{"id":22029,"date":"2022-12-08T18:58:58","date_gmt":"2022-12-08T18:58:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/12\/08\/generative-ai-for-b2b-content-marketing-is-here\/"},"modified":"2022-12-08T18:58:58","modified_gmt":"2022-12-08T18:58:58","slug":"generative-ai-for-b2b-content-marketing-is-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/12\/08\/generative-ai-for-b2b-content-marketing-is-here\/","title":{"rendered":"Generative AI for B2B content marketing is here"},"content":{"rendered":"

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December 5th, 2022 will go down as the week Generative AI in content marketing passed the Gladwellian Tipping Point.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all kicking off. <\/p>\n

Heated debates on Linkedin and that other microblogging service*.<\/p>\n

Weird experiments where people get cute little bots to say the darnedest things.<\/p>\n

And some really cogent analysis from the best in the business. <\/p>\n

Paul Roetzer of the Marketing AI Institute<\/a> has become The Man of the Hour. After plowing a lonely furrow for years<\/em>, the world is going exactly as he said it would. (And it couldn\u2019t happen to a nicer, smarter guy).<\/p>\n

And Scott Brinker, in his State of Martech 2022<\/a>, called Generative AI (the kind that creates content) as the single most disruptive technology\u2014and one of his 5 Big Trends for 2023. When Scott predicts, people don\u2019t just listen, they take notes<\/em>. (And buy shares).<\/p>\n

Our own recent experiments in AI writing got some attention too. Like the blog post \u2018written\u2019 by Sudowrite<\/a>. And a sad country song I prompted out of Chat-AI<\/a> (Best line: \u201cWithout you, I\u2019m just a sad country song.\u201d).<\/p>\n

For me, this was the week Generative AI arrived. <\/p>\n

I feel like the uncle at the Bar Mitzvah who does a cartoon double-take when he realizes the corporate lawyer he\u2019s chatting to is the same snot-nosed grand-nephew who (only yesterday!) choked on a Twizzler.<\/p>\n

This shit happened fast<\/em>.<\/p>\n

One day, chat-bots are still struggling with adjective order (\u201cRiding red little hood\u201d?) and the next they\u2019re cranking out thought leadership by the metric ton. <\/p>\n

This week I\u2019ve been playing with Jasper<\/a> and GPT-3<\/a> and the penny has dropped.<\/p>\n

With Jasper, I got a trial account and tried their many templates and recipes. Like the Blog Creation workflow\u2014a widget that helps you turn a topic into a title into an intro into an outline into a blog post (mine was called The Power of Brand in B2B).<\/p>\n

Was it a good blog post?<\/p>\n

It was not.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s like saying, \u201cThat poem your goldfish just recited at dinner? It sucked<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dude: it\u2019s a fish. Can we just take that in for a sec?<\/p>\n

Remarkable as it is, my Jasper-generated post on branding is not something we\u2019d publish on the Velocity blog. Here\u2019s the intro:<\/p>\n

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\u201cIn order to stay ahead of the curve, it\u2019s important for B2B marketers to keep up with the latest trends in branding and voice. In this blog post, we\u2019ll explore some of the top trends that are sure to make a big splash in the industry in 2019. From personalization to authenticity, these trends will help you take your brand to the next level. So without further ado, let\u2019s dive in!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Okay, it ain\u2019t Ann Handley or Jay Acunzo.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s better than the average page of Dan Brown. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s readable. Credible. The ideas are kind of empty and the voice bland\u2014but I generated the entire post (\u2018generated\u2019 is a way more appropriate term than \u2018wrote\u2019) in, like, five minutes<\/em>. Without even suggesting a single idea about brand in B2B. (More on that below).<\/p>\n

Generative AI may not yet be a grown-up corporate lawyer. But it\u2019s far from the kid who almost choked to death on that Twizzler.<\/p>\n

Cue the backlash bandwagon<\/h2>\n

You can tell just how much something is disrupting something else by the strength of the backlash.<\/p>\n

By its volume and pitch.<\/p>\n

Well, the anti Generative AI backlash is loud, unequivocal and dismissive.<\/p>\n

In fact, the backlash has kicked in way before the bandwagon even got into second gear. Which tells you something.<\/p>\n

Like most backlashes, this one seems to object mainly to an idea that few have suggested (yet): that Generative AI is ready to replace writers (and designers and photographers and illustrators).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a legitimate worry. After all, it\u2019s what this technology was invented for.<\/p>\n

But the \u2018human replacement\u2019 debate makes it way too easy for the \u2018anti\u2019 side to invoke Never-centric arguments like, \u201cGenerative AI can never<\/strong> be truly creative so it can never<\/strong> replace a talented human.\u201d<\/p>\n

Putting aside the timetable issue and the certainty about the nature of true creativity (pretty big things to put aside), the Never-centric arguments stop us from seeing what is here, right now.<\/p>\n

It makes it too easy to dismiss the disruption. <\/p>\n

We\u2019ve all lived through a few prematurely dismissed disruptions (like the Internet, marketing automation, SEO, social media and content marketing), so it shouldn\u2019t be hard to recognise another one.<\/p>\n

\u201cWill AI replace writers?\u201d may be the least interesting part of this disruption right now. Your money might be on Never. Mine says we\u2019ve already passed that point\u2014real projects for real freelancers are already going to Dieter from Demand Gen with his trial subscription to Jasper and Dall-E. But that\u2019s not the point (yet).<\/p>\n

The question for now is my next H2:<\/p>\n

What is generative AI good at?<\/h2>\n

It\u2019s too early to say for sure, but that Jasper-generated blog post about the power of brand in B2B taught me a few things:<\/p>\n

Generative AI is good at generating sentences<\/strong> \u2013 Jasper spools out lots and lots of real sentences that read as if a real person wrote them. That\u2019s not a trivial accomplishment. It\u2019s a Holy Shit one.<\/p>\n

Generating sentences is the superficial part of writing<\/strong> \u2013 A sentence is the result of a thought process kicked off with an idea. It\u2019s the smooth, salient surface of a cognitive iceberg.<\/p>\n

Without an idea and some thought, a sentence is an empty thing <\/strong>\u2013 It\u2019s like a zombie. Looks like a person, dresses like a person, shuffles like a person, but the eyes\u2026 the eyes.<\/p>\n

Generative AI is also getting good at structure<\/strong> \u2013 When I told Jasper what I wanted it to generate sentences about, it suggested this outline:<\/p>\n

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1. The rise of B2B companies and their need for branding<\/p>\n

2. The importance of having a strong brand voice<\/p>\n

3. Tips for creating a strong brand voice<\/p>\n

4. Examples of successful B2B brands and their voices<\/p>\n

5. How to keep your brand voice consistent across all channels<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

That\u2019s a credible outline. A post that really delivered on this outline would be a good post.<\/p>\n

Structure is not the same as a content<\/strong> \u2013 It\u2019s the frame of the building. Once raised (Amish, barn, village), it raises our expectations<\/em>. Something still has to fulfill that promise.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the thing:<\/p>\n

If generating sentences and putting them in some kind of order is the part of writing you care about and struggle with, generative AI might already be the tool for you.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not being patronizing or dismissive (maybe a little). For lots of marketers working on lots of projects, this is the task at hand.<\/p>\n

Generative AI is as good for the dull stuff as dull humans are<\/h2>\n

Here\u2019s a typical B2B writing brief: \u201cYou know that ebook? Crank out a landing page, ten social posts, five PPC ads and, what the heck, a blog post based on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

For a professional writer, that would mean reading the ebook (yeah, we kinda have to do that) and crafting copy for each of those channels. Call it a full day (two, with banjo breaks). <\/p>\n

A marketing intern using Generative AI can now do all that in ten minutes. Then a writer might spend another ten cleaning it all up and adding a bit of voice-juice. <\/p>\n

The intern + AI route won\u2019t lead to better work. But it will probably get the thing over the line. <\/p>\n

The ads and posts won\u2019t perform quite as well as the clever stuff from the part-time novelist (ouch).<\/p>\n

But they\u2019ll do okay. And they\u2019ll be done before lunch. And cost close to Nada.<\/p>\n

Now here\u2019s the thing that I wish-wish-wish wasn\u2019t true but have to admit is:<\/p>\n

The fucking bots are already as good as most B2B content writing.<\/h2>\n

Most B2B content writing is a bunch of bland, empty sentences, tangentially related to a topic, arranged in a kind of order, under a headline.<\/p>\n

Like generative AI, it is not good.<\/p>\n

As Truman Capote would say, It\u2019s not writing, it\u2019s typing.<\/p>\n

There are are no new ideas in it and little-if-any thought (much less leadership).<\/p>\n

Like what generative AI can do today.<\/p>\n

But, unlike<\/em> generative AI, it\u2019s slow, it\u2019s expensive, and it\u2019s sometimes written by difficult, defensive people who make the marketers who commission it feel bad. <\/p>\n

I\u2019m going all H1 here:<\/p>\n

Maybe we should fix that before<\/em> we waste energy joining the AI backlash-wagon.<\/p>\n

If we don\u2019t raise our collective game, we not only risk<\/em> being replaced by bots; we should<\/em> be replaced by bots.<\/p>\n

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* The social media platform I removed from my phone until the scandal-monger-attention-junkie-in-chief moves on to other things. (No, not Truth Social. The other one.)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n