5 proven ways to use (and not use) AI for content production in B2B SaaS
As ChatGPT and other AI tools continue to become more developed and widely used, it’s clear that they aren’t going anywhere. However, it can be time-consuming to spend hours experimenting and figuring out exactly what works and what doesn’t when it comes to using AI for content production.
At Flying Cat Marketing, we believe that there is a time and place for AI in the writing process. We’ve spent time running several experiments on using AI so you don’t have to, and we’ve established clear guidelines for our team on when and how using tools like ChatGPT is appropriate.
If you’re not sure when it’s a good idea to use AI in your team’s writing processes, we’ve got you covered! We’ll walk through some of the best ways to use AI tools for content writing, plus when it’s a good idea to steer clear and avoid them.
Generic content will never do.
Unique content with the best SME does. Talk to our team if you’re ready to knock it out of the SERPs
Yes, using AI to produce great content is possible. But not in the way you might think
At Flying Cat Marketing, we do use AI as a part of our content process. But that doesn’t mean using ChatGPT to create final, published copy, and we don’t see that changing. In fact, our creation process explicitly states that using copy taken directly from AI tools is not allowed.
Instead, our content team is using AI to free up time to dedicate more attention to what actually matters to stand out, like collecting great SME. We’re using tools like ChatGPT, Bing, GrammarlyGO, and Notion AI as part of our research and outlining process, though of course we fact-check any AI-generated information.
Our writers are also using AI to overcome writer’s block by generating early drafts that they can revise. They’re also asking the tools questions like, “How can I make this better?” to explore topics they might not have considered. Asking ChatGPT questions like, “Explain [complicated topic] to me like I’m 5” can also be helpful during research.
Then, the extra time saved by not being bogged down by writer’s block can be spent performing additional research, sourcing and interviewing SMEs, and scaling the information you receive.
5 ways to use AI for content production
While AI isn’t a replacement for human writers, it has several uses that help speed along the writing process and help you work more efficiently. A few ways we use AI for content production at Flying Cat include:
1. Topic ideation and heading suggestions
Which tools to use
ChatGPT, Bing AI
When to use this tactic
AI can help writers get started with topic titles and ideas. For example, if you know from SEO research that your team should be writing blogs about future event marketing trends, you can prompt the AI to give you specific post ideas within that category. Then, you can perform your own research to narrow down which generated ideas are the best fit.
While this can potentially result in overly generic topic ideas, if you follow up with more specific questions, it will provide some that your team wouldn’t have organically come up with.
Prompt
Give the AI a more detailed prompt, such as, “Tell me some blog topic ideas about the future of meetings for a B2B software company that sells a collaborative communication tool” rather than, “Tell me some blog topic ideas about the future of meetings”.
Time saved
Our writers have saved a total of 4 hours using AI for this part of the writing process.
2. Simplifying text
Which tools to use
ChatGPT
When to use this tactic
It’s challenging to give your readers enough detail to make sure they understand what you’re trying to tell them while remaining concise. Using AI can help you simplify your copy while still including key pieces of information.
Prompt
If you feel like your writing is a bit too high-level or wordy, you can ask an AI tool something like, “Can you rewrite this so a 12-year-old could understand it?”. Then, once you have a simplified version of your copy, you can go through it again to add polish and make sure it all still makes sense. If you feel like the AI version was either too high-level or overly reduced, you can try adjusting your request for a younger or older audience.
Time saved
Our writers have saved over 30 minutes so far by using AI to help simplify text. It can do this task almost instantaneously, while it may take a writer much longer.
3. Research
Which tools to use
ChatGPT, Wordtune’s Editor’s Spices feature
When to use this tactic
Use this tactic when you aren’t familiar with the topic you’re writing about. For example, one of our team members was tasked with writing a blog post that contained a ton of technical language about Javascript that she wasn’t an expert on. Instead of digging through other blog posts that contained even more jargon to look for answers, she took the complex informational paragraph and asked ChatGPT, “Explain this for dummies” and pasted the text.
This tactic saved her a ton of time. Rather than asking a search engine about the niche Javascript term, she received a thorough explanation from ChatGPT and could even ask the tool for an example if she needed further clarification.
Prompt
Ask the AI, “Explain [complex topic] for dummies”. Also, you can ask AI to elaborate on some of your research findings to add examples to your content, such as, “Expand on how [tool name] can help you with [name of task]”. Even if AI doesn’t give you the exact answer you’re looking for, it can point you in the right direction or guide you towards which questions to ask next.
Time saved
So far, using AI for this part of the writing process has saved our team over 1.5 hours.
4. Narrative angle
Which tools to use
ChatGPT, Bing AI
When to use this tactic
Using AI to help summarize a post and craft your narrative angle can be a huge time saver. Instead of writing the narrative angle from scratch, which involves taking notes, organizing them, and writing new copy, AI can help complete this process in a fraction of the time, provided the writer also adds polish and adjusts language as needed.
Prompt
Our writers will copy-paste extracts from source material into ChatGPT and say, “Summarize this information”. From there, the writers can go back and tweak the summary to fit client branding and guidelines.
Time saved
This strategy has saved our team about 30 minutes so far.
5. Generating/answering FAQs
Which tools to use
GrammarlyGO, ChatGPT
When to use this tactic
AI can suggest some frequently asked questions on your topic. This is especially helpful for writers who include FAQ sections in their content for SEO purposes and need help generating questions for these sections.
Prompt
You can simply ask the tool, “What are some frequently asked questions about [topic]”? Or, paste the question itself into the tool and it will provide you with some answers.
How much time our writers have saved so far
Our team has only used this strategy once or twice, but it saved the writers about 15 minutes.
4 ways you should not use AI for your content
While AI tools have made a notable amount of progress in a short period of time, they’re still not capable of crafting the unique, compelling copy our clients and their audiences are looking for. AI is only able to repurpose existing content on the internet and is incapable of providing unique insights, following brand guidelines, and fact-checking provided answers for misinformation or plagiarism. Here are a few ways we don’t recommend using AI at Flying Cat:
1. Writing significant portions of copy
Simply telling AI, “Write a blog post on [topic]” and then directly copying and pasting the copy it spits out is very poor content creation practice. Not only will your content simply be a regurgitation of existing content on the internet, it’s unlikely to follow style and branding guides or have any qualities that will truly engage your audience and drive conversions.
“AI-generated text can easily be identified due to specific patterns and language choices,” says
Catharine Montgomery, Founder and CEO at Better Together. “In my personal experiences with writers, some use AI tools to create responses that stand out as generic or robotic. It’s important to be able to discern the difference between content generated by AI and content crafted by humans to maintain a genuine and personal touch.”
Additionally, if you rely on AI to write significant portions of your copy without additional editing and research, you’ll run the risk of posting plagiarized content or misinformation. While AI writing tools are improving, they are nowhere near the point of replacing the unique perspectives, creativity, and emotional capabilities of human writers. Heavily leaning on AI for content creation will result in bland, uninspiring copy that doesn’t help your business grow.
2. Asking AI questions that are too generic
When utilizing AI to help with your writing process, ensure that your prompts aren’t something so generic that a simple Google search could give you an answer. The point of using AI writing tools rather than a search engine is that AI can give you a more detailed, nuanced answer by combining multiple sources from the internet.
Use AI capabilities to your advantage and include as much specific detail in your prompts as possible. If your prompts are too high-level, your answers will be too, which results in fluffy content that doesn’t give your readers anything new or unique. Provide context in your AI prompts to avoid getting irrelevant or inaccurate responses.
3. Using AI to help write sensitive information
You should never input sensitive or confidential information into an AI writing assistant. This opens the door to serious legal headaches for your organization, and it’s highly unethical due to data privacy laws and best practices. While there are some recent developments in AI that help tools separate sensitive from non-sensitive content, it’s currently incapable of understanding the full context of confidential information.
The bottom line: using AI to write copy that involves sensitive information may break privacy laws, and it’s a liability for your team. Avoid it completely when dealing with protected data or information.
4. Gathering information without extra fact-checking
Using AI for research and outlining can be a great way to get the writing process started or help overcome writer’s block, but not without some extra steps to weed out misinformation. If you include AI-generated facts or statistics in your copy without double-checking them for accuracy, you risk providing readers with outdated or incorrect content.
“I don’t think we should use AI as a unique source of truth because it might be flagged as plagiarism,” says Camila Mirabal, Content Writer at Flying Cat Marketing.
This can potentially damage your brand and reputation, not to mention misleading your audience. If you plan to use stats provided by an AI tool, make sure that you do your own research to ensure they’re accurate and up-to-date. If you’re looking for specific information or industry expertise, sourcing an SME is likely a more valuable path than using AI. We recommend using BingAI rather than ChatGPT for this process because it cites the sources. Regardless, always do your own fact-checking.
Establishing AI best practices for your team
When used appropriately, AI tools can potentially help your team save a ton of time and boost the efficiency of your processes. You’ll be able to accomplish certain phases of content creation in a fraction of the time and overcome writer’s block, leaving you with additional time for SME sourcing and other processes that make your copy unique and engaging.
If your team is ready to start incorporating AI tools into your writing process, it’s important that you clearly outline a set of rules and best practices for your organization. Our content team had a meeting where they were given a goal (write an outline), went to breakout rooms, and used AI tools to achieve the goal. Then, they all exchanged challenges and best practices.
Your team can try a similar experiment to figure out what works for you. Establish checks and reviews that ensure all copy, both human and AI-written, is engaging, compelling, and a product of original research. Once you’ve set some best practices, you’ll be ready to start using AI to your team’s advantage.
Generic content will never do.
Unique content with the best SME does. Talk to our team if you’re ready to knock it out of the SERPs
