It’s a slight understatement to say that AI technology has upset the marketing apple cart. AI has become a game changer, for better or worse. It’s also led many to start overthinking their marketing strategies and tactics, or believe their marketing needs a top to bottom overhaul.
Here’s the thing, though: even with the marketing automations provided by AI, quality content is still king. Your business and brand still need quality content that hits all your key messages. It also still needs to resonate with all your audiences. And while it’s easy to have AI generate a large quantity of content, all of it still needs to be vetted by human beings.
AI used for the sake of AI is often, unsurprisingly, empty of any emotion. It can be needlessly verbose and vague at the same time. AI is also known to produce generic answers and deliver them in an overly mellifluous manner (this especially stands out on corporate content!).
To summarize what we’ve stated before: AI can be your navigator, but it should never be in the driver seat. You can use AI to create new content prompts, but never unrefined content itself.
No matter how much the marketing game has changed, the quality – not quantity – of your content is still what matters most. Here’s why.
Human edits ensure your content is original.
AI is getting better at learning a brand’s voice. It can’t understand, though, WHY you’re creating specific content, or that it needs to be unique from anything it’s generated before. If you need to know your content is unique and original, it needs to be edited by human hands and eyes.
I say this because AI generators have, in some cases, started simply reusing fonts, images, and layouts. The result, especially for smaller, owner-led businesses? Ads, announcements, and social posts which are nearly indistinguishable from what’s already out there.
There’s an equally strong chance that AI – generated articles and social media posts will be nearly identical to content put out by other companies. Generic AI copy is bad enough for your brand. Generic AI copy is copy that’s already been used nearly word-for-word elsewhere is even worse.
AI’s strengths lie in creating a vast list of suggested topics, tactics, and styles. If AI is part of your toolkit, use it to do exactly that. From there, you can curate and refine AI content into your own original copy. The result? Your voice and cadence will stand out. Be the final editor of your own content, and your brand will stand out above the rest.
Search engines may penalize AI-generated content.
It’s true: AI – generated content isn’t just generic sounding. It can also sink your ranking on Google and other search engines.
A quick caveat here: search engines like Google won’t give a lower ranking to AI content just because it’s AI content. Search engines will, however, give a lower ranking to “low-effort” content. More often than not, this kind of content is AI-generated. Overuse of SEO keywords, “buzzy” language, and articles with little substance are most likely to get flagged by Google, and ranked lower as a result.
Conversely, content with depth is given priority.
The good news is that if your content has been edited in your voice, you’re likely already being judicious with keyword use. That means your content won’t just resonate with your audience. Search engines will be more likely to show it off, too.
Since search engines have gotten very good at identifying original, creative content, it now achieves top ranking. Feel free to use AI to create a list of suggested topics and angles. Always be sure, though, to never publish AI content without editing it for clarity and depth first.
If you do that, you’ll have a well – curated list of articles, posts, and images that tell your story. Which leads me to the next reason why content is king:
Content refresh keeps your website ranked high.
High-quality blog posts and articles do more than just establish you as an authority on your area of expertise. They also refresh your website.
“Refreshing”, in website terms, happens any time you add or significantly edit content. In the case of adding a new article, search engines make note that you’ve added a completely new page. When this happens, search engines like Google take notice, and often choose to give it a higher rank.
What this means for marketers, especially in owner-led businesses? You should be adding new content to your website at least once a month. At minimum, every two or three months to keep your website ranked high. We can’t say this enough, though: don’t just add random AI content and then call it a day. Whatever you choose to add should be insightful, relevant and useful.
No matter how much technology advances marketing strategies, the quality of your content will always matter most of all. If you want to be sure you’re delivering content that resonates across your audiences, our team at KAT Media can help. Give us a call today and we’ll set up a chat.