3 Reasons to Choose Human Content Creators Over AI

I was participating in a networking conversation recently and got hit with an interesting question: "Are you worried about AI taking your job away?" Of course, this question had already been floated around various writers' forums and social media channels for some time, especially since Open AI unleashed the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT on the world. It seems like everywhere you look, you see headlines pronouncing the imminent death of search engines and the end of Google as the dominant force in that arena. 

So, was I worried that machine-generated content was going to put me out of work? No, I answered. And as I started explaining why, I realized that my reasons made just as much sense for my clients' purposes as they did for my own. Let's look at three reasons experienced, skilled human content creators aren't going anywhere anytime soon -- and why you wouldn't want them to.

Reason 1: Google Can Tell When You're Using AI

Until Chat GPT and its ilk become the law of the land regarding search, the major search engines will continue to make the rules as far as what content ranks and what doesn't -- with Google as the head arbiter. Okay, so you can still go ahead and ask Chat GPT to create your written content for you and then post it, right? Yes, you can, but there's a potentially worrying catch: Google can theoretically detect AI-generated content with the aid of programs such as GPT-2 Output Detector. Google might not downrank your content simply because it detects it as "fake," at least not currently. But keep in mind that Google likes to tweak its algorithm from time to time based on new criteria for relevance and authenticity, so who knows whether the AI-generated content you post today will still rank in the future?

Reason 2: AI Provides Content Without Context

AI content creation has been around longer than you might think. Many years ago, I wrote a blog post about a program that could generate quick, accurate football and baseball game summaries. I noted that while this kind of straightforward journalism might suffice for recounting plays, scores, and penalties, the program couldn't really place those basic facts into any larger, more meaningful context. While I'm sure AI has evolved somewhat along these lines in the years that followed, it still can't provide the kind of editorial insights or commentary that lend a piece of writing real depth. If you're happy with a laundry list of information, maybe AI will do the job for you. But if you're looking for writing that has real thought behind it, you want to bring some organic gray matter on board.

Reason 3: It Takes a Person to Understand a Person

Robots don't buy your products or services; people do. How do people make their decisions about who to buy from and why? As I've noted in the past, you can throw all the facts and figures in the world at a potential customer without nudging them toward the proverbial "Buy" button. That's because the decision to buy hinges on emotions, not logic. At the end of the day, all information aside, people buy from you because your content inspires feelings of warmth, agreement, and trust. Professional copywriters know how to trigger those emotions -- not just because we spend years training ourselves in all the necessary techniques, but because we understand how your target audience feels and thinks on a human level as well as a data-based one. In other words, it takes one to know one.

Don't forget that when you work with a living, breathing marketing copywriter, you get more than just  content -- you also get a real interaction with a creative professional who can go back and forth with you on strategy, tactics, and ideas. If that sounds like something you want and need, contact me today and experience the real deal!

Take a "Back to School" Approach to Your Marketing Strategies

Normally, this time of year is dominated by the mad rush to get back to school, from parents buying up cartfuls of school supplies to kids reacquainting themselves with an early-morning wakeup time. This August obviously feels a little different, but education will resume in one form or another. Maybe it's time you also took yourself back to school, in the sense of re-examining your marketing strategies and techniques -- or maybe you need to educate your target market on certain aspects of your business. Here are some suggestions to help you get your third quarter off to its usual bustling start.

Adjust Your Content for Changing Attitudes

Your current and prospective buyers have gone through a lot in the past year. What shifts in your target market's spending habits, needs, fears, concerns, and goals might require you to alter the tone or direction of your marketing content? You can't necessarily keep charging forward with your usual message as if nothing has changed. Give serious thought to creating fresh blog posts that directly address your target market's current mindset. Add content to your website that answers specific questions about your ongoing availability and services.

Update Yourself on the Latest Technologies

Have you allowed your marketing technologies to fall behind the times? Especially over the past several months, individuals are embracing social media and other interactive platforms more deeply than ever -- and you can reach them through these avenues. For instance, have you thought about incorporating Zoom into your marketing arsenal? You can use this video conferencing platform for marketing pitches, webinars, and other presentations that promote your products, services, and brand. You can even record those presentations and then figure out ways to repurpose the content for blog posts and other marketing pieces.

Take Another Look at Networking

Speaking of online platforms, business networking has taken to the Web in a big way lately. Weekly or monthly networking meetings that once met in person have shifted to a safer online-only environment -- and these networkers are still passing referrals and generating income for each other. Better yet, these (frequently Zoom-based) meetings don't have to limit themselves to one physical location, meaning that business owners and representatives can hob-nob with each other from anywhere. If you've avoided networking activities because you simply couldn't tear yourself away from your desk, guess what? You can now promote your business and learn about other business to your heart's content without leaving your computer.

Mark the return of the school year (more or less) by turning your business focus toward some timely marketing self-education. After all, you can always profit from learning!

Marketing Technologies May Change, but the Message Remains the Same

I feel betrayed. Here we are in 2020, and I still don't have my flying car.

Years of Jetsons reruns somehow gave me an overblown expectation of what "future" transportation might offer. But even as I write this, self-driving cars continue to undergo thousands of miles of controlled driving tests, with computer brains that can learn how to cope with countless real-life traffic predicaments. Driverless cars have been a staple of science fiction stories for decades, so there's one example of a prediction that may actually come true when/if all the bugs are worked out.

Even when the futurists get it right, they may have wait a long time for their dreams to come true. For instance, you might understandably assume that some genius recently dreamed up the whole remote home automation thing. But just the other day I saw a clip from a Bell Laboratories promotional film about technologies for operating your oven or air conditioner via telephone. The date of the film? 1962.

Think about how today's technology has altered the marketing landscape in ways few businesses might have predicted. 20 years ago, YouTube and Twitter didn't exist. When Facebook first launched, it was just a way for Harvard students to interact online. Go back to the late 1990s, and you'd be hard pressed to find any blogs online, or anyone who knew what the word meant. Dial it back a few more years, and you've arrived at a world without a Word Wide Web. How did companies market themselves without these channels? The same way they always have, and always will -- by creating and distributing compelling content.

I sometimes wonder what kinds of writing services I'll be offering a few years from now. Will I still be writing blog articles and web page content for businesses, or will new developments make these strategies obsolete? Will I be writing content that gets beamed directly into people's brains? Will I be creating billboards that appear magically in the sky to anyone wearing the appropriate technology? Will I be putting scripted words into the mouths of holographic spokespeople who approach potential customers in the street? I can't possibly say -- and frankly, it doesn't matter.

There will always be a great new marketing method on the horizon, but we can't plan our marketing approaches around something that doesn't exist yet. All we can do is make intelligent use of the tools we have right now. Many business owners say, "We need to be on Facebook," or "We need to be on Twitter," but being is not doing. What matters is the message you deliver, not the delivery method.

Yes, you need to get your message out there via the tools your target audience relies on every day. But even as those tools change and evolve, the objective remains the same -- to motivate your audience to buy. That's why I'll always have work as marketing content writer, no matter what the future of marketing holds.

Let's face it -- even the flying car dealers of the future will need to get the word out!