How to use ChatGPT in content marketing

Of all the articles that describe how artificial intelligence (AI) can help with writing texts, 99% contain a clue that the article itself was also written by AI. This immediately presents us with a special controversy: the author tries to demonstrate how powerful AI has become, while of course, it can also prove how boring and uninspired flesh-and-blood authors can be.

No, AI does not have self-awareness and cannot reflect on its actions, but do we reflect enough on ours?

Your new arch-rival or a thinking colleague?

The latest addition to the exponential growth of the number of AI tools is ChatGPT, from OpenAI. The tool, a chatbot that finally understands what you write and gives you the answer right away, had over a million users within a week. Why? The chat interface was the way to reach the masses, whereas the previous interface, a simple input field, only convinced a handful of experimenters. On social media, there are now numerous examples of ChatGPT being used – proof of human enthusiasm and curiosity. Someone had ChatGPT take the Bar exam in the United States (and pass), another built a tool to answer emails with two clicks, and programmers enlisted ChatGPT’s help to write scripts.

The pressing question everyone is concerned with is: is this the next groundbreaking trend that will change our lives? At the same time, the age-old discussion is ongoing, in which the predictable “will robots take over our jobs?” is answered with the equally predictable “no, but make it easier.” The Twitter discussions and LinkedIn posts with the accompanying arguing are numerous.

How do you, as a content marketer, use ChatGPT?

By now, it is clear that ChatGPT is a significant shift in the language world. It seems that AI can mainly help us convert factual information into running sentences. This is useful, for example, when summarizing a piece of text. When it comes to out-of-the-box thinking, we now know that AI is the box itself. The more creative the result needs to be, the worse AI helps us. ChatGPT excels in general knowledge. As soon as you request specific content that focuses on what a company or brand has to offer, the chatbot lets you down. In short, ChatGPT is mainly useful as a tool for increasing your skills.

But what does that look like? To answer this question, we will take a closer look at the different forms of textual content in the customer journey. This way, as a content marketer, you will know how to use ChatGPT smartly in the customer journey where your customer encounters text.

Touch: brainstorm ideas with AI
The touch phase in the customer journey involves the set of moments when a customer comes into contact with a brand, product, or service while that customer knows nothing about your brand. In this phase, it is about attracting attention, but it is also essential that the basics of your content are in order. When increasing brand awareness of your brand, you create a lot of content such as articles, blog posts, and lead magnets (e-books and whitepapers). By using ChatGPT as a tool, you can speed up this creation process, allowing you to have more time for other useful tasks.

Integrate ChatGPT into your research by requesting a list of relevant keywords that your target audience uses to find your product or service. The chatbot helps you brainstorm certain keywords that you may not have thought of yourself. By creating content that aligns with the specific interests and needs of your audience, you increase the likelihood of capturing their attention and increasing engagement. Additionally, ChatGPT can also write complete texts. However, this is strongly discouraged as Google now detects and penalizes AI-generated content.

Furthermore, ChatGPT is also used for:

Generating text for evergreen content such as blog posts using relevant keywords.
Generating ideas for the copy and structure of advertisements.
Inspiring catchy CTAs to retain consumers from the first phase of the journey.
Identifying what questions consumers have when they come into contact with your product or service.

Tell: create a structure with ChatGPT
In the tell phase, you share information about your brand. Here, it’s all about a compelling text that will make potential customers consider taking an interest in your product or service. So, the informative nature of your text is essential, but the characteristics of the brand, especially the benefits compared to your competitors, are also important. As a content marketer, you can also use ChatGPT to work more efficiently in this phase.

For email marketing, for example, you can ask the chatbot to write a newsletter, help with planning, and suggest topics for your emails. ChatGPT can also be used as an editor for your self-written texts and help you identify any relevant keywords you may have missed. If you’re in the middle of a writer’s block and can’t get anything on paper, use ChatGPT as a source of inspiration and structure for your page.

Furthermore, ChatGPT is also used for:

Optimizing the structure and layout of landing pages based on features and benefits.
Segmenting leads based on behaviour and interests so that targeted campaigns can be created.
Generating content ideas for various industry-specific topics.
On-page optimization such as meta titles and descriptions.

Sell: Use AI for personalized recommendations
During the sell phase, the actual product is sold, and this is when the conversion takes place, making it all about persuasion. ChatGPT is used in this phase to increase brand loyalty and stimulate conversions. Content marketers use ChatGPT, among other things, to write factual texts. For example, product pages are written based on product features.

Furthermore, ChatGPT is also used for:

Creating product descriptions on a large scale (if the right input is available).
Creating tailored product recommendations based on customer preferences and interests.
Automatically answering customer questions about products or services, such as specifications, availability, and prices.
Sending offers or discounts to customers interested in a specific product or service influences their purchasing behaviour.

Care: Use ChatGPT for customer service automation

Once the customer has purchased the product, they move into the care phase. In this phase, it is important to keep the customer satisfied, and building long-term relationships is crucial.

Within the last phase of the customer journey, you can use ChatGPT to add personalization to communication with customers, for example, by making recommendations based on their purchase history. You can also generate personalized email newsletters targeting specific consumer segments.

Furthermore, ChatGPT is also used for:

Collecting feedback and reviews from customers to build customer loyalty and improve the product or service faster.
Proactively contacting customers who have or are experiencing problems to help them resolve their issues.
Automatically answering frequently asked questions from customers.
Providing real-time customer support to resolve consumer complaints more quickly and efficiently.

Complement and not replace

The enthusiasm for ChatGPT is certainly justified, and the tool is useful for making better use of your time. However, as with any emerging hype, there are still some pitfalls to be aware of.

It is important to remember that the tool is an instrument and not a knowledge bank. Of course, ChatGPT is useful if you have questions like “how do you explain quantum theory to a child in the style of Snoop Dogg?” And it saves you from having to search multiple web pages for an answer to a question like “How do you use an AI tool as a content marketer in the touch phase of the customer journey?” Should Google be worried? This is difficult to say. The New York Times suggests that Google management has announced a “code red” and fears losing its position as the largest search engine on the internet. While ChatGPT is not necessarily a direct competitor of Google, the tool does change the way search queries are performed, which will inevitably affect search engine optimization or SEO.

In addition to the rivalry between these two, there is also a comparison: the quality of the output depends on how well you give the task. The clearer the prompt, the more usable the answer. However, it should be noted that ChatGPT has no understanding of language and concepts, so the output cannot be taken as truth. The added value of a content marketeer is that they possess knowledge and work deterministically, meaning they have an understanding of the subject matter. As far as we are concerned, it is the synergy between a professional and an AI tool that significantly improves the work process. In short, ChatGPT should be a complement and not a replacement.

How do you use ChatGPT as part of the customer journey?