For a long time small businesses in operating online have known that to compete against larger competitors they need to rely on more than the staples of reviews and recommendations.
What Content Do Small Businesses Need?
Content forms a huge part of an online presence and we're not just talking about the odd blog post here or there about why your coffee shop is the best or why your hand sewn cusions are super comfy.
The forms that content can come in vary for small businesses and while many of us will default to thinking about blog posts, we also need to consider other areas of content. Common areas of website content can include:
- Blogs
- News
- Product copy
- Category content
- Reports or publications
- Product photography
- Regulatory documents
- Social media posts
- Email content
When you think about all the other challenges that small businesses face, finding the time to produce even some of the content listed above is a real challenge.
Can AI Solve Content Creation Challenges?
The rapid growth of AI into the public domain appears to be the golden egg that many business owners and marketing teams have been searching for and on the surface it seems to do everything we need.
At the moment there's a gold rush as every digital platform looks to capitalise on the common idea that AI will do everything for us. Is this the reality though and does AI really help small businesses to create more, better content at the stroke of a keyboard?
We're taking a look at the positives and negatives of using AI to create some or all of the vast mountain of content that businesses need to succeed online.
What Does ChatGPT Think?
What better way to start than by asking what has become a ubiquitous brand of AI, ChatGPT, what it thinks the benefits of using AI for content creation as a small business?
This is what we got back when we asked for a response...
Benefits of AI-Generated Content for Small Businesses
- Efficiency and Speed
- AI tools can produce content at an unprecedented rate, allowing small businesses to maintain a steady stream of blog posts, social media updates, and marketing emails without the need for extensive human effort.
- This rapid output is especially beneficial for businesses with limited time and resources, enabling them to focus on other operational priorities.
- Cost-Effectiveness
- Hiring content creators or agencies can be expensive, but AI tools provide a cost-efficient alternative, delivering quality content for a fraction of the cost.
- Small businesses can allocate their budget more strategically, investing in other areas such as advertising or product development.
- SEO Optimisation
- Many AI platforms are designed to incorporate SEO best practices, such as keyword optimisation, meta descriptions, and content structuring.
- This can improve search engine rankings, driving more organic traffic to a business’s website with minimal effort.
- Consistency and Brand Presence
- AI helps maintain a consistent brand voice and posting schedule, ensuring customers receive regular updates without gaps in content production.
- This consistency enhances brand credibility and keeps audiences engaged.
- Personalisation and Data-Driven Insights
- AI tools can analyse customer data to create personalised content that resonates with specific target audiences.
- They can adjust messaging based on user behaviour, increasing engagement and conversions.
Okay, so that's a good start, 5 clear benefits of AI generated content for small businesses. We can also add to that list, with the rich pool of content which AI platforms use to train their models, AI platforms arguably also have a good level of knowledge about many subject matters. This means that they can create content about a diverse range of topics with a reasonable amount of accuracy.
So that's the benefits, what about the drawbacks though, it can't all be sunshine and roses, surely? Again, we took to ChatGPT as a starting point...
Drawbacks of AI-Generated Content for Small Businesses
- Lack of Authenticity and Creativity
- While AI can generate grammatically correct and well-structured content, it often lacks the human touch, emotional depth, and creativity that resonate with audiences on a deeper level.
- Over-reliance on AI-generated content can make a brand seem impersonal or robotic.
- Quality Control Issues
- AI tools may produce generic or repetitive content that fails to capture the unique identity of a business.
- Human oversight is essential to ensure content remains relevant, engaging, and aligned with brand values.
- SEO Risks and Penalties
- Search engines like Google are increasingly sophisticated in detecting AI-generated or low-quality content, which may result in penalties if the content lacks originality or appears spammy.
- Businesses must strike a balance between AI automation and human refinement to avoid potential SEO pitfalls.
- Ethical and Brand Integrity Concerns
- AI-generated content may inadvertently create misleading or inaccurate information, leading to reputational risks if not carefully monitored.
- Maintaining ethical standards and transparency about AI usage is crucial to building trust with customers.
- Limited Industry-Specific Expertise
- AI tools may struggle to generate highly technical or niche-specific content that requires in-depth expertise.
- In industries where specialised knowledge is crucial, AI-generated content may fall short of expectations and fail to establish authority.
An interesting mix, as with the benefits, we can also add to this list which interestingly is also our first drawback; in my experience, AI platforms never seem to give all the detail that ahuman would when creating written content, there always seems to be something missing.
In copying and reviewing the ChatGPT content before publishing, I also found issues with formatting and the inclusion of HTML code which wasn't needed. This could create unforseen challenges for the user if they're copying and pasting content with little knowledge of formatting.
Depending on the length of copy you're asking for, generative AI platforms (the ones that create content) can also be less than robust. It can often take longer to write a good prompt than it can to just write the content yourself.
To top all of this off, you still need to have the ideas for the content in the first place, sure you can ask ChatGPT to create those ideas for you, but it doesn't know about your buiness, what offers you have and other detailed information. This can result in generic ideas which won't really stand out.
So, Can AI Solve the Small Business Content Challenge?
In my opinion, yes it can but only to an extent. It's important to know when and how to use artificial intelligence platforms to best effect and that means thinking about the purposes you're tring to use it for.
At the momemt, it's often easy to recognise AI content which has been unedited, meaning that a layer of human review is always needed. In my experience this can sometimes take just as long as creating the content in the first place. The risk of publishing AI content without any checks is lower engagement from users which will also impact conversion rates, meaning you could sell less.
This also aligns with the message coming from many search platforms,that AI content can be good, but it must be created responsibly and for the right reasons, to inform the user and give useful information. This is where the human review comes in, allowing a layer of improvement and control, but this also takes time.
For time poor business owners or marketeers, learning to create effective prompts can also be time consuming. A badly written prompt will product badly written output, with gaps in knowledge, but figuring out the right prompt could take longer than just writing the content.
At the end of the day, it's about finding the right balance between efficiency and quality, this is a process of trial and error which takes time to get right.
