In marketing, content is king. And it generates ROI! According to DemandMetric, content marketing is around 62% less expensive than traditional marketing tools, and generates 3 times more leads.
So more and more B2B companies are banking on the creation and distribution of online content… Riding the wave of AI marketing.
Thanks to artificial intelligence tools, B2B brands can produce all forms of content, quickly. Like blog posts. In fact, this format is the cornerstone of any acquisition strategy… So how can you simplify your writing and amplify your results thanks to AI? With what software? And how to avoid mistakes?
In this article:
- AI and its role in blog article writing
- AI: a revolution in content writing?
- Writing content using AI: 3 major risks according to Plezi
- Introducing generative AI to help you write
- Writing blog posts with AI: 3 important tips
AI and its role in blog writing
Definition of AI
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a coded computer program capable of automatically performing tasks by mimicking human intelligence. And in record time. Solve complex calculations? Get a response from a virtual customer service department? Write posts for social networks? All these actions can be performed in just a few clicks, thanks to AI.
For years, these intelligent computer programs have been all around us. But more recently, it’s the emergence of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) that’s causing a stir. This specific branch of AI focuses on the creation of new content such as images, texts, music, videos and so on. All of this is based on various technologies, such as Natural Language Processing (NLP) or Machine Learning (learning and continuous improvement from data).
The good news is that this technological revolution is a goldmine for B2B marketers… provided they know how to use it. Let’s not forget that artificial intelligence is based on algorithms capable of processing data to imitate human behavior. Not to replace them.
How does AI write blog posts?
The content most produced by B2B companies is also the most time-consuming to create: topping the list of these resources are blog posts, for 91.5% of B2B marketers (source: B2B Digital Marketing Barometer 2024, Plezi). With the help of AI, all the steps involved in creating a blog post can be accelerated.
To achieve this, your first task is to choose a tool (we’ll help you right after!). Then you need to feed it with useful information, so that it becomes immersed in your world. Do you have a B2B content strategy detailed in a document? Specific tone guidelines? Descriptions of your personas and their positioning in the marketing funnel, as they read the future article to be written? The machine needs all this data. So you can send it: we talk about “prompt”.
A “prompt” corresponds to the instructions you give the AI, to help you carry out a task. The more precise the prompt instructions, the more personalized the system’s responses will be, tailored to your content strategy.
Here’s an example of a chatGPT prompt we can use at Plezi, to ask the tool to help us come up with our future ideas:
And here’s chatGPT’s response:
Thanks to clear, detailed instructions, the AI becomes a real augmented assistant. Its missions are varied:
- Generate ideas for B2B content strategy (as in the example above).
- Create a semantic cocoon with all ideas.
- Optimize SEO strategy by suggesting the right keywords.
- Help write briefs for your teams or service providers.
- Find titles
- Suggest outlines
- Write all or part of a content
- Produce visuals, tables or diagrams to be integrated into the article.
- Ensure compliance with SEO rules (keyword integration, internal and external linking, respect for H2 and H3 titles, etc.).
- Write the article’s meta-description.
- Write posts for social networks, to relay the blog article.
- Suggest content recycling ideas based on the article.
- Analyze the performance of an article and suggest ways of improving it.
And the list goes on: the possibilities are almost endless, thanks to artificial intelligence. Today’s tools and software are capable of supporting marketers throughout the content creation process. But are the benefits (really) there?
AI, a revolution in content writing?
The use of AI to generate text is booming. For B2B companies, the benefits are threefold:
- Save time by speeding up the writing process
- Creation of high-quality content
- Improved performance thanks to AI
Let’s talk about it!
Accelerating the writing process
Time spent creating content is one of the main issues for B2B marketers. In the short term, 7 out of 10 marketers (67%) plan to use generative AI to generate more resources.
Their main motivation? Saving time. 53% believe that artificial intelligence enables them to concentrate on high value-added tasks (source: LinkedIn-Ipsos study, 2023). And on average, 3 hours and 10 minutes are saved thanks to AI, during the process of creating marketing content! (source: Stratégie, 2023)
If AI speeds up the process of writing certain texts, teams can concentrate on other missions that are often neglected. Like distributing and promoting articles. These distribution stages are essential building blocks of a content marketing strategy: unfortunately, content that is poorly distributed and promoted is worthless. Imagine co-producing content with the help of AI, only to end up never reaching your prospects…
You’ve got it: if AI saves you time writing articles, that time should be used for strategic actions. Once “the right” content has been written, it’s up to you to choose the right promotion channels, to guarantee good traffic and generate good leads.
Creating quality content
63.5% of Internet users can’t tell the difference between content generated by GPT-4 Chat and content written by a human (source: Tooltester, 2023). No need to doubt it… AI is capable of producing quality texts!
To ensure that your output meets your target audience’s expectations, remember: it’s all about co-construction. Your role is to feed the AI clear, precise and detailed instructions, using prompts. The more the tool is guided, the more it will be able to create structured and engaging resources.
Our advice: share with the machine some of your resources written without AI, so that the tool can draw inspiration from your natural style.
Of course, the proofreading stage is essential, to ensure that the content attracts readers’ attention and is properly written. Even if your teams are small (as is often the case in B2B), don’t underestimate this content verification stage.
Improving performance with AI
58% of B2B marketers declare improved performance as their main motivation for using GenAI solutions (source: Botco.ai, 2023). And we understand! For B2B marketers already using these technologies, return on investment (ROI) ranges from 20% to over 800% (source: Gartner, 2023).
At a time when teams are getting smaller and smaller, with a crying lack of resources, this impact on performance is worth highlighting. Thanks to AI, limited teams can regularly generate content, speak more frequently online and feed their lead nurturing strategy without burning out.
We know that in 2024, 73% of B2B marketers admit to publishing little content: between 1 and 5 pieces of content per quarter (source: Baromètre du marketing digital 2024, Plezi). So here’s our advice: with AI, the goal isn’t necessarily to do “more”… But to do better.
For example, take the time to analyze the “holes in the” racket of your buying journey. At each stage, do your prospects have access to articles targeted to their specific needs?
If not, don’t rush to your favorite AI tool and ask the machine to produce 15 new blogposts in a flash. Your aim is not to over-solicit prospects, but to intelligently accompany them along their buying journey, with a few key resources that make them want to go further with you.
The key to performance is not “how many texts can the AI generate for me?” but “how can I structure my lead nurturing around qualitative content (whether produced by the AI or not), even if there isn’t much of it”?
Writing content using AI: 3 major risks according to Plezi
Let’s not forget that artificial intelligence is an assistant, not capable of creating an effective content strategy on its own. The use of robots must be carefully considered, to ensure that B2B companies like yours remain credible and reliable.
AI and the degradation of editorial strategy
Editorial strategy brings together everything that enables marketers to know how to address their target: tone of voice, writing style, content format, distribution and promotion channels… It’s THE guide to all your content marketing actions. Defined by the company’s marketers, for the company’s marketers.
Except that when you integrate AI into this strategy… Beware of sudden turns and going off course! The ease of delegating certain tasks to a machine distracts from (real) knowledge of targets, their needs and expectations. The risk? Creating generic marketing content that doesn’t reflect your real knowledge of the market and your expertise.
Similarly, a text-generating tool will never be able to embody 100% of a brand’s DNA: at present, automated creations still lack naturalness, humanity, nuance and authenticity… And can affect the reading experience of web users, while degrading the company’s brand image.
Finally, if you want to stand out from the competition with a differentiating editorial strategy, AI can hold you back. AI models are mainly based on the same algorithms, which contributes to a homogenization of online article creation.
The (harmful) impact of AI on SEO
Search engines like Google are intelligent too. They know how to spot texts written by AIs, with the sole aim of positioning a page on a precise keyword. In fact, a content generator powered by artificial intelligence will often follow the same structure, the same number of paragraphs, the same hierarchy of ideas (watch out for plagiarism!)… with no real sensitivity to the value it brings to users.
Faced with this, search engines are stepping up their penalties. And it can hurt: downgrading of articles, drop in visibility and traffic, drop in conversions…
Our advice: even if Google is constantly rewriting the rules of SEO (as with Google SGE), the aversion to 100% automated content seems to be well established. So go for original, humanized content. It’s a gift to the search engines, to your online reputation… and, above all, to your readers.
AI and reader trust: a negative perception?
52% of French people have already noticed a brand using AI (source: Intuiti and Discurv, 2023). In the B2B world, and especially for web articles, web users are no fools: the more they develop their personal use of AI and their knowledge of it, the more they spot websites that integrate AI into their uses.
And very often, this works to the disadvantage of brands: when audiences spot that a piece of content, such as a blogpost, is produced by a tool rather than a human, disappointment is the order of the day. The lack of personalization and the quality of texts are often singled out for criticism. As is the lack of transparency with regard to these uses: how can we trust a company whose discourse is not its own, but that of a robot?
Finally, let’s not forget that generative AI solutions are still subject to the appearance of hallucinations, in texts. Some information may be erroneous, or unverified. So, when it comes to feeding your B2B content strategy, AI can’t stand alone. Even if you choose one of the most powerful tools on the market, like those listed below.
Comparison of the best tools for writing blog articles with AI
Introducing generative AI to help you write
There are thousands of AI tools available today. But which are the best? Which ones should you use, as a B2B marketer? Depending on your needs and budget, there are a number of options available to you:
Free (or freemium) AI solutions for text generation
- ChatGPT: this is the best-known generative AI, published by OPENAI. ChatGPT is the leading tool for generating ideas and fluid content. 59% of B2B marketers use this versatile assistant in their daily work (source: Infopro Digital Etudes, 2023).
- Gemini (Google, formerly Bard): less powerful than ChatGPT, this AI model still stands out from the leader in its ability to access more recent web content, and in a broader way.
- Claude AI: this tool developed by Anthropic facilitates real-time collaboration, since the addition of its “Artefacts feature”. Users can thus collaborate in a shared space, for example, to write a blog article as a team and with the AI.
- Mistral AI: this rising French star simplifies SEO-optimized writing. Thanks to its functionalities and its high-performance AI model for generating content and performing complex tasks, Mistral’s AI model (named “Large”) has rapidly positioned itself against the industry giants:
Paid AI solutions for article generation
- Jasper: this software is excellent for driving the creation of long, complex web content. Based on an existing article, Jasper is also useful for summarizing, enhancing or correcting text.
- Copilot (Microsoft): for marketers familiar with the Microsoft suite (hello Word), integration is seamless and Copilot lives up to its name. It co-pilots not only copywriting, but also image generation and article editing.
- Chatsonic (Writesonic): Chatsonic’s value for money is one of its advantages. On a day-to-day basis, it also helps to choose the tone, style and format of texts, to avoid generic, soulless writing. It also integrates audio content to convert text into the human voice (a feature that sets it apart from other software!).
- Mark Copy: this content generator specializing in persuasive writing and copywriting is ideal for B2B marketers. The promise is simple: “expert content, based on your brand voice, thanks to AI”. Tested and approved by Plezi!
Writing blog posts with AI: 3 key tips
Integrate AI into your current processes
Do you already have a content marketing strategy? And all content was previously produced by an in-house marketer or an external service provider? Good news: the idea is not to change your entire current process… But to integrate AI into it, little by little, to save time.
For example, at Plezi, artificial intelligence is useful for preparing article briefs, which are then sent to our editor. It’s a job that combines artificial and human intelligence: AI helps us to structure our own ideas, but also to enrich them.
Upstream of the writing phase, we have also integrated AI to research and analyze the best keywords to select. Here again, the aim is to combine our own SEO skills with those of the tool, to save time (without losing efficiency).
Remember: your mission is not to delegate 100% of your ideation, copywriting and distribution strategy to AI… but to integrate it at the most relevant stages of the process, to help you save time while preserving the quality of the final content.
Writing catchy headlines and introductions
You know the saying: “you’ll never get a second chance to make a good first impression”? It’s just as true in “real life” as it is on the Internet. When a prospect discovers an article, the first few seconds of reading are a double-edged sword: either the title and introduction hold their attention… or they’ll move on.
To maximize the chances of retaining a reader from start to finish, your mission is to optimize the beginning of your content. And here again, AI is extremely useful: it can suggest the most effective words, in case of creative failure. It can also help you restructure an existing introduction, to make it even more interesting, concise and impactful.
By relying on artificial intelligence to write (or improve) the most important parts of an article, the benefits are numerous: you meet your target audience’s expectations, and invite them to spend more time on your content. Bingo: readers are more likely to retain your message and continue their funnel with you. You’re also doing Google a favor, because if the beginning of the article is well thought-out, reading time increases… And that’s a criterion of quality and relevance, which contributes to your SEO ranking in search engines.
Remember: first impressions count. Use AI to write or improve your headline and introduction!
Measure results and optimize content
No, AI isn’t just useful for coming up with content ideas and writing. After the articles have been published, AI remains a key ally for measuring results and demonstrating continuous improvement.
For example, at Plezi, we use chatGPT to analyze the performance of our online articles. We ask the tool to analyze the impact over time, to identify correlations between SEO performance, the performance of visits and leads generated, as well as the remaining keywords to be exploited on our themes.
These cross-analyses are carried out very quickly thanks to AI: a real time-saver for our marketers… who concentrate on the results delivered by the tool, to evaluate the success of the content. And on the continuous improvement of editorial strategy.
Remember: to adjust the content strategy and improve the achievement of objectives, you still need to measure the results obtained by the articles written and published on your site. At this stage, AI can be an excellent, time-saving assistant!
Conclusion: AI as a tool… sparingly?
Today, AI and copywriting seem to be one and the same. Artificial intelligence tools are capable of revolutionizing the entire creative process, from ideation to article writing to publication. But because AI seems to be at the fingertips of every B2B company, and this technology seems to know how to do everything… Does this mean we should delegate 100% of content creation missions to it?
If you’ve read this article, you now know that the answer is no: AI is an excellent assistant, which is best integrated (sparingly) into your editorial processes. It is not a providential tool.
For example, at Plezi, artificial intelligence helps us optimize our briefs, find our headlines, measure the results of our strategy… Without replacing our marketers. If used improperly, the risks are to degrade editorial strategy, SEO performance and audience confidence.
Conversely, by learning to collaborate effectively with AI, the benefits are numerous. Imagine saving several hours a month, while increasing the efficiency and performance of your content strategy. If this scenario makes you dream… AI’s just waiting to be tested!
