Remember when voice-command search hit the scene? This is way more serious than that.
2023 erupted with the introduction of what we have all come to know as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, causing one big lump of a hiccup for business’s marketing strategies worldwide. Over the last couple of months, business leaders have been scrambling to identify and realign with the impact AI is going to have on marketing moving forward. Hundreds upon hundreds of blogs and articles have been written attempting to shed light on what the future looks like with this technology, each of them addressing questions such as: Why doesn’t my business come up when I query for (X) industry? How do I use ChatGPT for SEO? Will AI replace writers and other content creators? And so on and so forth.
Answering these questions is vital for moving forward in marketing your business, but to take a quick moment to look at the more immediate picture, we’ve noticed that hardly anybody has come out and said what the answers to these questions imply:
If your marketing strategy for 2023 doesn’t include AI, you need to toss it and start from scratch.
Here’s the plain truth marketing wise: AI tools like ChatGPT are upping the stakes of the game, because everybody is going to be using them. Business leaders need to get a jump on recalibrating their marketing strategies to meet this unprecedented level of competition, and doing so will help ensure successful marketing down the road. For enterprise-size businesses especially, whose marketing plans strategies consist of many moving parts and people organized across multiple departments, we urge you to start integrating AI tools into your processes ASAP given the scale of such a project.
To start you on the right path toward an at least partially AI-automated marketing plan for 2023, we’ve done our best to answer a few questions about these new tools, directed at business leaders who have their eyes fixed on what’s in front of them. Which should be, again: If your marketing strategy for 2023 doesn’t include AI, throw it down the garbage disposal.
Why your business isn’t ranking via ChatGPT
The answer is simple: ChatGPT isn’t a search engine.
ChatGPT is an AI language model designed to provide informative, helpful, and above all, human-like responses to what feels like a near-infinite number of query types and styles. But the important thing to remember is that ChatGPT isn’t connected to the internet, which means that treating it like Google Search isn’t the right way to approach it.
According to OpenAI, ChatGPT was “trained on vast amounts of data from the internet written by humans, including conversations.” Nobody is sure of exactly what datasets were used to train it, but whatever they were, ChatGPT's mind is cast from that particular material, meaning the way in which it determines "rank" isn't at all like Search--it's not even the same animal. This is also implied in OpenAI’s list of ChatGPT’s limitations, stating it has “limited knowledge of the world and events after 2021.”
OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, has even stated that ChatGPT isn't intended to be used as an all-reliable tool, and has attempted to deter users from approaching it as such. As far as we can tell, this seems to include using it as a search tool.
Why the race toward an AI-powered search engine should incentivize you to include AI in your marketing plan
However, at least two things about what’s written above should be setting off your spidey sense:
1. As if by natural impulse, people are still using ChatGPT as a search engine. Regardless of what Sam Altman says, people’s inclination to use ChatGPT as a search engine is creating demand for a chatbot that works this way.
2. This is just a theory–since, again, we don’t know exactly what datasets it was trained on–but if ChatGPT was in fact trained on text-based data from the internet, then why isn’t your company listed in its results? What does that say about your company’s content marketing before 2021?
It’s too early to predict an outcome with 100% accuracy, but the bottom line is that the race toward a world in which AI chatbots like ChatGPT become the marketing tool is well on its way. Your enterprise needs to make sure it's a part of the party when this thing hits, because it's coming faster than you might expect.
Chatbot functionalities are already being integrated into search engines; Microsoft is working on adding OpenAI’s technology to Bing; Youtube.com, Perplexity AI, and Neeva have all launched chat interfaces somewhat similar to ChatGPT.
Additionally, Google Bard is said to have been trained on data that includes a wide scope of the most popular websites, including Wikipedia, NY Times, LA Times, The Guardian, Forbes, HuffPost, etc., which should make you ask yourself what your enterprise’s standing is with these publications. That is - has one of these publications ever run an article about you? Is your enterprise’s expertise well-known enough for Forbes to feature you? These are some of the types of questions your marketing plan for 2023 should be concerned with.
With all of these things in mind, we’re going to say it again: If your marketing plan for 2023 doesn’t include AI, submerge it in hydrochloric acid.
Below we’ve included a brief guide on how using AI can help your enterprise get a leg up on these changes in how marketing is done.
Using AI for marketing in 2023 and after
The challenge is the solution: To ensure our company can compete in a future of AI search engines, you have to use the tools AI offers.
From our perspective, AI engines that crawl the web will become everybody's MO. So, as the race toward an AI-powered search engine ramps up, the best thing enterprises can do to prepare is ensure that their content marketing efforts maintain a competitive edge, which means ensuring your company is high up on AI's list of the most vital companies in your field. Your product/services and its corresponding brand should be well-known and respected on all fronts, and the best way to accomplish this is to leverage what AI offers.
Almost paradoxically, the challenge AI poses for companies can be addressed by leveraging the capabilities AI offers. In order to outshine your competitors–who, again, will also be using AI to market themselves–you’ll need to make sure your enterprise reserves a seat for AI in any and all marketing-related efforts, especially when it comes to content creation.
Fix your company’s content problem
All enterprises have a content problem. No matter how hard your creative teams work, written content is always the last to be delivered. Part of the reason for this is that big companies are busy, so what tends to get pushed out are flimsy little news-based articles that are few and far between and do nothing for your authority as a thought leader. What your enterprise really needs is a steady stream of good PR and authoritative articles, e-books, blogs, social posts, etc., and AI can help you with this.
AI makes content writing faster and more efficient. It can quickly generate ideas, refine them, execute them, and can even offer suggestions on how to improve the content. AI is also able to take large amounts of data and synthesize it into a concise article or post in a fraction of the time that it would take a human to do manually, meaning that all that data you’ve worked so hard to collect and analyze can be transformed into a bite-size article that is accessible to non-data-crunching staff.
Turn your content writers into content editors
But as we’ve all seen from playing with ChatGPT over the last couple of months, AI isn’t perfect, and often generates incorrect information or horrifically dry, off-brand copy. In effect, AI can generate content really fast, but the content it spits out still should be run through old-fashioned human gray matter before it gets sent out for public consumption.
The point is, use AI to execute content ideas really, really fast, and turn your content writers into editors whose job it will be to effectively shape the content and make sure all eyes are dotted and tees crossed.
Foster a culture of master prompters
In line with writers using AI as a content creation tool, you’ll also want to make sure your writers know how to prompt AI for the right content. As subject matter experts in your field, you’ll want to conduct sufficient experimentation with how to prompt an AI bot to return accurate, quality content for your writers to shape.
Generate content strategies
AI such as ChatGPT also has potential for generating effective content strategies. AI’s deep learning capabilities allow it to analyze performance data and provide insights into emerging topics, as well as suggest optimization strategies tailored specifically to your enterprise’s segmented customers types and personas. AI can also provide your content marketers with recommendations on what type of content should be created, and isn’t half bad at recommending keywords that will help to enhance search engine visibility.
AI also takes your industry type into consideration when generating a content plan. For example, below you’ll find ChatGPT’s strategy recommendations for two different business types: A SaaS company and a dog food vendor. Notice the differences are particular to the company’s specific industry needs.
Create an effective content strategy for an online dog food vendor:
Here's an effective content strategy for an online dog food vendor:
Define the target audience: Identify the target audience for your dog food products, such as dog owners who are passionate about the health and wellbeing of their pets.
Research relevant topics: Conduct research to identify relevant topics that your target audience is interested in. This could include topics such as the benefits of high-quality dog food, how to read dog food labels, the best diets for different dog breeds, and the role of nutrition in preventing common health problems.
Create a content calendar: Develop a content calendar that outlines the types of content you will create, the frequency of content publication, and the channels you will use to promote your content.
Use storytelling: Share stories about dogs who have benefited from your products, as well as stories about the company's history and values, to create an emotional connection with your audience.
Create high-quality content: Create high-quality content that educates and engages your target audience. This could include blog posts, social media posts, infographics, videos, and e-books.
Optimize for SEO: Optimize your content for search engines to increase visibility and attract more visitors to your website. Use relevant keywords, optimize headlines and subheadings, and include meta descriptions.
Offer educational resources: Provide educational resources on your website, such as guides on dog nutrition and health, to establish your brand as a reliable source of information for dog owners.
Partner with influencers: Partner with influencers in the pet industry, such as popular dog bloggers and social media personalities, to reach a wider audience and build credibility for your brand.
Encourage user-generated content: Encourage customers to share photos and stories of their pets on social media, and highlight their content on your website and social media channels.
Measure and refine: Track your content's performance, including page views, engagement, and conversion rates, and use this data to refine your content strategy and optimize your content for better results.
Create an effective content strategy for a SaaS company specializing in architectural design:
Here's an effective content strategy for a SaaS company specializing in architectural design:
Define the target audience: Identify the target audience for your architectural design software, such as architects, designers, engineers, and contractors.
Research relevant topics: Conduct research to identify relevant topics that your target audience is interested in. This could include topics such as best practices for architectural design, design trends, sustainable architecture, and construction technology.
Create a content calendar: Develop a content calendar that outlines the types of content you will create, the frequency of content publication, and the channels you will use to promote your content.
Use visuals: Architectural design is a visual medium, so use visuals to showcase your software's capabilities and inspire your audience. This could include 3D renderings, animations, and walkthroughs.
Create high-quality content: Create high-quality content that educates and engages your target audience. This could include blog posts, case studies, webinars, white papers, and e-books.
Optimize for SEO: Optimize your content for search engines to increase visibility and attract more visitors to your website. Use relevant keywords, optimize headlines and subheadings, and include meta descriptions.
Provide educational resources: Provide educational resources on your website, such as tutorials and how-to guides, to help your audience get the most out of your software.
Host webinars: Host webinars to showcase your software's features and capabilities, as well as to provide thought leadership on topics relevant to your audience.
Highlight customer success stories: Share case studies and success stories from customers who have used your software to achieve their design goals.
Measure and refine: Track your content's performance, including page views, engagement, and conversion rates, and use this data to refine your content strategy and optimize your content for better results.
Let the robot write the analytics reports
Good storytelling is usually born from good data, and good data can only be leveraged if someone takes the time to explain it to us peons. AI tools like ChatGPT can quickly analyze massive amounts of data and generate comprehensive insights, enabling your non-data-reading departments to easily identify key opportunities for improvement and develop actionable optimization strategies.
The best part about this is that AI’s reports require minimal human intervention. Since the only people reading these reports will be internal employees, these reports are ready to go out of the box, allowing companies to save time and resources while still providing accurate and up-to-date analytics reports.
Including AI in your marketing plan for years to come
Moving forward, here’s the gist: AI tools provide companies with powerful capabilities to improve their marketing strategies. From automatically analyzing data trends to suggesting creative content for everything from articles and e-books to titles and taglines, AI for marketing gives companies the competitive edge they need to optimize their content strategies in a fast and effective manner, and most importantly, prepare for the evolution of searchbot AI that seems to be well on its way. Don’t be scared of it. Instead, maximize engagement and reach your audiences while reaping the rewards of optimal marketing performance.
