The Powder Days Marketing Generative AI Method

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a hot-button topic. You’re probably aware of the controversy surrounding its safety, ethics, and control. Applications for AI are being explored broadly throughout every industry and across academia. Opinions are split about whether AI will end up creating jobs, destroying jobs . . . or just wiping out all of humanity. These are valid concerns, and much work must be done to define how, where, and when AI is used. But, while we can’t see into the future to predict how AI will continue to develop and affect our world, we at Powder Days Marketing consider generative AI (GenAI), as it stands today, a valuable tool that aids our marketing and creative efforts without removing the ever-needful element of human intuition.

One of the most popular open GenAI systems, ChatGPT, defines itself in this way:

“Generative AI refers to a class of artificial intelligence systems that have the ability to generate new content, data, or outputs that resemble and often indistinguishably mimic human-created content. These systems are designed to learn patterns and structures from existing data and then use that knowledge to create new, original content. Generative AI has shown significant advancements in creating realistic images, generating human-like text, and even contributing to creative fields such as art and music. However, ethical considerations, including potential misuse, copyright issues, and biases in generated content, are important aspects to address as the technology progresses.”

We agree that there are still many conversations to be had, issues to be solved, and regulations to be made, but in our experience, GenAI isn’t quite ready to take over our jobs. And here’s why.

Digital content is king. Producing impactful, resonant, SEO-friendly articles and digital media material has never been more crucial to businesses. Harnessing GenAI allows us to research more broadly, quickly, and thoroughly at a fraction of the time and cost. We like to say that GenAI puts sand in the sandbox. But it isn’t perfect, and there is much about human intuition, style, humor, and more that GenAI doesn’t get right. And so, we’ve learned to intertwine the best of artificial and human intelligence in order to craft that sand in the sandbox into magnificent castles.

We’d love to share the AI – Human integrated process we’ve developed to produce effective, creative marketing resources for our clients.

Integrating Human and Artificial Intelligence for Written Content

Pre-Production: Human Intelligence

• In-depth Understanding: Before we even think about putting words on the page, we begin with a deep dive research into understanding our client’s audience. Who are they? What are their pain points, aspirations, and interests? What’s the customer’s “job to be done,” and how do we help them accomplish that job? This deep analysis ensures that the content we create is not just seen but felt and appreciated by the audience; that it resonates.
• Strategic Keyword Research: Understanding human needs is only one side of a coin. Aligning that knowledge with search engine algorithm priorities is equally important. Once we understand what the client’s audience cares about, we use keyword research to determine which words to target for maximum SEO impact.
• Holistic Content Strategy Development: Armed with robust insights into an audience and SEO trends, we can now formulate a comprehensive content strategy. This includes: 1. Selecting topics that are pertinent and relatable to the target audience. 2. Determining formats that best fit the audience demographic (blog posts, infographics, videos, social media platforms). 3. Choosing an appropriate style to best convey the message (voice, look, feel, length, etc.)

Production: Generative AI Portion

• GenAI-Driven Brainstorming: We begin by compiling a list of potential writing topics, using advice and suggestions from the client and our own experience and creativity. But if we’re feeling stumped for topic ideas, AI can be a game-changer. GenAI tools can search through significantly more data than our human minds and suggest relevant topics we may not have thought about or been aware of. Leveraging GenAI can provide a fresh perspective to help our content stay broad and current.
• Drafting With GenAI Prompts: Once we decide on a topic, we often begin a first draft of an article by providing detailed prompts to a GenAI tool. This draft takes only seconds for generative AI to create. While it may lack depth, nuance, and personality, it’s a starting point. Sand in the sandbox. A framework to build from that can save us hours of preliminary research, which saves our clients money.
• Review and Iterate: Even though GenAI can research the entire internet doesn’t mean that this first draft is always up to the mark. We read and then tweak our prompts as needed, letting the AI tool try again. The more in-depth and specific the prompt, the better the draft. We get creative by asking for articles of varying lengths, rewrites with different moods, voices, and styles, and drilling down our criteria until the draft feels like a solid foundation.

Production: Human Intelligence Portion

• Ensuring Technical Accuracy: Just because AI said it doesn’t make it true. If there’s anything in the content we aren’t sure about, we back up the GenAI research with our own fact-checking or by interviewing the client to confirm that the content is technically accurate. This is where human expertise shines, ensuring that the details are just right.
• Rewriting With a Human Touch: At this point, together with GenAI, we’ve produced a workable first draft. But it’s time to imbue the content with personality and humanity, making sure that the content also matches the results of the research we did previously about audience and SEO. We enhance the draft by adding stories, humor, pop culture references, examples, or industry-specific jargon, focusing on fascinating facts or information to improve the readability, add a story-like flow, or metaphor and parallel to improve interest. This human touch adds authenticity and relatability to the content.
• Voice and Tone Customization: Each company or brand has a unique tone of voice. Some are professional, others are trendy. Some want to steer their content to an older audience, while some need to appeal to a younger crowd. If a client has not yet established a style or voice, we counsel with them about their target audience, sales demographics, and preferred image. Then, we establish an in-house style guide to help us maintain a consistent tone and keep content aligned with each company’s goals. ChatGPT and other generative AI programs include a basic ability to adjust for tone and voice, but a human writer has a deeper understanding of modern trends, creative word usage, imagery, humor, and propriety. Human intelligence has the final say about voice and tone.

Post-Production: Human Intelligence

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  In a futuristic setting, two advanced artificial intelligences are in a dramatic battle.
  Created by DALL·E.

  Grammar and Spelling Review: While GenAI tools like Grammarly can help spot errors, a human review ensures that no contextual errors creep in. Most often, we use a magical combination of ChatGPT, Grammarly Pro, and human “pros.” We use all three because the different AI tools disagree. They use different grammar rules and style guides, and while it’s entertaining to watch AIs argue, in the end, the human mind decides which edits best match the flow and feel of the article. We also watch for and correct repetition, cliches, misused words or phrases, context errors, flow, and other inconsistencies AI has not yet perfected.

• Content Enrichment: The next step in our process is to add relevant statistics, internal links, internal case studies, and external references. This not only boosts credibility with readers but also enhances the article’s SEO. Currently, this is a task that generative AI does not perform.
• SEO Optimization: Once our Powder Days Marketing writers finish to this point, it’s time for the article to go through an SEO analysis. The CMO will note any sections that need to be rephrased, relevant keywords to add, advice for setting up metadata, and any tweaks to make to the title and section headers, all with SEO optimization in mind.
• Enhancing Visual Appeal: Once the final edits are made, the article is sent to the Graphic Design team. We improve readability and engagement by including relevant images, distinctive headers, lists, bolded sections, and call-outs. Visual appeal is a huge factor in retaining reader interest. Occasionally, the graphic designer will use GenAI to assist with creating proprietary images and other graphics, but the human touch needed in the writing aspect is also needed for similar reasons when it comes to visual enhancements.
• Final Business Review: Lastly, we have a representative from the company review the content. They ensure that the technical accuracy, industry consistency, and brand tone align with their expectations. We address any notes or edits and return the content for a final review before publishing.

Integrating human and artificial intelligence has allowed our Powder Days Marketing content creation to reach new heights of efficiency, creativity, and impact. We’re enjoying the exploration side of GenAI, finding new ways to communicate and use this tool to save us time and our clients money in ways that AI can’t do alone. We will always need us.

This wave of new, uncharted tech territory isn’t going away. We choose to use it instead of fearing it. So, if you’re looking for online content that stands out from all the digital noise out there, let’s chat. We promise you’ll be talking to an actual Powder Days Marketing human.

 

***Originally posted on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/intertwining-artificial-intelligence-human-intuition-content-lw4tc/