The Problem With AI-Generated Marketing Content (And How To Avoid It) (Collaborative post)

Ever since ChatGPT became a mainstream application, people have been worried about the implications of AI-generated content. On the one hand, it looks like the ideal solution to a lot of your problems. For instance, it could theoretically help you create marketing content without spending money on copywriters, artists, etc. Think of the savings this yields - but are these pros worth the cons? 

You see, there are some fundamental problems with AI-generated marketing content that need to be discussed. It’s far from the small business solution you think it is, and we’ll explain why in this article. 

AI Content Lacks Personality

Anyone can type a prompt into an AI system and generate thousands of words of marketing content. It might seem informative, but AI content lacks any sort of personality. Or, more accurately, it finds it hard to match your desired tone of voice. 

Every business has a brand image, and every brand image is built around ideas like tone and personality. You want to convey your business in a certain way, and this requires a specific writing style throughout your marketing content. It’s why a brand like Versace differs from a brand like Adidas. Both are in the fashion industry, yet look at the difference in how they describe products on their websites. Versace focuses on luxury and uses words to convey a sense of wealth or uniqueness while Adidas is more relaxed. 

AI can’t replicate this type of tonal difference, so it makes your marketing content seem bland or out of place. It’s harder for your audience to connect with your business or pick up on your desired brand image when there’s no synergy between your tone of voice and your marketing content. 

It’s Not Always Accurate

There’s long been a debate surrounding the accuracy of AI. Modern systems are a lot better at finding the right information after a prompt, but they’re never 100% accurate. You can’t ask an AI generator to make a blog post for you or create copy for your website and assume that everything will be correct. 

Sometimes, these systems get confused by different things, which means you could end up with inaccurate information in your content. Not only does this look bad, but it can land you in trouble with customers/consumers depending on the incorrect information. 

For example, imagine you ask an AI bot to describe your product and it lists loads of benefits that aren’t strictly true. You haven’t proofread it, so you upload it to your site and customers buy the product based on the description. You’ll end up with loads of complaints as the product doesn’t do what you claimed. 

You Can Run Into Repeat Content Concerns

Do you know the importance of original content for your marketing strategy? Experts like Yoast claim that original content is a key SEO factor that will influence how well your site ranks. Search engines are less likely to rank a website that uses repeat content from other sources. It’s unoriginal and can be flagged as plagiarism, so your site drops down the rankings. 

That’s where AI content becomes a big problem. These systems don’t create original things; they get all of their data and information from what’s already out there. That big blog post or website copy it created could include unoriginal content from multiple sources. Google - and other search engines - will notice this on your website, and you’ll be hit with rank penalties. 

In other words, you can’t always trust AI content to be original. If you want to rank well, you need original content, which is why human involvement is a must. 

Legal Issues Continue To Revolve Around AI Content

This next point coincides with the previous one, but it makes it more serious. Unoriginal content can do more harm than simply damaging your SEO strategy. At least you can correct that - but what if you’re hit with copyright lawsuits? 

Lawyers around the world are consumed by the legal issues surrounding AI-generated content. Once more, because AI systems pull information from pre-existing sources, they will often steal content from all over the internet. Depending on what they steal, this could be considered a serious copyright infringement, leaving you with a hefty lawsuit on your hands. 

Granted, this tends to be more common when dealing with AI-generated images or art. You might use both of these in your marketing strategy to save on hiring a graphic designer. However, your AI-generated content might include small pieces from existing works of art that have already been copyrighted. You can see how confusing and complex this gets, which is why you’re encouraged to stay away from AI-generated content. 

How To Avoid Using AI-Generated Marketing Content

With so much AI content out there, how can you avoid using it? The first idea is to handle all of your marketing content in-house. Hire copywriters and artists to create everything for you. There’s less chance of them using AI-generated stuff while under your watchful eye. 

Still, you need to be 100% sure, and an AI content detector is the most foolproof solution. This could even mean you can hire freelance copywriters to do your work with the safety net of a detector checking for signs of AI. 

Check every piece, just to be sure. You normally get a “score” telling you how much of the content is AI-generated, along with each sentence being highlighted. The biggest problem is avoiding AI-generated images and art, as you can’t use a detector for this type of content. However, it’s normally quite easy to tell when AI generates art, so you’ll have to rely on your gut feeling a bit more. 

The moral of the story is that AI-generated content is not a quick fix for anything. AI can help you create marketing content by coming up with ideas or structures to follow. But, you should never use AI content across your marketing campaigns as it’ll just lead to more issues. You won’t be able to replicate your brand voice, unoriginality becomes a problem, legal issues may rear their heads, and the content simply might not be accurate. Find ways to avoid this, and your marketing strategy will no longer suffer.