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AI is quietly reshaping what kind of content you need to stay relevant

Why you need to update your content now, the business case, and the 7 prerequisites for success

Are you aware that AI affects your content production as well as the type of content you produce?

Let’s start with the production first. Are you using AI to produce your content?

If you don’t, you know you’re very very late to the game. Don’t get me wrong; no one expects every brand to be top-notch at using AI for content production, but at least you should have started experimenting with it.

If you do use AI for your content production, it’s time for the next step.

Take a moment and think about how AI influences your content in a different way: the type of content you produce, more specific, your leadership content.

Understanding how AI uses your content

Follow me in my thinking to get more clarity on what type of content AI uses to get its information.

→ AI impacts how customers search
For every little thing, we have a choice: we can use Google or jump to ChatGPT or any other AI assistant to ask and get an answer.

AI has got your back, no matter if it’s something serious business and research, you are looking for a recipe for a vegetarian, or even worse, vegan lasagna, or it’s more leisure, like the most scenic route to a city, including hotel and restaurant recommendations ranked on Google and Trip Advisor ratings, price, and availability.

Please note that Google, as we know it today, will change before the end of 2024 with the release of Google SGE and become AI-generated as well. What doesn’t change is that user intent is still central. You always have to keep the intent, the needs, of your customer central in every piece of content you produce.

→ AI finds the answers online, just like Google does
ChatGPT taps into your brand’s .com content, combines it with content from others, translates that into a human-like answer, and gives it back to the customer.

For this, AI uses information-rich, non-commercial content, not sales content. This is usually your leadership content with in-depth insights on the product information pages or the more nerdy content on your corporate pages. This is not the sexy campaign content or sales promotions.

In short, AI uses your content to answer questions. So, you better make sure AI can access and use your content for that.

Now, let’s talk about money the business case.

Why it matters, and you should invest in updating your content; the business case

I’ll explain how you make your content accessible for AI below. But first, why does this matter to you? Where’s the business case?

Honestly, I don’t have an answer to that yet. It’s not possible yet to measure the exact return on investment in using AI for production, let alone for how AI uses your content to feed the customer.

That said, these main elements matter.

• Your customer uses AI for search
  What I do know is that AI influences how we search and find information in ways we can’t imagine. About two years ago, nobody heard from ChatGPT, and artificial intelligence was something for a distant future.
• AI uses your content to find answers
  What I also know is that AI uses your content to find the answers. So, this is another unique opportunity for you and your brand to claim your leadership on a specific topic or industry. And surprise, surprise, if you don’t claim that position, someone else will.
• Besides, creating thought leadership content, is always an excellent idea, AI or not.
• More urgency to keep your content up to date
  Nothing is as damaging to your brand as outdated leadership content. The best way to show that you don’t care and don’t value your customers is to neglect your content and hang on to what you produced years ago.
• Re-use and repurpose your content for social and email
  And the good news is that once you have this leadership content for your .com, you can re-use it for your socials and email marketing.

Now that we have clear why we should invest in producing and updating our leadership content, let’s take a look at what it takes to be successful.

What you can do today, the 7 prerequisites for success

This is what you need to know and do to enable AI to access and use your content. Please notice that these are the same prerequisites for high-quality content for humans. So, actually, producing content for AI or humans is the same game.

1. Implement ‘They ask, you answer’
   You make an inventory of the common questions on your product, irrespective of your brand name. What are the questions customers have about the product? And answer them in a non-commercial way.
2. Give your potential customers the answers without trying to sell them something. And if you don’t have the answer, explain why and show that you do have the knowledge and expertise. First of all, nobody likes to be marketed to if you’re looking for information. Secondly, you can show that you care and that you know.
3. Have a clear structure to your content
   If you have a solid and predictable structure to your content, it’s easier to scan and find the answers. This also helps AI find and distill the answers.
4. I always use the reasoning structure: problem → solution → benefit. This forces me to place myself in my reader’s shoes and think about the benefits for them instead of the story I want to tell.
5. Write simple, write for busy readers
   Complex and long writing gets ignored by humans and AI. Simple writing not only makes it easy to read and has higher engagement, it also shows that you care and are an authority because you make the complex easy to understand.
6. Writing in a style that’s easy to read is not necessarily easy to write.
7. Be authentic, use your own tone of voice
   It’s a no-brainer, in this AI-era you have to have your brand voice in place. Developed by and used for AI. Be authentically you and show that in your content.
8. Be non-commercial
   It’s about giving information, not closing a sales deal. This is another no-brainer. Content used by AI to provide answers is, by default, information-driven and not sales-focused.
9. AI is not a sales machine for your brand (yet). AI is here to help humans to find answers.
10. Measure success
    To measure is to know and give you input to iterate and improve. Honestly, I have no clue how to measure if and how much AI uses your content.
11. For now, I suggest keeping an eye on vanity metrics such as unique visitors, bounce rate, and time on the page and taking it from there.
12. Rinse and repeat: update frequently
    Leadership content is not a one-off or a campaign. It’s content you need to update and maintain regularly.
13. My advice is to check this content every 3 to 4 months and produce new, repurpose, or republish existing content accordingly.

Lastly, don’t forget to have fun and be proud of your brand and product. In some way, you notice content that’s produced with love and care. It makes it more engaging, it sticks and brings your message across just a tiny bit better.

Recap and summary

AI influences not only how you produce your content, also what kind of content you produce. Nowadays, you also have to think about AI that uses your content.

• Your customer uses AI to search
• AI uses your leadership content to find answers
• Re-use and repurpose this content for social

This is what to do, and honestly, this is exactly the same that you already should be doing…

1. Implement ‘They ask, you answer’
2. Have a clear structure to your content
3. Write simple, write for busy readers
4. Be authentic, use your own tone of voice
5. Be non-commercial
6. Measure success
7. Rinse and repeat, repurpose and republish

All in all, producing content isn’t that difficult. It’s about showing that you care about your customers and that you know what you’re talking about. And if you nail that for your customer, you nail it for AI as well.

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