Ah, AI. It is shortly develop into one of many buzziest phrases of 2023, akin to the recognition of the phrase “new regular” in 2022.

And for good cause. AI is poised to fully revolutionize the methods wherein we work, work together, and even play.

I have been on the HubSpot Weblog crew for over 5 years, and in that point, I’ve seen loads of modifications. Again in 2017, as an example, we fully upended our weblog infrastructure with the introduction of the pillar-cluster mannequin.

After which, in 2018, we ditched our weekly “throw spaghetti on the wall and see what sticks” brainstorming course of in favor of one thing just a little extra, effectively, environment friendly: the Search Insights Experiences, which we nonetheless use right this moment.

However none of those modifications appear to check to what’s coming with AI. Right here, I am going to clarify how HubSpot’s Weblog crew plans to leverage AI with out sacrificing the “human ingredient” that makes our content material profitable within the first place.

(P.S. We’re nonetheless figuring this out identical to you might be, so consider this as a working doc that I am going to replace periodically as we shift our AI methods sooner or later.)

How the HubSpot Weblog Workforce Leverages AI 

1. The HubSpot Weblog Workforce Will Use Generative AI to Be taught About Subjects Sooner — However We Will not Use AI Alone to Create Content material

One of many strongest advantages of generative AI is its skill to scan the online and supply concise, useful responses based mostly on huge sources of data.

In different phrases: As a author, I do not flip to Google anymore for data. As a substitute, I flip to AI.

As an illustration, the opposite day I wanted to write down a publish about — satirically — the variations between ChatGPT, Google’s Bard, and Bing’s new AI-powered search engine.

So I requested ChatGPT: “Are you able to inform me the variations between ChatGPT, Google’s Bard, and Bing’s AI-powered search engine? Please put the professionals and cons in a desk format.”

Here is what I obtained again:

Discover I did not ask ChatGPT to write down the publish for me.

On our crew, we’re not utilizing AI to write down full posts. As a substitute, our standards is as follows:

• We’ll by no means use generative AI to write down a full weblog publish, start-to-finish, with none modifying for voice, accuracy, or including a singular, human perspective.
• We’ll usually use AI extra for cut-and-dry, easy, tactical posts. Subjects like “The 11 Finest Methods to Ship Giant Information” carry out significantly effectively utilizing AI; however extra complicated, fashionable, or thought leadership-type content material don’t.
• We will use AI to brainstorm subjects or analysis concepts, however we are going to at all times do our personal follow-up analysis to make sure the knowledge is correct, and to restrict potential biases.

As Kaitlin Milliken, HubSpot Weblog’s Program Supervisor & Content material Editor, shares: “AI is a giant a part of my analysis course of. Sure product descriptions are imprecise or do not provide sufficient details about what makes the software program stand out. In these instances, I am going to ask AI what makes a sure product distinctive. It’s going to give me a listing of options that may then assist inform my writing/modifying.”

Merely put, human beings learn HubSpot weblog posts to learn the way different human beings are promoting, advertising and marketing, or servicing their clients. We wish to respect that belief by persevering with to create content material that’s meant to teach, have interaction, and delight.

Once we can use AI to hurry up the time it takes us to analysis subjects or create outlines, that is nice — which means extra time to spend on voice, tone, and perspective.

However we are going to by no means use AI to interchange what people have at all times completed greatest: Storytelling.

2. The HubSpot Weblog Workforce Will Leverage Generative AI to Create Outlines … However Not Full Posts.

As beforehand talked about, our Weblog crew is not going to be utilizing generative AI to create full weblog posts.

That does not imply we cannot leverage the facility of AI to significantly minimize down the time we spend writing. It merely means we’ll deal with AI outputs much like how we would deal with outlines or freelance drafts.

Particularly: AI outputs can act as the primary draft of an article, however not the ultimate copy.

Contemplate, as an example, a publish that gives 34 definitions of SQL key phrases, operators, and statements, which HubSpot Weblog Supervisor, Advertising and marketing Clint Fontanella just lately wrote for the Web site Weblog. A publish of that size would usually require weeks of analysis and writing.

With AI, Fontanella informed me it took roughly 40% of the time to create it.

As he places it, “AI goes to take away the guide technique of content material creation so writers can develop into entrepreneurs once more and focus extra on the artistic course of. AI copywriting will eradicate tedious duties like writing definitions and creating outlines, so writers can spend extra time on optimizing the publish (seemingly utilizing AI instruments) with issues like customized multimedia, interactive modules, high-intent inside linking, and extra.”

Click on right here to set a Google Calendar Reminder for The State of Generative AI & How It Will Revolutionize Advertising and marketing [New Data + Expert Insights], coming Might 17, 2023.

Significantly for extra cut-and-dry subjects like prolonged listicles, it is crucial our writers lean into AI to save lots of their time for extra complicated items, or to up-level the multimedia components included of their posts.

Moreover, lots of our writers use AI to write down sections of weblog posts.

As an illustration, Tristen Taylor, HubSpot Weblog crew’s Affiliate Advertising and marketing Supervisor, informed me, “Earlier than utilizing AI, I usually discovered myself rewriting introductions and conclusion paragraphs in weblog posts. Now that I’ve entry to those instruments, my time wanted for finishing weblog posts or articles has been minimize down tremendously as a result of it may seize the tone, intent, and focused key phrases I would like by means of refined AI prompts.”

She provides, “It additionally permits me to refocus my work extra on the content material or data of worth that readers are on the lookout for, as an alternative of ruminating over small particulars at the start or finish.”

3. The HubSpot Weblog Workforce Will Take Benefit of Generative AI as Our New, Trusty Brainstorming Sidekick.

I have been studying quite a bit about how stay procuring goes to develop into the brand new “norm” in retail, and I knew there might be an fascinating angle to write down. However I could not absolutely flesh one out.

So I turned to ChatSpot, HubSpot’s new AI-powered chatbot, and requested, “Please present me with seven weblog publish concepts based mostly on the idea of stay procuring changing into the established order for the retail trade.”

Here is its response:

Not too shabby, huh? From there, I can workshop on my own or with a colleague to formulate the ultimate matter. However on this case, ChatSpot did not simply save me time — it additionally launched a brand new perspective and extra artistic, fascinating concepts that I hadn’t beforehand thought of.

In different phrases, one of many largest advantages of generative AI is its skill to behave as your new, always-available, infinitely-creative colleague.

And this makes all of HubSpot Weblog crew’s in-person brainstorming periods way more efficient and compelling.

4. The HubSpot Weblog Workforce Will Experiment with AI-Generated Movies for Our Weblog Posts.

Video is extra essential than ever. In actual fact, our 2023 State of Advertising and marketing report discovered that video is the most well-liked and efficient media format for the fourth yr in a row.

However creating movies takes time and sources. And there are some subjects, like CSS Grid Layouts, that had been beforehand not definitely worth the effort it took when it comes to potential video MSV.

This left some main gaps in our content material technique. Whereas CSS Grid Layouts won’t be the snazziest YouTube video (I get it … it is in all probability not going to go viral), it is a subject that’s complicated and doubtlessly complicated — making it an excellent candidate for a fast, simple how-to video for our readers who’re focused on studying extra about CSS layouts.

Enter: Veed.io, a video modifying software program with AI instruments built-in, equivalent to their AI picture generator and AI textual content reader. 

The Web site Weblog leveraged Veed to create their very own CSS grid video with an AI-generated voice-over in lower than an hour.

Plus, as our crew leans into AI for brainstorming, outlining, and researching, we will discover extra time to experiment with initiatives like this one.

For our crew, that is just the start. We’ll proceed to check and iterate on our AI-generated video technique to increase movies throughout Blogs for better impression within the months to return.

5. The HubSpot Weblog Workforce Will Use Generative AI for Meta-descriptions, Social Summaries, and E-mail Descriptions

For some cause, I usually hit the best author’s block after I’ve completed a publish and I am requested by a social media supervisor or electronic mail supervisor to summarize it.

In some methods, maybe it is most troublesome as a result of I do know the subject too effectively. Every thing in my publish appears essential. How can I probably decide what’s most related to incorporate?

Rapidly determining the suitable messaging to advertise your content material is without doubt one of the strongest alternatives with AI. In actual fact, I labored with ChatSpot to provide you with the meta description for this publish:

Jamie Juviler, Managing Editor of the Web site Weblog, additionally leverages AI for meta descriptions. He suggests feeding your introduction paragraph into an AI chatbot, after which asking it to supply a 100-150 character meta description.

Discovering small methods to raise your promotional copy by leveraging AI is essential to harnessing its full potential.

HubSpot’s Weblog Workforce Will Proceed to Write Human-to-Human, First

Yet one more factor — we wish to lead with transparency for our audiences, so we do promise this: On any publish we write that has been AI-supported (or AI-generated, even when it has been human-edited), we are going to be sure you depart a disclaimer that permits you to know that we leveraged AI to finish the publish.

It is also essential to notice that our crew is studying as we go. Much like the arrival of any new, thrilling know-how, AI comes with loads of advantages … and loads of drawbacks.

Studying mildew AI into the kind of instrument that matches our present priorities and high quality metrics shall be key to retaining the audiences we have labored so exhausting to construct. At its core, we all know AI cannot substitute the humanity behind advertising and marketing. So we cannot attempt to.