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Marketers and copywriters are losing their minds over ChatGPT. Not all of them, mind you. But many people think they’ll lose their jobs in the coming months and years.
There’s no point in burying your head in the sand: Generative AI is here to stay, and it’s only going to become more popular.
The good news is technology marketers can use AI platforms such as ChatGPT and Jasper to make their lives a lot easier. AI tools can lighten your workload, save you time, and allow you to focus on more high-impact work, such as strategy.
In this article, I’ll outline six ways you can use ChatGPT to do all of that. But before I do, here are some things to remember.
- ChatGPT, Jasper.ai, and other platforms are only as good as the input. That means you need to use the right prompt to get the most out of it.
- A human component is still needed.
- ChatGPT can draw inaccurate information from poor sources, so all facts and data need to be checked.
- Consider AI-generated text to be a rough first draft. A writer or editor will still need to clean up the content.
OK let’s jump into the ways you can use ChatGPT.
1. Eliminating Writer’s Block
If you’re responsible for content creation or you manage a team of writers, this one is huge.
You’re probably familiar with the frustration of staring at a blank screen and thinking, “How on earth am I gonna start this?”
Hey, I’m with you. It was a big problem for me, and it still is from time to time. A first draft takes a lot of effort just to get started. Even the research can take hours.
But generative AI platforms like ChatGPT can solve that problem. They’re particularly helpful if you’re writing blog posts, emails, ads, and other short-form content. They can give you an “instant draft” you can work with, edit, proofread, and clean up.
2. Editing Copy
You can use AI as your personal editor. Jasper.ai, for example, has a “Content Improver” template that allows you to copy and paste a piece of content, and it’ll try and clean it up for you. The software can make your copy more readable, even trimming it down so it’s less wordy.
It has limits, but it can give you a rough edit before you hand it off to a human editor for a final polish.
3. Doing Market and Product Research
I never feel as if I’m making progress with a project unless I’m writing. That’s why mounds of research can be frustrating for me—even though research is essential.
ChatGPT can help you do market and product research, and that’s a gamechanger.
Or, at least, it has the potential to be a gamechanger. Research using generative AI is much easier for widely known consumer products, such as golf clubs or pet food.
It’s a little trickier with complex scientific or technology products. The audience and product belong to such a specific niche that you may need to spend some time figuring out the best prompts before AI gives you anything useful.
I work with clients in the lab technology space. So, an example of a ChatGPT prompt for a company researching its audience’s pain points might be, “What are the biggest challenges faced by contract laboratory managers?”
4. Creating an Outline or Summary
If you’ve written an article, you can input some basic info and ChatGPT or Jasper, Writer, or other software will generate an outline for you. Or, you could use AI to generate an abstract or summary at the beginning of a whitepaper, case study, or research report.
You could even create the outline/summary before writing the full piece, if you have the right information. But it’s easier (and more accurate) to do it after you have finished writing the main content.
For a more specific example, let’s say you’re writing a whitepaper. If you have some key information (target audience, word count, keywords, headline, topic, etc.) you can use generative AI to produce a rough plan that you can then use as a springboard to create the full piece.
In fact, if you have your plan divided into individual sections, you can use AI to fill in each section, one at a time. Voilà: you have a rough first draft.
AI tools aren’t amazing at generating long copy. But outlines are their sweet spot, so give it a try!
5. Brainstorming Ideas for Projects or Campaigns
Ideas are currency. If you’re not able to come up with ideas, nothing else happens. But ideation is scary for many, especially if you’re staring at that dreaded blank screen.
Luckily, ChatGPT can help you there, too. It can give you a limitless number of ideas for headlines, topics, keywords, and more. And it can do it in seconds. It’s like having your own personal sounding board to bounce ideas off of.
6. Doing Keyword Research
You can turn ChatGPT into a powerful SEO specialist by entering a detailed prompt.
Taking our contract lab managers example above, you could try the following basic prompt in ChatGPT:
Pretend you are a market research specialist having accurate and detailed information about available keywords. You are also capable of developing a full SEO content plan. Create a table with a list of keywords for a content SEO plan for “lab equipment.”
You can also use the platform to help you find new keyword ideas fast. For example, if you had a base keyword, you could find other keywords related to that base term using the following prompt:
Generate X keywords for “lab equipment”
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AI tools don’t have to be scary.
When you adopt the right outlook, you’ll see that they can make our lives much easier. And that is especially true in marketing, because ChatGPT can take some of the mundane creation tasks off your plate so you can focus on planning and strategy.
Give it a try!
More Resources on How to Use ChatGPT
ChatGPT Is Everywhere. Here’s How to Keep Your Job.
