Think Twice Before Using AI to Write Blog Posts
Tyler Scionti, Centori
Tyler Scionti is the founder and head specialist at the content marketing firm Centori. This is the first excerpt from a conversation we had about the use of artificial intelligence in marketing communications, including writing blog posts. Questions and answers are edited for clarity and brevity.
Check out part 2 of the series, or watch the entire conversation.
Dan: Tell us about what you do at Centori.
Tyler: We’re a content marketing firm. I’m a content marketing specialist who began with a focus on SEO [search engine optimization] and organic marketing. I’ve since branched out beyond that into content strategy and how we help clients show up at every point in the funnel and in the buyer’s journey. We mainly work with B2B software companies and financial services firms.
Dan: What kind of guidance do you typically provide clients when it comes to their corporate blog?
Tyler: Blogging is one of those things that has always been misunderstood. I used to work at HubSpot, which is an inbound marketing juggernaut — and for good reason. They create a ton of content, and they have evangelized that as a process that any business can use to grow. There’s a lot of good in that, but there’s a lot of danger too.
A lot of folks approach blogging as, let’s just throw content up on the blog and maybe eventually someday, somehow, by magic, people will land on our website and become customers. And I found, especially as the web has grown more crowded — and AI helps with that — you have to take a step back and think what is the content that our ideal customers need to become a buyer? What are the questions they’re asking at the top of the funnel and the start of their journey when they’re just discovering that they have a problem? How do those questions change as they research solutions, discover what’s out there and then make a buying decision?
In terms of how to use your blog, the top advice I give is to align it with an actual person, their buying journey and their buying experience rather than “oh, here’s what a keyword research told us to do” or “every blog post should be 800 words because so-and-so said that.” It doesn’t really work that way. Aligning with the buyer’s journey still continues to work, even as AI changes the game for marketers.
Dan: Putting a priority on creating useful content that people can actually apply to their business: I think people sometimes forget about that element, right?
Tyler: Totally. Twenty years ago, just having [blog] content gave you a chance at being found and standing out, but that was a different time. Today, everyone’s got a website and everyone’s got a blog. It’s not necessarily about having content period, but it’s having content that speaks to your target market, actually adds value and ultimately builds familiarity and trust. That’s the key to getting not just traffic but also results in the form of customers’ dollars.
Dan: Identifying and writing content that meets that standard takes time and money, so organizations have started to turn to AI to write blog posts. How much of that are you seeing at this point, and what are your observations?
Tyler: I haven’t lost any clients yet because they’re replacing me with a robot, knock on wood. I think that’s because the clients I have value good work, value the process and value the results of the process.
Right now, AI is pretty good at generating basic content, and there are a lot of content shops that base their entire business on enabling you to hire a writer overseas for a couple of pennies a word. Those writers whose value proposition is, “hey, I can write content too” — they’re the ones who AI is really going hurt. That’s because they don’t bring a whole lot to the table or do anything that’s original.
ChatGPT or Claude costs $20 a month, no matter how much you use it. They’re always on, they don’t ask for raises or vacation, and they don’t miss deadlines. You just ask it a question or ask it to write a blog, and it responds in 30 seconds. So that’s a very clear value proposition.
But you have to keep in mind that ChatGPT and Claude spit out pretty basic content. I see a lot of businesses thinking, rather than paying people, who can be very difficult to work with, let’s just pay an app to create our content. A lot of these businesses are finding the content is boring and generic.
Also, you still have to know how to use these AI tools. You have to know how to prompt them and what to edit. Many people hire marketers because they aren’t marketers and aren’t good at marketing. The output is only going to be as good as you are. If you’re not an experienced marketer, it might not be that good.
So if you’re a small-business owner who uses ChatGPT to create all your content, you have to ask if it’s actually working. Does generic, bland, boring, unimaginative content turn readers into buyers? Not so much.
