If you know us, you probably already know our stance on ChatGPT:

You should not be using it to write your content.

We say this for a few simple reasons:

• The rise of AI has made it easier than ever for people to write content—most of which falls onto the mountain of “meh” (that article was written long before AI took off, so the idea is even more relevant today)
• Because of this new ability for people to churn out huge volumes of mediocre content, Google’s March 2024 core update is taking aim at AI generated content and proactively favoring and rewarding true quality instead
• AI-written content typically lacks the depth, accuracy, and originality of content strategized by, featuring, and written by real people (we tested ChatGPT’s content writing skills a while back and shared the results—you can check that out here)
• In a world where we’re inundated by content, quality is king—and that’s where AI lacks

With all of that being said, though…

AI tools like ChatGPT can be incredibly helpful for other aspects of content marketing, especially if you’re new to creating content or your team’s bandwidth is limited.

So, we wanted to share a few ChatGPT-specific tips to help improve and streamline your content marketing efforts:

• Overcoming writer’s block: Inspiration isn’t always on tap. By giving ChatGPT a detailed explanation of your goals and audience, you can use the platform to generate writing prompts and topic ideas to kick-start your creative process.
• Learning and developing new skills: If you’re unsure about how to do something content-related, from basic SEO best practices to content distribution ideas and beyond, you can ask ChatGPT to explain it to you in simple terms or via tutorials.
• Researching: The latest version of ChatGPT—GPT4—can actually browse the internet. This means you can use it for things like analyzing competitors, trends, and audiences. Just make sure to fact-check everything it tells you—ChatGPT has been known to fabricate things from time to time.
• Content Structuring: ChatGPT can assist you in creating detailed outlines and organizing your content logically, offering suggestions for improvement. We would recommend that you avoid using it for editing as it has a tendency to make your content sound robotic.
• Image Resizing and Editing: You can use ChatGPT to resize and edit images. This is really helpful for things like adjusting composition, brightness, color saturation, and file size. Pro tip: it is incredibly difficult to get ChatGPT to create quality imagery from scratch, so we wouldn’t bother with that unless you’ve got a ton of time to tinker.
• Optimizing Blog Headlines and Email Subject Lines: Another great way to use ChatGPT is for optimizing blog headlines and email subject lines. For example, if you’ve written one option, you can ask the platform to give you a few additional iterations. Or, you can pop your content into ChatGPT and ask it to suggest a few headline/subject line ideas. In our experience, you’ll generally get a few ideas for how to make things punchier or more concise. It can also spark ideas for how to make yours even better.
• Metrics Analysis: Feeling lost in what your Google Analytics metrics mean? You can copy and paste entire sections into ChatGPT and ask it what you can explain what you’re seeing. This is helpful if you value data but don’t know how to make sense of all of the information at your disposal.
• Social Media Responses and Captions: You can ask ChatGPT to help craft templates for responding to common inquiries or comments on social media. This can save time and maintain a consistent voice across your channels. You can also ask it to give you social media caption ideas to help promote your content across your various channels.

When it comes to content marketing, everything you do should:

• Start with a strategy (and stick to it)
• Align with your business objectives
• Have a defined goal, objective, and audience
• Be aligned with your brand and your service offerings
• Be rooted in quality and originality
• Cater to what your audience really wants
• Educate, entertain, engage, and educate your audience (the 4Es)

There is no substitute for these elements, and they can’t readily be replicated by robots.

But once you have those boxes checked, AI tools like ChatGTP can be incredibly helpful in augmenting and enhancing your creativity, strategic thinking, and execution.

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