A Simple Guide To AI Content Marketing

Most content marketers are experimenting with AI, but figuring out how to use it effectively can be challenging.

While some content marketers have achieved great results from AI, others find themselves wasting too much time improving AI content. 

The key to a successful AI content strategy is understanding the specific steps of your content strategy AI can automate and how to use it to ensure it executes those tasks effectively.  

In this post, we’ll discuss how and where you can incorporate AI into your content strategy to create more content that’s higher quality in less time.

What is AI Content Marketing?

AI content marketing is a strategy that leverages artificial intelligence (a combination of machine learning, deep learning, and natural language processing) to execute and automate tasks related to creating, editing, and distributing content, such as blog posts, social media posts, and videos.

Using ChatGPT to write a blog post or a social media post is an example of AI content marketing.

However, writing content is just one of many use cases for AI in a content marketing strategy.

In this post, we’ll discuss some of the most effective ways to incorporate AI into your content marketing strategy.

The Benefits of AI In Content Marketing

Here are a few of the main benefits of AI content and why you should consider incorporating it into your strategy.

Increase Content Volume 

The more content your brand publishes, the more opportunities you’ll have to reach a new audience and re-engage your existing audience. 

Before AI, smaller content teams were at a significant disadvantage to larger companies with bigger budgets because they simply couldn’t produce the same volume of content. 

Thanks to AI content tools, producing content requires less time, which significantly reduces the cost.

As a result, smaller content teams can increase their content output and compete with larger companies. 

Improve Content Quality 

As content writers become tired, many will cut corners by leaving out a section or failing to add examples.

AI content can solve these issues because it can write all of the basic content, like defining terms and providing basic how-to advice.

Then, the writer can focus on higher level tasks, like injecting helpful examples and providing insightful analysis on a given topic.

Another common challenge with content marketing is determining what the audience wants to know. A meticulous, well-written piece of content is useless if it doesn’t actually answer the audience’s question.

AI can solve this problem, as you can ask a tool like ChatGPT what a reader researching your content topic would want to know and their pain points. 

This way, you’ll know what topics to include in your article and specific problems it needs to address.

Plenty of AI content tools can also check grammar and offer alternative phrasing suggestions to improve the accuracy of your content. This reduces the effort required from content editors, which reduces cost and improves content quality. 

Implement An Omnichannel Approach

Omni channel marketing isn’t a new concept, but it was previously only feasible for larger content teams that could afford to hire dedicated content repurposing specialists.

For example, a content team might hire someone to convert a podcast episode into a blog post and several social media posts.

This task could easily take a few hours, costing the company several hundred dollars. For smaller content teams, it simply wasn’t realistic to take an omni channel approach, which meant missing out on valuable impressions for its current audience and reaching new audiences.

Today, AI can replace the job of a general content repurposer, allowing even small teams to repost content across multiple platforms at little to no additional cost.

Optimize Content At Scale

Google is an algorithm, and it looks for clues, like specific related keywords within a blog post, to determine rankings in the search results.

However, manually identifying which additional keywords the algorithm might be looking for is nearly impossible (or at least very time consuming) and then you still need to ensure you include them in your blog post. 

Fortunately, AI makes this task easier. 

Many of the modern AI writing tools allow you to type in a keyword, and then they analyze the search results for that keyword and generate a list of related keywords you should include in your blog post. 

Then, it checks off the keywords as you use them in your blog post. This allows you to optimize content at scale. 

How To Use AI In Your Content Marketing Strategy

Below, we’ll outline a step-by-step strategy that anyone can use to automate their AI content strategy.

Generate Content Ideas

One of the main reasons a content strategy fails is because the content team selects topics that are irrelevant to their target audience. 

As a result, the content attracts an audience who will never buy their products or services, and the ROI from the content is $0.

AI can solve this problem and generate relevant content ideas for you. Tell ChatGPT about your ideal audience and then ask it to create content ideas relevant to their pain points. Here’s a very basic prompt you can use:

To make the prompt even more accurate, you can add more customer data, like specific pain points, job title, company, industry, and other information.

Here’s an example of a response ChatGPT might give you:

Not all of the ideas are great and you might need to amend them, but it can help you get going. For example, remote team collaboration might be a great subject to explore.  

Next, you can take that topic and put it into a keyword research tool to find more related keywords and questions:

You can also do competitive analysis and look at competitors’ ranking for keywords related to the topic ChatGPT generated.

For example, if you have a scheduling tool, you could take a competitor like Calendly, put its URL into a keyword research tool like Ahrefs, and look at its content on remote team collaboration.

You’ll see that Calendly ranks for the keyword “remote collaboration software,” which might be a great keyword to target:

Then, you can save a list of these keywords in a spreadsheet for content ideas. 

Outline Creation

Creating an outline is the first step to transforming a blank document into a piece of content, and getting those first few words written is one of the most intimidating steps of the content writing process. 

AI eliminates this initial roadblock of putting words on a document as it can generate an outline for you.

You can use ChatGPT or a paid AI writing tool to complete this task.

If you want to use ChatGPT, here’s a prompt to create an outline: 

Then, it will generate an outline with specific topics to mention in each section:

Next, ask it to list some of the frequently asked questions related to that topic. Including these questions in your blog post will help your content earn more traffic as it will show up for these more specific questions: 

You can add those FAQs to your outline:

There are plenty of AI writing tools that generate content briefs for you. Just type in a keyword and most of these tools will generate an outline along with FAQs and People Also Asked questions.

Research Audience Pain Points

Good content provides accurate information.

Great content provides answers to a reader’s specific problems.

The more accurately you understand the reader’s problems, the better your content will be. For example, let’s say the keyword for your blog post is “remote collaboration tools.” 

This paragraph accurately describes what the remote collaboration tool, Asana, does:

The only problem is that the information is very generic and it’s applicable to virtually any remote collaboration project management tool.

So the content doesn’t really help someone comparing different software make a purchase decision.

To improve the quality and helpfulness of the content, it’s important to understand the specific pain points the reader is using the software to solve. 

Fortunately, you can use AI to research your audience’s pain points. 

If the keyword is “remote collaboration software,” ask ChatGPT about the problems someone researching remote collaboration software might be facing:

To make the prompt even more accurate, include more detailed information about your customers. For example, if you only target agencies and the primary purchaser is the COO, you can include that in your prompt:

You can also go deeper on any of these pain points by asking ChatGPT follow up questions like this:

Then, it will provide details with more specific scenarios that your reader might be facing:

This level of detail and insight into your customer’s pain points will help you tailor the content to be much more relatable and ensure that the copywriting addresses their specific problems. 

To show you how you can use audience research in a how-to style blog post, consider the topic “video marketing strategy.”

In this case, you can ask ChatGPT to give you specific pain points that someone searching that term might be experiencing:

This list of pain points will help you better tailor the copywriting in your content to the target audience.

Again, go one level deeper and ask it to provide a specific scenario of each of the pain points it mentions:

It then provides some specific problems that this audience faces regarding resource constraints:

So, how do you use this audience research?

As you’re writing each section of the video marketing guide, you can mention these specific pain points, like time resource, and the solutions to each one. 

For example, an average piece of content might provide production tips like this:

Though because we know that the average reader struggles with resource constraints, advice like buying a quality camera isn’t actually that helpful.

Instead, ask ChatGPT to write that section considering the pain points it mentioned earlier:

You’ll see that the result below is much more effectively tailored to the reader’s pain points and is therefore more helpful advice than the original version it wrote:

You can see that this response is much more helpful to a reader facing the pain points uncovered from your audience research. Therefore, you’ll find it’s easier to build a loyal customer base that turns to your brand for answers.

As a result, searchers are more likely to click on your content when they see it in the search results. And if people consistently click on your blog post over other blog posts in the search results, algorithms will reward it by ranking your blog post higher.

SEO Optimization

Search engines rely on algorithms to determine rankings in the search results. And algorithms use specific factors, like commonly mentioned keywords, subtopics, and other on-page cues to evaluate blog posts.

While it’s unreasonable to expect a single human to analyze each blog post in the search results and identify patterns, AI can.

Here are a few specific ways you can use AI to optimize for SEO:

• Identify semantic keywords (keywords commonly mentioned with the primary keyword) to add to your blog post.
• Identify important subtopics to include in the outline (H2s)
• Identify FAQs and People Also Asked questions to include in your blog post

There are plenty of AI writing tools that can do this for you. Here’s an example from the AI writing tool, Cuppa.sh:

However, you can also use ChatGPT to ask it to create an optimized outline for you, find specific semantic keywords, and identify commonly asked questions. 

Here’s an example of a prompt you can use to uncover semantic keywords:

Another underrated use case for AI in content marketing is using it to identify relevant studies to support your claims. Search engines like Google want to show accurate information to users, so linking to relevant studies can help your content rank higher in the search results. 

Here’s a prompt you can use to build a list of research studies for a specific claim:

Content Editing

AI writing tools, like Grammarly, can catch grammar and spelling errors, significantly reducing the time you’ll spend editing content and improving the final result.

It can also rewrite sentences and provide different phrasing suggestions.  

QuillBot also offers a free paragraph rephraser, and it can translate short paragraphs for free:

There are also plenty of AI writing tools that offer plagiarism checkers to ensure writers (AI or human) aren’t copying other work. 

Note: Some content marketers also use ChatGPT to edit content, though in my experience, it tends to be long winded and wordy. Therefore, I personally avoid using ChatGPT for content editing.

Content Repurposing

AI can help you maximize the reach of any piece of content by allowing you to repurpose it across different platforms. 

For example, if you have a blog post, you can paste it into ChatGPT and ask it to create a well optimized post for each social media platform.

For best results, make your prompt very specific. For example, my first prompt was very generic:

And it produced a very generic response:

So I rewrote the prompt with a more specific angle (common challenges someone building a personal brand might face and how this post will help).

This response is much closer to something I’d actually post on LinkedIn. It still requires some editing, but I’m no longer starting from scratch.

You can also use AI to repurpose podcasts and video content into written content. 

For example, download a transcript of any audio content with a tool like Transkriptor and then ask ChatGPT to write an outline based on the transcript:

The outline it produced was pretty decent:

Next, you can ask it to write each of the paragraphs:

Then, you can hire an editor to edit the blog post and repurpose it into social media content.

If the original piece of content is a video, there are plenty of AI video editors, like Opus, that generate short video clips from long form content.

Content Translation

Translating your content into another language is another opportunity to earn more traffic and reach a broader audience. 

You can use a tool like Smartcat to translate written content for you, though remember that AI is still improving, and you should hire a native speaker to edit the content for you. 

You could also ask ChatGPT to translate content for you, though you’ll likely have even more errors, so you’ll have to invest more money in the editing process.

There are plenty of translators on Upwork that you can hire to review the content:

There are also tools like HeyGen that translate video content into different languages and even deep fake the speakers lips to match the language. 

Here’s a sample video of how YouTubers Colin and Samir used the tool to translate their content:

Tips To Improve The Quality of AI Content

AI can automate many steps of the content creation process, but the quality of the content still depends on the creator and the content strategy. 

Here are some tips to improve the quality of your AI content. 

Use a Human Editor

AI can help with some of the content editing process, though it’s still important to have a human editor manually check it.

Here is a specific AI editing checklist you can give to your editors:

• Use short sentences. Communicate clearly using as few words as possible.
• Break up long paragraphs to ensure each is less than four lines.
• Remove fluff and obvious advice.
• Fact-check all statistics and data for accuracy.

Include Unique Examples and Experiences

AI has made it easier to generate answers to questions, but most people seeking advice also want to hear about real experiences from real people.

For example, a scientific study might show that the keto diet can expedite weight loss.

If you’re interested in the keto diet, you might also want to hear from someone who has tried the keto diet. You might have some questions like:

• How hard was it to stick with the diet?
• What surprised you the most about it?
• What do you wish you knew before trying the keto diet? 

Search engines also prioritize ranking content demonstrating personal experience as Google recently updated its quality rater guidelines (a set of guidelines it uses to help determine which posts to rank first in the search results) to include experience. 

So what if you don’t have personal experience with the topic?

One option is to interview an expert on that topic and then add their story and point of view to the content.

Here’s a great example of how someone took a real influencer’s story and wrote it into a cohesive post that demonstrates real experience. While it is a Twitter post, you could easily do this with a blog post too.

In this case, the writer didn’t even interview the influencer in person. They simply researched the influencer’s story and compiled it into a compelling post.

Another option to demonstrate personal experience is asking real experts for quotes or stories. 

For example, SEMrush frequently asks its executives for quotes on marketing tips.

If you can’t reach executives, you can always contact influencers on social media for a quote.

Use Visuals 

A wall of text is overwhelming, and most people will just leave the page rather than trying to read it. 

Adding visuals to break up the text and communicate your message is a great way to provide a better user experience. As a result, they’ll stay on the page for longer, which is a positive engagement signal to search engines and can ultimately help your content rank higher.

Some great examples of visuals include:

• Infographics
• Screenshots
• Quotes
• Charts

The key to using visuals effectively is ensuring they explain the concept.

In fact, a good test is to ask yourself if you can understand the gist of the blog post by reading the subheadings and scanning the images. 

Here are a few options to create images:

• Annotated Screenshots: If you take a screenshot, you can edit it directly in Google Docs (Insert > Drawing > New). Just upload the image and then add arrows or circles to explain your point.

• Branded Graphics: You can use Canva to create virtually any type of graphics. Its pro plan allows you to upload brand colors, fonts, and other styles to ensure each graphic you create matches.

• General Images: If you have ChatGPT4, you can use it to generate images. It isn’t always accurate, but it can help you generate ideas for the rough draft of a graphic.

Inserting these graphics and images makes your content higher quality, and the images themselves can earn shares and backlinks, increasing your content’s reach.

Use More Specific Prompts

Most AI content is very generic because the prompts are too general. 

Here are some tips for writing prompts that produce higher quality content:

1. Provide background information on your reader and their pain points. Here are a few examples:

• “What are the pain points someone searching “keyword” might face?” then ask ChatGPT the follow up question, “Considering the pain points mentioned above, write a paragraph on (subheader title).”
• “You are the (title) at (type of company). You’re researching (problem) because (scenario). Provide a paragraph that would help this person understand (topic).” 

2. Ask it to address how most people solve the problem, the challenges with that approach, and a more effective solution. Here are a few examples:

• “How do most people (do the thing)?” Then, ask a follow-up question like “What are the common problems people run into when executing this process?” Finally, ask  “Considering these challenges, write a paragraph explaining the potential pitfalls with this approach and how to more effectively (execute topic).”

3. Give it your unique idea or angle on a specific topic. Here’s an example:

• Most people believe (X). I believe this is false because of (Y). Using this opinion, write a step by step post on how to (X). 

You’ll still need to manually edit the post, but ChatGPT can help you craft a unique idea on a topic that you can then mold into your own voice. 

Get More Help Developing Your AI Content Strategy

While AI can automate many steps in your content strategy, there’s definitely a learning curve to figuring out how to use it effectively.

From improving your prompts to finding the right tools, learning how to incorporate AI into your content marketing strategy can be overwhelming. If you want help from a group of seasoned entrepreneurs using AI to improve their content, consider joining the Copyblogger Academy.

It’s a community run by seven figure entrepreneurs and marketers, Charles Miller and Tim Stoddart. You can ask Charles and Tim all your AI content questions and get feedback from the community. You’ll also have access to nine courses, like copywriting, email marketing, personal branding, and other skills you need to kickstart your growth.
To see if the Copyblogger Academy is the right fit for you, try it out today risk free. If you aren’t completely satisfied, we’ll give you a full refund in the first 30 days.