Content Creation Meets AI: The Path to Faster, Better B2B Marketing

Imagine how much more innovative your marketing team could be if they had help with the basics of content creation. How would your marketing strategy improve if your team was focused on creating more impactful campaigns instead of drudge work? 

Integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into your content creation workflow can help make it happen. 

Sound too good to be true? Gartner predicts that by 2025, companies using AI in their marketing will move 75% of their team operations from basic production to strategy. The result? A more dynamic and effective marketing organisation.

Of course, we’re not suggesting that AI is some kind of magic wand. AI still requires careful human management, good judgment, and critical thinking to truly enhance your content process.

Here's a step-by-step approach to using AI to scale your content creation at all stages. We'll also explore how AI can facilitate and accelerate human creativity to help deliver unique insights that captivate your target audiences.

Using AI as a Planning Partner

AI can be a lifeline in the preliminary stages of the B2B content creation process.

Streamline Topic Research and Idea Generation

Editorial meetings are useful. But instead of wasting time in a conference room brainstorming, what if everyone came prepared with stronger initial ideas? And what if they could do that without having to spend a lot of time browsing online for topics to write about?

Eliminating the guesswork lets you shift your attention to the real challenge. How can you bring a fresh perspective or unique angle to those topics?

Tools, like those offered by SEMRush and others, can scour the internet for trending topics on search and social media platforms. This helps you identify subjects your audience is actively discussing so you can get involved in the conversation.

You can also use generative AIs, such as ChatGPT and Claude to come up with new angles and topics to consider based on popular articles you’ve already published.  

Another use for AI chatbots is to supplement your research with AI buyer personas. Roleplaying with and interviewing your AI creations is a fantastic way to unearth patterns and trends that aren't immediately obvious while ensuring your digital content remains relevant to your audience. 

A quick caution when creating AI personas: while there are no data ethics concerns with feeding your AI information about current marketplace trends, doing so with information about individuals raises serious ethical and privacy questions. We strongly recommend developing unified AI governance policies so everyone’s on the same page about appropriate use.

Accelerate Keyword Identification

Smart tools for identifying anchor and long-tail keywords have been around for a while. However, the advent of true AI via machine learning has significantly refined this process, making it more intuitive and precise. 

Google, Semrush, Ahrefs and others offer tools marketers can use to identify high-volume, high-intent, and easier-to-win keywords that your organisation can capitalise on. 

Some will also link you to high-ranking articles from your competitors for your chosen keywords or even predict keyword trends. Use this intel to give yourself a competitive advantage by figuring out a fresh angle on a given topic.

Optimise Brief and Outline Creation

Creating a content brief can sometimes feel like pre-rinsing dishes before the dishwasher, but a well-crafted brief minimises tedious rewrites and revisions later on. 

AI technology can take your briefs to the next level by analysing top-performing content in your niche and suggesting SEO-optimised headings, subheadings, and meta descriptions. 

AI can also take your extensive research or even random notes and turn them into a structured outline with helpful bullet points, revealing angles and ideas you might have missed.

But while AI can provide valuable suggestions, they’re just that: suggestions. As the human authority on the project, it's your responsibility to sift through the AI’s output. Use your expertise and customer knowledge to decide what's genuinely pertinent to both your content strategy and audience.

Using AI for Content Creation

It’s a misconception that, with just the right prompt and a click of a button, AI will spill out a thoughtful, ready-to-publish piece.

While AI can be a significant asset to every stage of your B2B content creation process, it cannot replace a human’s expertise and nuanced understanding of context and audience. 

To get the most out of AI tools, creators must engage in a dynamic partnership with the technology rather than rely on it entirely.

Here's a strategic approach to effectively blend AI efficiency and human creativity throughout your content creation workflow. 

Expedite Your Research

If creating content feels like climbing Everest, Claude and ChatGPT can act as content Sherpas. They can quickly process and summarise information from transcripts, articles, and other sources you provide.

These summaries are invaluable as a starting point for various types of content creation. They’re especially invaluable when you’re handing a project off to an external supplier. They’re full of information, ideas, and arguments creators can readily extract and use as the foundation for new pieces. 

Short-circuiting the research phase in this manner speeds up your content operations while ensuring you build your piece upon a rock-solid foundation of quality information.

Brainstorm Your Draft

Earlier, we mentioned how AI is great for outlining. Tools like ChatGPT can also help start your writing process when you're facing a blank page.

Use them to explore various angles and approaches to your topic with the goal of identifying the ideal route into your piece.

Although a skilled writer should handle the first draft, AI can speed up the early stages of writing. This lets you concentrate on refining, enriching, and polishing your content while capturing your brand’s voice.

In this way, AI can greatly accelerate the initial content creation phase and give you something meaningful to build on. 

Spot Gaps in Your Ideas (Or Simplify Them)

Every writer needs a good beta reader who can scrutinise their work and point out gaps or inconsistencies. AI tools can serve a similar function for content creators.

Feed them your draft, and they'll analyse it for completeness, suggesting areas you might have overlooked and perspectives you may not have initially considered.

AI can also point out places where you may need to clarify points or work on sections that might be confusing.

This is especially useful when dealing with technical or specialised subjects - or when you're so close to the material that it's hard to see it from a reader's perspective. Keeping technical topics accessible can help you reach a broader audience.

Using AI for Editing and Proofreading

Even the most experienced writers can overlook typos, grammar errors, and other technical issues - especially after staring at a screen for hours. Don’t stumble at the finish line: put the time you’ve saved researching and drafting toward polishing your piece into must-read content imbued with your unique insights. 

AI can also be a valuable ally in this stage. Powerful, writing-focused AI tools like Grammarly or Pro-Writing Aid can quickly scan your text and offer spelling and grammar fixes, alternative word choices ,and suggestions on how to rework sentences for clarity and concision. You can even tailor their responses by telling it about your intended audience and tone.

You can also use Claude and Chat GPT in this way, although the interface is clearer on the dedicated editing platforms. More substantive edits are where the chatbots come into their own. They can help to refine sentences for readability, smooth transitions between ideas, and trim away redundancy. This can be especially useful when you need to provide constructive feedback for a writer.

A browser-enabled AI like ChatGPT, or AI powered search like Bing, can also be used with extreme caution for fact-checking and cross-referencing your content against trusted sources and databases. 

Whenever you’re using AI, but especially when fact-checking, keep in mind that while AI cannot lie - it certainly hallucinates. In other words, it provides plausible answers to questions that might not always be true. 

Always ask your AI for hyperlinks to its sources. And always double check the information it provides. This will help you maintain credibility with your audience and avoid spreading misinformation.

Using AI in Publishing and Distribution

AI's capabilities extend far beyond content creation. It's a versatile tool that can amplify your piece of content's reach and build brand awareness in multiple ways. 

Repurposing helps you maximise value from high-performing content. You can use AI to breathe new life into your existing content by repurposing it to fit different formats and platforms. Imagine turning video content into a series of engaging social posts. Or use a blog post to create an outline and a series of questions for a compelling podcast interview. 

Tools like ChatGPT can generate multiple headline options tailored to the specific requirements of each platform, increasing the likelihood of engagement. 

You can also identify existing pieces to refresh using a tool like SEMRush, then use AI to action and improve on its recommendations.  Doing so not only extends the lifespan of great content but improves its relevance and appeal to your audience. 

Remember, a one-size-fits-all approach rarely works when it comes to content. While you’re working on your content refresh, consult your AI on different audience segments and ask for tailored content variations that resonate with each group to maximise engagement and conversion rates across the board.

AI as a Collaborative Partner

The integration of AI into the content creation process is not a trend. It's a transformative shift redefining how we approach marketing. 

Still, it's crucial to remember that AI is not a replacement for human creativity and judgement. It’s only effective when used as a support tool that complements your team’s expertise. 

When evaluating the success of AI implementation in your content workflow, make sure you consider its impact on the effectiveness of your content. The goals shouldn’t just be more content but more satisfying content. 

Your company should also consider the impact of AI on your brand value. Will customers care about its use? Could it harm your reputation if used indiscriminately or poorly?

Questions like these further emphasise the importance of seeing AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude as collaborative partners rather than replacements for human beings. By combining the computational power of AI with human ingenuity, we're not just streamlining our workflows - we're setting the stage for a new era of content marketing that is more efficient, customer-centric, and impactful than ever before.

If you’re considering leveraging AI to bolster your content marketing efforts, we’d love to chat. Schedule in to see how coupling the power of AI with 1827 Marketing’s human creative team can help you start creating high-quality content at scale today.