With concerns involving everything from cybersecurity and data privacy to algorithm bias and compliance with regulations, it’s no surprise that marketers are hesitant to implement artificial intelligence (AI) in content marketing.
In fact, a global survey of executives found that the top two factors hampering responsible AI initiatives at their company were AI expertise and talent and training or knowledge among staff members.
So how can content marketers with limited expertise and training remain competitive as AI takes a bigger role for brands? For now, ensure you’re following best practices.
Here are some ways to limit risks when using generative AI in your content marketing strategies.
Where AI can help your content marketing
One of the simplest ways to put AI to work while minimizing any risks to your brand is by positioning the tool as an assistant. Consider assigning these behind-the-scenes tasks to improve efficiency and cost savings while scaling your marketing efforts.
Brainstorming and inspiration
The human mind may have a leg up on creativity compared to AI, which can only generate new ideas from materials and information that already exist in some form. But the tool truly shines when it comes to brainstorming and developing campaign mock-ups to help teams provide visuals for planning purposes.
Let’s say you’re working on an influencer marketing campaign. You could ask AI to help you brainstorm campaign ideas or hashtags and then ask it to generate images you can pass along to the influencer to use as inspiration.
Creating outlines and rough drafts
AI can write social media posts, emails, and blogs, but your brand could risk its reputation and legal troubles if the content is inaccurate, false, unethical, or in violation of regulations regarding plagiarism.
Instead, use the tool to create outlines and rough drafts for longer text and rely on human quality control to flesh out the full piece. After all, AI’s inability to feel means you’ll need to rely on your flesh-and-blood team members to craft compelling stories that evoke emotion in a voice, tone, and style that best reflects that of your brand.
Without input from human marketers, you may be left with low-value, homogenous, or “clickbaity” content that does more damage than it does to provide value.
Considering that ChatGPT trained itself using copyrighting material, make sure every piece of content is unique and that someone on your team runs everything through a plagiarism checker, just in case.
Preliminary editing
While AI can certainly catch grammatical and spelling errors, it can also make them. That’s why it’s vital that marketers only rely on AI for preliminary editing, not the final say. Despite what you may have heard, AI is not infallible. Even the best AI models are only as strong as the training data you provide or the information AI can access from the Internet.
Run your content through AI but only as a first filter. Leave the fact-checking and final editing to human talent. This isn’t only about capturing mistakes, it’s about ensuring your message is engaging, effective, and on brand.
Customizing content for segmentation
To create content that resonates with your audience, you’ll need to personalize messaging, imagery, video content, and offers.
Put AI to work analyzing data and identifying consumer behavior patterns to give you a clear vision of how to reach and engage with different segments of your target audience.
Generating memes
Not every piece of content needs to be informational. Sometimes, all it takes is one funny meme to take a brand’s name viral.
Give AI a chance to play around with emerging trends, images, and concepts related to your brand. Just ensure that the meme is harmless or, at the very least, not “punching down.”
Where human creatives are essential
Human oversight is always necessary to ensure that your brand is not only in compliance with regulations but also adhering to ethical standards.
Designate a team member to stay current on developments in AI, including regulatory changes, pending lawsuits, and industry reports on everything from data gathering to privacy. Work closely with your brand’s legal advisors, who will likely be trying to stay abreast of this rapidly evolving technology and its moral, ethical, and legal issues.
And speaking of ethics, your human creatives are the last line of defense to avoid sharing content that unintentionally conveys bias or discrimination. Without the human ability to use moral and ethical judgment, generative AI may pull information or create biased or discriminatory visuals.
When it comes to best practices for using AI in content marketing, the number one fact to remember is that artificial intelligence is a tool to assist humans, not the other way around. An over-reliance on any machine — no matter how advanced — will pull you away from authentic, emotion-driven, ethical content, and your target audience will know the difference.
