Master Content Marketing using AI | The Ultimate Guide

The release of Chat GPT on November 30, 2022, set the stage for a massive revolution in AI. All of a sudden, AI took center stage and became an integral part of almost every industry, be it healthcare, automotive, security, or sales and marketing. 

Companies around the world are harnessing the power of AI to streamline their operations, improve the quality of products and services, and scale at a rate that seemed impossible before. In terms of marketing alone, almost 67% of businesses have already incorporated AI in their content marketing efforts and 68% of businesses saw an increase in their ROI attributed to AI. 

What is AI? How can I leverage AI in my content marketing efforts? What AI tools should I use? Learn all this and more in our complete guide to content marketing with AI!

What is AI in content marketing?

AI for content marketing refers to the use of AI tools for market research, content generation(text, audio, video, etc), automating marketing workflows, or personalizing user experiences. AI tools have taken root in almost every marketing strategy, boosting quality, ROI, and user experience while helping businesses scale in a smaller window of time.

While using AI has numerous advantages, remember to use AI as a means of assisting your marketing efforts and not for end-to-end production. The fundamentals of content marketing lie in creating engaging quality content for humans. Creating content just for the sake of targeting keywords or content that does not offer value will lead to consumers bouncing off your page and losing trust in your brand. AI tools should be used as a means to an end to boost research, production, quality, and performance analysis. 

What are the benefits of using AI in content marketing?

AI offers numerous benefits in content marketing, ranging from market research, content creation, and optimization to leveraging automation, and boosting your Return On Investment(ROI)..

As per a  2024 report on AI content marketing by SemRush, 82% of businesses with successful content marketing already employ AI tools in some form. Using AI in your content marketing strategy offers a range of benefits, from higher ROI to refining and optimizing your content for best results. Here are some benefits of AI in content marketing:

Pour in ideas

Just getting started? Not sure what to create? While the grueling journey of manual market research is still important in the long run, AI tools can help you get started with a few simple inputs. For instance, you can use a few simple prompts in tools such as Chat GPT 3.5(it’s free!), such as

For market research:

I am a business in [industry]. 

My products/services are [Brief description of product/services]

I want to target [brief description of target audience]

Can you create an audience persona

Also, identify the best content formats and channels suitable for my business

For content ideas:

I am a business in [industry]. 

I want content marketing ideas for my [product/service/industry]

Share a list of content ideas categorized as per funnels. 

Create or repurpose content

As creators, we are aware of the time and effort required to produce a single piece of content. While nothing beats a quality piece, AI tools can be used to facilitate and speed up your content production engine. You can create outlines, actual blogs, images, and videos with AI within seconds. Also, AI tools can be leveraged to refine and optimize content pieces. But be sure to use AI tools as assistants and guides to your production, not as end pieces!

Personalize customer journeys

When it comes to content marketing, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Every customer is unique, their interests and expectations are different. While earlier, there was no way to personalize every customer’s experience, thankfully to AI, you can serve content based on every customer’s individual interests. AI tools analyze a range of metrics such as demographics, past searches, interests, etc. to dynamically create content for every user.

Leverage automation to overcome tedious marketing tasks

Your resources time and creativity are wasted on performing repetitive manual tasks. Leverage AI tools to efficiently carry out tedious tasks such as correcting grammar, optimizing images, transcribing videos, and so on. Having these tasks automated allows your team to focus better on research, production quality, optimizations, and analysis.

Boost you ROI

As startups or small businesses, we often have limited time and resources at our disposal. Dedicating our major bandwidth to content marketing at the cost of core business functions does not make sense. At the same time, content marketing is an indispensable part of revenue generation, scaling, and generating brand awareness.

AI tools have got your back. Be it conducting marketing research, generating outlines or entire pieces of content, or refining and optimizing your content for better performance, you are just a few prompts away. Leveraging the power of AI early in business is the best way to scale while maintaining core business functions.

How to Use AI for Content Marketing?

AI can be leveraged in several ways in content marketing, from defining your content strategy to generating actual content, optimizing for quality and SEO, automating marketing workflows, and creating personalized experiences for users.

Let us deep dive into how you can use AI for content marketing:

Define content marketing strategy with AI

When formulating your content marketing strategy, market research is an indispensable step. Learning and analyzing all that you can about your audience, industry trends, and competitors is the key to unlocking success in these highly competitive times. 

Although you should travel the thorough path of extensive research, you can get a headstart by leveraging AI tools. AI can help cut down hours of research time into a few simple prompts. Seek what you need instead of browsing through hundreds of pages, especially if you are just starting out, 

An example of market research with AI would look like:

Prompt 1: Provide all the basic details of your business

For instance, My business works in [industry] 

It offers [products/services]. 

My target audience is [Basic audience details]. 

My specialty is [USP]

Prompt 2: Identify relevant channels

For instance, Identify marketing channels most useful to my business

A brief description of basic buyer persona (optional)

A brief description of your time and resources (optional)

Prompt 3: Generate content ideas

For instance, Provide me with content ideas in line with my business for [Platform]

Specific ask- Informational, Transactional, Local keywords (Optional)

Diversify your marketing strategy

As humans, we can only do so much. There are always some high-yielding topics we might miss or some long-tail keywords we might have overlooked. AI tools help us reanalyze our strategy to steer our marketing efforts on the best possible path. 

Create content with AI

Creating content has never been easier. With a few simple commands, you can generate content in almost any format within seconds. You can leverage AI content writing tools, image generation tools, or video generation tools to curate content for different marketing channels.

Although content creation with AI sounds too good, use it as your first draft, and not your final copy. Creating generic content to target keywords will get you nowhere. Remember, there is a real person out there going through your content. Offer industry insights, address specific customer pain points, and personalize your content to speak directly with your audience.

When using AI tools, try to be as specific as possible. The content should resonate with your brand. Some examples of creating content with AI are:

Generating blogs with AI

AI tools, such as Claude or ChatGPT can be used to create outlines or entire articles with a few simple prompts. Although publishing AI-generated content is not recommended, it can certainly be used as a starting point, for market research, or quality enhancement.

Generating graphics with AI

With a few simple prompts, you can bring your ideas to life. Creating graphics, with AI tools such as DALL E or NightCafe offers designers more creative freedom and boosts productivity.

Generating videos with AI

All of us love engaging with video content. While video content may be one of the most consumed forms of content, it certainly demands a lot of time and resources, from equipment, actors, and storyboards to editing, post-production, and distribution costs.

But wait, there’s a hack! You can use AI video generation tools, such as Veed.io or Synthesia to create engaging videos in a matter of minutes.

Optimize content with AI

While AI tools like ChatGPT cannot offer real-time insights into keyword metrics, they can be leveraged in a number of other ways to deliver the best content out there:

Target Long Tail Keywords

You can feed data from tools such as Ahrefs or Ubersuggest into AI models such as ChatGPT to generate long-tail keywords you may have missed. 

For instance, Suggest long tail keywords and relevant topics around [Target Keyword]

Scale publishing efforts with AI-assisted writers and an editorial team

AI tools greatly help cut down the time it goes into research before publishing an article. Create a high-quality first draft with AI-powered generative tools. The time can be better invested in diversifying content formats, optimizing content for better rankings, and accomplishing more projects in shorter time frames.

Proofread your content

AI-powered content tools, such as Grammarly, can help fix basic spelling errors, grammatical mistakes, typos, and more, all while maintaining consistency with your brand voice. However, writers should make use of their own judgment while using such tools because nothing matches original creativity and inputs.

You can also use tools to verify your content for plagiarism and use of AI content. Since AI tools cannot produce any original content on their own,(unless original inputs are provided), their output is limited to the training datasets used. Tools such as Copyleaks and AIdetector help you identify content for such cases.

Analyze and optimize

AI-powered optimization tools help uncover valuable insights and actionable steps by analyzing data in real-time. Leveraging AI analytics tools to stay ahead of the curve has become an indispensable part of any content marketing strategy.

Automate marketing processes

Managing production across different formats as well as so many platforms can be a daunting task. What content should you create? What marketing channels can you leverage? What would be the right time to publish content? Going over every detail in the production pipeline for every piece of content sounds tiresome, doesn’t it?

AI can help automate different steps in the marketing process by making use of historical data to make informed, data-driven decisions. Furthermore, AI can learn from triggers from buyers to make interactions more personalized and meaningful. This can help you scale your marketing efforts to cater to a larger audience with personalized experiences instead of sharing generic messages.

Personalize user experience

When it comes to customers, everyone wants to feel special. They want the brands to speak directly to them. Consumers are tired of generic sales pitches. 

AI has a huge impact on personalizing user experience. By analyzing certain parameters, such as user IP address, location, and search history among others, AI tools can dynamically remodel content, CTAs, and more to personalize user experience. AI can generate contextual content recommendations by analyzing user behaviors.

Leverage chatbots

Chatbots today almost mimic human nature. They serve as knowledge centers and help move prospects along the funnel by addressing their specific queries and requirements. With recent advancements in Natural Language Processing(NLP), AI tools go a step further to understand and make human conversations. Siri, Alexa, and Google Voice Search are some of the best examples of AI we see in our day-to-day lives.

Personalized email campaigns to nurture prospects 

Gone are the days when you had to dedicate your entire bandwidth towards nurturing a handful of leads. AI has opened doors of opportunities, even for small businesses, to scale within limited time, investment, and resources. 

AI has made it possible to curate personalized email drips, targeted campaigns, and milestone outreach, among other things, based on user’s interests and past interactions with your organization. AI can also be taught to identify triggers and serve personalized recommendations to move the prospect along the sales funnel.

Predictive intelligence

We can invest hundreds of hours into market research to understand customer persona and still not get it right. This is because every buyer is unique and making a generalization across the market is unreasonable. 

Predictive intelligence in AI can counter this issue by analyzing thousands of variables to understand every consumer’s unique behavior. It then generates dynamic content repurposed to an individual’s specific behavior and interests. This eases the sales process for marketers enabling them to pinpoint customers most likely to convert, saving thousands of dollars spent on chasing unlikely customers. As per a Gartner study, AI yields a significant impact on ROI, even if the volume of leads is low.

Recommendation Systems

Have you ever seen big brands, like Amazon, serving you certain personalized picks based on your past purchases? Or Google serving content recommendations based on your past searches? Even Spotify pinpoints our exact music taste and recommends songs to our liking.

Recommendation systems learn from user behavior to suggest content that best aligns with the user’s intent and interests. This eases and enhances the customer’s buying journey helping them move along the sales funnel.

Tips and guidelines for implementing an AI content strategy

Generative AI, while having its distinct advantages also raises ethical and legal questions. What is the credibility of AI-generated content? Have the facts been verified? Is the data peer-reviewed?

Also, remember, that real human beings consume the content you produce. Creating content just for the sake of publishing is not the answer. It should offer some value while engaging your audience. While AI tools can create content within seconds, most of it is generic based on existing data from training sets. Also, a lot of information may be out of date or not correct.

The key is to set certain standards for the marketing team to leverage AI in a way that makes the most out of its benefits while overcoming the challenges. Here are some tips and guidelines for using AI in your marketing strategy. 

Human element matters

Nothing can beat the human creativity and personal touch to the content creation process. Understand, we are humans creating content for humans. No one wants to go through generic pieces of content, there are so many. People want brands to speak directly to them, understand their pain points, and create personal connections. While AI can used as the starting point, it cannot be used as an end deliverable.

Strike the right balance

Don’t think in terms of AI versus real writers; rather, think in terms of how AI can help your writers. AI should serve as an assistant to your writers, facilitating your production process instead of delivering the final pieces. Writers can use AI tools to overcome writer’s block, research ideas, or give a new angle to an existing piece. Set clear guidelines as to what AI can be used for and what is deemed inappropriate.

Embed your brand voice into AI content

The content you create speaks for your brand. Get your voice out there, share your story, highlight your superpowers, and strive to be a leader in your community. Creating generic AI content will get you nowhere. Make sure you create content for humans. Consistency across different content formats in line with your branding is another important factor when using AI tools.

Don’t forget the personal touch

Since the dawn of time, humans have loved stories, and storytelling is woven into the very fabric of our beings. We all relate to personal experiences, engage with entertaining content, and share stories and real-life examples. Share original insights, opinions, and learning-based content to build a community around your brand. AI can be leveraged to create outlines and first drafts and refine final copies.

Highlight your experience and expertise to build trust and authority

Let’s not forget the basics of quality content laid down by Google: EEAT

• E: Experience
• E: Expertise
• A: Authority
• T: Trustworthiness

Google values original content over everything else. Sharing original industry insights, statistics, and an angle on an industry topic will help you outrank your competitors. Quality content not only boosts your ranking but also engages and builds trust with the audience. Use AI tools for research, feed original industry data, and analyze trends and other metrics. This data will also prove useful in making informed decisions toward the next steps in your content marketing strategy.

Have ethical guidelines for AI use

While the use of AI in content creation is becoming increasingly popular, the content generated may be inaccurate or not up-to-date at times. It is important to verify all facts and accuracy of data before publishing it, or misleading information can land you in a pool of legal and financial repercussions. Also, remember to be transparent about AI use. Having a clear disclaimer about AI-generated content will help you comply with legal regulations.

Top AI Content Creation Tools

AI content creation has taken the world by storm. Almost all companies are racing towards integrating AI as part of their overall strategy. And why shouldn’t they? AI tools can save hundreds of hours of resources time and expenses to create content almost across any format (text, graphics, audio, and videos) with a few simple prompts within minutes.

Here are some popular content creation tools in 2024 you should check out:

AI Writing tools

AI writing tools can generate content based on user inputs. Make sure to use descriptive prompts and be as specific as possible. Wondering where to start? AI writing tools can boost your productivity across different stages of production, be it keyword research, outlines, content generation, rewrites, or refinement. Use specific prompts to generate content for blogs, landing pages, email nurture sequences, and much more. Here are some AI content-writing tools you can leverage for your business:

Jasper AI

Jasper AI is a popular tool for businesses looking to create in-depth and feature-filled content. With over 50 pre-built templates in 25 languages, Jasper offers personalized content based on your inputs on the target audience, content format, and writing guidelines among other specifications. Its chatbox feature makes it easy to use while creating a customer avatar to further personalize content for landing pages, blog posts, social media posts, and more.

Pros:

• Built for marketers and businesses 
• Intuitive AI with chat feature to enable personalization
• Easy to learn and use

Cons:

• Expensive for freelancers and individual creators
• Analytics and optimization tools are not available
• Limited features in the art generation app

Pricing:

• 7-day free trial(requires credit card info)
• Creator plan starts at $49/month
• Team plan starts at $125/month

Copy.AI

Copy.AI is another excellent choice for businesses looking for content creation in less time. With chatbot features, brand personalization, and audience research, it can do anything that Jasper can do. It comes at a much lower price as compared to Jasper.

Pros:

• High-volume generation plans for multiple creators at affordable pricing
• High-quality content with personalized workflows for inputs

Cons:

• Can be expensive for low-volume creators

Pricing:

• Free up to 2000 words/month
• Pro plan at just 50$/month for 5 creators and unlimited brand voices.

Free AI Writing Tools

Just getting started? Want to familiarize yourself with AI writing tools? Here are some free AI tools you can use for content writing:

Chat GPT

Chat GPT has taken the world by storm by popularizing AI tech. The 3.5 version is freely available to users. Chat GPT can be used for a variety of purposes across different stages of content production, from keyword research to proofreading and optimization. It can even write complete articles from scratch, as per your prompts.

Pros:

• Best to get a headstart if you are just starting out
• Can be used for research, outlines, optimizations, rewrites, and proofreading

Cons:

• Data not updated in real-time, always cross-verify
• Lacks human element

Pricing:

• Chat GPT 4 starts at 20$/month

Quillbot

Quillbot is a powerful AI content generation tool that produces personalized quality content. It helps you explore different tones and angles. Choose one that goes best with your intent and brand guidelines.

Pros:

• Enhance engagement with personalized content
• Plagiarism checking tool

Cons:

• Not all AI-generated content may make sense or be relevant. Always cross-verify.

Pricing

• The monthly plan starts at $19.95 for the Premium version

AI Image Generation tools

AI image generation tools use text prompts to generate stunning high-quality images. So what if you are not a designer? Leverage these tools to generate social media posts, invitations, blog images, and much more. Remember to be as detailed as possible to generate images in line with your brand voice and guidelines.

Here are some AI image-generation tools you should try for your content marketing:

DALL-E 3

DALL-E 3, created by OpenAI, is one of the most popular AI image-generation tools on the market. It is highly intuitive, with a chatbox feature to bring your prompts to stunning images. Be as detailed and specific as possible. For every input, DALL-E generates 4 images.

Pros:

• Quick speed
• Accurate and realistic images

Cons:

• Requires subscription to ChatGPT 4
• The app version is not developed yet

Pricing:

• Comes with 50 free credits, 1 credit is used each time images are generated
• ChatGPT Plus subscription required at $20/month

Adobe Firefly

Adobe has been trusted by creatives and working professionals for decades, and the tool exceeds our expectations. Adobe Firefly can generate images by using a reference image or template. You can either provide custom images or choose from thousands of licensed stock images. 

Pros:

• Images are commercially usable
• Structure reference helps you create custom images

Cons:

• A bit slow compared to other generators

Pricing

• 25 credits free every month, monthly plans available at 100 credits/month for $4.99 

Free AI Image Generation tools

Want to test out some free tools first to get yourself familiar with AI tools? Here are some free AI image-generation tools:

NightCafe

With AI-driven techniques like neural style transfer and text-to-image AI and a range of powerful models, such as Stable Diffusion and DALL-E 2, NightCafe can help you with almost anything, from simple drawings to complex designs. You can also download custom designs and connect with a community of designers. NightCafe offers free daily credits.

Pros:

• High-quality images
• Easy to use
• Bulk creation as well as download 
• Multiple style options.

Cons:

• Steep learning curve for 3D design and advanced features
• Some features are only available in the Premium

Pricing:

• Beginner plan starts at $5.99/month

Craiyon

Craiyon comes with unlimited free access and is a good option for generating basic images. The website is simple to use and a good option for beginners.

Pros:

• Unlimited free access with ads
• Simple interface

Cons:

• Takes more than 1 minute to generate an image
• Low-resolution images

Pricing:

• Supporter plan starts at $5/month

AI Video Generation tools

Videos are perhaps one of the most engaging content formats out there. As creators, we know the amount of effort and time it takes to create a single video, be it preparing storyboards and script writing, or actual production, equipment costs, and editing costs. Don’t worry, AI video tools have got you covered. With a few simple prompts, you can generate high-quality engaging videos. Here are some AI video generators you can leverage for production or editing:

Synthesia

Synthesia is a popular AI video creation tool that uses state-of-the-art tech to generate realistic videos within seconds. Available in over 60+ languages, you can give the tool a go in its free trial plan. Synthesia’s capabilities are not only limited to production but offer post-production editing capabilities as well to further refine and enhance your videos. Just choose your avatar, voice, and tone, and get started with a few simple prompts.

Pros:

• The tool is easy to use
• Can be customized to your brand voice
• Realistic and natural avatars and videos

Cons:

• The free plan has limited features
• Video can be easily pinpointed as AI generated at times

Pricing:

• Free trial plan
• Starts at 30$/month for personal use

Deep AI

Deep AI is one of the best AI video generation tools in the market. The tool offers realistic, high-quality professional videos for a range of purposes, from advertisements to support, no matter the trade of business you are in. Simply insert the script, select actors, tone, and background, and have a video created in a matter of seconds.

Pros:

• Realistic and accurate videos
• Available in tons of different languages
• Chatbot powered by GPT

Cons:

• Results can be inaccurate sometimes

Free AI Video generation tools

Just getting started? Not sure how AI works? Don’t worry, there are a lot of tools out there that help you create videos for free. Here are some free AI video generation tools you should definitely try:

InVideo.io

Invideo is one of the best free video generation tools out there for generating marketing and informational videos, although the exported video has a watermark. With several user-friendly tools, such as text-to-video, pre-built templates, and a stock library, you can use Invideo even if you have no background in designing or production.

Pros:

• Professional videos with in-built context learning and decision-making algorithms
• Libraries with pre-built templates, workflows, and stock videos
• Videos can be shared directly to any social media platform

Cons:

• A bit limited features as compared to other AI video generation platforms

Pricing:

• Starts at 20$/month(Billed annually)

Veed.io

Veed.io helps you create tailored videos by offering customizations fonts, background music, and other design specifications. With its powerful Autotranscript feature, you can easily download the script of the video.

Pros:

• Videos with stunning visuals and graphics
• Engaging on-screen captions makes videos more informational

Cons:

• Content generated can be irrelevant at times. It can be solved with a bit of manual editing and input.

Pricing:

• Starts at 18$/month

Challenges of using AI in content marketing

So far, AI sounds all sunshine and rainbows. There is a downside to using AI tools as well. While using AI tools as stepping stones to facilitate your journey is important, solely relying on AI tools will get you nowhere. Here are some challenges of using AI tools in content marketing:

Lacks human heart

We, as humans, seek not only information, but also stories, personal experiences, views, and insights among others. Your goal should not be to write for search engines but for real people. They should be able to connect with your brand because there are thousands of other companies offering similar products. Remember, having one quality piece that speaks with your audience can beat a hundred pieces of generic content created for SEO purposes.

Results may be inaccurate

Remember, AI tools are as good as their training sets. Most often, the training sets are outdated and information may not have been updated in real-time. Always remember to verify the accuracy of data generated by AI tools.

Algorithms lead to generic content

The content you create using AI tools has already been published by some websites. This is because AI tools have been trained on existing data on the web. You should rather focus on adding value, creating personalized experiences, and engaging with the audience. Also, AI-generated content may be outdated at times and not up to current trends.

Leads to poor SEO results

Back to the basics, remember Google’s E-E-A-T. Your content pieces should have originality, add value, and build trust with your audience. Creating generic pieces with AI does not add any value and might lead to Google blacklisting your website. In its recent March 2024 update, Google cracked down on sites generating 100% AI content to publish hundreds of pieces a day.

Ethical concerns

The use of AI tools, with the vast amounts of personal data they process raises several ethical questions. What is my data being used for? Is the content generated copyrighted? Are my facts cross-checked? Are my findings peer-reviewed?

Also, there are strong chances of plagiarism since AI tools generate content from existing content out there. Remember to use AI tools as assistants, for guidance and overcoming challenges, rather than the end result itself.

Boost Your Content Game: Integrate AI Now

AI has become a game changer in the way organizations conduct business. Automation has globally helped businesses save time and resources wasted on tedious day-to-day tasks while ensuring efficiency and scalability. While AI has its advantages, you should not completely rely on AI technology completely and ensure vigilance and human oversight.

Here at Zen Mavericks, we believe in an AI-enabled content marketing strategy. AI should be used as a means to boost research, productivity, and quality rather than using purely AI-generated content. We try to make the most out of the advantages of AI while overcoming its challenges, Furthermore, we leverage AI to personalize your email nurtures, workflows, and content creation saving you the manual effort of hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars in resources.