The Case Against Bots: How to Plan and Write Content For Yourself
So much has already been written about ChatGPT. 57 million users in its first month. Trained on 570GB of data. A $10 billion investment from Microsoft. And it’s coming to take your job.
There’s no hiding from ChatGPT. It’s a powerful tool.
A lot of writers and marketers misunderstand ChatGPT and how to use it. It’s not God, but it’s not the harbinger of The Apocalypse.
All that data. And it’s still crap at English
ChatGPT does not understand nor care about the concept of a universal “truth”. It guesses the next word in a sentence. That’s all.
It can’t create anything original, because the responses it creates come from pre-existing data. And the lack of understanding or nuance means that ChatGPT will give incorrect facts if those seem like the right words to produce next.
ChatGPT does not produce good content. It produces dry, formal English, and has a limited understanding when prompted to do otherwise. It’s like submitting homework that you’ve copied and pasted from Wikipedia: maybe you’ll get away with it, but you’ll get a sh*t mark.
There’s a reason a lot of execs are hoping for an AI pivot. Using AI-generated content is cheaper than actual writers. But this view treats creating content as a boring, repetitive task.
This pivot stems from the idea that content is a box-ticking exercise, which needs to be done because it should be done, rather than because of what it provides. Good content produces more leads than social media marketing, it’s better than Google Ads, and if it’s well written, it will stand the test of time.
Treat it well, and you’ll get something evergreen that will keep getting you leads. If you don’t, you won’t.
How to write your own content
There are ways to approach content if you’re nervous to get going.
Good content starts with conversations. Whether it’s doughnuts or digital transformations, the content is there to serve your customers. It’s not a mechanism to talk about how great your business is. To find out more, download my DIY guide to content marketing below:
Innocent know how to do this (not them again. Yes, them again)
Innocent has a new straw. A new straw is a simple change, but that’s the thing: people care about the straw.
They acknowledged that their customers care about kids chewing straws that never last.
And now that Innocent has written a campaign about this tiny change, that people care about, those people are keen to listen.
So when you’re considering how to fuel your content, think about the questions your customers ask every step of the way, and think about the ways you can be of service to customers. That should be your starting point.
If you’re ever thinking that you don’t know what content to write, remember it’s not your decision. It is fundamentally with the customer. Talk to them. Find out what they care about. Talk about what you offer that people need, and show it in simple, easy-to-understand terms.
AI can do a lot of things. But there isn’t a single AI functionality in the world that can bridge the gap of a human in that cycle. Good content requires an intimate, flexible, and ongoing relationship with people. You need to be talking to those people, growing, and changing your action plan in response to their needs. And you can’t listen if you’re churning out generic blogs and posts that no one reads, because no one will care about what you have to say.
Yes, between the noise and fear-mongering is a fundamental truth that AI will change a lot of industries. But crypto did not eradicate banks, NFTs did not destroy art, and AI – no matter how enticing – will not replace the need for customer-lead, meaningful, and dare I say it, human content.
