Artificial Intelligence’s Place in Content Marketing

There’s no doubt about it, we rely on technology but, just how much does that reliance fall to the strategic, yet creative world of content marketing.

One of the project managers at my Content marketing agency alerted me to this cool website: WillRobotsTakeMyJob.

Out of curiosity we decided to test it and these were our results for “writer”. Note: they weren’t able to test based on “content marketer”.

It’s pleasing to see.

But, we’ve also been seeing recent spouts of articles discussing where artificial intelligence fits into content marketing.

So which one is it? Are robots going to take over our jobs? Or are we safe?

What can artificial intelligence do?

Artificial intelligence refers to machines that have the ability to mimic human cognitive functions. Not only can they learn, but they can solve too.

You’ve seen the articles. You know how a computer beat the Russian chess grandmaster, and you may have heard how a computer wrote an entire sci-fi screenplay from scratch.

Or even in more basic everyday use terms, when a computer accurately suggests prompts when you make a query on a search engine.

Does artificial intelligence fit in content marketing?

Machines are now able to generate content in record time. This means scaling content marketing efforts becomes easier, but does scaling fall in line with quality?

I think it’s true to say that predictive intelligence has a place in content marketing, whereby individuals get access to content that appeals to their own needs and interests. It allows you to know which pieces of content should target which customers based on their position in the buyer’s journey.

But when it comes to using artificial intelligence actually creating content, i’m unsure.

Do we want artificial intelligence?

Beacause more people are doing content marketing, it’s becoming increasingly harder to stand out. You need to create better content, you need to write longer content and you need to create more personalized content.

Understanding user data

I do believe there is a use case for artificial intelligence when it comes to analyzing user data. This data can then help marketers understand user intent.

At the end of the day, as content marketers, we shouldn’t be creating content for content’s sake. Your goal is to use your content to move a prospect further through the sales funnel making it more likely for them to hit purchase.

So we should be using algorithms and AI to collect and understand data about our target audience and then use this knowledge to curate or create the content they actually want to read.

So imagine a world where you no longer had to spend time researching keywords, or finding good link building opportunities. Imagine a world where a computer did this for you.

But remember, if you have access to this world, so do all the other content marketers out there. Meaning, it makes it even more paramount that the content you do produce based off the data is the best content on the web.

Why would we want automatically generated content?

I’m struggling to see a world where content — such as blog posts — were written by a computer. Where is the human element? We’re not writing for computers, we’re writing for other humans.

There’s already an element of overcrowding in the world of content marketing. How could a computer stand out from the crowd? How would a computer even know they’re stood out from the crowd?

How would a computer cope with analogies and idioms in the right context?

Takeaways

I truly believe the breakthroughs we’re making with artificial intelligence are impressive. I also believe there is a place for AI within content marketing.

However I think this should be limited to curation, ideation and promotion.

Let’s leave the human writing to humans, eh?

So while I don’t think there’s a place (financially or literally) for computers to produce all our content, i think there’s a place for AI to automate other time-consuming processes to allow us (humans) to focus on what we do best (creating content).

What are your thoughts. Do you think AI has a place in content creation. Leave your thoughts below!