Using AI for content planning and strategy: Dos and don’ts

Figuring out content material themes and pillars

We have all been within the “okay, so the place can we begin?” kinda temper, and it will possibly really feel overwhelming. So many choices, a lot analysis, so little time.

Nonetheless, AI can completely enable you to kick off your content material planning. By fueling your chosen AI software up with market knowledge, social media conversations, and particular competitor actions you’ve got had your eyes on, it will possibly counsel strategic content material pillars and themes on your model to go after.

As at all times, the higher the enter, the higher the output—if you happen to CBA to place within the knowledge, you will get extra imprecise (and far much less strategic) strategies. The extra data-driven your strategy, the extra your content material will resonate together with your audience and assist your online business aims.

Instance immediate: “Primarily based on our model positioning as [brand description] and audience of [audience details], counsel 5 potential content material pillars that might kind a complete content material technique. For every pillar, additionally clarify its strategic worth, potential subtopics, and the way it helps our enterprise aims of [specific goals]”

Content material calendar planning

Ahead planning would not at all times come tremendous naturally to creatives (not talking from expertise or something ), so the very fact AI may also help will out that content material calendar is a dream.

Use it to optimize your publishing schedule and content material combine, and beef out that cal for the quarter!

Make the outcomes even higher by giving it viewers engagement patterns and historic efficiency knowledge to investigate and make extra knowledgeable strategies. This ensures you ship the proper content material and the proper time, AKA most impression and attain.

Utilizing AI instruments for content material calendar planning may enable you to stability content material varieties and subjects strategically or in a approach you like to work, while at all times sustaining that consistent messaging and model voice.

Instance immediate: “Given our content material pillars [list pillars], assist me develop a 3-month content material calendar that balances these themes. Think about our publishing capability of [X] items per week, our objective to keep up a ratio of 60% instructional/30% promotional/10% leisure content material, and these upcoming seasonal occasions and product launches [list events]. Counsel particular content material items with strategic rationale for every”

Segmenting your viewers and personas

To make content material planning rather less overwhelming, it helps to interrupt issues down into extra digestible chunks—your goal audiences or segments aren’t any exception. AI can determine distinct viewers segments utilizing the information you feed it, then break down the distinctive traits, preferences, and behaviors of every section too.

With this info and in-depth understanding, you possibly can create extra nuanced content material personas, tailoring your messaging successfully and ensuring it HITS for engagement charges you’ve got by no means seen earlier than.

Instance immediate: “Analyze these buyer engagement metrics, web site analytics, and social media insights [paste data]. Determine 3-4 distinct viewers segments that seem to have completely different content material preferences and behaviors. For every section, counsel: 1) Key traits, 2) Content material preferences, 3) Platform behaviors, and 4) Strategic approaches we should always soak up our content material planning to raised serve them”

Aligning your content material technique with enterprise aims

Spoiler alert: In case you’re struggling to convince your CMO about your new marketing campaign or content material concept, hyperlink it to enterprise aims. It really works, each time.

And guess what? AI may also help you with that.

Watch it map your content material to particular conversion paths and determine strategic content material gaps within the buyer journey with ease, liberating up your time to get on with the precise content material creation.

This manner, you can also make positive your content material is immediately supporting your online business objectives, driving leads, conversions, and income. AI instruments may monitor content material efficiency and measure its impression on key metrics.

Instance immediate: “Our enterprise aims for Q3 are [list objectives]. Analyze our present content material stock [paste inventory] and determine strategic gaps the place extra content material may higher assist these enterprise objectives. For every advice, clarify how the content material would information audiences towards particular enterprise outcomes and counsel metrics to trace effectiveness”

Cross-channel coordination

Cross-channel advertising is all nicely and good…till you realise its misaligned. (Spot the indicators of marketing channel misalignment right here).

In swoops your favourite AI software to assist with that. As a result of sure, AI can certainly assist with consistency throughout all of your advertising channels, giving recommendation on messaging variations, efficient content material codecs, and creating probably the most impactful buyer journey.

With no additional knowledge, it will possibly provide up finest practices for every platform, positive. However for extra useful and on-brand strategies, enter knowledge that AI can analyze to make particular strategies to your model and your viewers behaviors.

Instance immediate: “We’re planning a marketing campaign round [campaign theme] throughout these channels: [list channels]. For every channel, counsel how our core message needs to be strategically tailored whereas sustaining consistency. Embody suggestions for channel-specific content material varieties, timing issues, and the way these items ought to work collectively to create a cohesive journey towards [campaign objective]”

Model positioning

Nobody is aware of your model fairly like your model… not even AI. Whereas AI instruments can present useful insights, your core model technique 100% requires human imaginative and prescient and instinct.

It is so essential that AI is used to assist strategic model choices, not substitute them. Human oversight is E S S E N T I A L to ensure your model values, model voice, and model messaging stay constant and genuine.

Resolution: Be sure that all of your content material planning processes and workflows embrace people oversight (you will remorse it if you happen to do not).

Quantitative knowledge

Making knowledgeable and strategic choices comes right down to having the proper knowledge, and in terms of content material planning, it must be knowledge that’s particular to your model.

Counting on AI to provide you with a content material technique with no extra enter or context into your model is a harmful sport; you by no means *actually* know what present content material all the data is coming from.

However even past quantitative knowledge, it is so essential to contemplate different issues like buyer suggestions, market tendencies, upcoming product launches, and aggressive evaluation.

Resolution: Transcend the numbers; human judgment can also be essential to creating knowledgeable choices.

Key phrase alternatives

We have beforehand mentioned using AI for SEO, and talked about its shortfalls however with content material planning, it goes slightly deeper than that.

Asking AI for a purely Web optimization-driven content material technique will (most certainly) result in a sequence of fragmented and disjointed content material.

The human narrative is wanted to align key phrase analysis and key phrase alternatives together with your general content material pillars and themes, and make for an extremely partaking buyer expertise.

Resolution: Maintain issues constant and maintain issues partaking by aligning all the pieces (included AI-generated content material technique strategies) to enterprise aims.

Market analysis and context

There is a robust likelihood that AI can miss essential aggressive or cultural components that may affect or impression content material efficiency.

Be sure to are incorporating market context out of your aspect into your AI-assisted technique, in any other case you might miss out on profitable alternatives or your efforts may fall flat.

Resolution: Keep knowledgeable about business tendencies, what your rivals are as much as, and viewers sentiment… and maintain your prompts wealthy with this info too!

Finish-to-end content material technique planning

Perhaps that is extra an extended story brief scenario as a result of, if you happen to’ve been paying consideration, it may need change into *fairly* apparent that human intervention is totally, completely, and completely mandatory if you wish to get forward of your rivals and create content material that your viewers truly desires to see.

So no, you can’t simply immediate AI to offer you an end-to-end content material technique—there must be human oversight at each step of the planning journey to ensure you’re supplied with probably the most useful, efficient content material plan for you and your model.

Resolution: Do not be lazy, and undoubtedly do NOT do away with your content material strategists.