Make your content stand out in today's AI-generated content overload

To start with, should and could you replace your content team with AI? We know that AI equals content on steroids; you can produce faster and more content.

It's good to realize that management's biggest pitfall is seeing AI as a chance to produce more of the same (mediocre) content. What was mediocre before will not magically improve by being amplified with AI. 

Honestly, using AI in this way isn't going to move the needle – especially in an already saturated content market, where something available in abundance loses its value. 

If you want to get your message across, you'll have to make an effort and not cut corners by using AI. 

Reframe AI use: from quantity to quality improvements

Let’s put AI in a different daylight, not for more, but for better. Don’t use AI as an excuse to cut costs in your content team. Or to get much more already mediocre content with the same team. 

AI is a unique opportunity to improve the quality of your content. And this higher quality is going to be the differentiator. Add some human touch for authenticity along the way.  

Win-win. Not only directly for your direct customers but also to feed AI tools that help your customers. 

What you’ll read below

1. Keep quality and human touch 

• Think first, prompt to write second: insights and context
• Make the AI output your own: personalize
• Layout and formatting: make it look sexy

2. The influence of your content quality on AI tools and search

• AI tools use your .com content: keep it up-to-date and not more of the same
• Google SGE changes the search game, and there’s more than Google; it’s Bing
• Search via social: the shift in search adds AI and social to the mix

Let's get into the details. 

1. Keep quality and human touch

This still can’t be done by AI, and let’s hope it never will. There is something magical about human connection. In some kind of way, I ‘feel’ it in the copy when there's some strategic thinking with an eye for detail. You'll notice the passion and craftsmanship. 

Think first, prompt to write second

Your expertise and craftsmanship give context and meaning. You have to think before you write. Think about the insights and what’s new, all reasoned from a  ‘what’s in it for me’ for your customer, not you. The details of your message should have a well-thought-through process on how you solve your customers’ problems with your product.

Make the AI output your own

In the last step, you make the AI output your own. Not only to validate, also to personalize. No matter your prompts, the AI-generated content still has a whiff of, well, AI.

Make it more personal with a first-person point of view. Finetune and tweak. Adjust the words and the flow. Delete the buzz and jargon. Play with the length of the sentences.

These are the writing details that make AI-generated copy feel like your own.

Layout and formatting strategy

The very last step is to do the formatting and layout to make a piece of copy look sexy. And sex still sells. The smaller the screen, the more important.

Make your content scannable and skippable. You do this by manually cutting the copy into smaller paragraphs with short lines. Add subheaders. Have a maximum of three font styles. And most importantly, play with whitespace. To group things together and make your content look airy and accessible.

2. The influence of your content quality on AI tools and search

Here are more reasons why you should step up your content game. Not only for your direct customer, also for AI and search. On the search, there's a new era ahead. Not only AI but also Bing has risen from its ashes, and social is (relatively) new to the search game. 

AI uses your .com content

Let’s not forget that the content you produce and publish feeds AI. ChatGPT, Bard, Gemini, Llama, and others use your written, visual, and video content to create their content. They all love it when your content answers a question and provides information in the right customer context and cultural setting.

At the time of writing, December 2023, I don’t know how this exactly works; what I do know is that AI uses the web for its information and reveals the sources. Not only important to keep all your content up to date, also important it’s of high quality, gives insights, and isn’t more of the same.

Adapting to Google SGE: a new AI era of search

The world of search is going to change. From keyword matching to context and intent. From only copy to multimedia. Read more on how SGE impacts your content. 

And please, don’t only optimize for Google anymore. Microsoft Bing is back in the game. Bard is Microsoft. LinkedIn is Microsoft. Alexa uses Bing. And Meta and Llama are also in the Microsoft camp.

The rise of social in search behavior

This is not directly related to AI, yet it is too important not to mention. There is a shift in search. Where we used to jump to Google, now we add AI and social to the mix.

You not only update and improve the quality of your .com content, also step up your social game as Gen Z and X use social more and more as a search engine.

Wrapping it all up

AI is a unique opportunity to improve your quality, not your quantity. There is no way you should or could replace your content team with AI. You need the human touch to improve the quality because the market will be overflooded with mediocre content produced by AI. 

Keep quality and human touch 

• Think first, prompt to write second: insights and context
• Make the AI output your own: personalize
• Layout and formatting: make it look sexy

The influence of your content quality on AI tools and search

• AI tools use your .com content: keep it up-to-date and not more of the same
• Google SGE changes the search game, and there’s more than Google; it’s Bing
• Search via social: the shift in search adds AI and social to the mix

If you want to know more, check out the other blogs in my newsroom or contact me on LinkedIn.

Inspiration for this article

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7141630107923750912/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinblackman/

https://hub.beeckestijn.org/digital-marketing/inflatie-content-advertenties/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/bartmeerdink/

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