Why ChatGPT Poses A Genuine Threat To Marketers
And Those Who Say Otherwise Are In Denial
The age of AI is finally here.
When filmmakers envisioned the AI takeover, they imagined rows of metal and steel robots marching down the streets, enslaving every human they couldn’t kill. In reality, the enslavement process is a little less lethal, but just as insidious.
ChatGPT is rendering copywriters and marketers obsolete, taking their jobs and pushing freelancers out of their niche. We already have cases such as Buzzfeed replacing over a hundred journalists with ChatGPT, with its stock prices increasing in response - indicating that investors see the value of this shiny new technology.
Once ChatGPT became available for public use, it was immediately put to work writing marketing copy. In order to write this article, I ran hundreds of tests… and found some very interesting things.
Why ChatGPT Is More Cost-Effective Than Training New Hires
For one, ChatGPT has perfect grammar.
Every.
Single.
Time.
Secondly, it can seemingly understand what it’s writing about, which addresses the Chinese Room Problem. That’s something that none of its predecessors have managed to do; you usually manage to confuse the AI by giving it word salad for a question.
That’s not the case with ChatGPT. I put ChatGPT up against Rytr, another popular writing AI, and gave it a prompt that makes no sense at all. ChatGPT broke the word salad down into relatively understandable portions, while Rytr seemed to lose the plot entirely.
ChatGPT:
Rytr:
This isn’t meant to be an attack on Rytr; I doubt I could have come up with anything good if I were given the same prompt. It’s supposed to highlight ChatGPT’s insane ability to develop copy on the fly, and still break down prompts into easily digestible parts.
Fluff, by the way, is the term for marshmallow spread.
It does seem to have its limitations, though. ChatGPT doesn’t allow for violent/harmful content, but it doesn’t seem to have a particularly in-depth understanding of fictional characters, such as how Charmander would canonically die if its tail flame was extinguished.
These restrictions aren’t triggered by the keywords ‘death’ or ‘kill’, which implies that the AI understands what it’s being asked to write about.
That being said, these flaws are easy to address if you have a good editor. You have a fully composed draft, plenty of content elements, and a strong foundation to base your edits on.
One more thing to pay attention to is ChatGPT’s writing style. Perceptive readers and writers would have realised by now that ChatGPT’s writing style is extremely pleasant to read.
Its sentences vary in length, but there aren’t run-on sentences or abrupt breaks.
There’s logical flow in the writing progression; it has nice pacing and rhythm.
There’s a clear explanation of every major element in its copy, making it easy to understand for new readers.
Line breaks are sensible, and each paragraph feels like it’s just the right length.
The perfect grammar and unfaultable writing rhythm already puts ChatGPT miles ahead of entry-level marketers. When you factor in the lack of human error, training time, and how it can write a full content piece in the time it takes you to make a cup of coffee, it becomes easy to see why companies would rather invest in ChatGPT than an intern.
But that’s for fresh hires, you argue. Surely experienced writers are safe, right? Well…
Why ChatGPT Is More Cost-Effective Than A Team Of Experienced Writers
Fellow marketers, this one is going to sting.
As many writers have pointed out, ChatGPT is useful when it comes to developing generic long-form content - less so when it has to develop interesting, in-depth copy.
It also has a hard time with tonality. I asked ChatGPT to develop three tones for an ice-cream store: deadpan, humorous, and convincing.
Here are the results, scrambled for the sake of competition. Can you tell which is which?
Welcome to the tastiest place in town! Our store is the perfect spot to cool down on a hot summer day. We offer a wide selection of delicious ice cream flavors to satisfy any craving you may have. From classic favorites like vanilla and chocolate, to more adventurous choices like Bubble Gum and Cotton Candy – there's something for everyone! And don't forget our tasty toppings, like sprinkles, hot fudge, and candy pieces. So come on in and take a scoop (or two!) of our creamy goodness. You won't regret it – we guarantee it'll be the coolest decision you make all day!
Welcome to our ice cream store! We offer a wide variety of flavors and toppings that are sure to satisfy your cravings. Our selection of creamy, chilled treats is made with premium ingredients and produced in small batches for maximum flavor. Enjoy a scoop or two at our store today!
Welcome to the best ice cream store in town! At our store, you'll find the creamiest and tastiest ice cream around. Whether it's classic flavors like vanilla and chocolate, or more exotic tastes like mango and coconut - we have something for everyone. Our fresh ingredients create a smooth, delicious treat that will have you coming back for more! We also offer a range of toppings to customize your favorite flavors, from sprinkles and nuts to candy pieces and sauces. Create your own unique combination or try one of our specialties - it's all up to you! So come on down today and experience the ultimate in cool refreshment with our amazing ice cream. We look forward to seeing you soon!
I showed these three examples to my friends and colleagues, and the consensus was that all three examples seemed very generic. Most of them felt like all three could arguably be convincing, when in reality the only one which was supposed to be convincing was the third.
As a marketer, you could argue that the convincing copy was more visual and visceral than the other two, and therefore easier to identify - but you’re not marketing to marketers. The casual reader who chances upon ChatGPT’s copy is going to be convinced of its marketed product’s effectiveness, regardless of how badly or generically YOU think it’s written.
This means that with a bit of trial and error, SMEs can utilise ChatGPT to craft not just passable, but ready-to-publish content - without having to worry about being politically incorrect, since a bot doesn’t have any strong opinions on real-life matters. It has the ability to provide facts without bias, as shown in the example below.
All you have to do is remove the disclaimer at the top, and boom: you have a well-thought out article that addresses the strongest points of both arguements. If you’re in the journalism industry, ChatGPT could either help you greatly in creating bias-free reporting, or replace you entirely.
Given all the abilities of ChatGPT, it seems like the future for human-created copy is to create in-depth content that either requires extensive research, or is extremely unorthodox/creative (which, to be fair, should be something you’re already doing as a marketer).
Here comes the next problem. Quality content takes time to develop, but quality content doesn’t always mean sales. Just look at the success of Naz Daily, whose gimmick revolves around churning out hundreds of one-minute videos every year. The quality isn’t bad or particularly good - it’s passably decent. At his peak, it was difficult to be on Facebook without seeing him pop up at least once on your feed.
The combination of algorithmic search engines and content-based AI means that it’s now much more profitable for a marketing department to have a content mill than a curation team. All you really need is a small team of people to research and develop content, and a small team of editors to make the end product good.
Editors will become even more important in the coming years, as tools to identify AI-created copy have already started popping up - including from OpenAI, the creators of ChatGPT. Unfortunately, these tools are primarily used to check if students are using ChatGPT to cheat on their papers - not for companies to lambast marketers with. If it makes money, it’s reason enough to keep using it.
To make matters worse, you can even develop the copy for entire marketing campaigns with ChatGPT, as lablab.ai has shown. Instead of having a team of marketers slog on slogans, SEO, ad copy, newsletters, headlines, and taglines, you can have one person come up with an idea and launch everything the next day. Even creative assets like key visuals and banners can be developed with AI.
And yes, I’ve seen the comparisons of ChatGPT’s taglines versus brand taglines. It’s dry and boring. But if that’s the entire arguement against the effectiveness ChatGPT, then we’ve already lost. The meat of a campaign isn’t in the tagline alone, it’s in the campaign message. In order to beat your campaign message into people, you’ll need lots of content - and ChatGPT can handle that far quicker than any team of content writers. I’ve tasked it to develop documentary scripts, youtube shorts, radio commericals, and social media ads, and even its worst renditions were still useful as templates.
Even if your business will absolutely fail without creative, compelling content 100% of the time, it’s difficult to justify having a whole team on your payroll to create content when all you really need are a few good editors and ChatGPT. Comparatively, if your business relies more on informative content than entertaining content, you don’t even need ‘a few good editors’ - you just need one. This is the case for the medical, engineering, journalism, education, property, commodity, trade, finance, and SaaS industries, amongst many others - ChatGPT can help them to write website copy, hiring posts, SEO content, and even educational ads.
So… what now? Do we just roll over and give up?
Why It’s Not All Doom And Gloom: The Future Of Marketing
After reading hundreds of AI-generated copies, there’s something I realised about ChatGPT that could give writers the edge they need to remain relevant in their jobs.
I’m not going to pretend and say that the future of marketing is still hopeful - SMEs and startups that leverage on informative content will likely jump on ChatGPT to save on cost, and downsize their marketing teams. However, if your marketing strategy revolves around creative advertising, or if your TOFU is the general public, you’ll want to read on.
To properly showcase ChatGPT’s weakness, I used the playground settings to get it to write dozens of short stories - and the chink in the AI’s armour was present in every story it wrote.
There’s a saying amongst novelists that isn’t very popular amongst copywriters: show, not tell. Instead of telling people that “the pot is hot”, say that “the man recoiled in pain after touching the pot, waving his burnt fingers frantically.”
This is the key to remaining competitive in the marketing industry: appealing to emotion.
“But that’s what I already do all the time!”
Is it? Take a look at all the marketing content out there. How many ads have you seen that made you feel something? Every marketer believes that their content is worthy of a second glance, but how many of these marketers failed to achieve what they set out to do?
And how would you know if you’re one of them?
I envision that exploiting this weakness will be the turning point for marketers - an old lesson that has been forgotten in trying to game social media algorithms. How do you appeal to the human side of your consumers without saying it outright? How do you evoke feelings in your copy that resonate with your audience while still keeping it short and sweet?
In a nutshell, how well do you really understand the people who use your product?
There’s no doubt in my mind that ChatGPT is here to stay, and that hundreds of marketers will soon be made redundant. However, there’s a very strong likelihood that this will turn marketing into a role that requires very specialised skills instead of the dime-a-dozen industry it is now. Demand for people to conceptualise, plan, and launch campaigns will skyrocket as new hires are shafted in favour of AI, and the pool of talents to choose from shrinks.
On the downside, AI can improve at a rate that puts the best employees to shame. There may be a time where Roald Dahl’s fictional Great Automatic Grammatizer becomes reality for copywriters, and we’re forced to choose between selling out and making a living.
But that day hasn’t come yet, which is why you should start brushing up on your marketing skills… or quickly identify the agencies who still know how to appeal to emotion.
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