideas. Using the example course ‘Creating a Daily Mindful Practice” Let’s ask Chat GPT for some example modules.

This is the prompt I enter:

I’m a coach for online business owners and I want to create a course on creating a daily mindful practice to help people both in their business and their personal life. Please give me an example of 10 modules I could create for them taking them through the process of creating a daily mindful practice. Please give me some ideas as to what content I could put into those modules.

Now it gave me a breakdown of each module too. But I’ll include only the first one here to save you the hassle of reading through them all.

Module 1: Introduction to Mindfulness

- Define mindfulness and its benefits for business and personal life.

- Discuss the science behind mindfulness and its impact on mental health.

- Share success stories of entrepreneurs who have benefited from mindfulness.

Module 2: Setting Clear Intentions

Module 3: Mindful Breathing

Module 4: Body Scan Meditation

Module 5: Mindful Time Management

Module 6: Mindful Communication

Module 7: Stress Reduction

Module 8: Mindful Decision-Making

Module 9: Gratitude and Mindfulness

Module 10: Creating a Sustainable Mindfulness Practice

Chat GPT: Throughout the course, consider incorporating video lessons, guided meditations, journaling prompts, group discussions, and accountability check-ins to keep your students engaged and committed to their daily mindful practice. Encourage them to share their progress and experiences, fostering a supportive online community of like-minded business owners.

NOW - things to be aware of:

1.      Other people may be putting similar prompts in and creating courses with similar titles and content. So be mindful of how you can make this uniquely your own.

2.      Chat GPT doesn’t always give the most up-to-date content based on the latest research. For example, I asked it for some dog training advice and it gave me outdated advice on alpha dog dominance theory. When I questioned it, it apologised and agreed that the alpha dog dominance theory had been debunked!

3.      Treat Chat GPT like a teammate in the office. As if you were chatting to your friend at the computer next to you. ‘Hey, what do you think of this? I don’t like this sentence, can you give me some alternative ideas that feel a bit more exciting?’ For me, Chat GPT is someone to bounce ideas about with and spark little areas of my brain when I get that creativity brain freeze.

In summary – should I use AI (Chat GPT) in my content marketing?

I think yes and no. Until we know more about the IP implications I’m very hesitant to feed it lots of content generated by me or my clients. I’m not saying don’t - I’m just telling you what I’m doing.

I like it as a creative tool to help generate ideas that you can tweak and expand on. Content creation is just one VERY small way that AI is being used in the Marketing industry, there are many other awesome things that AI can do - check out this podcast from the CIM.

What are your thoughts on AI-generated marketing content?

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