Tag: writing

Look, you probably don’t need another hot take on whether marketers should be using AI-generated marketing content, by a marketing strategist, but here it is anyway:

I rarely hear anybody talk about the key assumption behind this tedious debate: the assumption that it’s a marketer’s job to produce a lot of content. 

When in fact, it’s the job of marketing to produce good content: ideally genuinely new ideas, presented in a fresh way, that resonate with the people you’re targeting.

From what I’ve seen so far, that’s the opposite of what AI does.

What, actually, is the job of Marketing?

ChatGPT regurgitates things that already exist out there, in ways that already exist out there. Assembling words with the highest likelihood of being used in collocation by the highest number of people. Sometimes, the writing is tolerable. Often, it presents utter shite with a level of confidence I can only aspire to. (George over at Radix has written a fine blog about “AI eating itself” with much more nuance than I can muster).

The output from this exercise is the definition of middling. The literary world’s equivalent of brown. If that’s what you think your marketers’ job is, then go ahead.

In my mind then, you have a completely different problem: that you don’t understand the de-familiarising power of unique words (or images, if you’re using AI for visuals) to help us see well-known things in a new light, or the function they have in engaging audiences, or the blank-everything-else-out effect that a genuinely new idea can have, or the responsibility you have as a brand that targets people to not bore them stiff. And yes, your responsibility to hire and train marketers that understand these things. Who can tell a good headline from bad, who know what a differentiator is, who can brief in and feed back on copy.

If you do understand these things, and still use ChatGPT, then you know that getting the prompts right takes such a level of customisation and tweaking that you might as well use that time to write the damn thing.

A ChatGPT experiment

So far, there’s only one use case I can see where ChatGPT being genuinely helpful, and that’s for functional content that follows a clear template. Invites, sign-up forms, things that have a formula. I’ll give you an example of an instance where ChatGPT has impressed me (and, in red, the bits I loved and the ones where I think it falls flat):

Prompt:

Write a sales email to a prospect in which I invite them to sign up to our webinar on the topic of best practice in Modular ERP. [simply because I had a chat about AI-generated content with an ERP client of mine last week]

What ChatGPT came up with:

Subject: Invitation to Webinar: Best Practices in Modular ERP

Dear [Prospect’s Name],

[it’s great that it signals all the core bits of information that need to be there, such as subject lines and placeholders for names, dates and times. You wouldn’t believe how many emails go out with the essentials missing. Wish it had given me a preview snippet for the email as well, and maybe a second subject line for A/B testing, but it’s pretty good.]

I hope this email finds you well. I wanted to reach out to you because I believe you would find great value in our upcoming webinar on “Best Practices in Modular ERP.”

[“Find great value” is terribly generic. Why/ why for me/what’s the value? Similarly, “finds you well” is tired language, plus double use of “find”. A good editor would spot that.]

In today’s fast-paced business environment, having a flexible and scalable ERP system is crucial for optimizing operations and staying competitive.

[“Today’s fast-paced environment”. I couldn’t believe it went there. The most telling sign of lazy writing. It says you should care but I don’t. It claims urgency without proving it. Absolute no-go. I actually have a voodoo doll in the likeness of that phrase that I stick pins in at night. But: I was impressed that it hit a crucial business benefit of modular ERP. Optimising operations is indeed something a well set up ERP does and I hadn’t briefed that in. I assume that means it’s what everyone says, though. “Staying competitive” is the same as “fast-paced environment”: it’s so generic a benefit – duh – that you should step away from it].

Our webinar will delve into the benefits and strategies of implementing a modular ERP approach, allowing businesses like yours to tailor their systems to meet specific needs and scale efficiently.

[My main issue with this paragraph is that it sounds good at first reading, and then you realise it doesn’t actually say anything. Meet specific needs indeed].

During the webinar, our expert speakers will cover:

• The advantages of modular ERP over traditional monolithic systems [Loved that word. I suspect everyone uses it or it wouldn’t have made its way into this]
• Key considerations for selecting and implementing modular ERP solutions
• Real-world case studies highlighting successful implementations
• Strategies for maximizing ROI and long-term sustainability [Great work if you can get it, but I hadn’t briefed that in and I’d want to check that I can actually deliver on case studies and ROI before I send this out]

Date: [Insert Date] Time: [Insert Time] Duration: [Insert Duration] [thanks for the reminders, this is useful!]

This webinar presents a unique opportunity to gain valuable insights and actionable strategies directly from industry experts. Plus, it’s completely free to attend. [Love all these AI-generated case studies and experts I don’t have, that really makes my job a lot easier. Wait, what do you mean, free. IT’S NOT FREE. by which I mean, you really gotta check the content of this stuff]

To secure your spot, simply click the link below to register: [Insert Registration Link]

If you have any questions or would like more information, feel free to reach out to me directly. We’re here to support you on your journey towards optimizing your ERP system.

[Switching between “I” and “We” is not a great look, but I do it on this website as well, so I’ll let it go]

We look forward to having you join us for this informative session. [the rule is “Show don’t tell”. That’s for them to find out, not for you to claim.]

Best regards,

[Your Name] [Your Position] [Your Contact Information]

ChatGPT Really isn’t Marketing’s Biggest problem

Okay, so on the whole this wasn’t bad.

I found it too long and generic, but part of that was down to the minimal briefing. If you’re writing a generic format like an invite, my take is you could save yourself a lot of time by getting ChatGPT to write it for you. But only if you then invest the effort into making it good, and importantly, yours. Saying things that are different and new, and unique to your brand. Also maybe injecting a bit of personality into that voice.

What it alerted me to was this: whenever it came up with bits that sounded industry-specific, but were actually too high-level to say anything much, that was a red flag for me: the way the technology works means that it can only have pulled this from existing content about modular ERP and these things must have been the safest common denominator. They’re the most generic things you could possibly say about the topic, and from my marketer’s POV, therefore useless. They don’t contain any differentiators or value propositions, or product features or audience insight – none of the elements that make marketing good, and specific to you. So I guess you could use it as a tool to establish the absolute minimum baseline of what others in your industry are saying. Then pivot the shit away from that.

My TL;DR point though is this:

It’s Marketing’s job to figure out what to say and to whom

…and ChatGPT can’t solve that for you (not yet anyway).

The real problem is that most companies considering ChatGPT have got the job of the marketer all wrong. They burden in-house marketers with producing all this formulaic crap that nobody reads, and they don’t challenge them to make it good, or give them the time to develop genuine differentiators. They literally think they’re in the business of producing words. If, at a time, where formulaic content production cost has hit quite literally zero, they can’t pivot away from that and start seriously re-considering the job of the marketer, I can only hope the market will punish them.

If, however, it makes them realise that the marketer’s job is to think about all the hard things – what we’ve got to say, why we should be saying it, and why people should care – then I, for one, welcome our LLM-powered artificial overlords with open arms.