Love it or hate it, AI is here to stay. According to one recent study, 77% of companies already use AI or are exploring how to use it in their businesses. Like the telephone or email, AI is one of those historic technological advancements that is rapidly reshaping our world. But it’s a tool that we need to use responsibly and strategically.
At Redefine, we’ve always been a “human-first” agency. Our experience in the SEO world has shown, time and time again, that prioritizing people over bots yields better results for ranking and conversions. Our approach to AI content marketing is no different; and our content written by humans, for humans, still vastly outperforms 100% AI generated work.
That said, AI content marketing does offer key advantages for many businesses. When used with discernment, AI can speed up content production by streamlining research, outlining, and editing. You can also use AI content marketing tools to “outsource” lesser-important tasks like generating alt text or meta descriptions.
So if you’re interested in learning how to use AI for content marketing and SEO, this guide is for you. We’ll cover the potential dangers of AI content marketing as well as its benefits and share how we use AI without sounding like a robot.
Humanizing in action: Hugo case study
Human editing and rewriting played a tremendous role in our work for our client, Hugo Inc., a multinational BPO leader. Due to an overreliance on 100% AI-generated content, Hugo was struggling to gain search visibility for non-branded terms.
Over the course of our first six months with Hugo, we executed a strategic refresh project aimed to humanize the client’s AI content. We edited and rewrote over 30 blog articles and landing pages, providing keyword optimizations and injecting a clearer, more reader-friendly brand voice into each piece.
The results paid off handsomely. Over 6 months, the client experienced:
- +42.7% blog traffic growth
- +50% position 1-3 rankings
- +$13k traffic value from organic search
The dangers of AI content marketing
Before you start using AI content in your digital marketing, it’s important to understand the limitations of this technology. AI can’t replace human content writers. No matter how intelligent it gets, it still lacks a definitive perspective and voice, as well as the sharper critical thinking skills of a human writer or editor.
Due to these limitations, AI content can potentially harm your SEO if it’s not utilized properly. Make sure you understand the potential dangers of adding AI content to your marketing plan, including:
Low-quality content dilutes your brand
There’s no denying that AI content is getting better and better. Although there are still many subtle “tells” that give it away, platforms like ChatGPT and Gemini sound more human with each update. This may tempt you to start generating blogs, copy/paste, and hit Publish without a second thought.
But if you take this approach, AI content marketing can backfire. Content is about quality, not sheer quantity. If you’re simply churning out articles with no effort, you risk diluting your brand with low-quality blogs. Human readers won’t engage with your content and search engine algorithms may see it as spam. This can cause you to lose rankings and domain authority.
Ethical considerations and potential backlash
Like many technological advancements, AI also poses ethical considerations.
Unfortunately, current generative AI platforms have a significant environmental impact. Experts estimate that one ChatGPT prompt requires five times more electricity than a simple Google search. The data centers that house AI servers also require a tremendous amount of water for cooling, consuming up to 5 million gallons of water per day.
Critics also accuse AI of plagiarizing human creators because AI models are often “trained” on art, writing, code, and other media without the original creators’ explicit permission. These ethical considerations have led some individuals to boycott AI as well as companies that use it. If these consumers suspect your content is 100% AI, your brand may get called out and see its reputation tarnished.
You may become overly reliant on AI
Finally, using too much AI in your content marketing can cause you and your team to become overly reliant on this technology. A recent study by MIT Media Lab found that too much reliance on AI may cause “cognitive atrophy,” dulling our own critical thinking.
Although this study was small and more data is needed to understand the full impact of AI on brain health, SEO and digital marketing are highly dynamic fields that require sharp skills. The quality of your content will decline if you’re only producing quick, superficial AI work. Plus, if you’re too reliant on AI, your workflow could collapse if the platforms go offline or change in unexpected ways.
The advantages of AI content marketing
Ultimately, AI is a tool like any other. One person may use AI content marketing tools irresponsibly and do a lazy job that hurts their brand, while another person could utilize AI in a thoughtful manner that enhances their content.
When utilized effectively, AI offers several advantages for content marketing.
Great tool for brainstorming
Did you know that 77% of people in the United States have used ChatGPT as a search engine? That’s because AI platforms are a powerful tool for research. They can craft hyper-specific answers by aggregating information from multiple sources, tailoring their response to your unique prompt.
In content marketing, AI makes the perfect partner for brainstorming. Running out of blog topics for one of your content hubs? Ask an AI to review your content calendar and suggest relevant topics you might be missing.
It’s also great for outlining. When you need to write a piece of content and you’re not sure where to start, AI tools can provide a logical flow to help organize your thoughts before you begin writing.
Useful for editing
Even the best writers benefit from a second set of eyes. AI content marketing tools are highly effective at proofreading and copy editing. Beyond basic spellcheck, they can identify awkward phrasing, passages that are unclear, or tonal inconsistencies in your content. Then, they can offer suggestions to correct these errors.
AI can also help you maintain a cohesive brand voice if you have multiple writers. You can upload a brand guide or sample blogs, then prompt the AI to edit your content accordingly.
Generate new content quickly
Finally, one of the most significant advantages of AI is its speed. With the right prompts, AI can dramatically improve your production time, especially for high-volume repetitive tasks.
You can use AI to “outsource” secondary tasks like generating alt text for images or drafting meta descriptions for a dozen new pages at once. It can be a massive time-saver for creating initial drafts or short-form copy that serves as a foundation for your team to refine.
How to use AI in content marketing responsibly
So how can you use AI responsibly in your content marketing while maintaining a human-first approach? Here’s what we recommend:
Research and outline
As mentioned above, AI can be a phenomenal research partner because it can aggregate information from across the web within seconds. You can use AI to create a brief that summarizes complex topics, then generate a logical outline to ensure your content won’t miss any important details.
Generate a first draft
While we prefer to write from scratch, sometimes you’re simply pressed for time or suffer from “blank page” syndrome. Instead of staring at a blank Google doc, you can use AI to generate a first draft based on your outline and brand guidelines.
AI-written drafts often sound generic or bland, but they provide raw material that can help you start writing if you’re truly stuck. After all, it’s often easier to edit and rewrite someone else’s content than write from scratch.
Fact check
This step is non-negotiable. Whether it’s an outline or a rough draft, you need to verify any work created by AI to ensure that it’s accurate. Because AI models operate on probability and aggregate massive chunks of data, they may cite outdated studies or statistics that are no longer relevant. In some cases, AI may also “hallucinate” and invent false facts.
To maintain your brand’s authority and avoid misleading readers, always verify any claims made by AI. This is especially important if your content falls within a Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) category, such as healthcare or finance.
Rewrite
Next, it’s time to rewrite. Take the AI’s generated content and put it into your own words to add a real voice. Add personal anecdotes or case studies that are unique to your brand. Rewriting is an essential step in AI content marketing because it ensures that your pieces sound original, consistent, and – most of all – human.
Redefine your AI content marketing with a human touch
When used strategically, AI and content marketing are powerful allies in an SEO campaign. But it’s vital to keep AI in its place. Use AI as a tool for boosting efficiency. It can help you move faster, brainstorm, and automate certain tasks, but it can’t replace critical thinking and creativity.
At Redefine, we’re always looking at the future of content marketing and seeing how we can use emerging technology to score more wins for our clients. If you’re curious about how to use AI in your digital marketing campaigns, drop us a line today.
