10 Real Ways to Use AI for Content Marketing

What can AI do for content marketers today? Maybe the better question is: What can’t it do? 

The truth is that Generative AI is quickly becoming a trendsetter in the content marketing arena. Numerous AI tools at a marketer’s disposal are capable of enhancing content in a variety of ways. But it’s up to those marketers to be savvy enough to know how to best use those tools. 

It can be tricky to know where to start, so here, we’re unwrapping 10 solid, real-world ways that AI redefines content creation and consumption, from revamping SEO to helping create custom-tailored user experiences.

Dive in and learn practical ways to use AI to take your content from standard to stellar and create impactful marketing by marrying technical innovation with deep human understanding.

10 AI Strategies and Tools to Enhance Your Content Marketing Workflow

It’s time to embrace AI as your digital partner, here are 10 ways that AI tools can enrich your content creation process: 

1. Automated Content Creation

If you’re hustling to churn out fresh content regularly, ChatGPT can be your drafting buddy. Using the AI tool to generate outlines and draft content can be an incredible time saver, allowing you to focus your energy on revising the AI output and infusing the text with your unique style or brand voice.

Practical Tips

• Set Your Goals: Before writing prompts for AI, pinpoint what your focus will be. Blog posts? Social buzz? Get clear on your intended audience and the messaging you need to reach them.
• Craft Your Prompts: Once you know your goals, sharpen those prompts! The clearer they are from the start, the more refined the AI output will be.

Things to Watch Out For

• The Plain Jane Effect: AI might dish out bland content, but you want to avoid publishing the same content that can be found elsewhere. Your job is to take what AI gives you and incorporate personality, originality and creative flair.
• Inaccurate Facts: Sometimes AI gets its facts tangled—the tool even warns, “ChatGPT can make mistakes. Consider checking important information.” A good content marketer always reviews statements and statistics for accuracy and credibility.

2. SEO Strategy Insights

When you’re ready to turbocharge your SEO game, consider AI-powered platforms like Clearscope or MarketMuse. These SEO wizards take a deep dive into your content and what’s hot in your niche and dish out tips on the perfect keywords, article length, and structure. 

Practical Tips

• Uncover Important Keywords: Explore the results and recommendations from AI tools to reveal not only high-impact keywords but also hidden gems like long-tail keywords.
• Structure Your Masterpiece: Let AI be your guide in building content that is relevant and timely to what readers are searching for.
• Watch Your Performance: Keep an eye on your SEO health with AI-driven analytics.

Things to Watch Out For

• Imbalance: AI is capable, but it cannot possibly tell the whole story. Look for places where a human touch is needed to ensure content is as engaging as it is technically effective.
• Too Narrow a Focus: Remember to audit not only your own content metrics but also those of your competitors to see where you stand and what else could be improved.

3. Personalized Recommendations

Today’s consumers overwhelmingly crave customized solutions, so the challenge becomes quickly serving up content that feels tailor-made. Enter AI tools like Adobe Sensei, which help marketers and customer service teams deliver personalized experiences and messages faster than you can click ‘refresh.’

Practical Tips

• Maintain a Data Repository: Stockpile comprehensive user data—the more data AI tools have to work with, the better the predictions of customer behavior will be.
• Create Personas and Segments: Increase customer engagement by using AI to create customer segments based on users’ clicks and responses.
• Never Stop Refining: Keep feeding fresh data to your AI models for ever-sharper recommendations.

Things to Watch Out For

• Privacy Concerns: Respect for users’ personal data is paramount, and transparency is key. Users should know how their data is stored and used.
• Repetition: Analyze AI output to be sure recommendations are personalized and not repeated across users.

4. Chatbot Conversations

Imagine a customer lands on your site with a burning question, but your customer service team is occupied helping other users. AI-powered chatbots like those from Drift and Intercom can be employed as the first line of defense to move customers toward conversion with as little frustration as possible. They’re the powerhouses of customer service—quick, efficient, and available 24/7.

Practical Tips

• Create a Conversational Tone: Sculpt chatbot dialogues that are as natural as a chat over coffee. Users may know they are talking with a chatbot, but the language it uses doesn’t have to be overly formal.
• Generate Data-Driven Insights: Personalize chats by letting your chatbot keep track of visitors and peek into customer data to use it in its responses.
• Pay Attention to Conversations: Keep refining your chatbot’s responses based on conversations customers have with human customer service team members—it’s like giving it a regular brain boost.

Things to Watch Out For

• Hunger for Human Touch: Some folks still yearn for a human at the other end of the conversation, so consider whether (and when) you will give users an option to speak to a real person.
• Complexity Conundrum: When queries get tricky, chatbots might fumble a bit. Make sure you regularly review transcripts to see if pre-programmed responses need to be amended. 

5. Tracking Performance Analytics

Once you’ve created and published content, now it’s time to evaluate how it resonates with your audience. AI tools like Tableau are like digital detectives, using AI to track numbers and metrics, trail user behavior, and help you understand what makes your audience click.

Practical Tips

• Make KPIs Your North Star: Identify your goals first, and then enable AI to measure the key performance indicators that will tell you how well your business is achieving them.
• Collaborate to Connect: Working with an AI partner to analyze data can uncover new avenues for connection with customers. 
• Participate in Data Dive Sessions: Set a regular monthly or quarterly appointment to review your data to keep your strategy swimming smoothly.

Things to Watch Out For

• Data Overwhelm: Analyzing tons of data can be a daunting task. But remember to focus on quality, not just quantity, to make an impact. Focus on the proper data collection methods (e.g., customer surveys, web tracking, chatbot conversations) to ensure you gather the highest-quality information. 
• Disjointed Data: Tell the whole story. To properly evaluate performance metrics, be sure to sync all your data channels (both sales and marketing, for example) with your AI tool for a perfect analytics symphony. 

6. Trend Forecasting

A big part of marketing is thinking about the future and what your audience wants and needs. Because you’re (likely) not a fortune teller, think about AI tools like Trend Hunter AI to make navigating the swift currents of market trends easier. Using this type of tool is like wearing a pair of AI-powered binoculars to peer into the media landscape.

Practical Tips

• Define Your Quest: Be crystal clear about the trends you’re chasing before diving into forecasting.
• Hunt for Data Treasure: Allow AI to scour for data—both the neatly structured and the wild, unstructured kinds. You might find some hidden gems—but remember to keep the focus on quality data sources.
• Match Data with Model: Pair your data with the right AI model. For complex, multi-layered data, deep learning tools will be your go-to.
• Allow for Training Time: Get your model into shape with your data, then test its mettle in a low-stakes environment before launching a full campaign.

Things to Watch Out For

• Poor-Quality Data: Take a bit of time to evaluate the data sources used for predicting future trends. Poor-quality or skewed data can send your trend predictions off course.
• Stagnation: Remember, trends are as fluid as the ocean and change frequently. Regularly update your AI forecasting model to stay agile and avoid being stuck in the past.

7. Elevating Media

No one wants to read a wall of text—including visuals in your marketing messages creates engagement and can help convey brand identity, emotion, and so much more. Today, you don’t have to have a degree in graphic design or video editing to make this happen. AI tools like Adobe Spark are here to revolutionize the process of making content pop.

Practical Tips

• Create Unique: Brush up on prompt engineering to learn how to get AI tools to craft lifelike graphics and animations that will add a dash of awe to your content.
• Practice Smart Editing: Save time and effort by letting AI writing software take the first pass at editing, weaving stories seamlessly, and fine-tuning colors and sounds for an immersive experience.
• Organize Effortlessly: AI will sort, tag, and organize media files, making management a breeze.

Things to Watch Out For

• Budget: Quality AI media tools can be an investment, so do your research before you buy. Better yet, see if the tool you have in mind offers a free trial period.
• Time Crunches: AI design tools may feel like magic, but quick turnaround demands can still put pressure on quality. Leave enough time in your production process to review and refine.
• Changing Audience Dynamics: Evolving tastes require constant innovation and planning.
• Tech Intricacies: The capacity of AI design tools is still evolving, and they may not be able to achieve your vision without some human help. Balancing technology specs with quality is vital.

8. Tuning Into Voice Search

Voice search optimization is an important aspect of SEO to consider. Consumers are increasingly using voice assistants like Siri, Bixby, and Alexa to search for what they need, and AI is the powerhouse behind the interpretation. Tools like Semrush can be your microphone, amplifying your content in voice-activated searches.

Practical Tips

• Consider Intent: AI works to grasp the ‘why’ behind voice searches. But it’s not seamless yet; it’s still learning how to marry intent with natural speech. Consider thinking like a computer and highlighting the most critical details you would want to be returned to a voice search prompt.
• Voice Search and Local SEO: Users seek information like “near me” or specific to their location. Ensure your content is optimized for local SEO by incorporating location-specific keywords and phrases. This can be especially impactful in attracting local customers, as AI-driven voice assistants prioritize providing immediate, relevant local solutions to users’ queries.

Things to Watch Out For

• Diverse Voices, Diverse Challenges: AI sometimes struggles to understand different accents or speech styles. Think about how to structure your SEO so voice search results sound natural to the widest audience possible.

9. Jazzing Up Email Campaigns

Technology is rapidly advancing, but email marketing is still alive and well. AI can help write compelling email copy, but did you know that it can also be used to predict buying behavior and enhance segmentation? Tools like Mailchimp have a user-friendly vibe and use AI to harmonize email timing and content.

Practical Tips

• Make Data-Driven Decisions: Let AI analyze the data from your past email campaigns to suggest ways to improve engagement in the future.
• Set Up Automations: Think of AI as your virtual assistant; let it handle the repetitive tasks so you can focus on the creative ones.
• Make It Personal: AI can help tailor your content to resonate with specific audience member segments.
• Clean Up Distribution: AI can tidy up your mailing lists, removing duplicate and out-of-date emails to maximize profit.

Things to Watch Out For

• Lack of Human Touch: Be sure to keep a balance of AI-generated content and your voice. AI is useful, but your flair is what makes emails sing.

10. Sentiment Analysis for Brand Monitoring

Brand reputation is like a pulse—you’ve got to keep a finger on it. That’s where AI tools like Brandwatch step in, combing through social media chatter to bring you the real story of how your brand is perceived. When you can monitor not only what is being said about your brand but infer the emotion behind it, you can make smart decisions about future content.

Practical Tips

• Be a Keyword Detective: Program AI to sleuth for specific words or phrases relevant to your company, product, or industry and infer how consumers feel about your brand.
• Magnify Insights: Opt for tools with Natural Language Processing for deeper, more nuanced sentiment insights.
  

Things to Watch Out For

• Language Labyrinths: AI might trip over complex or contradictory language. Stay alert and review its analysis and recommendations often.
• Pinpointing the Mood: Accuracy in reading sentiments is crucial, especially when the message isn’t loud and clear. Be ready to correct and train your AI model if you notice something amiss.
  

AI in Action: Tales from ClickUp, BuzzFeed, and HubSpot

Now that we’ve explored some ways to use AI to your advantage in content marketing, let’s take a look at some real-life examples of companies using AI as not just a background player but a lead character.

ClickUp—The Content Sharpener

ClickUp, a go-to project management guru, has teamed up with Surfer SEO and its savvy AI tools. The company is playing the SEO game like a pro, using AI to spot content improvement opportunities and nailing the perfect keyword balance.

The result? A smashing 85% boost in organic traffic and over 150 blog posts published in just a year. Efficiency is the name of the game here.

BuzzFeed—The Personal Touch 

BuzzFeed is taking quizzes to a new level with OpenAI’s toolkit. Buzzy the Robot isn’t just a helper; it’s the secret sauce behind the company’s infinity quizzes. You can take a quiz any number of times and, based on your inputs, get a unique, personalized answer each time.

It’s a fusion of human creativity and AI smarts that takes BuzzFeed quizzes beyond just fun distractions and into the realm of personal journeys.

HubSpot—Driving Learning

The HubSpot Blog team is cleverly weaving AI into its content workflows, but they’re not letting robots steal the show. It’s all human when it comes to storytelling; however, they’re using AI as a quick-thinking sidekick for researching and outlining.

AI lends a hand in brainstorming sessions, injecting fresh ideas and perspectives. The team is even dabbling with using AI to generate videos and spruce up meta descriptions.

AI Evolution: Crafting Future-Proof Content Strategies

As we wrap up our exploration of strategies for using AI to enhance content marketing, think of it not as an end but as a beginning. AI models are continually being invented and refined, and there will constantly be new reasons to incorporate them into your tool stack.

Whether you are just beginning to dabble in the use of AI for content marketing or you have already mastered several of these strategies, the possibilities for the future are seemingly endless. So, let’s not just watch the content of tomorrow unfold—let’s be the ones to shape it, crafting memorable experiences powered by AI.