AI automation agencies won't tell you this

AI content

That’s all you need to go viral right?

Just have ChatGPT write you a blog post, publish it online, and watch the leads start flowing in.

AI automation agencies will have you believe this is the case.

If only it were this simple.

While I’m a big proponent of using AI to polish your well-thought-out content, it’s not the end all be all.

There are two things you must do to make any content work for your business — AI or not:

Distribute your content to add context

Content is not marketing.

Content is the product.

Your distribution is the marketing.

Read that again.

Content is not marketing.

Content is the product.

Your distribution is the marketing.

Remember this.

The reason content is not marketing is twofold:

• Most content intrinsically doesn’t stand out. Content has existed on the internet for over two decades, and with AI, the rate at which it’s produced will only increase.

• Attention is a scarce resource and people are competing for it. Personal or business brands that master distribution will take eyeballs from those that don’t distribute their content.

In practical terms, distributions means ensuring one piece of content is seen as many times as possible, ideally through contextualizing it to the viewer:

• On LinkedIn, one of the easiest ways to distribute your content is to engage with people outside of your network. Context is added because you have interacted with this person before they consume your content.

• For YouTube videos, distribution comes in the form of creating shortform clips to post on YT Shorts, IG Reels, TikTok, and Snapchat. Each time the content is posted, new conversations develop in the comment section adding context.

• For blog post, distribution comes in the form of SEO. Context is added because the viewer is searching for a specific solution to their problem and enters the content with this frame of mind.

Why is adding context through distribution so important? Because it gives the viewer a reason to consume your content.

Creating AI-generated slop and posting it into the ether lacks the necessary context to make your content valuable.

Analyze your feedback

If you’re creating AI content but it’s not delivering the results you’d like — whether that’s in terms of engagement or clients — it’s time to look at the feedback you’re receiving.

One of the worst mistakes you can make is creating 3 months of content without knowing what the market wants.

If you’re just starting off, shorten the feedback cycles:

• Post a week of content,

• Distribute it to add context,

• Analyze your feedback,

• And make changes based on this feedback.

That’s the cycle.

Don’t know where to start?

In the same way you’d do market research before building a product, do market research before deciding on a narrative for your content. Look at:

• Reddit forums

• Facebook groups

• Slack/Discord communities

And identify:

• Problems people complain about

• Questions people ask

• Solutions people ask for (and are willing to pay for)

There are your content ideas.

This should give you some clarity on content to post to gain eyeballs, and turn those into dollars.

The best gift you can give is knowledge. If you found this email valuable, forward it to a friend or colleague to help them learn about AI content.

Keep crushing it.
- Eric Otten