In recent weeks we’ve run a series of articles on content marketing – from what it is and how it works to how to go about creating a comprehensive content marketing strategy, we’ve covered a lot of bases.
But whilst the inclusion of humans in the content marketing process is vital at this point, over the course of the next few years Artificial Intelligence will begin to play an increasingly important role – not replacing content creators, per sé, but enhancing and magnifying impact in a number of ways.
Let’s take a look at how AI is impacting content marketing already, and what’s in store for the future…
A quick recap of content marketing as a digital tool
Content marketing uses writers and creators to generate content in various forms (written, video, audio, graphics) that are designed to give people browsing the internet useful, relevant and expert information on topics they find interesting, or are looking for more information on.
These pieces of content need to be engaging, impactful, truthful, relevant and helpful.
They also need to be seeded out into various channels – Google Search, social media, associated websites and so forth – where relevant audiences are browsing or searching, so that this information is presented to them to help them make more informed decisions.
How does AI play a role?
One of the most challenging questions content marketers face is ‘what is my customer’s intent?’. In other words, although someone may be typing a search in Google, it’s likely that what they’re looking for is connected to lots of other searches or behaviours online, all of which point to an interest, an activity or a behaviour that can be bracketed together collectively as ‘intent’.
At this point in the ever-evolving inclusion of AI in everyday applications, AI is able to help marketers decipher intent more clearly, and following on from that, with vital aspects of their planning including:
· Aggregation of overwhelming amounts of audience data into organized and digestible streams
· Creating identifiable customer ‘personas’ from that data that can then be collated into ‘audience buckets’
· Identification of optimal marketing channels based on that audience data
· Suggestions for optimizing content types and subjects based on keyword and search data
· Help with optimising delivery of content so that it reaches target audiences at times most likely to make the biggest impact
Additionally, AI is also helping content marketers beyond just data – more recently, AI is also:
· Automatically generating content – although this is fairly limited at the moment, and uses aggregated information to create simple pieces of content like sports and news reports, algorithms to write more complex ‘humanistic’ pieces are already in play and getting better and better
· Holding conversations to improve engagement – Chatbots have been around for a while, and in the content marketing space they’re helping marketers improve the each and engagement around content pieces by interacting with readers
· Curating content – by helping content marketers find and curate relevant content into streams, AI makes content marketing strategies easier to plan, implement and optimise. Whilst AI is a long way off being the main creator in a content marketing strategy, its inclusion in your strategy must be carefully thought out and put into motion. Content creators are imaginative, intelligent and strategic, and AI serves to enhance and optimise all of these characteristics.
Find out more about content marketing and how to integrate AI to optimise your marketing strategies today. Call the Realnet team on 01223 550800 or email info@realnet.co.uk for more.