How the HubSpot Weblog Group Makes use of AI

Ah, AI. It is shortly turn out to be one of many buzziest phrases of 2023, akin to the recognition of the phrase “new regular” in 2022.

And for good cause. AI is poised to fully revolutionize the methods during which we work, work together, and even play.

I have been on the HubSpot Weblog group for over 5 years, and in that point, I’ve seen loads of modifications. Again in 2017, as an illustration, we fully upended our weblog infrastructure with the introduction of the pillar-cluster mannequin.

After which, in 2018, we ditched our weekly “throw spaghetti on the wall and see what sticks” brainstorming course of in favor of one thing just a little extra, properly, environment friendly: the Search Insights Studies, which we nonetheless use in the present day.

However none of those modifications appear to check to what’s coming with AI. Right here, I will clarify how HubSpot’s Weblog group plans to leverage AI with out sacrificing the “human factor” that makes our content material profitable within the first place.

(P.S. We’re nonetheless figuring this out identical to you might be, so consider this as a working doc that I will replace periodically as we shift our AI methods sooner or later.)

How the HubSpot Weblog Group Leverages AI 

1. The HubSpot Weblog Group Will Use Generative AI to Study About Subjects Sooner — However We Will not Use AI Alone to Create Content material.

One of many strongest advantages of generative AI is its capability to scan the net and supply concise, useful responses based mostly on huge sources of knowledge.

In different phrases: As a author, I do not flip to Google first anymore for data. As an alternative, I flip to AI.

As an illustration, the opposite day I wanted to put in writing a put up about — paradoxically — the variations between ChatGPT, Google’s Bard, and Bing’s new AI-powered search engine.

So I requested ChatGPT: “Are you able to inform me the variations between ChatGPT, Google’s Bard, and Bing’s AI-powered search engine? Please put the professionals and cons in a desk format.”

This is what I acquired again:

Discover I did not ask ChatGPT to put in writing the put up for me.

On our group, we’re not utilizing AI to put in writing full posts. As an alternative, our standards is as follows:

• We are going to by no means use generative AI to put in writing a full weblog put up, start-to-finish, with none modifying for voice, accuracy, or including a singular, human perspective.
• We are going to sometimes use AI extra for cut-and-dry, easy, tactical posts. Subjects like “The 11 Greatest Methods to Ship Giant Information” carry out significantly properly utilizing AI; however extra complicated, stylish, or thought leadership-type content material don’t.
• We are going to use AI to brainstorm matters or analysis concepts, however we’ll all the time do our personal follow-up analysis to make sure the knowledge is correct, and to restrict potential biases.

As Kaitlin Milliken, HubSpot Weblog’s Program Supervisor & Content material Editor, shares: “AI is an enormous a part of my analysis course of. Sure product descriptions are imprecise or do not supply sufficient details about what makes the software program stand out. In these circumstances, I will ask AI what makes a sure product distinctive. It should give me an inventory of options that may then assist inform my writing/modifying.”

Merely put, human beings learn HubSpot weblog posts to find out how different human beings are promoting, advertising, or servicing their clients. We wish to respect that belief by persevering with to create content material that’s meant to coach, interact, and delight.

Once we can use AI to hurry up the time it takes us to analysis matters or create outlines, that is nice — meaning extra time to spend on voice, tone, and perspective.

However we’ll by no means use AI to interchange what people have all the time performed finest: Storytelling.

2. The HubSpot Weblog Group Will Leverage Generative AI to Create Outlines … However Not Full Posts.

As beforehand talked about, our Weblog group is not going to be utilizing generative AI to create full weblog posts.

That does not imply we cannot leverage the ability of AI to significantly lower down the time we spend writing. It merely means we’ll deal with AI outputs much like how we’d deal with outlines or freelance drafts.

Specifically: AI outputs can act as the primary draft of an article, however not the ultimate copy.

Think about, as an illustration, a put up that gives 34 definitions of SQL key phrases, operators, and statements, which HubSpot Weblog Supervisor, Advertising and marketing Clint Fontanella not too long ago wrote for the Web site Weblog. A put up of that size would sometimes require weeks of analysis and writing.

With AI, Fontanella instructed me it took roughly 40% of the time to create it.

As he places it, “AI goes to take away the guide technique of content material creation so writers can turn out to be entrepreneurs once more and focus extra on the artistic course of. AI copywriting will remove tedious duties like writing definitions and creating outlines, so writers can spend extra time on optimizing the put up (seemingly utilizing AI instruments) with issues like customized multimedia, interactive modules, high-intent inside linking, and extra.”

Click on right here to set a Google Calendar Reminder for The State of Generative AI & How It Will Revolutionize Advertising and marketing [New Data + Expert Insights], coming Might 17, 2023.

Notably for extra cut-and-dry matters like prolonged listicles, it is crucial our writers lean into AI to save lots of their time for extra complicated items, or to up-level the multimedia components included of their posts.

Moreover, a lot of our writers use AI to put in writing sections of weblog posts.

As an illustration, Tristen Taylor, HubSpot Weblog group’s Affiliate Advertising and marketing Supervisor, instructed me, “Earlier than utilizing AI, I typically discovered myself rewriting introductions and conclusion paragraphs in weblog posts. Now that I’ve entry to those instruments, my time wanted for finishing weblog posts or articles has been lower down tremendously as a result of it could possibly seize the tone, intent, and focused key phrases I want by refined AI prompts.”

She provides, “It additionally permits me to refocus my work extra on the content material or data of worth that readers are searching for, as an alternative of ruminating over small particulars originally or finish.”

3. The HubSpot Weblog Group Will Take Benefit of Generative AI as Our New, Trusty Brainstorming Sidekick.

I have been studying rather a lot about how dwell purchasing goes to turn out to be the brand new “norm” in retail, and I knew there could possibly be an fascinating angle to put in writing. However I could not absolutely flesh one out.

So I turned to ChatSpot, HubSpot’s new AI-powered chatbot, and requested, “Please present me with seven weblog put up concepts based mostly on the idea of dwell purchasing changing into the established order for the retail business.”

This is its response:

Not too shabby, huh? From there, I can workshop on my own or with a colleague to formulate the ultimate matter. However on this case, ChatSpot did not simply save me time — it additionally launched a brand new perspective and extra artistic, fascinating concepts that I hadn’t beforehand thought-about.

In different phrases, one of many greatest advantages of generative AI is its capability to behave as your new, always-available, infinitely-creative colleague.

And this makes all of HubSpot Weblog group’s in-person brainstorming classes way more efficient and compelling.

4. The HubSpot Weblog Group Will Experiment with AI-Generated Movies for Our Weblog Posts.

Video is extra necessary than ever. The truth is, our 2023 State of Advertising and marketing report discovered that video is the preferred and efficient media format for the fourth yr in a row.

However creating movies takes time and sources. And there are some matters, like CSS Grid Layouts, that had been beforehand not definitely worth the effort it took by way of potential video MSV.

This left some main gaps in our content material technique. Whereas CSS Grid Layouts won’t be the snazziest YouTube video (I get it … it is most likely not going to go viral), it is a subject that’s complicated and probably complicated — making it a really perfect candidate for a fast, simple how-to video for our readers who’re taken with studying extra about CSS layouts.

Enter: Veed.io, a video modifying software program with AI instruments built-in, equivalent to their AI picture generator and AI textual content reader. 

The Web site Weblog leveraged Veed to create their very own CSS grid video with an AI-generated voice-over in lower than an hour.

Plus, as our group leans into AI for brainstorming, outlining, and researching, we will discover extra time to experiment with tasks like this one.

For our group, that is just the start. We are going to proceed to check and iterate on our AI-generated video technique to broaden movies throughout Blogs for larger affect within the months to return.

5. The HubSpot Weblog Group Will Use Generative AI for Meta descriptions, Social Summaries, and E mail Descriptions.

For some cause, I typically hit the best author’s block after I’ve completed a put up and I am requested by a social media supervisor or e mail supervisor to summarize it.

In some methods, maybe it is most tough as a result of I do know the subject too properly. All the things in my put up appears necessary. How can I presumably choose what’s most related to incorporate?

Shortly determining the correct messaging to advertise your content material is without doubt one of the strongest alternatives with AI. The truth is, I labored with ChatSpot to provide you with the meta description for this put up:

Jamie Juviler, Managing Editor of the Web site Weblog, additionally leverages AI for meta descriptions. He suggests feeding your introduction paragraph into an AI chatbot, after which asking it to supply a 100-150 character meta description.

Discovering small methods to raise your promotional copy by leveraging AI is vital to harnessing its full potential.

HubSpot’s Weblog Group Will Proceed to Write Human-to-Human, First

Yet another factor — we wish to lead with transparency for our audiences, so we do promise this: On any put up we write that has been AI-supported (or AI-generated, even when it has been human-edited), we’ll you should definitely depart a disclaimer that permits you to know that we leveraged AI to finish the put up.

It is also necessary to notice that our group is studying as we go. Much like the arrival of any new, thrilling expertise, AI comes with loads of advantages … and loads of drawbacks.

Studying the way to mould AI into the kind of instrument that matches our present priorities and high quality metrics shall be key to retaining the audiences we have labored so laborious to construct. At its core, we all know AI cannot change the humanity behind advertising. So we cannot attempt to.