Leveraging Generative AI for Content Creation: A Guide for SMEs

Artificial intelligence (AI) is gradually taking over the world, disrupting the very foundations of humanity. The exponential progress of AI is accelerating automation across each and every aspect of life. This technology has progressed to a point where it can no longer be ignored. One area where this is evident is AI-powered content creation.

This article covers the impact of generative AI on the digital marketing space and why you, as a small business owner should integrate a comprehensive AI marketing strategy to stay ahead of your competition. What follows lays out the strategic use cases for AI in content marketing, referring to leading AI marketing platforms that are available on the market today.

AI marketing is a result of critical layers of technological foundations that have been established over the past decades. The following infographic lays out the predominant technological advancements that occurred in the past and lays out the expected progress of AI marketing over the next three decades.

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<center><img src="https://geekmarketing.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/AI-Marketing-Timeline.png"><a href="https://geekmarketing.org/blog-english/ai-marketing-tools" title="AI Marketing Timeline">AI Marketing</a></center>

What is Generative AI for Content Creation?

Let’s start with the basics and understand exactly what Generative AI is. Most people and small businesses have probably heard and used Chat GPT and Bard to help them be more efficient in their daily tasks. Both Chat GPT and Bard are Generative AI language models. However, one must understand that generative AI is much more than Chat GPT and Bard as both of these AI tools are focused on text.

Generative AI is a type of artificial intelligence system that can generate text, images, audio, and other media in response to prompts. For example, when using Chat GPT or Bard for AI content writing, we usually give them the context of what we have in mind, the tone and specific requirements. Based on the defined prompt (simple or complex), they provide AI based output.

Generative AI models learn the patterns and structure of their input training data and then generate new data that has similar characteristics. Generative AI has potential applications across a wide range of industries, including art, writing, software development, healthcare, finance, gaming, marketing, and fashion.

A generative AI system is constructed by applying unsupervised or self-supervised machine learning to a dataset. The capabilities of a generative AI system depend on the modality or type of the dataset used. Generative AI can be either unimodal or multimodal; unimodal systems take only one type of input, while multimodal systems can take multiple types of input.

Generative AI starts with a prompt that could be in the form of text, an image, a video, musical notes, or any input that the AI system can process. Various AI algorithms then return new content in response to the prompt. The content can include essays, solutions to problems or realistic fakes created from pictures or audio of a person. Through Natural Language Processing (NLP), generative AI algorithms can be used to create new, original content, such as images, videos, and text, that is indistinguishable from content created by humans.

What are the Benefits for Small Businesses using Generative AI for Content Creation?

The short answer to this is: saving time and resources making it easy for small businesses to scale up their business operations.

Time-saving
Cost-Cutting
Scale-up operations

Small businesses are usually at a disadvantage when compared to larger competitors. The resources at hand are usually limited and fully deployed towards the core functions of the business (such as retail). They have to juggle between creating compelling/personalized content for their audience and roping in new customers.

Generative AI can help small businesses create hyper-personalized content and based on individual customer behaviour, persona, and purchase history. It can also automate the creation of personalized email campaigns, draft engaging social media posts, or even write full blog articles, which is a form of AI-generated blog posts. This falls under the remit of generative AI Marketing.

Picture a small pet supply store established a year ago that is owned by a young couple. They have both a brick-and-mortar store and an e-commerce website. Some of their core functions require product sourcing, inventory management, sales, customer service, financial management, and e-commerce management. As can be seen, this is already too much to handle between two people. There is also marketing and branding that needs to be well managed. In this case, we will apply generative AI technology to assist the business owners in creating new content.

For a pet supply store, a very effective marketing strategy would be to create pet care tips video content, promoting it locally and internationally to attract new customers. Using generative AI for creating these types of videos will simplify the business owners’ lives. There is another option of creating a blog and using generative AI to repurpose video content into compelling blog posts.

This is only one example and the use cases for AI content creation for small businesses are limitless.

Are there any Ethical concerns with using Generative AI in Content Creation?

Copyright Infringement risk
Plagiarized content risk
Incorrect Information

Generative AI is not all roses and flowers, and there are a number of challenges that small businesses have to be aware of as overlooking them might result in a negative outcome.

Generative AI is far from perfect and we have not yet come to a stage where generative AI can fully automate content creation. Irrespective of the type of content you are creating with AI – whether in text, image, videos, music, etc., there is usually a risk that the generated output has a degree of bias, plagiarism, or incorrect information. This is why it is critical to have a solid AI content strategy.

Bias: AI algorithms can be biased, leading to biased content creation. This can be especially problematic if the content is intended to be used for marketing or advertising purposes.

Plagiarism and Intellectual Property: AI content generators can create content that is similar to existing content, which can raise concerns about plagiarism and intellectual property. The providers of these systems argue that the created text and images belong to their prompt creators but they are clearly derivatives of the original text and images used to train the models.

Misuse and Misinformation: AI content generators have the potential to generate misinformation, fake news, or misleading content. This could have serious ramifications, such as harming reputations, spreading false information, or even inciting violence.

Here is a funny picture of Obama and Angela Merkel running along the beach that was fully generated with the power of AI.

Misuse of AI generated image - Obama and Angela Merkel running along the beach

Any business integrating generative AI for content creation should ensure to proof check, run content through plagiarism checkers and also add their personal touch to the generated content. In our opinion, the content that is created by generative AI can be classified as good but is still far from great. It is up to you as a small business owner to give it your personal touch.

Can Generative AI Replace Human

Content Creators?

As mentioned earlier, generative AI can be your creative sidekick to creating content. Nevertheless, generative AI is still far from completely replacing human content creators. Generative AI is unable to share its personal experience or stories like a human content creator can. Although we are very close to having generative AI capable of documenting a full blog, a full video, etc. this is limited to factual content lacking th emotional element for who is reading it.

What are some Popular Tools for Generative AI content Creation?

Case Study 1: AI Content Writing

We’ve all been there – hunting for new and fresh content for our website, blog post, community, etc. Start-ups usually find it difficult to consistently allocate time and resources for the creation of SEO optimized content. Integration of AI into content writing helps your business grow by creating compelling and engaging content that is tailored towards your target audience.

Search engine optimization (SEO) services backed by AI together with AI-driven personalisation tools are extremely effective in applying captivating strategies that attract more leads and conversions. The power of AI helps you make the best decisions (e.g. words used, topic discussed, etc) based on real-time background analytics conducted by the software.

AI content writing goes beyond the identification of the right keywords and opportunities to target. Other AI tools are programmed to actually create content in the form of blogs, articles, eBooks and much more, based on your target keywords and/or topic. Despite the technical advancements recorded to date, AI-based content writing still requires some level of manual editing. As AI marketing tools continue to progress, we will see more automation within the space of content creation and SEO optimization for websites.

As a small business or start-up, investing in a powerful AI content writing tools such as Content At Scale and WriteSonic will help you boost your productivity and grow your online presence, improving your Google search rankings.

Case Study 2: AI Picture Generator

An AI picture generator is a type of artificial intelligence (AI) marketing tool that utilizes machine learning algorithms to generate custom images based on user input. This allows businesses to quickly and easily create viral visual content for their marketing campaigns, such as social media posts and website banners.

The technology behind these image generators is capable of analyzing hundreds of thousands of data points related to the desired content topic, including colors, shapes, and objects. Using this information, the software generates a new image that is unique and tailored to the specific needs of each business. For example, an AI picture generator may be used by an online clothing retailer looking to create visually appealing social media posts to showcase their latest fashion offerings. By using an AI picture generator, the retailer can quickly and easily create a range of high-quality images that are perfectly optimized for their specific target audience.

Apart from creating mainstream images for your marketing campaign, there are some cool platforms creating memes which usually tend to get the attention and go viral more easily than an image. Memes are very effective visually impactful images if you want a quick way to get your message across, or simply want to add some humour to your content. Investing in a leading AI meme generator like Supermeme will take your outreach to a whole new level.

Case Study 3: AI Video Generators

AI-based video creation is another digital marketing niche that is transforming video marketing campaigns. AI video generators have taken the business world by storm offering an array of advantages across a variety of industries. Such generators use AI to create customized high quality videos quickly and efficiently that can help promote your brand in ways previously unimaginable. These tools include video editing options to create high quality videos.

Generative AI Marketing has changed the game for advertising campaigns allowing companies to rapidly create videos (including youtube videos) that are unique for various platforms without sacrificing quality or creativity. AI Video Generators provide businesses with the opportunity to foster stronger relationships with their customers through creative content and produce successful marketing campaigns quickly and affordably.

Apart from AI videos through AI generators that can create a personalized video for each and every customer you get enrolled or subscribers, AI platforms such as Synthesia go a step further where the use of AI converts plain text through the use of one of their avatars (digital twins of real actors). This enables you to create engaging videos that eliminate the hassle or the expensive traditional video creation. Synthesia can be used for a marketing campaign (promo videos) with the option to choose various languages to target multiple jurisdictions.

AI Video generators — ***Eliminate tedious Video Creation methods***

Case Study 4: AI Outreach Platforms

AI outreach platforms are a revolutionary new way of helping businesses connect and collaborate with potential clients. These comprehensive systems use machine learning algorithms to help guide the link building outreach process, assisting in the creation of customized cold emails and campaigns for target prospects.

Link building outreach is streamlined with AI platforms, allowing marketers to create connections quickly and efficiently. Additionally, AI can accurately predict the best time to send a message as well as identify which messaging is most likely to result in a positive response from a given target.

Sending the same email or message on Linkedin has proven to be an ineffective way of building your links/contacts. AI outreach platforms send a tailor-made message/email based on data which increases the success rate of receiving a response. Link-building also leads to more reliable data collection, making it easier for companies to track success rates of individual emails and email threads.

All these features make tools such as Skylead and Smartwriter powerful tools for savvy businesses looking to take their link building outreach efforts to the next level!

Picking The Best Generative AI Content Creation Tool For Your Business

Finding the right AI marketing tool for your business can be overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be if you know what to look for. Our geeks have got you covered with a step-by-step infographic guide on how to pick the generative AI content creation tool that fits your marketing strategy. With these tips in mind, you will be able to make an informed decision and choose an what fits within your marketing strategy.

Check also Best practices and tips for designing your AI Marketing Strategy.

Conclusion

So, there you have it. AI is definitely changing the marketing space as we know it. Whether you choose to get onboard early on is up to you. If you want market leading insights driven by AI that will help your business make the best strategic decisions and remain on top of competition then choosing a generative AI marketing tool is a no brainer. In a survey conducted by Unbounce, it was determined that 60% of small businesses already adopted AI in their marketing strategy as it is the solution for limited or small marketing budgets.

Check out our next article where we cover the top trending AI platforms!