Turbocharge your content marketing with ChatGPT

ChatGPT is more than just a tool, it's a game changer. It's the proof that AI has reached a tipping point, and major changes are coming to potentially every area of life, whether it's creative, academic, professional, or personal.

ChatGPT is conversational AI model that's really, really good at ingesting text content and then generating new text content based on your prompts. It doesn't actually understand what it's doing. It doesn't even understand your words. It just learns how certain words go together in certain ways. But it does it in a way that stretches human comprehension, and the end result is an AI assistant that can be uncannily realistic in its apparent understand of ideas and ability to recombine them based on your requests.

It feels a lot like the talking computers in Star Trek that just understand what you want and can respond accordingly.

ChatGPT has the ability to revolutionize the way we think about content creation. It can help us generate ideas, outline our message, and even rough draft entire pieces.

But it's not just about efficiency, it's about the potential to elevate our writing to new heights and efficiencies. It's not a replacement for human creativity, it's a catalyst for it. And this article explains how to use ChatGPT to turbocharge your content marketing efforts without losing the human touch.

Educating ChatGPT about your company

I always create a "trainer document" that allows me to copy-and-paste key information about a company, so ChatGPT can start with relevant details as it begins to imagine new options at your request.

It's important to be as detailed as possible, including information such as the specific target audiences, their demographics, their pain points and what they are looking for, and the specific market segments you are targeting. Keep it to around a page, so you can copy-and-paste it as a single prompt.

Here's a brief example of what one might look like for a hypothetical digital marketing agency called DigitalDynasty. (In practice, your actual prompt might be be longer and more detailed.)

Hi, ChatGPT! I'm going to give you a bunch of information about my company. Once you've received it, please respond with "Got it, thanks." and nothing else.

Company Description: DigitalDynasty is a digital marketing agency that specializes in providing a comprehensive suite of services to help small and medium-sized businesses establish a strong online presence and connect with their target audiences.

Target Market: Our target market is small and medium-sized business owners and managers, who are looking to establish or improve their online presence, and have limited technical expertise. They may be looking for a solution that is easy to use and maintain. We target various industries such as retail, healthcare, and professional services and also target startups that are looking to establish their online presence from scratch.

Key Features and Benefits: Custom digital marketing solutions that reflect the unique needs and goals of each business, user-friendly marketing campaigns that are easy to navigate and update, mobile responsiveness to ensure that the website is optimized for viewing on all devices, search engine optimization (SEO) to improve visibility and search engine rankings, integration with popular platforms such as e-commerce, social media, and email marketing, ongoing support and maintenance to ensure that the website remains up-to-date and secure

Unique Selling Points: Our team of experienced digital marketers are experts in creating visually appealing and user-friendly campaigns that help businesses stand out

It's like giving a chef a recipe and all the ingredients, they can create a dish that aligns with your taste. Similarly, by giving ChatGPT a comprehensive understanding of the key elements of your business, you'll help it generate relevant, high-quality, accurate content that resonates with them.

And that's what it's really all about: generating great content quickly and efficiently that speaks to your target audience.

Teaching ChatGPT to write in the voice of your brand

Once ChatGPT understands the nuts and bolts of your company and its offerings, the next step is teaching it the voice and tone you want to use in your communication. Whether you use it to generate actual content or just use it for brainstorming and outlining is up to you, but understanding your company's voice and tone will help with all of that, so it's worth doing either way.

You can train ChatGPT on this in the same way you did the basic company details, by creating a copy-and-paste prompt document that you can drop into ChatGPT whenever you have to start a new session. (I usually keep these in the same document with a separator between them so I can paste them separately, or together if it's short enough to do as a single prompt.)

Here's an example of a brand voice training prompt for our hypothetical digital marketing firm:

I'm going to explain DigitalDynasty's brand attributes. Once you've received it, please respond with "Got it, thanks." and nothing else. I'd like you to please always respond in a way that reflects the company's core values, brand personality, and brand voice. If I prompt you with "Stay on brand," it means to please rewrite what you just wrote in a way that better aligns with these brand attributes.

Core values: At DigitalDynasty, we're all about shaking things up and doing things differently! Our core values of innovation, reliability, and affordability drive us to think outside the box and create campaigns that truly stand out.

Brand personality: We're a quirky bunch at DigitalDynasty, and we wouldn't have it any other way. We're outgoing, friendly, and always up for a good chat and collaboration with our clients to bring their vision to life. We see ourselves as partners in our clients' success, and not just another agency.

Brand voice: We're persuasive, but in a fun, cheerful way. We believe that the key to success is educating and guiding our clients through the process, so they can make the best decision for their business. We want our clients to feel confident and informed when they invest in a digital marketing solution with us, and we see ourselves as a team that's ready to help them grow their business.

Test ChatGPT's understanding of your company

Once you've trained ChatGPT on the basics of your company and its offerings, as well as your brand attributes, it's a good idea to give it a quick test by asking it to generate a positioning statement for your company.

Prompt:
Please write a basic positioning statement for our company.

Result:

DigitalDynasty is a leading digital marketing agency that specializes in providing innovative, reliable and affordable solutions for small and medium-sized businesses looking to establish a strong online presence, connect with their target audiences, and stand out in their industry.

Looking good so far. Let's get started with generating some content marketing ideas!

Brainstorming content marketing topics with ChatGPT

With ChatGPT trained up on your company, it's time to start brainstorming ideas for marketing content. We'll start with some basic articles or blog posts, which are often the foundation of a content marketing campaign.

Here's an example to get things started:

Prompt:

Please generate several ideas for articles or blog posts we can write that are related to our company's products and services, relevant to our target market, and following our brand attributes.

Result:

"5 Innovative Ways to Boost Your Online Presence" - This article would highlight different digital marketing tactics that small and medium-sized businesses can use to stand out online and increase their visibility.

"Why Your Business Needs a Mobile-Responsive Website" - This post would explain the importance of having a website that is optimized for viewing on all devices, and how it can help businesses connect with their target audiences.

"The Importance of Search Engine Optimization for Small Businesses" - This article would discuss how SEO can help small and medium-sized businesses improve their online visibility and search engine rankings.

"Maximizing Your Online Potential: Integrating E-commerce, Social Media and Email Marketing" - This post would explore how businesses can use different digital platforms to connect with their target audiences and increase their online presence.

"The Benefits of Ongoing Support and Maintenance for Your Website" - This article would detail the importance of keeping a website up-to-date and secure, and how DigitalDynasty's ongoing support and maintenance services can help businesses achieve this.

They're a little generic, but definitely not bad! That's a great start.

Let's say there's a specific topic we want to dive into, such as "optimizing content marketing for SEO." You can ask ChatGPT to develop ideas about that specific topic.

Prompt:

Please generate several ideas for articles or blog posts about optimizing content marketing for SEO. Make sure they're relevant to our target market and follow our brand attributes.

Results:

"5 Content Marketing Strategies to Boost Your SEO Efforts" - This post would highlight different tactics small and medium-sized businesses can use to optimize their content marketing for SEO, such as keyword research, meta tags, and creating high-quality content.

"The Impact of Blogging on SEO: How Consistency Can Help Your Business Stand Out" - This article would explore how creating a consistent blogging schedule can help small and medium-sized businesses improve their visibility and search engine rankings.

"Using Visual Content to Boost Your SEO: Tips and Tricks" - This post would provide guidance on how businesses can use visual content, such as images and videos, to enhance their SEO efforts.

"The Power of User-Generated Content for Small Businesses" - This article would show how small and medium-sized businesses can leverage user-generated content, such as customer reviews, to boost their SEO and connect with their target audiences.

"The Importance of Creating a Strong Content Marketing Plan for Small Businesses" - This post would discuss how having a well-defined content marketing strategy in place can help small and medium-sized businesses improve their SEO and achieve their online marketing goals in a more effective way.

Nice! Any one of those would be a pretty effective article to write.

Using ChatGPT to expand a concept

It can be tempting to ask ChatGPT just to write one of those articles right away, but the results typically won't be great. The article will usually be overly simplistic, and probably not great as marketing content on its own.

Instead, it's more effective to use ChatGPT to dive further into a topic so it develops a better understanding and awareness before you use it to generate more detailed results.

Here are some examples of how to do that.

Prompt:

Please elaborate on the concept "Using Visual Content to Boost Your SEO: Tips and Tricks"

Result:

Using visual content to boost SEO is a strategy that helps businesses improve their search engine rankings by incorporating images, videos, infographics, and other types of visual content into their website and social media presence. Visual content can also help to increase engagement and drive more traffic to a website.

Visual content can help to break up text heavy pages and make them more engaging to the visitors. Also, images and videos are more likely to be shared on social media, which can help to drive more traffic to the website and improve the website's visibility.

The article would provide tips and tricks on how to optimize visual content for SEO. This would include things like:

* Using descriptive, keyword-rich file names for images and videos
* Optimizing images by compressing them, and including alt tags to describe the images for screen readers and search engines.
* Creating captions for images and videos that include keywords
* Using video sitemaps to make your videos more easily discoverable by search engines.
* Creating transcripts for videos to improve their search engine visibility

The article would also discuss best practices for using visual content on different platforms, such as social media, and how to measure the success of visual content in terms of SEO. Overall the article would provide valuable information for small and medium-sized business that want to use visual content to boost their SEO efforts, in a fun, cheerful and persuasive way.

This step of asking it to "elaborate" or "expand" helps pull in more details so they're top of mind as you ask ChatGPT to move to additional steps in fleshing out the article.

Prompt:

Please provide an in-depth bullet-point outline for a 2,500-word article about this subject.

Result:

Introduction
Explanation of the importance of visual content in digital marketing
Overview of how visual content can boost SEO
Brief mention of the tips and tricks that will be discussed in the article

The Impact of Visual Content on Engagement
Explanation of how visual content can improve engagement and make website more visually appealing to visitors.
Discussion of the benefits of using visual content to break up text-heavy pages
Examples of different types of visual content that can be used to improve engagement, such as images, videos, infographics, and more.

The Power of Shareability
Explanation of how visual content can be more easily shared on social media and other platforms
Discussion of the benefits of increased social shares, such as driving more traffic to the website and improving visibility
Tips on how to create visual content that is more likely to be shared, such as using attention-grabbing headlines and including calls to action

Optimizing Visual Content for SEO
Explanation of how to optimize visual content for search engines
Tips on how to use descriptive, keyword-rich file names for images and videos
Information on how to optimize images by compressing them and including alt tags
Discussion of how to create captions for images and videos that include keywords
Information on how to use video sitemaps to make videos more easily discoverable by search engines.
Best practices for creating transcripts for videos to improve their search engine visibility

Best Practices for Using Visual Content on Different Platforms
Explanation of how to use visual content effectively on different platforms, such as social media, email marketing, and more
Tips on how to create visual content that is optimized for different platforms, such as using different image sizes for different platforms
Discussion of how to measure the success of visual content in terms of SEO

Conclusion
Summary of the main points discussed in the article
Call to action for businesses to use visual content to boost their SEO efforts.
A list of reference and resource links for further reading.

At this point you can use your own expertise to request changes or updates to the outline. For example, you might ask ChatGPT to rewrite the outline to include certain talking points or topics, or to exclude them.

However, this outline is looking pretty good already, so we'll forge ahead.

Drafting written marketing content section-by-section with ChatGPT

Once you have your content outline dialed in, you can then use ChatGPT to begin expanding specific sections of the outline.

This process can be a little more time consuming. Instead of just saying "Write me an article about this topic," you're going to prompt ChatGPT to help you draft ideas and starter content for each piece of it, one at a time.

You'll probably copy these sections into a document to collect them together, and then you can work on refining that document to smooth things out afterward.

Depending on the level of detail you want to achieve, you can try doing this section by section, or generating details for each point one at a time. The further you drill down, the longer and more robust your piece of content will be (although you may find redundancies between individual pieces of content generated, which you can reconcile later).

Prompt:

Please expand on "Tips on how to use descriptive, keyword-rich file names for images and videos" by providing a brief introduction and a list of several specific tips for how to do this.

Result:

When it comes to optimizing visual content for search engines, using descriptive, keyword-rich file names for images and videos is an important step. File names are often used by search engines as a way to understand the content of an image or video, and can have a big impact on how well that content is indexed and ranked.

Here are some specific tips on how to use descriptive, keyword-rich file names for images and videos:

* Use specific keywords that describe the content of the image or video. For example, if the image is of a red sports car, the file name could be "red-sports-car.jpg" instead of "IMG123.jpg"
* Include the target keyword at the beginning of the file name, as it carries more weight.
* Use dashes (-) or underscores (_) to separate words in the file name. Search engines read these characters as spaces, making it easier for them to understand the content of the file.
* Avoid using special characters and numbers in the file name, as it might not be read by search engines.
* Limit the file name to a reasonable length, ideally around 60 characters or less.
* Use consistent naming conventions for all images and videos on your website, to help search engines understand the structure of your site.

By following these tips, you can make sure that your images and videos are properly indexed and ranked by search engines, and are more likely to show up in search results for relevant keywords.

That's a really great start (and I actually learned something reading that!). However, it's pretty generic, and not really sounding like the brand voice we were going for.

ChatGPT has a tendency to drift, so sometimes we have to remind it of what we want. In this case, we'll remind it that we want it to write in a style consistent the company's brand attributes.

Prompt:

Please try to stay on brand by writing in accordance with the brand attributes we discussed earlier, and rewrite this section with those brand attributes in mind.

Result:

One of the ways we help our clients stand out online is by using descriptive, keyword-rich file names for images and videos. This is an important step in optimizing visual content for search engines, and we're here to guide our clients through the process.

Here are some of our tips for creating descriptive, keyword-rich file names:

* Use specific keywords that reflect the unique needs and goals of each business. For example, if the image is of a red sports car, the file name could be "red-sports-car-for-luxury-car-rentals.jpg"
* Put the target keyword at the beginning of the file name, as it carries more weight.
* Use dashes (-) or underscores (_) to separate words in the file name.
* Search engines read these characters as spaces, making it easier for them to understand the content of the file.
* Avoid using special characters and numbers in the file name, as it might not be read by search engines.
* Limit the file name to a reasonable length, ideally around 60 characters or less.
* Use consistent naming conventions for all images and videos on your website, to help search engines understand the structure of your site.

By following these tips, you and your business can make sure that your images and videos are properly indexed and ranked by search engines, and are more likely to stand out in search results for relevant keywords. We believe that the key to success is educating and guiding our clients through the process, so they can make the best decision for their business.

That's a little closer to what we had in mind. Instead of writing it as a generic information article, it's making it a little more personable and engaging and dropping some more hints about the company and what it can do to help the reader.

And that section is just one of many in the outline that ChatGPT provided. If you expand out each one of them like that, you'll have a robust, detailed, and highly informative article about the subject in question, and it'll have plenty of relevant keywords to help people find it in search engines.

Using ChatGPT to expand into multimedia content

Content marketing is often associated with articles and blog posts, but those are really just the beginning. One of the great features of ChatGPT is that you can use it to expand concepts into other media as well, such as videos or social media posts.

Here are some examples of how you can extend the content we worked on into

Prompt:

Please general several ideas for YouTube videos we can create about topics covered in this article.

Result:

"The Power of Visual Content: How to Boost Your SEO with Images and Videos"
"DIY SEO: How to Optimize Your Visual Content for Search Engines"
"From Zero to Hero: Building a Strong SEO Foundation with Visual Content"
"Visual Storytelling: How to Use Narrative Techniques to Optimize Your SEO"
"The Importance of Quality Visual Content for SEO"
"The Top 5 Visual Content Mistakes to Avoid for SEO Success"
"Optimizing Visual Content for Mobile: Why it Matters for SEO"
"SEO and Social Media: How to Leverage Visual Content for Maximum Impact"
"Measuring the Impact of Visual Content on SEO: Tools and Techniques"
"Think Outside the Box: Creative Ways to Optimize Visual Content for SEO"

Prompt:

Please provide a bulleted outline for the video concept "Visual Storytelling: How to Use Narrative Techniques to Optimize Your SEO"

Result:

Introduction
* Explanation of the importance of visual storytelling in digital marketing
* Brief overview of the concept of SEO and how it relates to visual content

The importance of storytelling in visual content:
* The role of storytelling in engaging and retaining audiences
* The impact of storytelling on user experience and shareability

How to use narrative techniques in visual content:
* Identifying the key elements of a good story
* Techniques for creating a strong narrative arc
* Tips for incorporating storytelling into different types of visual content, such as images and videos

Optimizing visual storytelling for SEO:
* The role of keywords and meta data in visual storytelling
* Techniques for optimizing visual content for search engines
* Best practices for creating shareable and engaging visual content that improves SEO

Conclusion:
* Recap of key takeaways
*  Call to action for viewers to implement the tips and techniques covered in the video.

Prompt:

Please draft a script for this video

Result:

[Opening shot of a person working in front of a computer screen]

Narrator: "Welcome to DigitalDynasty's video on Visual Storytelling: How to Use Narrative Techniques to Optimize Your SEO"

[Cut to animation of a book opening, with text appearing on the pages]

Narrator: "As a small business owner, you know that standing out online can be a challenge. But what if we told you that there's a way to make your digital marketing stand out, while also improving your search engine rankings? That's where visual storytelling comes in."

[Cut to footage of a person scrolling through a visually appealing website]

Narrator: "Storytelling is a powerful tool for engaging and retaining audiences. It creates an emotional connection with your audience and makes your content more shareable. But it's not just about the emotional connection, storytelling is also key for the user experience. It guides the user through the website, making it more user-friendly."

[Cut to animation of a person writing a story]

Narrator: "But how do you incorporate storytelling into your visual content? Well, it starts with understanding the key elements of a good story. A clear narrative arc, relatable characters, and a strong message are all important. And there are different techniques you can use to create a strong narrative arc, such as the hero's journey or the inverted pyramid...."

(I left out the rest for brevity.)

How to think about ChatGPT as part of your content marketing campaign

ChatGPT is a powerful ally, but not a replacement for the human touch.

When it comes to content marketing, it's crucial to remember that technology can augment and streamline certain tasks, but it's still up to us to pick the right ideas, steer the direction and ultimately, ensure that the content is on-brand and effective.

By using ChatGPT to generate building blocks of text, we can create a more efficient workflow, but it's still up to us to connect the dots and make it sing. So, let's leverage technology to make our work better, but never forget that the human touch is what truly makes content soar.