The Battle Might Be Between Humans and AI, but the War Is Between High-Quality Content Versus Mediocrity.
Here’s a look at three problems business owners and marketing leaders face while the rest of the world freaks out over ChatGPT.
Creating content is no longer a challenge.
In fact, it’s easy.
Stupid easy.
I probably experienced the most eye-opening realization of this at my nephew’s communion celebration earlier this year. My brother-in-law, one of the best mechanics and greatest dudes I’ve ever met, glided over to me during the event to share some exciting news. He pulled out his Samsung and explained that just the other day he had used ChatGPT to help him write an email about renting a local yoga studio for his future kung fu class.
As I looked at the email, my brain thought two things:
[Thought 1] Super stoked that he’s taking action on his dream.
[Thought 2] My brother-in-law, who’s usually belly up on the ground and covered in grease, knows about ChatGPT?!
Anyone and everyone is now using AI to get things done. That’s kind of awesome. Sure, it’s also a little frightening, and there’s certainly concern around losing our creativity thanks to these tools, but the fact is the tools are here and everyone should be using them. What was challenging in the past — writing a blog or email, creating a nurture campaign for your database, or even coming up with a content strategy — is now easier to get started because of the tools in front of us.
So, just like how my brother-in-law can now put his thoughts about hiring a space from a yoga instructor for his kung fu class, business owners, leaders, and marketers are now challenged to rethink how they can streamline their processes to get content from point A to point Z at a much faster rate.
And as a marketer that works with tons of business owners and marketing leaders, I’ve recently uncovered three core problems (notably, they existed before AI) that need to be addressed, faced head on, and become part of every business plan:
- Problem 1: AI does NOT do it all for you
- Problem 2: You still need a ton of GOOD content
- Problem 3: Getting high-quality content isn’t a one-click experience
Over the next several paragraphs, I’ll tell you why high-quality content is still king based on personal experiences with, and findings from, large enterprises to six-person shops. In fact, it’s the only way your business can be found by the people who need your products and services at the right time.
Problem 1: AI does NOT do it all for you
Business owners and marketing leaders are inundated by services asking them to pay for free(ish) tools that are growing exponentially. And, almost all of them rely on you to do the work — albeit assisted — which requires inputting information one piece at a time. This takes human intercession, editing, and the creation of a process flow.
And to be clear, there’s NOTHING FREE about the cost of your time.
The whole point of paying for software or a service is to REDUCE your lift — not pile on new shit.
However, I think it’s fair to assume that if you’re a business owner or marketer that isn’t investing a ton of time and brain space into how you can unlock a competitive advantage immediately through the endlessly populating ecosystem of AI tools, you’re going to find yourself screwed. Fast.
As of [looks at Google Nest Hub Max] 3:21 PM on Wednesday, May 10, this wave of super cool AI tools is intensifying.
What kills me, though, is for every new add-on or widget or wizbang that gets released, these orgs are all limiting the experience within the confines of their own proprietary solution.
That’s a lot of freaking copying, pasting, and reformatting if you ask this guy.
AI is changing things. Rapidly.
It could mean that you need to become a prompt expert on all the new AI tools or integrated software solutions that just dropped their own fancy AI widgets.
More likely, though, I’m gonna predict that the majority of people out there are going to pick their favorite(s), stick to them, and ignore the rest. Or work around the others that make less sense to them.
AI is here and it’s not going anywhere.
I think Christopher Lochhead, multi-hyphenate CEO and “Human Exclamation Point,” said it best:
I’m fortunate enough to know and work with countless business owners and marketing leaders that are constantly looking to keep their websites updated with fresh, high-quality content. Not only does fresh, valuable content help engage the target audience, but it also boosts page rankings, making it easier for potential customers to find them online.
How do I know this? I’ve been fired sitting in the hot seat of a growing company for having far too many lingering requests sitting on my lap in a disorganized mess to even start to know how to prioritize which content needed to go out first.
Here’s the life of a marketing director or head of content at a 300+ seat company:
90% of your creative team lives in a different country. That means, on your best day, you’ve got 70% attention from Europe between 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. EST -if you’re in California, your sleep sucks if you need to get anything done over the phone or Zoom machine. I used to start work at 6:00 a.m. EST to catch up and try to get comms going to the best of my capabilities before my train hit the office around 8:15 a.m. That then gave me a solid 45 minutes to figure out what fires were burning or if anything was pressing.
From a content standpoint, I had content needs from the following departments at any given time that I either owned or had authority over:
- Sales: Pitch decks, email sequences, chat experience, event messages, follow-ups
- Customer Success: Newsletters, incident messaging, relationship management, training Materials
- Product: Newsletters, web copy, announcements, updates
- Internal Comms: Internal messaging, leadership announcements, video materials, interviews, webinars, etc.
- … Oh yeah, and marketing. I needed additional content to drive leads, increase traffic, build on brand awareness, and nurture our database.
The fact of the matter is I was completely overwhelmed, and even with many team members and resources at my disposal, it was very challenging to know what should be done first. Furthermore, the pipeline expectations were astronomical and it was very difficult to get a clear answer on what worked and what didn’t within the systems in place + whatever was being used to qualify was not directly aligned with my team.
Here’s the catch, this is NO DIFFERENT than a smaller organization with less budget, less people, and less information. The content demand is real no matter the size of the organization. I’ve seen it firsthand.
PS: The internet is content. That’s it. Hard stop. Without content, there’s nothing for the internet to scrape and find. If you’re not contributing to what’s being indexed, you won’t be found.
Continuing on, here are some truths I know…
- The people I work with don’t see AI as a threat. They think that it’s an important tool (versus a replacement) that can assist with getting custom content planned, written, and delivered/published. But it simply cannot do it all on its own. Human interaction is still greatly needed to produce high-quality content that converts.
- Business owners and marketing leaders are busy AF. They’re not looking to DIY or guide an AI tool. They want someone to deliver what they need in an affordable, timely, and simple-to-manage package.
3. They want experts to simply take content off their laps.
That’s the market I play in.
Problem 2: You still need a ton of GOOD content
One of our beloved customers, Alejandro Otañez, CEO at Shockoe recently said, “Most growing companies need more content than they know.” He’s absolutely right.
There isn’t an organization out there in growth mode that feels, “Hey maybe we should dial back the messaging and comms about who we are and what we do…”
The catch is your content needs to not suck.
Neil Patel has a lot to say about this so I won’t regurgitate his knowledge. Read at your own risk and try to avoid developing a tic about how behind you are in getting content out there.
Something that often gets forgotten and taken advantage of is that the internet does one thing: Points you to content.
There are approximately 70 million new blogs being published each month. Wanna know something crazier? That 70 million is ONLY for WordPress.
That doesn’t include Webflow, HubSpot, Squarespace, and all the rest.
According to Web Tribunal, “To date, there are more than 600 million blogs out of 1.9 billion websites in the world. Their authors account for over 6 million blog posts daily, or over 2.5 billion annually.”
That’s a helluva lot of content, and thanks to people like my brother-in-law, expect that number to approach ludicrous speed.
And, if you’re someone that’s under the impression that all you have to do is pump out content, regardless of quality or customization,, you are severely mistaken. Let’s explore why in Problem 3.
Problem 3: Getting high-quality content isn’t a one-click experience
There’s a slew of crappy content mills, AI platforms, and overhyped, overpriced services out there claiming to be your “content easy” button.
Let’s be clear: AI does not mean generating good, meaningful (E-E-A-T) content is now a one-click experience.
Nor does it mean that any business owner should now become a content expert.
AI writing will get lost in the endless ocean of low-value,boring content that’s already muddying the water out there. It may feel easier to use an AI tool but the result will be that your shit will be even less likely to be seen.
Jasper’s Head of Enterprise Marketing, Samyutha Reddy says, “When it comes to integrating AI, a lot of teams feel pressure to recreate the wheel. However, you don’t have to build all your processes around generative AI. Instead, incorporate AI into your existing processes that already work well.”
Generative what?
McKinsey & Company answered this question, “Generative artificial intelligence (AI) describes algorithms (such as ChatGPT) that can be used to create new content, including audio, code, images, text, simulations, and videos.”
My CEO (who happens to be an exceptionally good person) said the following on her weekly newsletter, “I’m a huge believer that the world doesn’t need more shitty, mediocre content.”
AMEN.
My advice to every business owner and marketing leader is: Resist the resistance to these tools. The most successful creators will be armed with the experience and knowledge to leverage these amazing technologies. A few years ago, SEO was the hot thing to know. Now, it’s AI. You need to work with teams that are proficient in querying AI tools that deliver meaningful results and require the least amount of effort from your top-paid human experts.
There’s this trend or perception that everybody wants short, choppy copy, right because our attention spans are shorter than goldfishes’ and all that jazz? I mean, it certainly has its place and serves a purpose so long as it’s meaningful, but it’s not the be-all, end-all.
Longform content is where the meat is. If you want to put a stake in the ground, you need to become the authority on a topic.
For me as a marketer, in particular, the people that I follow, the people that I really follow and that I wanna learn from and emulate and potentially purchase things from? Those are the folks that are giving me the goods, long-form content style.
Avinash Kaushik, one of the most brilliant marketers of our age, understands storytelling better than anyone I’ve ever read or learned from. Check out his series on See, Think, Do, Care. This is NOT short, choppy copy. It’s long, expansive, and ranks #1 on Google because it’s CRAZY VALUABLE.
If an individual or a company possesses information that is meaningful, engaging, and relevant to their target audience, then it is likely that the audience will pay close attention to it. A perfect example of this phenomenon can be observed in the popularity of binge-watching television shows on platforms such as Netflix. If people are willing to invest upwards of 14 hours of their time watching a television show, then it is probable that they would be willing to spend an hour of their time reading long-form content that is pertinent to their interests and engages them.
In conclusion, this new market, or, at least, a newly vocal market, of business owners and marketing leaders know what content they need but don’t want to do it themselves or settle for a crappy automated process that reeks of mediocrity.
They also know that constantly creating fresh, high-quality content can be a challenge, to say the least, especially if you’re short on time or resources.
A book I recently read, Post-Acquisition Marketing: How to Create Enterprise Value in the First 100 Days, captured the essence of all of this and the problems previously brought up right here:
The best tools paired with the best humans
The best content comes from the best editors using the best tools. You want to find teams that have invested in experienced editors who are experts in various industries and niches. That paired with the best technology will help you create content that is not only informative but also engaging and easy to read.
It’s not just ChatGPT. Like mentioned earlier, there’s a ton of tools out there that are amazing. I just don’t think business owners and marketing leaders need to add them to their tech stack. Invest in companies that acknowledge and use them so what they produce is optimized for search engines and easy to read for your audience.
(AI) Actual Intelligence of an Article
As discussed, one of the biggest challenges of creating content is ensuring that the content is informative, engaging, and easy to read. I know my team has spent years developing a system that combines the actual intelligence of our editors with advanced writing tools to create content that outranks other websites.
When you find a team of editors that can leverage their expertise and research skills to create informative and engaging content that resonates with your target audience, you win.
My pitch…
If you just read everything above and found yourself nodding “yes” more often than shaking your head “no,” give our product, BottomlessBacon a look. Our pricing model is transparent, and there are no hidden fees. You pay a flat monthly fee of $947 per month for unlimited content writing.
This makes it easy to budget for your content needs and ensures that you get the most value for your money.
We’ve taken our years of experience building the content creation process for ContentBacon and fed it into BottomlessBacon.
That’s it. That’s my story. I hope you’re starting to smell that sizzlin’ bacon. Bye for now.
