The odds are that you’ve seen the buzz about ChatGPT, a large language model trained by OpenAI to generate human-like text based on the input it receives. It’s a variant of GPT-3 (Generative Pretrained Transformer 3), the machine learning model that’s considered to be one of the most advanced technologies for generating convincing, high-quality written content.
ChatGPT was specifically designed for conversational text generation, meaning it’s good at generating responses to questions or requests on a wide variety of topics based on the data with which it was trained. Meaning, it’s essentially a super-helpful chatbot. But a chatbot that is far more advanced than any you’ve likely interacted with online.
Its conversational interface makes ChatGPT easy (and fun) to use. And the fact that OpenAI has released a free version has attracted more than a million users in just a few days, resulting in nearly as many opinions about exactly what this technology means for human professions as diverse as writing and coding, for companies (like Google), and for entire industries — like education, media, or marketing.
Ah, marketing. Yes…
What Will AI Like ChatGPT Mean for Marketing?
And what will it mean for content marketing — the kind of marketing we do for B2B brands here at VERDINO — in particular?
So first, we asked ChatGPT itself. Here’s what it came back with after just a few seconds:
The mainstream adoption of AI tools in content marketing could have a significant impact on the field. For example, the use of AI language models could allow content marketers to quickly and efficiently generate large amounts of high-quality content, allowing them to keep up with the increasing demand for fresh, engaging material. Additionally, AI tools could provide valuable insights into consumer behavior and preferences, helping content marketers to create more targeted and effective campaigns.
Not bad. Reasonable. Coherent. A bit — shall we say — generic.
And then we checked it out firsthand to get a sense of what it can actually do.
Granted, we’ve experimented with other AI writing assistants over the course of the past year or so, with varying degrees of success — so this wasn’t the first time I’ve witnessed a machine churning out copy that could pass for something written by a human. But over the past couple of weeks, I’ve asked ChatGPT to write articles, headlines, social media posts, and even my own bio. I’ve had it outline a content strategy for a client. I’ve challenged it to rewrite many of these in the style of Shakespeare, the Bible, Kurt Vonnegut, Stephen King, and the poet Billy Collins. In all cases, ChatGPT performed surprisingly well with far less effort than required with the other AI writers we’ve tried.
Now, don’t get me wrong: It hardly rated a 10 out of 10. Its work (and words) lacked nuance and personality. It excels with facts while struggling with opinion, although even ostensibly factual information contained obvious errors and (as OpenAI notes on their site) is prone to bias. Overall though, ChatGPT is surprisingly good — although not nearly as great as some people think.
Even OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman took to Twitter to warn:
ChatGPT is incredibly limited but good enough at some things to create a misleading impression of greatness. It’s a mistake to be relying on it for anything important right now. It’s a preview of progress. We have lots of work to do on robustness and truthfulness… Fun creative inspiration; great! Reliance for factual queries; not such a good idea.
So, there’s that. But still, AI tools like ChatGPT do have some practical (and productive) applications for content marketing, even today, despite their shortcomings. Let’s have a look…
Five Benefits of ChatGPT for Content Marketing Today
- A Bit of Inspiration: Although ChatGPT is not directly connected to the internet (meaning, it can’t run a real-time search like Google does), it’s training data certainly contained reams and reams of content culled from the web. Based on that, the tool is reasonably good at suggesting solid topics and even titles for blog posts, articles, or even ebooks based on what you tell it you’re looking to communicate.
- Basic Research and Backstory: ChatGPT can generate basic definitions, cogent summaries, and generalized explanations of common topics — the kind of stuff you might include in an article to make sure it covers the basics. It doesn’t cite sources, can’t go deep into specifics, or tap into the most current information available, but sometimes reasonably recent, generally available background information is all you need to give readers the context they need to understand where you’re coming from.
- First Draft Content: For companies writing about well-covered topics, ChatGPT offers a partial solution through its ability to churn out competent, coherent articles within seconds. While this is generally not sufficient on its own (and this might be the number one reason AI won’t replace top-quality writers any time soon), AI writers can certainly save human content creators valuable time that’s better spent adding color, perspective, personality, and other points of distinction.
- Search Engine Optimization: ChatGPT can assist in keyword research and generate meta descriptions, titles, and (as noted above) entire articles — albeit formulaic ones — focused on those keywords. Granted, any competitor armed with similar prompts is likely using ChatGPT to get similar guidance, resulting in look-alike marketing across your category. And if ranking matters to you (and it does), it’s unlikely that raw AI-generated content will pass muster after Google’s helpful content update.
- Content Reuse and Repurposing: We do a lot of versioning — it takes time. ChatGPT is really quite good at taking long-form text you provide it, and reworking it into summaries, teasers, social media-friendly copy, descriptions, and more. I’m not saying you won’t need a human editor to check its work or add some personality, but AI can be really useful with the nuts-and-bolts of content atomization.
Of course, none of this means AI doesn’t have some major drawbacks — for now…
Five Limitations of ChatGPT for Content Marketing
- Lack of Creativity and Differentiation: Because ChatGPT is trained on content that already exists, everything it produces amounts to a synthesis of information that’s already available online. While this is often helpful (and trusting an AI to do the work certainly shaves time off the research process and saves human writers time spent summarizing well-known facts or backstory), it’s hardly a recipe for net new ideas. If your company and every one of its competitors uses similar prompts to generate articles on a given bread-and-butter topic for your industry, you’d end up with (more or less) copycat content that will be devalued by Google and — more importantly — your audience.
- A Dated Worldview: ChatGPT — like most language models at work today — is only trained through 2021. So, it knows about COVID, but not the Great Resignation, the tech industry layoffs, or the looming recession. It can’t tell you this year’s Pantone color or this week’s latest 2023 marketing predictions from Gartner. It isn’t aware of its own popularity or any of the online chatter about its implications! If you work in a rapidly changing industry — as most of our B2B technology clients do — it’s woefully out of date on the latest developments impacting your company and your customers.
- Errors: As I’ve already noted, ChatGPT is likely to incorporate factual errors, bias, and even harmful information (although it is, allegedly, trained to avoid inappropriate conversations and demur when asked for an opinion on a sensitive topic). Compounding the challenge, ChatGPT doesn’t cite sources. Aside from raising an ethical concern (and maybe a legal one), this makes it difficult to fact-check its output and diminishes the information’s credibility in the eyes of a skeptical business reader. It also means you’re going to need some really, really good editors in your stable.
- No Brand Championship: Even where ChatGPT or any other AI writer nails the nuts-and-bolts, it can’t infuse an argument with your organization’s unique perspective; align that perspective to your understanding of your audience, value prop, or messaging framework; present it in your distinct voice and tone; or align it to your editorial standards. Maybe one day, but not today.
- No Understanding or Expertise: Ultimately, while ChatGPT might be intelligent and informed, by definition it lacks expertise. (Technically speaking, it also lacks understanding — meaning that while it strings together logical statements it doesn’t possess any true understanding of what it writes.) As it relates to B2B content marketing though, clearly it hasn’t worked in your industry, served your customers, lived in your thought leaders’ heads, or walked in your executives’ shoes. It’s never going to interview your internal experts, facilitate conversations with your customers, or reach out to industry influencers. In other words, it lacks the basis for unique insight that comes from being in (or in the case of your agencies, closely aligned with) the business.
Don’t get me wrong.
I am not arguing against the use of AI in content marketing or minimizing the degree to which AI will disrupt and ultimately transform marketing in the (very near) future. Buckle up. We’re at the very start of a wild (and for many, bumpy) ride that will leave some behind while empowering others to leap ahead.
BUT… As far as I’m concerned, the shortcomings I’ve noted make this early iteration of ChatGPT a so-so writer and an even worse marketer. Don’t fire your agency just yet — or more precisely, fire your existing agency and check out what we have to offer 😉.
What it is, though, is a useful tool for human marketers. Whether you’re client-side or at an agency, a tool like ChatGPT can improve your efficiency, effectiveness, speed, and (yeah) the cost of getting work done.
Your Assignment
I know. Marketers love it when an agency gives them work to do. But really, you owe it to yourself to give ChatGPT a try (if you haven’t already). See for yourself what it can do, how the experience feels, and where it struggles with your prompts. Decide for yourself if the content it creates hits or misses the mark for your brand. Consider the ways in which it might fit into your workflow.
And all the while, think about Seth Godin’s take on the real, larger, longer-term implications of ChatGPT and other AI tools like it:
If your work isn’t more useful or insightful or urgent than GPT can create in 12 seconds, don’t interrupt people with it. Technology begins by making old work easier, but then it requires that new work be better.
