Generative AI, used right, should not be a tool for increasing content output. It should be a tool for increasing content performance and quality, whether that is through better research or just more engaging writing.

The State of Martech Report showed the huge number of Content Marketing focused Custom GPTs available, around 4x the next biggest category.

This speaks to the explosion we are seeing in low quality content.

As a content marketer, you have to be super careful about how you deploy these.

I think the winners will be those that use these GPTs, and AI more broadly, to create higher quality content more efficiently not churn out low quality content effortlessly. It will be the tools that can help you increase content performance and overall content ROI.

With that in mind, I thought it would be useful to talk about a few ways that I like to use AI to improve the quality of my writing.

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1. The Outer Critic

I love this one as it doesn’t just help you write, it helps you think. It's particularly great for deeper, more opinionated writing.

If you’re familiar with The Pyramid Principle by Barbara Minto, then you’ll know that a good tool for engaging and persuasive writing is to raise and answer objections to your argument.

ChatGPT can be great for this, acting as a cynical little co-creator to keep you honest.

This will help you orient your own perspective, highlighting any flaws or errors. It also lets you speak to the nagging objections your reader, likely less certain of your argument’s indisputable correctness than you are, is likely to be developing as they read your article.

Example Prompt: “Read this blog post. Acting as a cynical expert in topic X, provide a critique”.

‍If you don’t quite get the outcome you want, or aren’t sure how to use it in your writing, then try this 2-phased approach instead.

“Read this blog post. Break down its core arguments in bullet points”.
then...
“Acting as a cynical expert in topic X, provide a critique of each of these core arguments: [Paste bullet points]”.

To address the elephant in the room, here's what it gave me for this post!

I think I can live with those. Yes, I'm an idealist. I don't have an over-riding argument here, it's more of a "how-to", so I don't think there are claims that need evidence. And my goal is to be highly specific and actionable.

I recommend doing this as you finish your first draft. This avoids breaking your flow, but gives you the chance to re-orient your view where valid or to address this hypothetical critic and explain why their cynicism is unfounded.

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2. Objective Summaries

Sometimes you’ll find yourself writing something that is part of a broader debate.

It can be useful, for you and your reader, to have an objective overview of the debate before you try and add to it.

ChatGPT is really useful here, particularly where you land on a particular side of that debate. Even with the best intentions it is very easy to misrepresent the opposing view, or simply overlook some of their arguments.

Again ChatGPT can keep you honest, so if you want to start off by summarising the debate, I’d recommend outsourcing part of that process to make sure you’re being objective.

Example prompt - 2 parts:
"Summarise the debate around topic X, explaining each side’s views clearly with examples where helpful".
Then...
"Think outside the box and come up with one more point on each side".

Take this debate. Because I'm not a psychopath, I would never be able to come up with four points in defence of pineapple on pizza. Fortunately ChatGPT can, so nobody will ever know what side of the debate I come down on.

Note: Always ask Chat GPT for more. It takes 10 seconds and sometimes it gives you something really useful. In this case, it came up with the only defence of the practice I'd consider valid.

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3. Overcome Writer’s block

There’s nothing more annoying than writer’s block. It’s like all the energy being drained from a battery in a heartbeat.

ChatGPT never writes content for me, but it can be a great tool to overcome writer’s block.

It gets something on the page that you can work from.

Like a jumpstart to a car battery, it gets your brain back to running smoothly.

Example Prompts:

"Read the following text from a blog article. Write the next paragraph."

or

"Read the following text from a blog article. Suggest how an expert writer would finish this article off."

I never use what ChatGPT writes, but sometimes it’s useful to read someone else’s version of your argument to overcome writer's block in formulating your own.

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4. Metaphors (Bonus tip!)

I thought of another good one as I was writing this piece, and tried it out on point 3! I liked it, so here’s a bonus tip - metaphors!

A metaphor can be a powerful way to get a point across. But for me, a great metaphor tends to either present itself or not, so it’s a difficult thing to deploy consistently in writing.

ChatGPT is great at thinking of metaphors on the spot, though.

Take the example I used above of ChatGPT acting as a jumpstart to a car battery.

‍Here’s the prompt I used:

Think of a metaphor for chat GPT’s ability to help a writer get over the challenge of writer’s block.

I liked the one above best, but here’s 3 others it gave me that also work, depending on how cheesy you like your metaphors.

You can also get a bit more specific as to what you want.

So there you go, four tips in the end.

I’m sure there are thousands more ways Generative AI can help humans efficiently produce content that is both better informed and more engaging.

I’d encourage you to look for those tools, not the ones that will just churn out low quality content effortlessly!