Ever find yourself wondering if the awesome article you just read was penned by a human or generated by a machine? Welcome to the new reality where AI-generated content is paving the way for local businesses looking to start content marketing!
Now, using artificial intelligence may sound daunting at first. Still, it's gradually becoming a relied-upon tool for businesses looking to develop a winning content plan. This shouldn't come as too much of surprise since it's helping small businesses with limited time produce blog posts, articles, and reports quickly.
However, like any new technology, it's not all straightforward. There are pros and cons that come with using AI generated content for marketing your business that are worth considering.
On one hand, AI offers a fantastic stream of content with little effort, but on the other, it has the potential to lack the human touch that often makes content resonate.
Yet whenever there's a new tool that has the potential to save time and money, it's no surprise that businesses are strongly considering the perks of adding it into their workflow.
So, with all that said, let's explore the pros and cons of AI generated content in the fast-paced world of content marketing.
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What Is AI-Generated Content?
AI-generated content refers to content that is created using AI tools and algorithms instead of being written by a human. These tools are designed to analyze and understand existing content and then produce new content based on that information. This can include articles, blog posts, social media posts, and other marketing materials.
Now, there's a wide range of generative AI tools that can be used for content creation, ranging from helping with brainstorming content ideas, drafting short-form content, or write entire blog posts. It's up to you to consider what kind of writing tools your team can benefit from.
How Do AI Content Generators Work?
Typically, the process starts with you, the user, by entering a keyword or topic followed by some context to give the AI generator a direction for its initial output. If you're using a tool like ChatGPT, this is called a prompt, whereas a tool like Content at Scale will guide you through filling in specific fields.
Once that's done, the AI writing tools get to work by using natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning algorithms to generate text. They start by analyzing large amounts of content, identifying patterns, and creating new content based on those patterns.
As these algorithms have evolved, they can now pull from various sources, including websites, digitized books, and articles, to ensure that the generated content is helpful and as accurate as it thinks is possible.
This is a very important distinction that will be covered later in the article.
Why Should Local Businesses Consider Using AI-Generated Content?
There are multiple reasons why local businesses in the US should consider incorporating AI-generated content into their content marketing strategies.
One key advantage is its ability to generate insightful content in mere minutes instead of the hours it would have taken previously to craft an entire blog post.
Another attractive advantage for local businesses is the lower overall cost per article. Previously, hiring quality content writers to create content for your website would have typically cost hundreds of dollars per post and hours of their time to create a single post.
Now, with the power of AI content creation, those same talented writers can edit an entire post in a matter of a couple of hours. It's easy to see how these new AI tools could easily boost your content production by 3x to 5x, and that's probably on the conservative side.
The Pros of Using AI Generated Content
While we've covered a couple of reasons why local businesses might be interested in leveraging AI to help with their content marketing, let's look deeper at the potential pros and cons of AI generated content. Starting with the pros we have...
Increased Efficiency
Using AI generated content means you can potentially improve your efficiency at every stage of the content creation journey, from assisting with keyword suggestions, fleshing out creative content ideas, and structuring content outlines. Seriously, at almost every step, AI can help assist you.
This means you or your team can produce content in less time while still creating incredible articles to help your website get those organic views you know you need to grow your online presence.
The only stage of the content creation process you should never replace fully with AI is one of the final steps, editing and optimizing. You'll understand why when we get to the cons section.
Lower Cost Per Article
The next major perk for using AI tools to generate content is the far, far, FAR lower cost per article.
Consider the amount of time you need brainstorming, researching, drafting, etc... you know the drill.
It can take well over a day to produce a solid article, and for most business owners, that’s not possible. This means you're now considering the added expense of outsourcing or hiring a content writer, and that expertise will also come at a premium.
This is where AI tools are changing the game.
The amount of money you can save from outsourcing or in time you would have needed to invest is staggering. You can easily get the cost per article down to a couple of hours and minimal investments into the AI tools you'll add to your tool kit.
Consistency in Brand Voice
While our first two pros are more commonly known, and let's be real, they're pretty impactful pros. Here are a few lesser-known advantages of using AI content generators.
Brand consistency is crucial for building customer trust and loyalty, and ensuring your online messaging matches your in-person persona is incredibly important.
This is where AI can assist with ensuring your content has the same consistent voice and branded message across all your online content, even when you're not the one generating or editing it.
Tools like Writer.com and Jasper.ai have a strong emphasis on being able to train their generative AIs to match the voice you've used based on existing content. They help create branded content guidelines for anyone on your team to follow.
This means you can feel more at ease with the idea of delegating content creation instead of feeling like you need an active hand to ensure that the content matches your business's voice.
Easy SEO Optimization
Another perk of using generative AI tools is their ability to analyze and assist with SEO-related tasks when it comes to creating content. Gone are the days of guessing what keywords you must include in your posts for Google to give you any attention.
You can easily avoid the risks of keyword stuffing with helpful keyword suggestions from tools such as Content at Scale or NEURONwriter.
These tools analyze the top-ranking articles for the main keyword you're looking for and actively provide you with a variety of supporting keywords you should include and how many times you should include them in your article.
This takes the guesswork out of your editing after you've created your draft outline and should ultimately help your content get those much-needed clicks from Google. Just be sure your content is focused on helping your readers first and not trying to game Google's rankings.
With Google's recent helpful content update, they eased their guidelines for using AI generative content, as long as it’s helpful (as the name implies 😉). They focused on pushing down overly optimized content that wasn't delivering quality information to searchers.
Breakthrough Writer's Block
Our final pro for using an AI content generator is its ability to basically make the term writer's block a thing of the past. Gone are the days of looking at a blank screen, waiting for that creative spark to ignite your next content idea.
As long as you have a hint of an idea for your next content piece, you can get AI to help you flesh it out. Plus, the good news is that even if you're lost for a starting point, you can just pop in the industry your business is in and watch it assist you in brainstorming ideas.
Need a fresh take on your work to beat the writer's block? AI writing tools can analyze your writing for patterns and themes, providing new insights that could pave the way for creativity. 🧠🔍 #AIWriting #NewPerspectives
The Cons of Using AI Generated Content
Now, while all that above might sound incredible, and you might be itching to get started with some new AI tools. But don't jump the gun. You've gotta think about potential hiccups when working AI into your daily grind.
Before diving in, it's crucial to mull over a couple of things.
Potential Lack of Creativity
One of the concerns with AI-generated content is that it may lack the creativity and personal touch that human writers can provide. Although AI tools can analyze existing content and generate new text, they may not understand the nuances of language or have the ability to think outside the box.
To create engaging content with your readers, you must add creativity to the content you're sharing. This is why being active in the editing and refining stages is important for content creators.
Risk of Inaccuracy
As I mentioned before, AI can now pull facts and statistics from online sources. Which means there's a risk of inaccuracies in the content generated.
What they lack, is the ability humans have to understand if those facts are genuinely true.
With loads of misinformation and old information floating around on the internet, it’s quite possible for AI tools to accidentally source their content from something factually incorrect.
This can lead to your readers and potential customers questioning your content quality.
Lack of Emotional Intelligence
AI-generated content may also lack emotional intelligence.
Sure, AI's cool and all, but when it comes to packing an emotional punch in its content—something vital for genuine engagement—it often falls short.
This might reduce how people connect with and engage with the content you create.
Requires Human Editing
Even though AI-generated content can help automate the content creation process, it still requires human editing and oversight. Some errors or inconsistencies may occur in the AI-generated text, and human editors must review and refine the content before publishing.
A great example of this is fact-checking any statistics or claims that might have been included in your blog articles. Having incorrect information in your content is a surefire way to take what could have been high-quality content and actually lead to harming your business's credibility.
The Pitfalls of Using AI Content Generation for Faster Content Creation
While it's clear that artificial intelligence is revolutionizing the content creation process and that there are numerous potential benefits to incorporating it into your business. There are also common pitfalls to be aware of when incorporating this technology into your strategy.
Churning Out Low-Quality Content
While AI-generated content can be a time-saving solution for businesses with its ability to produce content rapidly. There is a significant risk of churning out low-quality content that is over-optimized for search engines and misses the mark on being helpful content.
In fact, Google's SEO guidelines specifically caution against over-optimizing your content, noting that such practices can potentially lead to poor user experience, impact your credibility, and even penalties from search engines.
Avoid using tools or strategies that are overly focused on creating mass amounts of content, and instead, use these tools to create quality informative content that your audience will love.
Copy-Paste Posting
Another pitfall of using AI-generated content, especially for newer users, is the temptation to simply copy and paste the generated text without making any changes.
You'll frequently hear from artificial intelligence writing tools, "Wow, look at that incredible content output! It's ready to be published on your website." In reality, uploading AI-generated without any editing or steps to ensure accuracy can harm your website's credibility.
It's important that before using any written content created by AI text generators, you take some time to review the content and edit it by following steps like the C.R.A.F.T Method.
Failing to Detect Plagiarism
AI models like GPT-4 and PaLM 2 are trained by being fed large sums of data like blogs, books, and research papers. This means that the content it's generating is based on its knowledge of these past works and ultimately means these tools are susceptible to accidentally plagiarizing existing content.
Plagiarism is a serious ethical and legal issue that can damage a business's reputation and result in legal consequences, which is a headache you just don't want to have to deal with.
Businesses need to have systems in place to check the originality of the AI-generated content and ensure that it does not infringe on copyright laws.
This is why businesses that look to leverage AI content tools should also introduce AI content detectors into their toolkit. These tools will help ensure your content sounds authentic while editing, and most incorporate the ability to check for plagiarism.
Frequently Asked Questions
The short answer is that content marketers are unlikely to be fully replaced by AI.
Using AI tools for content marketing should be seen as a way to aid marketers by automating mundane tasks and analyzing data more efficiently.
This, however, doesn't replace the need for the human element in understanding consumer behavior, strategizing, and creating meaningful relationships with customers through the content you create for your business.
You'll quickly notice when using AI for creating content that there's still involvement needed by humans to edit the output AI creates to turn it into relevant content.
It's believed that AI will make content marketers more valuable in the end by freeing up their time from routine tasks to focus on more strategic activities.
The ownership of AI-generated content can be complex.
It depends on various factors, including the permissions granted by the company that built the AI tool, the programmer who developed the AI, or the user who utilized the AI to create the content.
This is where reviewing the terms of service for any AI tools you decide to use is important.
For instance, ChatGPT's terms of use specify that you own all the input (your prompts) you put into it immediately.
The output (the content generated by ChatGPT) is assigned to you for ownership by OpenAI as long as you comply with their terms of use. This means at any point, they could revoke your ownership if you're found to be acting maliciously on their platform.
This example with ChatGPT and OpenAI just goes to highlight that you can assume right off the bat that if you create something with AI, you have complete ownership of it.
The specifics can vary, and there are ongoing debates and unclear legal standings regarding copyright for AI-generated content.
Google does not outright ban AI-generated content.
Its stance is that as long as the AI-generated content is helpful and not created to manipulate search rankings, it's not against its guidelines.
There's a nuanced understanding where content that is automatically generated with AI writing tools may be considered spam if it's not adding value or if it's being used in a manipulative manner.
This is why it's important to spend time refining and editing content after you've used an AI tool to create it. Having someone skilled in content writing to work on your content will still be incredibly valuable in the long run.
Whether AI-generated content is considered plagiarized or not can be a complex issue.
Technically, AI-generated content is not plagiarism as it doesn't copy others' content word for word. However, it can paraphrase content it has been trained on, which, in some cases, might be flagged by plagiarism checkers like Copyleaks.
Ethical concerns arise, especially in academic settings where original thought and authorship are crucial. In an academic setting, if AI-generated content is passed off as one's original work, it could be considered plagiarism.
These are nuanced issues with differing opinions and legal standings, and the landscape is continually evolving with the advancements in AI technology.
Final Thoughts on The Pros and Cons of AI Generated Content
As you can see, while AI-generated content can offer benefits such as increased efficiency and cost-effectiveness, businesses must be aware of the potential pitfalls they can fall into.
It’s crucial to carefully review and edit AI-generated content to ensure accuracy and consistency.
The absolute last thing you want to do is spend valuable time, effort, and money on creating content for your business, only for it to end up actually harming your marketing efforts instead of boosting them.
By striking the right balance between AI-generated content and valuing the efforts of human editing, you can achieve a far more affordable content marketing strategy than you would have previously imagined.
Hopefully this has been helpful in showcasing the pros and cons of AI generated content in content marketing. With the rapid evolution in AI underway, if you want your local business to remain competitive online you need to strongly evaluate how you can incorporate these tools into your business.
Don't put it off any longer, and get started with your content crafting today!