AI in Marketing Content: 3 Ways to Approach and Apply AI in Writing

You’re scrolling LinkedIn, and something eery falls over you. The voice of your favorite thought leader just feels…off. There are tell-tale signs: too many emojis, way-too-expressive adjectives, and the lack of genuine connection. Where did my person go?   

What does this feeling point to? You might’ve guessed it – Artificial Intelligence (AI) in content.  

We’re not saying AI is bad. It’s a tool like anything else. It’s evolving every day, and we’re all trying to figure it out together.  

As a word nerd and writer who’s spent decades honing my craft, I might have a little beef with AI’s writing skills, but I know that writers who use AI will outperform writers who don’t. Now, what’s important is not if we will use AI in marketing content, but how. AI is capable of great writing, so it’s our job to get it there. 

What Is Artificial Intelligence? 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) refers to systems that can perform tasks typically requiring human intelligence. These tasks include problem-solving, learning, perception, and understanding natural language.  

• The goal of AI is to create machines that can mimic human intelligence, ultimately allowing them to operate autonomously and adapt to changing situations. 
• Chat platforms use natural language processing (NLP) to engage with website visitors and provide instant support, enhancing customer experience and lead generation. 
• Disclaimer: This information was generated using ChatGPT (See how useful it can be at times?). 

Now that we’ve got the foundation, let’s look at how to approach AI in marketing content. 

1. AI Innovation within Marketing 

“You’re in marketing? What do you think about this whole AI thing?” Raise a hand if this sounds familiar!  

AI is a huge topic right now in the marketing/content/tech space as it makes its way into webinars, conferences, and now, your daily tasks. It’s been around longer than you may realize, but since OpenAI became accessible to the general public, AI has made an obvious debut. 

Anything can be negative when used to an extreme – people are nervous over the loss of jobs or even AI taking over humanity, so we need to understand it and its uses as it evolves. 

Technology is constantly advancing, and AI is a tool just like anything else! It can increase efficiency, productivity, and innovation.  

ASK YOURSELF (AND YOUR TEAM):

• What tools are most effective? 
• Where can it help enhance my daily tasks? 
• How do I gain these new skills and then implement them?

AI won’t replace writers/marketers. Individuals who use AI will replace those who don’t! 

2. AI Content in HubSpot

You’ve likely heard of ChatGPT or other AI writing tools – maybe you’ve used them or avoided them altogether. And what’s HubSpot doing about AI? 

HubSpot is constantly evolving to stay ahead of the latest tech advances, so the platform has some new tools that allow you to implement AI right inside your account – check out AI in HubSpot here.  

We touched on some of the new AI platform updates released at INBOUND23 here: HubSpot Releases AI Updates at INBOUND: 7 Tools You Should Use – so let’s dig into the content uses.

The following tools are free for all HubSpot users upon general release, with additional features included in premium plans.

CHATSPOT

ChatSpot enables you to get tasks done faster using AI-powered, chat-based commands. It’s a tool that uses your CRM to leverage prospect and client data for sales and marketing use cases, and it also has writing capabilities.  

• Do you remember GrowthBot? It sort of worked, but had to be shut down, and now with the use of OpenAI, ChatSpot is now possible. 
• ChatSpot isn’t content-centric, it’s more for keyword or competitive research with questions tied to your CRM, so it can be helpful for sales, marketing, and content strategy. 
  

CONTENT ASSISTANT

Content Assistant is HubSpot’s tool that helps you create AI-powered content, all in one place. You’ll find Content Assistant directly within your Marketing Hub account, and it’s working its way into the new Sales Hub tools as well!  

HubSpot’s Content Assistant AI tools give users the ability to: 

• Generate sales and marketing email, blog, knowledge base, web page, and landing page copy, with social media copy generation coming soon. 
• Rewrite and repurpose existing text blocks. 
• Outline long-form content such as whitepapers and ebooks. 
• Brainstorm topic ideas. 

HOW CONTENT ASSISTANT WORKS:

Type "/" to get started with slash commands within HubSpot's blog, landing pages, and website pages. Or, you can edit the knowledge base, web page, landing page, blog, or marketing email copy by highlighting the text you want to change and letting Content Assistant surface suggestions for you. 

With a simple forward slash in Marketing Hub, you can: 

• Get blog ideas 
• Create blog outlines 
• Generate paragraphs
• Write prospecting emails
• Amplify your ideas
• Create marketing emails
• And more, of course!
  

3. How to Effectively Leverage AI in Content

As AI blossoms, tools and platforms are increasing monumentally. They run through OpenAI technology with different interfaces and outputs. 

POPULAR AI WRITING TOOLS:

• ChatGPT  
• Google Bard 
• Bing Chat (only within MS Edge Browser or app) 
• Content-specific platforms, like Copy.ai, Writer.ai, Jasper, etc. 
  

Many of these tools have multiple uses, so I’m coming from a content perspective here, and I haven’t used all of them in depth! You’ve got to ask the robots about the specifics. 🤖 

The most important aspect of implementing AI for your content efforts is how you leverage it. It’s the garbage in, garbage out idea – if you’re not prompting the tools well, they will give you poor results; whereas if you learn how to hone your prompting skills, they will provide better outputs (that will still need edits). 

Bonus: Practical Applications for AI Writing in Marketing 

We all know the tools are out there – whether you’re using ChatGPT, HubSpot, or another AI platform, it’s not beneficial if you don’t know how to put it into action. What I’ve noticed is that AI doesn’t understand puns & logic, and it makes up facts! They all have disclaimers for a reason – so don’t take anything it spits out as truth – always fact-check and edit.

BEST PRACTICES FOR AI IN WRITING:

• Prompting makes all the difference. 
• Copy into plain text to ease formatting issues from ChatGPT to a document. 
• Don’t put any personal/proprietary info in. 
• Edit, edit, edit! 
  

CONTENT USE CASES FOR AI:

• Event promo for webinars (email sequences) 
• Social media – varying copy for different platforms  
• Ad copy ideas 
• Outline starters/ideation 
• Repurposing/rewriting/condensing content
  

HELPFUL PROS TO CHECK OUT:

• HubSpot AI (includes other HubSpot updates) 
• Marketing AI Institute (content and podcasts) 
  
  

The world of AI is constantly changing, so marketers need to stay on top of what’s happening to increase efficiency and automate processes.  

Whenever you use AI, don’t forget that human creativity & intellect are key. Remember, “Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You” (Dr. Seuss).