I did some digging and found out that marketers who use AI in their content strategy report saving at least 5 hours per week and 88% of marketers rely on AI to do their current jobs?
If you write on the internet to reach your audience and you’re feeling overwhelmed by the hamster wheel of creating fresh new content while simultaneously trying to work on your business, you're not alone. The new approach using AI in your content strategy is game-changing. But here's the thing: it's not about replacing human creativity, it's about amplifying it by saving dozens of hours, if you know how.
I’ll show you exactly how to harness AI to transform your content workflow without losing your authentic voice.
Understanding AI Content Strategy Fundamentals
Highlights
• Defining AI content strategy and its role in modern marketing
• Key differences between AI-assisted and traditional content creation
• Common misconceptions about AI content tools
• Overview of AI content capabilities and limitations
• Essential AI tools for different content types (blogs, social, email, etc.)
Let me share my personal journey with AI content strategy fundamentals - something that felt somewhat like learning how to ride a bike all over again after 10 years of traditional content creation!
I started playing around with AI and prompting su-UPER generic crap, it was painful. The writing style was like the muzak of blogging. Where was the jeeeuz? Where was flavour, the spice??? It was all “and then we did this and went over there and this happened.” Literally everything I prompted. I just didn’t know what I was doing and, honestly, it was kind of depressing.
But I kept at it and got better at prompting. Because you see she who prompts well, lives better. Because you win the prize of saving the most important commodity we could ever have and never make more of: time baby! That’s really all I care about. And so should you. How can you live with better prompting instead of working harder and taking ages to find the info you need now? Shave off the hours here and there and kablamo you’ve found dozens of hours, maybe more in a month and that number is only going to rise.
Here's the thing about AI content strategy that nobody tells you upfront: it's not about replacing your writing process - it's about supercharging it by speeding things up. No longer do you have to stare at a blank page, you can start with a shitty first draft. Because isn’t that what we all want in life? To edit, not write. To have written. To do the damn thing. To be like ‘I did that’. That feeling of having finished and published something is amazing. Then having folks reading it is even more amazeballs. AI as your super-smart research assistant who can read through thousands of articles in seconds. That’s a blerg ton of processing power. I’m not saying it’s great for the climate and it doesn’t give you a pretty serious competitive advantage. But who wouldn’t take that opportunity?
Let me break down the fundamental components of AI content strategy that I've learned hitherto:
1. AI Content Capabilities (The Good Stuff):
- Research acceleration (saves me about 3-4 hours per piece)
- Content structure suggestions
- Topic cluster identification
- SEO keyword research and optimization
- First draft generation
- Content repurposing (my personal fave)
2. AI Limitations (Let’s Get Real):
- Cannot/Should not replace human creativity and storytelling
- Struggles with very recent events
- Makes stuff up (AKA hallucinating)
- May present outdated information
- Can't verify facts independently
- Sometimes gets technical details wrong
So dork out with me, set a timer for how you do things now to establish a baseline then when you incorporate AI into your processes, time yourself again. Cuz how will you ever know you’re actually saving time if you don’t measure it?
Building Your AI-Powered Content Foundation
• Conducting AI-assisted content audits and gap analysis
• Creating content pillars and topic clusters with AI
• Developing your brand voice guidelines for AI tools
• Setting up content calendars and workflows
• Integrating AI tools with existing content management systems
You know that feeling when you're staring at a blank content calendar, wondering how the heck you're going to fill it with compelling, scroll-stopping, omg-what-is-that content that actually tells a story AND keeps people hooked on your message AND coming back for more juicy bites?
That was me not too long ago - generative AI hasn’t been around that long in the grand internet of things - and I was in a content freeze state thinking how the hell am I gonna dance on TikTok and keep up with all those cringe-inducing trends that literally make me want to stay under the covers? Content is a beast. Once you’re committed to that hamster wheel, you need to be consistent and organized, most of all fast!
My point is most people don’t even get on the hamster wheel and give up before giving themselves a fighting chance because a) they don’t think the work will pay off and b) they don’t even know where to start because they’re so damn overwhelmed!
So here’s the deal with incorporating AI into your content marketing: you don’t start with a blank page, you start with a shitty first draft. Then you edit with your voice, tone and inject a whole lot of youness into what you’re trying to say then you repurpose and bam! You’ve got multiple pieces of content across several platforms that can be published automatically at once and you’ve suddenly replicated yourself faster than a computer virus! Okay not my best analogy. The point is you’ve saved time and most importantly your mental energy so you can free up your creative juices for more spicy nuggets that you can share and grow your audience on demand. The absolute yes of all this. So go in, start experimenting with prompts.
Here’s how to get started with your first prompt:
Step 1: Write down the role whose perspective you want. For example: You’re a smart, expert marketer specializing in online strategy, SEO and content marketing.
Step 2: Give your prompt a task. For example: Your task is to create a 6 month content calendar with a target keyword, content pillars and using informational and commercial content.
Step 3: Now you need Context for why you’re doing this. For example: The context is you’re a busy marketer
Once you have the high-level content pieces for your 6 months of content, you can shift to creating and iterating on a prompt to create the content.