ChatGPT For Marketing: Ignore It at Your Own Peril
Ok, I'll admit it - I've always been a bit of a skeptic when it comes to using AI language tools. Despite trying a number of them over the years in the hopes of saving time and money, I've always found them to be a bit clunky and unnatural. More of a novelty than a real tool.
So when a colleague sent me a link to the OpenAI chatbot, I wasn't really expecting much. But boy, was I wrong! ChatGPT completely blew my expectations out of the water. It's a game-changer for time- and budget-conscious marketers. If you're ready to take your digital marketing efforts to the next level, keep reading!
What exactly is ChatGPT?
Okay, first things first. I figured I'd start by asking the chatbot how it defines itself. I tried this before with Siri, who kept her answer short and sweet: “I am not a person, or a robot. I’m here to help”. Read on to find out how the new kid on the block defines himself:
Thanks for the introduction, “Assistant” (not exactly the most inspiring name, is it OpenAI marketing team?). Now I know you don't have a physical body, so you won't be sneaking up on me in the middle of the night. And I also know you're here to provide me with information and answer my questions. In these times of tight budgets and shrinking marketing teams, that's a ray of hope for a lot of organizations.
How does Assistant source information?
The event industry is a fickle beast. It's tough to stay on top of all the changes and stay ahead of the competition. As a marketer, I need up-to-date information on the latest trends. So, I was definitely curious about where ChatGPT gets its information from when it gives me answers.
If the ChatGPT tool only has information up to 2021, using it to generate content about future-facing topics would have to be carefully considered.
What are the best uses of ChatGPT in marketing?
Now that I had a good understanding of ChatGPT and its sources of information, I was eager to find out how my team could use it to improve their marketing campaigns. I experimented with the tool and found a range of ways that it could be integrated into our work. In a series of blog posts, I'll be sharing my findings and showing how ChatGPT can be a powerful tool for your marketing team.
In this first post, let’s focus on one of the more obvious uses: generating ideas for marketing content and assisting in the actual creation of that content.
How to apply ChatGPT to content creation
A popular content marketing rule states that you should apply the 80/20 rule to content creation. In other words, aim to create 80% evergreen content and 20% timely content. I was keen to use ChatGPT to help me create better content faster, but would I be able to use the tool to create both evergreen and trending content? Read on to find out.
Phase 1: Research and Information Gathering
ChatGPT is neither BuzzFeed nor TechCrunch
As previously mentioned, I had doubts about ChatGPT's ability to effectively research trending topics for me. My suspicions were confirmed when I conducted a quick test.
Not only does the tool only consider information up to 2021 (as of 1/4/2023), it is also unable to browse the web or access information about current events. Time to step aside and let the pros (aka Google Search and Google Trends) handle trend research.
Use ChatGPT To Build Out Your Research Framework
Although it may not be able to browse the web or keep up with current events, Assistant can still help you out with your research endeavors! Ask away with the following syntax:
- What are the 10 factors contributing to…
- List the top reasons why…
- Give me a list of ideas around….
- Provide me with the most important causes for…
Carefully analyze the answers provided to such queries however, as they are rarely up to date or complete. Take them as a starting point for your research.
Have The Tool Assist With Keyword Research
Are you wondering how ChatGPT help with on-page SEO (search engine optimization)? This really merits its own separate blog post. For now I'll say that Assistant is pretty good at generating lists of target keywords, but it doesn't provide keyword volume data. Until that changes, I'll stick with tried-and-true tools like Google Keyword Planner and Semrush's keyword magic tool for that information.
Don’t Ask For An Analysis Of Competing Content
Because the tool cannot access the web, it will not help with research around current competing content. This is best left to tools such as Semrush, Content Harmony and Clearscope.
Phase 2: Content Strategy
Are you curating blog posts and e-books based on bits and pieces researched on Google and repackaging as “new” and “groundbreaking” content? Don’t worry, I won’t rat you out. I know we’re all tempted to take shortcuts to save time and resources. But whether you are forcing your writers to follow such dubious practices or asking ChatGPT to do the same makes little difference.
To truly stand out in a sea of generic and bland content requires an original viewpoint and the ability to present industry topics in a fresh and unconventional way. Not only will this protect your brand and establish you as a thought leader, but you’ll also preserve your integrity as a marketer.
My suggestion is to leave the content strategy alone. In practical terms, don’t ask ChatGPT something like this:
- Write a blog post on how to build sustainability into you
- Write an article on sustainable event ideas
It will only gather and repackage stale information that already exists, but may also endanger your SEO strategy, as Google may penalize duplicate content sourced this way.
Instead, sit down with your marketing team and brainstorm fresh, new ways of presenting a well-known concept or topic. This is your true value-add; it doesn’t matter how much AI advances, it’ll be years before a tool like ChatGPT replaces human creativity and ingenuity.
Phase 3: Content Outline
ChatGPT is great at providing you with outlines for your blog posts and articles. Once you have determined in broad brushstrokes what you want to say about your chosen topic, try asking the tool the following:
- Provide a blog outline for the topic [topic name]
- Write an outline for an article around [topic name] considering these arguments:
- Provide an article with the following thesis [truth statement]
- Provide an article refuting the following thesis [truth statement]
Phase 4: Writing Content
First Draft
As you begin crafting your final article or post using the content outline as a guide, make sure to express the core ideas in your own words. Unless you're working on a knowledge base article or user manual, it's best to steer clear of using ChatGPT to write entire paragraphs at this stage. This will help ensure that the resulting content has personality and accurately reflects your brand's tone and style.
When Stuck…
If you're satisfied with your first draft but need a little extra help with certain paragraphs, ChatGPT can lend a hand! Here's what to do:
- Identify the specific section or paragraph that you'd like assistance with.
- Ask ChatGPT to rewrite it for you, following the steps outlined in the previous section.
- Review the rewritten content and make any necessary edits to ensure that it fits seamlessly with the rest of your article or post and accurately reflects your brand's style and tone.
This method can save you time and help you overcome writer's block while still ensuring that your final product is uniquely yours.
Remember that you can ask ChatGPT to regenerate its responses multiple times and provide feedback on how to improve the answers. Here are some examples of the kinds of input provided the tool with:
- Make the paragraph shorter.
- Use the response as a conclusion.
- Use the response as an introduction.
- Use shorter sentences.
- Use a casual style.
By providing this type of guidance, you can tailor the output to better fit your needs and achieve the desired tone and style for your content.
Phase 4: Finishing Touches
I love how the tool provides me with ideas for snappy titles and headlines. Think of ChatGPT as a Slogan Generator on steroids. It’s also great at generating meta descriptions, social media posts and email marketing campaigns.
Try asking some of these questions:
- Give me 10 headlines for this paragraph
- Write 20 taglines for this topic
- Provide 5 descriptions with a maximum word count of…
- Write a social media post that invites people to read this article: [insert summary]. Create a post for Twitter and one for LinkedIn.
- Write an email that invites people to read this article: [insert summary]
Again, it’s important to modify the answers to tailor them to your specific topic. After all, you don’t want to use the same taglines as your competitor.
Should Marketers Be Afraid Of Losing Their Job?
I hope that my suggestions for using ChatGPT to create content have reassured you that the tool is not meant to replace the role of a content marketer or copywriter. ChatGPT does excel at quickly curating and repackaging existing content however. This could lead to an explosion in online content, contributing to the already overwhelming amount of information on the internet.
To truly stand out content creators and writers will have to change the way they approach their work. Instead of relying on internet research to repackage ideas, they will have to focus on creating high quality original content for their chosen target audience. Your job as a marketing leader will be to provide them with the resources and support they need to come up with fresh, novel ways to approach existing topics. You may be surprised by the unique new perspectives and insights this brings to your content marketing strategy!
FAQ
What Is ChatGPT?
ChatGPT is a large language model chatbot developed by OpenAI based on GPT-3.5. It uses deep learning to produce human-like speech.
What is GPT-3?
GPT-3 (short for "Generative Pre-training Transformer 3") is a state-of-the art language generation model developed by OpenAI. A language model is basically a computer program that is trained to understand and generate human language.
What is the difference between ChatGPT and GPT-3?
GPT-3 is a much larger and more powerful language model than ChatGPT. Both models were developed by OpenAI and are based on the same architecture, but GPT-3 has significantly more parameters, making it one of the largest and most powerful AI language processing models available. In contrast, ChatGPT has been specifically designed to generate human-like text in the context of chatbot conversations and has fewer parameters as a result.
What is OpenAI?
OpenAI is a research organization based in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 2015 by a group of entrepreneurs and researchers, including Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, Ilya Sutskever, and Wojciech Zaremba, with the goal of promoting and advancing friendly artificial intelligence.
Who is OpenAi’s CEO?
Sam Altman is the co-founder and CEO of OpenAI. Sam was previously the Chairman of Y Combinator, a leading silicon valley startup accelerator.
Is ChatGPT an AI tool?
ChatGPT is an AI chatbot system, so, yes, it is an artificial intelligence tool that utilizes machine learning techniques to analyze and generate human-like text.
Is ChatGPT a natural language model?
ChatGPT uses advanced natural language processing (NLP) to engage in realistic conversations with humans. It uses machine learning algorithms to analyze large datasets of human-generated text and learn the patterns and structures that are common in natural language. It can then generate text that is similar in style and content.
What is ChatGPT used for?
There are a variety of use cases. You can utilize Openai’s ChatGPT responses as an encyclopedia to find answers to questions. You can also use it to generate chatbot responses, to create and modify content, or to help with language translation.
Where do I try ChatGPT?
Learn more about OpenAi here. Usage of their ChatGPT language model is currently free for research purposes. No need to go on a waitlist to use it. You can try it now at chat.openai.com.
What is the GPT-3 API?
The openai GPT-3 API is a web-based service that allows developers to access and use the GPT-3 model in their own applications. Using the OpenAI API, developers can build their own language processing tools that can perform a variety of tasks related to language, such as text generation and summarization, language translation, answering questions, fine-tuning language, and other language tasks.
What is the difference between GPT-3 and GPT-2?
GPT-3 (short for "Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3") is the third iteration of OpenAI's language model, while GPT-2 (short for "Generative Pre-trained Transformer 2") is the second iteration. GPT-3 is the most advanced and powerful version of the model, it is able to generate text that is more coherent and human-like than GPT-2.
Are there open source alternatives to ChatGPT?
The first open-source alternative to ChatGPT, PaLM + RLHF, has arrived, but it has received mixed reviews.
What are some common concerns around ChatGPT?
One of the main concerns about ChatGPT and other AI language tools is that they may pose a threat to jobs. In addition, there are concerns about the potential for AI-assisted plagiarism, particularly in educational settings (high school, college) where students may use the tool to write essays and other assignments.
