Why AI Content Marketing Tools Are Making Your Job Harder

AI-generated content is influencing content marketing like never before. A McKinsey research survey conducted in 2020 found that 50% of US companies are using AI for digital and content marketing. AI tools are designed to save time and money, but they may be doing the exact opposite. Should you be integrating AI into your content marketing strategy? Is it helpful or harmful?

Here's why AI tools are making your job harder.

Google Doesn’t Like AI Content

Content marketing agencies in 2023 need content that ranks. Google rolled out the Helpful Content Update in August 2022 to make sure that high-ranking content is written by humans. If you want your content to reach its target audience, you need content marketing done by humans.

Google has reconfigured its algorithms to detect AI-generated content and penalize websites that use it by shuffling them to the bottom of search results. While it’s not clear whether they actually can detect all AI content, research suggests that it is possible. A recent study conducted by the College of Information Sciences and Technology at Penn State evaluated 2,000 samples of content to see if they could tell the difference in human vs. AI content. They found that it was possible to detect AI by looking at the linguistic characteristics of the text.

AI Use Leads to Poor Content Quality

There’s a ton of poor-quality content online. Since AI content marketing tools can’t generate original content, they pull their information from content that already exists. So, they produce even more low-quality content.

Most AI software uses a language model called GPT-3 to produce content. GPT-3 follows a linear process for writing. It can’t rewrite content like humans can, so the longer the content, the more errors there are. University of Washington researchers compared GPT-3 to a parrot. It “echos” existing content and randomly rearranges the words to bypass plagiarism checks.

Inaccuracy

AI content is often full of errors, contradictions, and inaccuracies due to the software’s inability to re-create human reasoning. Content done by humans is inherently more accurate because humans can determine what sources of information are credible. Humans are also able to provide insights and analysis that AI can’t.

Lack of Authority

In the world of content marketing, your content needs to drive revenue. You need to stand out from your competition and show your audience they can trust you. This requires product or industry expertise.

Unfortunately, AI content marketing tools have no expertise. Content produced by AI is more likely to reflect the same viewpoints as your competitors since it’s pulling information from existing content.

AI Tools Can Damage Your Brand Reputation

Trust is key to obtaining and maintaining your customer base. Publishing content that contains errors can ruin your company’s reputation and damage that trust. Let’s face it, customers are fickle; the average customer will form an opinion about your brand in 0.05 seconds once they land on your website.

By publishing inaccurate content, you put your business’s reputation at risk. It can leave you with:

· A damaged reputation

· Content that doesn’t rank on Google

· Poor credibility

· A lost customer base

Using AI for your content marketing will force you to spend your time trying to repair and manage your brand reputation.

Poor Conversion Rates

Good writers create interesting and engaging content that leaves the reader wanting more. Successful marketing content creates action. AI-generated content, in contrast, tends to be monotonous and boring.

AI tools don’t have the copywriting tactics necessary to convert website traffic into leads. In other words, they don’t optimize your conversion rate. This is the last thing you want when you’re establishing an online presence.

AI-Generated Content Requires Extensive Revision

All writing requires revision to a certain extent, but the entire point of using AI is to reduce the amount of time and effort required to generate content. AI-generated content requires extensive editing and rewriting before it can be published. The amount of time you’ll spend trying to “fix” AI content is comparable to writing the article from scratch.

Content Marketing Is Easier with Human Writers

Unfortunately, many businesses choose to use AI for their content in an effort to lower costs and maximize efficiency. This isn’t a good strategy, even for start-ups with tight margins. On the surface, AI appears to be a cost-saving way to produce content, but you’ll lose the chance to create a connection with your audience.

Focusing on brand building, customer service, product development, and quality content marketing will help you more in the long term.

Successful content marketing should be focused on the goal – to create content that generates leads and revenue by doing the following:

· Focusing on quality, not quantity

· Provides a solution to a consumer problem

Doing this requires expert writers who produce unique, helpful content. AI tools simply aren’t capable of producing content that meets these goals.

Why We Are Taking a Stand Against AI in Content Marketing

While AI content marketing tools appear useful on the surface, they can’t replace human writers and editors. This is just a fact. And we are not saying it because we may be losing our livelihood as content creators because of AI. Because it is not true. Nothing can replace human talent.

But, business owners, just consider this: no one who will land on your page will want to read what an AI has ever produced.

Mindless content won’t gain you customers and they won’t protect your brand reputation. Successful content marketing brings you results – results that can only be obtained by using people who are experienced in writing, marketing, and SEO strategies. Interestingly, content writers already know this.

A Twitter poll by social strategist Fi Shailes asked writers whether they were concerned about losing their jobs to AI. 75.7% stated they aren’t worried at all.

As content marketers and writers, we are worried of one thing: the devastating results AI content might have on your websites' performance. Because sooner of later, Google will have clearly penalized everything that was created using AI tools. And this may create a ripple effect that can cost you business, clients, revenue. Don't fall for the "too cheap to be true offer" because it is nothing more than what it appears to be: cheap, immediate and potentially harmful.

Here at Iris Mar Sol, we want your website to thrive, your business to grow, your customers to be happy and informed. There is no other way to obtain all that but through meaningful, well strategized and well written content.