Can ChatGPT Replace Your Marketing Team?

by Marielle Reussink

With the rollout of incredible new AI-powered technologies like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Bard and Adobe’s Firefly, it’s time to talk about the elephant in the room: Do we still need marketers, writers, designers and creatives or will technology take over these jobs too?

Whether it’s algorithm changes or new technologies and platforms, we’re always trying to look ahead to get ready for what’s next in marketing. To make sense of it all, we’re always testing out new technologies to see what they can do and how we can use them to enhance our work. ChatGPT and its peers are no different.

With all the hype, we decided to put ChatGPT to the test to see what we’re up against. We’ve run many interesting tests and experiments to learn more about this new tool. Today, I’m going to share with you what we’ve learnt so far, what ChatGPT is good for and how you can use it.

Wait, what exactly is ChatGPT?

If you haven’t had a chance to test out ChatGPT, you might be wondering what exactly all the fuss is about.

ChatGPT is an extraordinarily advanced chatbot that uses conversational language (called Natural Language Processing or NLP) to answer questions and assist you with tasks ranging from writing a blog to finding bugs in code to drafting a packing list for an upcoming vacation and so much more. The tool uses artificial intelligence (AI) to source information from the internet and create an output.

Type a prompt into ChatGPT and you can expect to get a sophisticated answer, further probing questions or even a complete essay in response. To give you an idea of what it’s capable of, here’s a fun example from Toronto realtor Daniel Lee, who inspired me to run some of my own first experiments:

WOW! I was blown away. What else could it do?

Experimenting with ChatGPT

If ChatGPT could write this poem, could it write the entire copy for a website, an article or a social media post? Could it answer any question correctly? Could it write about a person based on information on the internet?

We tested it all and while we were continuously surprised by the outputs, we realised there are limitations:

As stated on the platform, it is possible for ChatGPT to occasionally generate incorrect information, idiosyncrasies and illogical statements. Plus, it doesn’t necessarily know everything. For example, when we asked it to write my bio using my name, it came up with general statements that could have applied to anyone but were not specifically about me. Running the test another way, it could not provide any output without more information and context.
It could create a variety of content - a letter, website copy, a social media post, and it sounded great. However, reading it again, we realised that, although it was grammatically correct and flowed well, it was very general and nothing about it was particularly unique or specific. That’s a problem, as it doesn’t differentiate your business from competitors.
Lastly, the platform also states that ChatGPT may produce harmful instructions or biased content. While we didn’t really experience this, some recent media coverage highlights that AI tools are to be used with care.

Can ChatGPT Help With Your Marketing?

While ChatGPT isn’t perfect, its possibilities to generate ideas for content are tremendous. It can be a useful tool to do things like:

Getting unstuck when you have writer's block
Going from an idea to a draft faster
Generating ideas for an outline of a blog
Creating different email subject lines, as well as variations of ad copy for A/B testing
Searching for information to help research an idea

In conclusion, ChatGPT can assist marketers by providing useful inputs, but it cannot generate original content that establishes a clear differentiation to make your company stand out - which is crucial for any successful marketing. A clear understanding of your brand, target audience and unique value proposition are essential to creating differentiating content and this is where your marketing team still plays an important role in achieving your marketing goals.

Having said that, we anticipate that with the ease and affordability of AI-powered tools, many companies will jump on the opportunity to ramp up their content output at a reduced cost. The result? A wave of generic marketing material flooding the internet that doesn’t differentiate one company or brand from the next. This will create opportunities for companies that continue to invest into their brand by producing unique content.

Final Thought

It can sometimes be difficult to tell the difference between human-written and AI-written text. In general content specificity, tone of voice and unique language are clear indicators of human produced content. However, if you’re ever in doubt, text classifier tools exist that can help you make the distinction more easily.

So what does it all mean? We’re all just scratching the surface of what's possible with this type of technology, but what’s clear to us is that creating original content and having a distinct brand will be even more important than ever before - especially with the increasing importance of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

What do you think? If you’ve experimented with ChatGPT or if you’re using it regularly in your business, we’d love to hear what’s working for you (and what’s not). Join the conversation on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram or comment below.