The Benefits of AI in Marketing and SEO

Marketing should be fun. It’s creative, people-focused, and helps customers find awesome products they didn’t know about before.

Unfortunately, it also has a dark side: the sheer quantity of often dull and repetitive tasks it involves. Behind every ad or blog campaign, it seems like there’s an endless series of menial time-sink tasks.

AI, though, can lighten the load.

AI tools like ChatGPT are taking the world by storm. These new tools can automate dozens of mundane marketing and SEO processes, freeing time and helping you get more done.

For marketers, it’s a dream come true. The new technology can provide almost unlimited assistance across multiple areas, sometimes for free.

Alongside our own excellent tools, we’ve used examples from ChatGPT but these tips and suggestions can be implemented using other LLM-based AI chatbots.

But what are the benefits, exactly? Let’s take a look.

AI Can Automate Marketing Processes

Emerging AI technologies can automate cognitive tasks, saving loads of time. Here’s how.

Proofreading

Thanks to AI, you no longer have to go through work and proofread it for errors. Tools like Optimo will do it for you.

Here’s an example where we’ve entered some incorrect text, and Optimo makes suggestions to improve it.

You can see that the AI corrected both spelling and grammar errors automatically. It also parsed the writer’s intent and incorporated it into its response.

Proofreading your marketing material is a time-consuming process and automation like this can slash the time taken wading through it all.

Developing Content Ideas

Developing content ideas is always a timesink, no matter how enthused you are about the latest campaign.

Fortunately, AI tools like Optimo are excellent at providing content ideas, structures, and outlines you can turn into fully-fledged content. Just describe the blog post you want to write, including any subtopics and keywords.

Optimo helps you organize content and marshal your thoughts without having to edit pages, rearrange paragraphs, or worry whether the structure of your posts makes sense logically. It also provides additional keyword suggestions and tone/style advice.

Write Email Responses To Angry Customers

AI may even save your emotions (and your sanity) by helping you reply to angry customers. Just paste the angry email into Optimo and it’ll transform it into a positive reply!

Then all you need to do is put in your name. No need to grit your teeth!

Generate Instagram Captions

Some tools let you create Instagram captions instantly. You just describe what your Instagram post is about and the system will create five engaging captions with hashtags for you.

Researching Keywords

Optimo automates keyword research, too. Just provide a “seed” keyword and it’ll churn out twenty semantically-related keywords for you.

AI can also help with Keyword Clustering and intent analysis as seen in this Twitter thread:

 

Using AI to do some KEYWORD CLUSTERING and determine keyword intent (all in 2 minutes! )🤯⬇️

— Joe Davies (@fatjoedavies) December 5, 2022

Optimo also goes a step further by enabling you to create content calendars with up to four weeks’ worth of ideas by simply entering a keyword. Here’s an example:

Improving SEO

AI-powered tools are also excellent for improving SEO. Surfer for example is a leader in this space. The tool helps you create search-engine-optimized written content, like blog posts and articles.

The SERP Analyzer, for example, provides a detailed breakdown of Google’s first page for a given keyword. You get information on:

• Page speed
• Hidden content
• Average word count
• Whether pages use partial keyword match
• Character count in title tags
• Alt text
• And so on

The content editor is even more helpful. It helps you build pages relevant to search engines’ page ranking algorithms. You can see all the keywords you should include in your content based on the top performers for your topic area. You can also view how many words, headings, paragraphs, and images the post should include instantly instead of spending hours doing the research manually.

These tools are only getting smarter but do bear in mind there can be stumbling blocks. As with the keyword-adding example above, make sure not to rely entirely upon the suggestions – over-stuffed articles are never readable – but instead, use it to help optimize and streamline your marketing tasks.

Writing Titles

You can also use Optimo for blog titles. Here’s what happens when you type, “Write ten blog titles about raincoats.”

The titles are designed to be engaging and varied to help entice readers to click on your marketing materials!

If you want to modify your title selection you can. Just provide Optimo with more details.

Now you have a list of titles you can use for blogs about raincoats to wear during summer downpours.

Writing SEO Titles And Meta Description

Optimo can also help you write better SEO titles and meta descriptions. Just tell it the theme of the page and it’ll cook up the perfect copy for you. Here’s an example:

You can see how intelligently the software responds to the input. It makes sense and it’s ready to go instantly.

Addressing Customers’ Long-Tail SEO Requirements

AI also lets you address customers’ long-tail SEO requirements, such as building FAQ pages.

For instance, you can ask ChatGPT to generate FAQs for an online clothes store. It’ll then produce a list of relevant questions and answers as follows:

Then just tweak the content to make sense for your client’s business.

Optimo also has a bespoke long-tail keyword generator. You just tell it the topic or subject and it’ll create a list for you.

Writing Blog Posts Outright

AI’s most eye-catching (and time-saving) benefit in marketing and SEO is its ability to generate content for you. Tools can generate thousands of words on any topic, eliminating the need to write it yourself.

Here’s an example from Optimo:

Of course, the resulting blog could feel generic and dull, but you can always go through it and spice it up. You can also use the basic outline and then add statistics or more sentences to bulk it out. Think of it as a barebones template you can embellish to suit your audience.

Google themselves have noted that AI content does not contradict their guidelines, but you must ensure it is high quality. Again this can be achieved by pairing the content with human review.

Writing Ads For You

Optimo also comes with a tool that lets you write quick Facebook ads and Google ad copy. You just describe what your ads are about in detail and then the AI will produce ads that convert.

Here’s what happens when you ask it to write an ad about cycling shorts:

Notice how the tool includes all the details we provided in the description to better target the market.

Writing Video Scripts For You

Another way to use Optimo is to get it to write video scripts. Just describe the video’s theme and it’ll churn out a 2000-character text you can use to accompany it.

Plan Your Day

Another automation benefit of AI for marketers is helping with daily planning based on various factors, including deadlines, work hours, task length, and calendar obligations. For example, Motion from HubSpot can understand your schedule and tell you what to do next.

The tool makes decisions based on various factors related to tasks, including:

• Priority – whether a task has a hard deadline, soft deadline, or needs doing ASAP
• Hours available to work on the task – i.e., mornings, nights, whole days, or any other schedule
• Start date
• Deadline date

Motion then uses AI to crunch the numbers and tell you which projects you should work on first, even if you have competing priorities.

Generate Images

You can also use AI to generate quick images through a simple text prompt. For example, here is the image Fotor created from the command: “Create an image of a woman wearing cycling shorts on a bicycle in the winter.”

AI image generators allow you to specify the art style and even accept reference images to help guide the content.

Bespoke images like these can really help your marketing stand out, getting away from standard stock images with completely custom graphics.

AI Can Accelerate Your Marketing and SEO Research

You can also use AI to accelerate your research in multiple ways.

Finding Sources

For example, you can ask ChatGPT to provide a list of sources for studying a particular topic. Here’s an example relating to SEO:

ChatGPT knows where to find information because it uses web pages across the internet to learn and provide answers. As you can see from the above output, it has a good grasp of websites to learn more about SEO.

Using The “Act As” Prompt

ChatGPT also lets you ask questions about a topic from a specific perspective via the “act as” prompt. For instance, suppose a customer wants you to find leads for their double-glazing firm, but you have a limited understanding of the target market, service, and related keywords.

First, tell ChatGPT to act as a homeowner who wants double-glazing and create a list of questions they might ask, explaining why they are essential.

This information tells you what matters to buyers and how they make decisions regarding double-glazing services. Then you can tailor your clients’ service pages to provide this information and blog on relevant topics.

The second step is to reverse-engineer the prompt to find out what you should say.

ChatGPT shows you how an expert would answer customers’ most pressing questions.

As you can see, the two-step process here is essential. The first step tells you which questions matter to customers, and the second gives you professional answers to them.

As a general rule, ChatGPT is most helpful when researching older topics or well-established ideas. Unfortunately, it can’t help with newer ideas or concepts because it hasn’t been trained on them yet.

Most of the time, the AI provides helpful answers to your questions. However, you will need to verify the statements it makes, just in case.

Create Tools And Plugins

AI-powered software also helps you create tools and plugins. Once you learn how to do it, you can:

• Save time
• Impress your clients
• Build websites with more advanced features
• Save clients money

For example, let’s say you want to help a client increase the total sales value of each customer on an ecommerce website. One way to do this would be to include related product suggestions on product pages via a plugin. However, you might not know how to code it.

Fortunately, ChatGPT can help. Just tell the AI the plugin’s parameters, and it’ll write the code for you in a few seconds. Here’s an example:

Then, once it generates the response, it provides some helpful caveats to enable you to make the most of it.

You can also use ChatGPT to write the code for digital tools. For example, suppose your client’s website compares car insurance quotes. You could ask ChatGPT the following:

Based on an existing database, you can then use this code to build a tool to show customers how much they could save.

As a general rule, the more parameters you can provide, the better. ChatGPT thrives off you giving it precise instructions.

AI Can Make Suggestions When You’re Stuck

Lastly, you can ask AI to make recommendations when you get stuck. Here’s how.

Generating Blog Topic Ideas And Content Strategies

Cooking up content ideas on your own is challenging. You could miss some topics or focus too much on others. Or you might not know anything about your client’s niche.

Fortunately, ChatGPT can help in all these cases. Here’s an example where the AI suggests topics related to “SEO and AI:”

If it doesn’t provide enough ideas, you can ask again or get it to focus on a specific topic area, such as “technical SEO and AI.” It will then go into more detail, helping you focus content on a narrower audience.

You can also get the tool to provide industry-related content ideas for clients. For example, typing “Provide ten real estate topics for a blog” yields:

Notice how ChatGPT understands the question in detail. It isn’t just providing you with a list of blog titles but giving you topic areas and then telling you what information to include.

You can also get ChatGPT to provide content portfolios on chosen topics. Here’s what happens when you instruct it to generate a content portfolio for a cycling website:

You can see that the AI isn’t afraid to make broad suggestions. The output covers virtually every digital communication format available, including videos, event coverage, and other forms of media.

If you want to make ChatGPT more specific, just give it more information in the command. Here, we’ve asked ChatGPT to do the same thing, but this time tailor the content to an international audience:

Again, ChatGPT fully understands the context and the type of content overseas cyclists want to see.

You can play with OpenAI’s tool all day to provide you with new content development ideas. You can also ask it to generate more topics, angles, and concepts if you don’t get enough in the first round.

Case Studies

ChatGPT can also suggest various case study types you could explore on behalf of clients. For example, you could get it to list case study types a real estate company should include on its website as follows:

Reading through this example, you can see the case studies make sense for the client because they help sell its services to various buyer classes.

Social Posts

Optimo also helps you generate social media post ideas if you get stuck. You just describe your industry or topic and the AI will create ten great social media post ideas for you.

Again, you can ask it to generate ideas all day, and the AI will oblige. You don’t have to sit there, racking your brain, thinking about what to say next to your audience. The machine just seems to know!

Write Introductions

Finally, you can get Optimo to write introductions to get past writer’s block.

Iterations like these will continue to develop in the LLMs, such as Google’s Bard integration, while niche-specific reskins of tools like ChatGPT will also continue to release.

This post could never cover all of the implications for AI in Marketing and SEO but rather it aims to open your eyes to just some of the ways it will continue to revolutionize the space.

Enhance Reporting

Another popular way to use AI is to enhance your reporting and analytics.

Predict Marketing Outcomes

For example, tools are available that let you predict marketing outcomes. Take Optimove. It collects data from multiple platforms and provides a unified view of the information on a single dashboard. You can then decide on marketing strategies more easily.

The solution’s AI tool specifically collects information and actionable insights – things you can do to improve your outreach immediately. It can suggest which campaigns to drop, and which customers may be the victim of too many marketing communications.

Better Customer Understanding

AI is also helping firms improve their understanding of their customers. For instance, Brandwatch Consumer Intelligence’s solution makes it easy to see where your company fits in the current market. The tool provides an in-depth view of how audiences perceive you, providing social analytics, sentiment analysis, and social measurement using over 12 years’ worth of data and insights.

Better Marketing Integration

Lastly, AI tools are improving marketing integration. For instance, Bloomreach offers a tool that makes it easy to provide consistent experiences across multiple channels. The solution’s algorithms can predict which customers are likely to purchase, reducing churn and helping marketers dedicate their time and resources more efficiently.

The Future Of AI In Marketing And SEO

AI tools are coming into their own.

They are proving themselves incredibly helpful to marketers and SEOs.

As we have seen they can automate menial tasks, help you get unstuck, and even write code. Because of this, optimizing content for SEO and engaging audiences at the same time has never been easier.

At Optimo, we’re embracing the future of marketing and SEO with our AI-driven solutions. Keep an eye on our blog for more posts on the best uses of AI in marketing, along with any other exciting developments in the AI space!