I not too long ago met Jono Alderson, former head of search engine optimization at Yoast, at Advertising and marketing Competition in Brno. He gave an enchanting speak on the state of content material advertising and marketing.
A number of of his observations resonated with me, together with the insularity of utilizing the identical SEO checklists as everybody else as a place to begin to create something.
The result’s a pool of lookalike articles, written for engines like google, not written for individuals. The precise writing is commonly handled as an afterthought.
As Jono put it in an interview not too long ago:
“You might be recursively optimizing a really small corpus until it’s all simply phrase soup.”
Now that content material advertising and marketing is turbocharged with AI, the phrase soup is countless. And as LLMs digest the present phrase soup as supply materials, the longer term phrase soup is much more of the identical.
That jogs my memory of Ian Whitworth’s description of AI-generated content material as “infinite phrases no person needs.”
Jono additionally shared that the clock is ticking on this race to the underside, as engines like google reinvent themselves with AI to offer solutions to individuals, relatively than countless search outcomes. He urged individuals to recollect who the actual viewers is, and the issues you’ll be able to assist them remedy.
I don’t know the way the way forward for content material advertising and marketing will look (and I’ve really by no means actually been that loopy concerning the time period “content material”). However I nonetheless assume that the misplaced artwork of writing is essential in speaking with others. It may be aided by AI instruments. However the path of least resistance is to show it throughout to AI. And that looks like a race to the underside to me.
At any time when I ponder concerning the state of writing, I flip to Ann Handley (who kindly wrote the foreword to my final e-book). She has an insightful and refreshing e-newsletter on writing and advertising and marketing known as “Complete Annarchy.”
Ann has a couple of options on how you can incorporate AI as a device that can assist you write extra effectively, like asking ChatGPT what’s lacking out of your piece. However in the end, she recommends AI is a device, not a substitute, for nice writing.
Ann’s newest recommendation was refreshingly analog: “Begin with Pen + Paper.”
As she explains:
“Don’t fear about “writing.” You’re welding the scaffolding for concepts that can develop into writing.
“Why this works:
“You write slower than you sort. Working with analog instruments slows you down. Your high-speed locomotive mind isn’t screaming forward to get to Subsequent Sentence Depot. It has to attend patiently to your palms to catch up, like a automotive driver at a railroad crossing ready for the practice’s caboose.
“That gradual tempo in the end delivers higher insights.”
And, in the end, writing with out higher insights actually doesn’t have a lot of a motive for being.
Listed below are a couple of associated cartoons I’ve drawn over time:
“Work is extra enjoyable with framed marketoons in your wall”
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