In a world where creating content for brands is ever-changing and ever-evolving, it may seem like there aren’t enough hours in the day and resources to keep up. However, with the touch of technology, you can do more with less. It’s all about using content automation to your advantage. Not all content marketing needs to be done manually or by your content team. But you may be wondering, what type of content should you automate?
What is Content Automation?
Content automation is a digital marketing strategy that focuses on removing the need for human intervention in the content lifecycle. The goal is to eliminate redundant, time-consuming, and costly processes that can be done just as well with AI and machine learning. Content automation can refer to planning, creation, publishing, and monitoring.
For this particular post, we’ll be talking about specific types of content you should automate for efficiency and enhanced productivity. Let’s start with how it works.
How Does Content Automation Work?
First step of content automation is to identify repetitive content-related tasks. Then, use technology and tools to perform them. Content automation can streamline a variety of tasks, including SEO, social media publishing, content calendars, content workflows, and more. Those are the behind-the-scenes mechanics of content marketing.
But is it possible to automate actual content? Yes. With AI and natural language processing (NLP) – static content, personalized content, and other copy can be automated. Bots can write website landing pages, blog posts, or social media captions. It works by feeding a machine learning program keywords. AI then analyzes these keywords and “learns” about topics from similar articles. It can then produce comparable content, yet it’s unique and optimized.
But should you automate content? Does it take away from the quality? Automated content is still in its infancy, it’s hard to say if it impacts quality. It may actually help you with search rankings or providing you with the ability to scale content without increasing labor costs.
Opportunities for Content Automation
Email Content Automation
Email automation has been around for some time, but you can take it to the next level by automating messaging specific to each type of buyer. After all, customers respond to personalized offers much more than generic ones. In 2019, 72% of consumers say they will only engage with marketing messages that are customized to their specific interests.
By using email content automation, you can pull content, data, products, and information from your website or database into an email automatically. This removes the burden of copying and pasting, formatting, and updating.
You can pull specific pieces of content into your email campaigns that align with buyer preferences and behaviors. With this tactic, you can engage with buyers in this channel better. For example, if you have specific products or services that align with a particular industry, you could easily send those customers in that bucket content that’s relevant to their needs.
Chatbots
Chatbots are an emerging trend for both B2B & B2C companies. They are becoming a new channel for converting customers. And the conversations these chatbots have with buyers are typically fully automated.
Chatbots can be built and taught to engage with customers on their terms. There are many different chatbot platforms on the market. In 2019, 40% of large businesses expect to launch a chatbot or digital assistant.
A chatbot will be able to answer the most common questions of customers. And, if they can’t answer the question, they’ll be able to direct that person to an agent or salesperson. For the most part, though, the content provided through a chatbot can be fully automated. This type of instant response is something customers expect and appreciate.
eCommerce Recommendations
Every shopper online receives recommendations when they look at items or place them in their cart. And this approach works. According to Salesforce research, when AI-powered recommendations are employed, it can drive an uptick of revenue by 37%.
While the typical eCommerce site simply lists images and product descriptions, you could take this to the next level with recommendations that include snippets of copy that mention the benefits of a product, keeping customers highly engaged.
Product Descriptions
Every product needs a concise, compelling description that defines its attributes and advantages. Writing product descriptions can often be monotonous. The sheer volume can be overwhelming, and the need to update and change them is never-ending.
By using AI tools, you can automate the creation of product descriptions by feeding the machine keywords and related or past descriptions. Then, when something in this text needs to be updated, you can use databases to feed these descriptions across multiple platforms.
Think of the time that could be saved by creating a more seamless process for product descriptions. The automation of these descriptions will continue to rise in popularity, simply because it reduces manpower and costs.
Using AI to Scale, Improve, and Optimize Content
While you probably aren’t ready to dismiss your human writers for robots, AI can absolutely help you scale. You may be surprised to know that The Washington Post uses AI to write data-heavy articles.
AI-assisted writing enables writers to stay on target. It does this by analyzing elements like frequency of keywords, length, and the readability of a post. These benchmarks can then be used in an automated editing process. Maintaining message consistency can be difficult for enterprises, but AI can be part of the solution, ensuring the quality of each piece of content.
Finally, AI can play a role in optimizing your content for search engines. This technology analyzes and collects data more quickly and efficiently than any human. It learns from this assessment and can provide insights on what keywords to use and how to use them most effectively. Further, as algorithms change and content needs to be refreshed, AI tools can come in handy here as well.
While you may already be using content automation for tasks and processes within your content marketing platform, you may be ready to explore automating actual content. With tools becoming savvier and less expensive, it could be an opportunity to consider in 2020.