Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the last few years, you’ve heard of ChatGPT. Although it’s been reviled as the inevitable death knell for copywriters everywhere, did you know you can use ChatGPT to enhance your digital marketing strategy? That’s right; this divisive tool can be your friend if you know how to work with it.
Unlock your potential with the innovative use of AI-backed marketing methods.
What is ChatGPT?
So, you’ve heard of ChatGPT, but can you honestly say what it is beyond ‘an AI’? Don’t worry; it’s not too complex to explain. ChatGPT is a form of artificial intelligence called a large language model (LLM). An LLM uses a neural network with various parameters trained with large quantities of text.
They analyse the text using self-supervised or semi-supervised learning, both being types of machine learning. An LLM is a type of Generative AI because it creates new content because of various prompts from the user. ChatGPT is a specific LLM that generates text-based content from user prompts. It has been in development since 2018, and its most recent release is GPT-4.
In the most basic layperson’s terms, ChatGPT is an Artificial Intelligence tool that generates text and information based on precise and detailed instructions. So, how can you use it for digital marketing?
How to Use ChatGPT in Digital Marketing
The ability to generate content in a matter of seconds feels like a superpower, but how can you make the most of it? Here are a few ways digital marketers can enhance their strategies using Chat GPT:
Create Content
One of the most popular uses for ChatGPT is content creation. That could be anything from email campaigns to social media posts, newsletters, and advertising copy. For best results, use ChatGPT to generate a template and some basic ideas and use human writers to create the actual content; the human touch is crucial to effective marketing, after all.
Create Spreadsheet Formulas
If you’ve ever worked with Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets, you understand the pain of struggling with formatting. Keeping your goals and content schedules organised with a properly formatted spreadsheet is much easier. ChatGPT can generate formulas for many layouts and styles for either software.
Generate Audience Personas
Generating audience personas is often a time-consuming aspect of digital marketing that ChatGPT can streamline into a speedy process. With a few clicks, you can clearly understand a business’s potential clients. Show clients how to target these personas without independently researching for a long time to create them.
Perform a SWOT Analysis
Identifying a business’ Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) for a business is at the core of a great digital marketer’s repertoire. Using ChatGPT, you can quickly discover the best aspects of the company to highlight to the client and the areas they should expand to further their success and growth.
Create SMART Objectives
Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant, and Time-bound (SMART) goals are the key to continual growth within a business. Using SMART goals makes it easy for the client to support your role in creating a marketing framework that promotes progress. You can use ChatGPT as a jumping-off point to analyse the client’s website and develop several ideas for SMART objectives.
Perform Keyword Research
Another sometimes-banal aspect of digital marketing is keyword research. Thankfully, ChatGPT makes it easy to simplify all aspects of keyword research. It can give you some initial inspiration for keywords, perform Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) to gather related keywords, and suggest long-tail keywords that could support your content.
Identify Search Intent
Knowing the search intent of your site visitors is a substantial element of tailoring your marketing appropriately. By entering various search terms into ChatGPT, you can start forming an idea of what clients are looking for when they find you and how to ensure your content provides everything they need.
Will ChatGPT Affect Digital Marketing?
With all these innovations, it’s a certainty that ChatGPT will affect digital marketing and many other businesses. There is a paranoia that ChatGPT, and other Generative AIs, are set to take over these fields and make them completely automated. ChatGPT can be a valuable asset for marketers, however. Think of chatbots as a tool rather than competition.
ChatGPT can make it easier for excellent digital marketers to conduct their research quicker and produce their finished work more efficiently. Rather than replacing marketers and copywriters outright, ChatGPT will be more of a search engine that cuts down on surfing, clicking, and reading, leaving more time for creativity and creation.
What are the Limitations of ChatGPT?
Although ChatGPT is undoubtedly a valuable tool for changing how the internet works, it has its setbacks. It’s important to remember that we can’t rely on ChatGPT for everything. Let’s cover some of AI’s drawbacks here:
It’s Not Always Accurate
ChatGPT doesn’t have the newest information available on the web. The most recent release of ChatGPT was in March 2023; even so, its knowledge base is limited to 2021. For research, this could mean you struggle to find information from the last two years. Equally, when preparing strategies and compiling data for new clients, you could miss out on essential changes without knowing it if you’re using ChatGPT.
It’s Connected to the Internet
Anyone who’s explored the internet for over a week or two knows it’s full of misinformation and fallacies. ChatGPT has access to a myriad of accurate and inaccurate information online, making it all too easy for you to end up with poor content and research that doesn’t go down well with clients.
It’s Not as Fast as it Seems
If you’re familiar with ChatGPT, you know it can produce overwhelming content in seemingly no time. While it might seem like the most efficient way to create content and conduct research, it’s not that simple. Since ChatGPT has a decent chance of missing out on crucial information or providing outright misinformation, you will spend a lot of time editing and researching what it produces to make sure it’s correct.
It’s not a Human
Ultimately, ChatGPT is not human, and it never will be; it doesn’t have the power of foresight that we have; it doesn’t know the contexts of our lives and work, and it isn’t capable of creating anything entirely new. Marketing is about making human connections; the only way is to have humans do the writing.
However, it’s not all doom and gloom.
What are the Benefits of ChatGPT?
Despite what might sound like many negatives, ChatGPT has unique benefits for digital marketers, copywriters, and everyone else working in the digital content field. Let’s talk about them:
It Can Make Life Easier
Sometimes it is simpler to use an AI to resolve a simple issue like creating a template or identifying which formula creates a specific action in Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets. You can use it to draft your ideas and discover new avenues of research that could massively improve your work. In these ways, using ChatGPT is definitely worth your time.
It Can Streamline Your Work
We’ve covered how you need to spend some time researching what ChatGPT produces for you to ensure it’s accurate and up-to-date information. Using it can still streamline your work process, however. You can use it to find a place to start with your research, draft outlines, and templates for your pieces.
It Can Put You a Step Ahead in Your Field
The reality is that ChatGPT is going to be a part of the marketing business. If you learn the ins and outs of AI and get comfortable using it, you benefit by having an advantage over your competition. Keeping on top of the newest big breaks in your industry is essential to continued success as a digital marketer.
It can Ignite Your Creativity
Whenever you’re stuck in a block at work, having someone to bounce ideas around with often helps. Situations like remote working don’t help this situation, and it isn’t always ideal for productivity to take up someone else’s time. Enter, ChatGPT. Engaging with a chatbot like ChatGPT can help you get inspired.
How Do I Get the Most Out of ChatGPT?
Here are a few simple ways to get the most out of ChatGPT:
Use detailed instructions: ChatGPT can perform multiple functions simultaneously. Make the most of it by inputting clear prompts with numerous steps.
Don’t forget to check the responses: ChatGPT cannot always be 100% accurate in its responses, so examining the fine details for any errors is essential.
Ask for a word count: Asking ChatGPT for content with a specific word count guarantees you have material to work with. Consider asking for more than you need so you can whittle down to the best bits.
Don’t over-rely on it: As we’ve established, ChatGPT is only an AI with so much capability. It can provide excellent groundwork and an outline but don’t expect it to produce perfectly accurate content ready to publish.
Adapt your prompts: You can add more and more instructions for ChatGPT to refine the content it produces and make it more accurate to your goals. By asking it to redevelop its response, you can explore different avenues to consider.
Love it or hate it, ChatGPT and other chatbots don’t seem likely to be a passing trend in the marketing world. AI technology can lead to some innovative work that revolutionises your digital marketing strategies - embrace it!
