A Guide to Using AI in Content Marketing in 2024

A Guide to Using AI in Content Marketing in 2024

Artificial intelligence is transforming the way marketers create and utilize marketing content. According to a HubSpot survey, 83% of marketers said that using AI helps them produce more content than without it.

They use AI to create fresh content, edit or rephrase existing content, prepare content outlines, research keywords, analyze data, and streamline content production.

There’s no dearth of ways to use AI in content marketing. However, the biggest struggle for content marketers today is that an AI content creation tool cannot produce output as personal, conversational, and accurate as human content.

Still, artificial intelligence is a valuable ally that can save a content marketer time and effort. Read on to learn how to use AI in content marketing correctly. We’ll also share some tips and tricks our own content team uses to maintain quality while still scaling content creation. But first, let’s cover the basics.

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Understanding AI in Content Marketing

In its simplest terms, artificial intelligence simulates human-like intelligence in software or machines. This allows machines to perform tasks that traditionally only humans could do, such as learning from past behavior or making strategic decisions.

Natural Language Processing (NLP) is a term used to describe AI’s ability to process and understand human language, both spoken and written. This allows it to create, edit, rephrase, personalize, summarize, or translate content.

By understanding how people talk and write, AI can create almost human-like content with high accuracy.

A branch of AI called generative AI is now being widely used for developing AI-created content. 

Tools like ChatGPT and Jasper have simplified the content creation process by helping marketers generate ideas, create outlines, or even write content in seconds, not hours.

Per the previously cited HubSpot survey, these are the key ways in which marketers incorporate AI in marketing campaigns:

Statistic on how marketers use generative AI for content creation
How marketers use generative AI for content creation via HubSpot

Though there are many use cases, AI-generated content also raises some concerns, such as issues with originality. Since AI uses existing data to create content, is AI content truly original or plagiarized?

Also, numerous AI content detection tools can almost accurately recognize AI content. Does this mean there’s still a significant difference between AI and human content? Should content marketers use AI in content marketing?

The short answer is ‘yes.’ Most marketers recognize these concerns and use AI to drive efficiencies rather than using 100% AI-generated content. The key is to strike a balance between AI and human input.

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How to Use AI in Content Marketing

Let’s look at the various ways content marketers can use AI and some of its pros and cons. If you aren’t yet sure how to use AI in content marketing, this may inspire your efforts. 

Let’s get right to it.

Using AI for content research and idea generation

One of the primary use cases of AI in content marketing is to generate content ideas. 

Here are some ways of using AI for content research:

  • Ask AI to find trending topics by analyzing vast online data from various sources such as search engines and social media channels
  • Let AI SEO tools generate topic ideas for specific keywords based on user intent and SERP (search engine results pages) analysis for better search engine rankings
  • Use AI content marketing tools to create detailed outlines for blog posts, ebooks, or any other type of content
  • Leverage AI tools to study your competitors’ content strategies and generate insights

ClickUp Brain is ClickUp’s all-in-one AI solution that helps with various aspects of content marketing.

Use the ClickUp Content Idea Generator to get a treasure trove of fresh ideas based on input parameters like target audience and keyword.

Next, select the ideas most relevant to your business and use the ClickUp Content Plan Template to make a content schedule.

Use the ClickUp Content Plan Template to manage your content pipeline and plan a content publishing schedule

Its nine custom fields and four custom views allow you to organize your content from creation to publishing. Use it to create a detailed editorial calendar.

After brainstorming and compiling ideas in Docs, use the Content Plan View for an overview of all the content to be created and the Content Calendar View to have the publishing schedule at your fingertips. You can also use the Approval Board View to share content ideas with stakeholders for approval. 

Plan your content effortlessly with the ClickUp Content Calendar Template

Alternatively, you may also use the ClickUp Content Calendar and organize posts by status, such as Scheduled, In review, Published, etc. You can customize this Folder template to suit your team’s processes. It also lets you view the content calendar in different formats, such as calendar, timeline, and board views.

Create a list of content to be published within a period and make a detailed content plan using the ClickUp Content Calendar Template

The ClickUp Calendar Template provides a list view that allows you to see all content scheduled for a week or month at one glance.

You can use it to create a granular view of your weekly content calendar. In addition, you can track approval status, publication dates, and the specific content pillar to which each piece relates. 

Also Read: 10 Free Content Calendar Templates for Social Media & Blogs in 2024

Creating content using generative AI

Generative AI can create different types of content, from blog posts and email to practically any marketing content. Here’s how you can create a detailed blog outline with ClickUp Brain:

A blog outline generated by ClickUp Brain showing how to use AI in content marketing
Generate blog outlines within seconds using ClickUp Brain

However, many marketers prefer using it to create the first draft and then let human writers and editors refine it further. This ensures that content is created quickly but still has a human touch and is accurate.

If you’re looking for an AI content generator that creates accurate, human-like content, then ClickUp Brain is exactly what you need. 

Its Al Writer for Work will help you create role-specific content, anything from a blog post to engaging captions for social media posts.

Using ClickUp AI to generate a blog post in ClickUp Docs
Create entire blog posts based on specific prompts using ClickUp Brain

It’s also useful for creating content templates you may reuse multiple times. This further saves time as you don’t need to start from scratch every time.

Summarizing, rephrasing, or modifying content using AI

Besides creating fresh content, AI writing tools are also used to modify content. This could involve summarizing, rephrasing in a different tone or style, or even rewriting content.

ClickUp Brain, for instance, quickly and accurately summarizes threads and long-form content into bite-sized pieces. It also edits content to fix grammatical issues and improve readability.

ClickUp AI summary for docs
ClickUp AI summary for docs

You can also refine your content using ClickUp Brain’s AI Writer. Here’s an example:

ClickUp Brain's AI Writer
Get rid of unnecessary jargon, and refine your writing using ClickUp Brain

How AI enhances search engine optimization

AI content marketing tools also contribute to SEO by helping with keyword research, competitor analysis, and other time-consuming tasks essential to content strategy.

Try asking ClickUp’s AI Writer for keyword ideas

Here are some of the many use cases of AI in SEO:

  • AI algorithms sift through vast amounts of data to identify relevant keywords for creating content
  • AI analyzes and audits content to assess how SEO-friendly it is and whether it meets SERP intent
  • Top link-building tools leverage AI to find authoritative websites, broken links, and keyword gaps for building backlinks
  • SEO audit tools also utilize the power of AI to conduct in-depth audits of a website and provide tailored SEO recommendations
  • One of the most common uses of AI in SEO is to conduct competitor analysis, recommend SEO strategies, and identify content gaps

Overall, AI helps with almost all aspects of SEO and helps create both user-friendly and SEO-friendly content at scale. 

Leverage AI tools to accelerate your content creation process and use the ClickUp Content Production Scaling Template to streamline it. ClickUp’s content team has used the same to manage and scale their blog production! 

Create tasks for each content piece and organize your content creation efforts using the ClickUp Content Production Scaling Template

Apply this Folder template to your Workspace to plan your content production and publishing weeks. It includes a broad range of custom fields such as Draft URL (for easy editing and approvals), Blog Brief URL (to access the brief easily), Writer Source (to track content from multiple authors), etc. It lets you view your content production by month; once published, posts can be seen in a separate calendar view, too. 

Advantages and challenges of AI in content creation

While AI offers content marketers many benefits, it raises concerns and challenges. Let’s understand both aspects of using AI in content marketing to assess whether the pros outweigh the cons.

Advantages

Here are some of the key benefits of using AI in content creation.

  • Speed and efficiency: AI writing tools speed up the content development process and help generate research-backed content in seconds
  • Consistency: AI and machine learning algorithms work based on predefined rules and historical data and deliver consistent results as long as the parameters remain the same
  • Scalability: With its numerous applications in content creation and speed, AI helps you ramp up your content creation efforts quickly

Challenges

So far, we’ve established that AI makes content creation faster and more convenient. However, there are also many challenges concerning using AI content-creation tools. Let’s discuss these briefly.

  • Change in workflow: Involving AI in the process requires changing how things are done and maintaining a balance between AI and human involvement. This can be a difficult balance to strike and requires some experimentation to find out what works best in a specific scenario
  • Ensuring accuracy and reliability: AI can search for information online and create content based on that, but it often takes human intervention to verify it. Not all information available online is accurate, and AI content may not be 100% reliable
  • Ethical considerations: One of the biggest concerns regarding using AI in content creation is that it lacks a human touch. Ensuring that AI doesn’t replace humans but aids them should be a top priority for anyone using AI in content marketing
  • Avoiding bias: Since AI relies on training data, one of the biggest fears with AI use is that it can be susceptible to bias. It can lead to the propagation of existing prejudices in society if not checked. 

To conclude, if you understand and navigate the challenges related to AI, it’s a potent tool to boost your content marketing efforts.

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AI Content Strategy: Use Cases and Examples

We’ve already covered the various ways AI is useful in content marketing. Now, let’s discuss some real-life applications and examples to help you create your content marketing strategy.

Content ideation 

Some practical use cases of AI in content ideation include:

  • Researching relevant keywords and trending topics for content creation
  • Preparing content briefs for writers or influencers
  • Creating detailed content outlines based on SERP research
  • Analyzing competitors’ strategies and content to recommend content ideas
  • Monitoring online and social media trends to find trending topics or hashtags using social media AI tools
  • Conducting audience research to create tailored content strategies
  • Curating content from multiple sources for newsletters or listicles

Example: AI content briefs for content planning (Kasasa)

Kasasa, a financial services company, struggled with streamlining content creation and building website authority. It partnered with the AI company MarketMuse to create high-quality, authoritative content based on AI-powered content briefs.

The result?

92 % more organic traffic YoY, 83% growth in keyword rankings, and 28% more time spent on the page.

Takeaway: Use content marketing strategy templates with AI tools to quickly create a solid content plan that drives great results.

Content creation 

Here are some real-life use cases of AI in content creation.

  • Autogenerating in-depth blog posts, articles, case studies, and other long-form content
  • Writing engaging email copy and subject lines
  • Creating images and videos based on AI prompts
  • Converting text to video using AI tools
  • Using prompts to let AI copywriting tools generate marketing copy and social media content
  • Utilizing AI to generate summaries, captions, and transcripts

Example: AI video creation (Dixa)

Dixa, a customer service software company, uses the AI video generation tool Synthesia to create client onboarding videos to train new customers. Using AI helped it save one-third of the time spent on creating traditional voiceover videos. Instead, the company now uses AI avatars and templates to create videos at scale. 

Takeaway: Use AI-generated content templates to simplify and accelerate your content creation process.

Content optimization

Here are some practical ways AI is used to optimize existing content.

  • Fixing punctuation and common grammatical mistakes
  • Improving readability, tone, structure, and keyword optimization
  • Image optimization, including keyword-rich descriptions and alt texts, and image compression
  • A/B testing to compare different elements and understand what works best for a specific audience
  • Making content longer or shorter, changing its tone, or rephrasing
  • Translating text or video content in multiple languages

Example: AI email testing and optimization by Goosehead Insurance

The insurance company leveraged the AI content tool Jasper to create personalized emails and test them to improve email engagement and conversions. The result was a 22% increase in click-through rate for emails.

Takeaway: Use AI not only to create new content but also to improve existing content. Make use of AI tools for language improvement, conversion testing, image fixes, translation, and more

 

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The Future of AI in Content Marketing

As AI technology grows, it will become more widely adopted and an integral part of the content creation workflow. 

Advances in natural language processing and machine learning will bring AI content closer to human content. Most marketers leverage AI to create first drafts or refine content rather than end-to-end content creation.

This is likely to change as AI content becomes better and more human-like.

Some other emerging AI technologies may revolutionize content creation in the future. Let’s discuss some of these briefly.

  • Predictive analytics and recommendation engines: AI will accurately predict content trends and user browsing patterns. This will help businesses make highly personalized content recommendations to site visitors
  • Visual AI: AI technology will improve in analyzing and understanding visual content. This can be used to extract insights from images and videos and optimize visual content for better performance
  • Generative AI models: Tools like ChatGPT will continue to evolve and answer questions to create content with higher accuracy and reliability
  • Voice search optimization: With the popularity of voice searches increasing significantly, optimizing content for these will become more critical. AI technology for voice content optimization and creation will be the new frontier for the use of AI in content marketing
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Scale Your Content Marketing Efforts With AI & ClickUp 

AI offers many benefits for content marketers. It helps create or optimize content quickly and efficiently, scaling your content marketing efforts.

However, it’s essential to understand and alleviate the concerns related to using AI-powered tools in content marketing. While deciding how to use AI in content marketing, we must consider the lack of human creativity, the reliability of the information provided, and ethical issues. 

Still, the future of AI content tools. Advancements in natural language processing, predictive analytics, and other AI technologies will revolutionize the content creation process. 

So, if you haven’t yet incorporated artificial intelligence into your content marketing strategy, you must do so now.  

Looking for an all-in-one AI tool that acts like a second brain and helps with all aspects of content marketing? Try ClickUp Brain today. It will help you streamline content creation and scale your content marketing processes.

Sign up for free and check out its features to evaluate everything it can help you with.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. How can AI be used for marketing?

AI can be used for various marketing purposes, from studying market trends to providing personalized recommendations. The ability to analyze vast data sets quickly and accurately and generate human-like responses makes AI-powered tools extremely useful in creating data-backed marketing strategies and improving content marketing processes.

2. How can AI be used as a content creator?

AI content creation tools that use generative AI technology can be used as writing assistants. From preparing content briefs and outlines to writing complete articles, artificial intelligence is helpful in all aspects of AI content creation.

3. How can marketers use generative AI for content creation?

Generative AI, a type of artificial intelligence technology, uses natural language processing to understand and replicate human language. AI content creation tools are widely used for various purposes, such as:

  • Creating engaging email subject lines and social media captions
  • Using prompts and templates to create engaging content
  • Auto-generating blog articles, case studies, and other content
  • Drafting outlines for various types of content

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