Every few years, someone declares that blogging is dead. They’re wrong every time.

The format has evolved. The strategic context has shifted considerably. The bar for what constitutes useful content has risen. But the fundamental proposition of a business blog, publishing substantive content that demonstrates expertise, answers real questions, and builds trust with potential customers, has never been more commercially valuable than it is right now.

In fact, for most businesses, a well-executed blog is the single highest-leverage content investment available. It works across multiple channels simultaneously, compounds in value over time, and in 2026, it plays a direct role in how AI search tools represent your business to people who have never visited your website.

Here’s why it matters, and what it’s actually doing for your business when you get it right.

The businesses that show up consistently in AI-generated search responses are not the ones who paid the most or shouted the loudest. They’re the ones who built a body of authoritative content that answered the right questions over time.

The Strategic Case for Business Blogging in 2026

1. It builds topical authority where it counts most

Search engines and AI systems have become considerably more sophisticated in how they evaluate expertise. It’s no longer sufficient to have a services page that mentions the right keywords. Google, and the AI tools increasingly sitting above traditional search results, are looking for evidence of genuine depth: a body of content that covers a topic comprehensively, from multiple angles, over time.

This is what topical authority means in practice. When your website contains twenty well-written articles on a subject relevant to your business, you are demonstrating something that a competitor with one thin page cannot. You are showing that you understand the subject, that you engage with it seriously, and that your business is a credible source of information and advice.

That authority is reflected in search rankings. It’s also reflected in how AI tools respond to queries in your category. Businesses with strong content depth are significantly more likely to be cited, summarised, or recommended in AI-generated responses than those without it.

2. It puts your business into AI search conversations

This is the dimension of business blogging that has changed most dramatically in the past two years, and it’s one that most businesses are only beginning to understand.

When someone asks Google, ChatGPT, or Perplexity a question related to your industry, those tools synthesise an answer from across the web. The content they draw on is clear, specific, well-structured, and authoritative. Generic or thin content rarely features. A business with a rich archive of informative blog content has a substantial advantage in being represented accurately and favourably in those responses.

This is the core principle of Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO). Your blog is not just a channel for human readers. It’s the body of evidence that AI systems use to understand what your business knows, what it does, and whether it should be recommended. Consistent, substantive blogging is one of the most direct investments you can make in that visibility.

3. It generates leads that traditional advertising can’t reach

A well-optimised blog post can attract qualified visitors from search for months or years after publication. Unlike paid advertising, which stops the moment you stop spending, blog content is an asset that continues to work on your behalf indefinitely.

More importantly, it attracts visitors at the right moment. Someone who finds your business by searching for an answer to a specific question they have about your industry is already partway through their decision-making process. They’re not browsing passively. They have a problem and they’re looking for someone who understands it. When your content answers that question well, the trust transfer is immediate and powerful.

This is why content marketing consistently delivers stronger long-term ROI than most paid channels for businesses in professional services, trade, and B2B categories. The leads it generates are warmer, better qualified, and more likely to convert.

4. It demonstrates expertise in a way your services page never can

Your services page tells people what you do. Your blog shows them how you think.

For most businesses, the decision to engage a supplier or partner comes down to trust. Buyers want to know that the person or team they’re working with genuinely understands their situation. A body of blog content that addresses real challenges in your industry, that offers genuine insight rather than generic advice, does more to build that trust than any amount of polished sales copy.

This is particularly true in categories where the purchase is considered and the relationship is ongoing. Professional services, construction, technology, health, and education are all sectors where demonstrated expertise is a decisive competitive factor. A business that publishes thoughtful content consistently signals something about its culture and its commitment to the client relationship that competitors without that content simply cannot match.

5. It gives your audience a reason to come back

Most website visitors arrive, look around, and leave without converting. That’s not a failure of your website. It’s the normal reality of a considered purchase cycle. The question is what happens to those visitors after they leave.

A business that publishes regularly gives people a reason to return. Subscribe to the newsletter. Follow on LinkedIn. Bookmark the blog. Each of those micro-commitments keeps your business in the consideration set during the period between first contact and purchase decision. Over time, consistent publishing builds an audience of people who are genuinely interested in what you have to say, and who, when they’re ready to buy, think of you first.

This is what engagement looks like in practice. Not likes and shares, though those have their place, but an ongoing relationship built on the value your content delivers over time.

6. It creates content that works across every channel

A substantive blog post is not a single piece of content. It’s a source asset that can be repurposed into a newsletter feature, a series of LinkedIn posts, a social media campaign, an email sequence, or a script for a short video. Businesses that build a consistent blogging practice find that their broader content marketing becomes significantly easier and more coherent as a result.

Rather than scrambling for things to say on social media or in your monthly email, you have a library of considered, well-researched content to draw from. The blog becomes the strategic centre of gravity for your entire content operation.

A blog post answers one question for one visitor. A blog strategy builds an audience, earns authority, and shapes how your business is understood by both humans and AI systems at scale.

What Separates Effective Business Blogging from Noise

The bar has risen considerably. Publishing content for the sake of it, thin posts that restate the obvious or rehash what every competitor is already saying, delivers very little. Search engines are better at identifying low-quality content than they’ve ever been, and AI systems are drawing on the highest-quality sources available.

Effective business blogging in 2026 means writing with genuine specificity. It means taking a position. It means answering questions your customers are actually asking, not the questions that are easy to answer. It means covering topics with enough depth that a reader comes away knowing something they didn’t before.

It also means consistency. A single well-written post achieves very little. A sustained publishing practice, even at a modest cadence of two to four posts per month, builds something cumulative. Authority, trust, and search visibility all compound over time in a way that one-off content investments simply don’t.

Getting Started: The Practical Path

For businesses that haven’t established a consistent blogging practice, the starting point is simpler than most imagine. Begin with the questions your customers ask most often. What do people want to understand before they engage you? What misconceptions exist in your industry? What decisions do your clients face where better information would help them?

Those questions are your editorial calendar. Answer them thoroughly, one at a time, and you’re building something genuinely valuable: a resource that serves your existing clients, attracts new ones, and positions your business as the authority in your space.

If you’d like help developing a content strategy that’s aligned with your SEO and GEO objectives, we’re happy to talk through what’s possible. At HyperWeb, content strategy is one of the most consistent drivers of results we deliver for clients across a wide range of industries.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is business blogging still worth it in 2026?

Yes, more so than ever. A business blog builds topical authority, supports SEO, generates leads, and now plays a direct role in how AI search tools like Google’s AI Overviews and ChatGPT represent your business to potential customers. Businesses that publish consistently are at a significant advantage over those that don’t.

How often should a business publish blog content?

Consistency matters more than frequency. Publishing one well-researched, substantive article per week is far more effective than sporadic bursts of lower-quality content. For most businesses, two to four posts per month is a realistic and effective cadence that builds authority over time.

What should a business blog about?

The most effective business blog content answers the real questions your customers are asking. This includes how-to guides, industry insights, explanations of your process or methodology, case studies, and commentary on trends affecting your sector. Content that educates and demonstrates expertise consistently outperforms content that simply promotes products or services.

How does blogging affect AI search results?

AI search tools like Google’s AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and Perplexity synthesise answers from content that demonstrates clear topical authority. Regular, well-structured blog content that thoroughly covers topics relevant to your business significantly increases the likelihood that your business is cited or represented accurately in AI-generated responses. This is the foundation of Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO).

The post Why Business Blogging Still Matters (And Works Harder Than Ever) appeared first on HyperWeb.

I just finished reading Smart Brevity by Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen, and Roy Schwartz, the founders of Axios. It’s a sharp, well-argued book that makes a compelling case for saying less. Lead with the most important thing. Cut everything that doesn’t earn its place. Respect the reader’s time as if it’s the scarcest resource in the room, because it is.

I found myself nodding along throughout. The principles translate directly to business communications: pitches, emails, presentations, and social media. Most business writing (particularly when fueled by AI) is considerably longer than it needs to be, and most of it suffers for it.

But partway through, I kept running into the same tension, one that VandeHei and his co-authors don’t really have to deal with because they’re running a news operation, not trying to rank in Google.

The tension is this: the same business that needs to be brief and direct in its communications also needs to publish substantial, comprehensive content to achieve its SEO and GEO objectives. Those two imperatives can pull in opposite directions. How you resolve them matters quite a bit.

Brevity is a virtue in a pitch, an email, and a social post. It can be a liability on a page that needs to demonstrate topical authority to a search engine or an AI system. The skill is knowing which context you’re writing for.

What Smart Brevity Gets Right

The core argument of the book is that most communications are built around the writer’s need to feel thorough rather than the reader’s need to understand quickly. We front-load with context, bury the point, and add qualifications that serve our own anxiety rather than the reader’s comprehension.

The Axios formula is deliberately structured: lead with what matters most, follow with the essential context, then offer the depth for those who want it. The reader controls how far they go. Nothing is hidden behind a wall of preamble.

Applied to business communications, this is a genuinely valuable discipline. Your homepage headline should not be a paragraph. Your email subject line should not be a sentence. Your LinkedIn post should not require three scrolls before it gets to the point. In all of these contexts, the Smart Brevity framework is excellent guidance, and most business owners would communicate more effectively by internalising it.

The principle that brevity is a form of respect for the reader is one I’ve held for a long time. The Australian business audience in particular has limited tolerance for corporate waffle. Get to the point, demonstrate that you understand the problem, and make it easy to take the next step. That’s it.

Where the Tension with SEO and GEO Begins

Here’s where it gets more complicated for businesses with a digital presence.

Search engines evaluate your website content, in part, as evidence of expertise. A page that covers a topic in a single paragraph signals something very different to Google than a page that covers the same topic with genuine depth: addressing related questions, exploring nuance, providing context, and demonstrating that the author actually knows what they’re talking about. The latter earns authority. The former earns very little.

This is not about gaming word counts. The idea that longer content automatically ranks better is a misreading of how search works. What search engines are actually rewarding is comprehensive coverage of a topic. If you can cover a topic comprehensively in 600 words, that’s fine. If a topic genuinely requires 1,800 words to cover thoroughly, thin content will not compete.

The GEO dimension makes this even more pointed. AI tools like Google’s AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and Perplexity are synthesising answers to user queries from across the web. The content they draw on is not the content that made the strongest first impression in a headline. It’s the content that most thoroughly and clearly addresses a topic. Brief, punchy content rarely gets cited in AI-generated responses. Substantive, well-structured content does.

So the business that follows Smart Brevity principles on its website service pages and publishes nothing else is likely leaving significant search and GEO visibility on the table.

The Resolution: Different Content, Different Jobs

The good news is that this tension is resolvable. The mistake is treating all content as if it serves the same purpose and needs the same approach. It doesn’t.

Think of your content in two distinct categories, each with its own brief.

Conversion content is where Smart Brevity applies most directly. Your homepage, your service pages, your about page, your contact page. These are pages where a human visitor is making a decision. They need to understand quickly what you do, who you do it for, and why you’re the right choice. Padding and jargon are your enemies here. Lead with the point. Be specific. Make the next step obvious. A homepage that takes three scrolls to get to a value proposition is a homepage that is losing visitors.

Authority content is where depth earns its place. Your blog, your guides, your case studies, your FAQs. These are pages whose primary job is to demonstrate expertise, attract search traffic, and build the body of topical authority that makes your broader website credible. Here, the Smart Brevity discipline applies at the sentence and paragraph level, cut the padding, write efficiently, respect the reader’s time, but the overall piece needs enough substance to genuinely cover the topic. A 200-word blog post is not a blog post. It’s a paragraph that hasn’t earned a URL of its own.

The synthesis is efficient depth. Write as concisely as the topic allows. Cut every sentence that doesn’t add meaning. But don’t cut the meaning itself in the name of brevity. A well-written 1,200-word article that covers a topic thoroughly, structured clearly with headings that let the reader navigate, is not in conflict with Smart Brevity principles. It is Smart Brevity applied at the right scale for the job.

The goal is not short content or long content. It’s the right amount of content, written as efficiently as possible, structured so the reader can take exactly as much as they need.

Applying This to Your Website

If you’re thinking about your own website through this lens, here’s a practical way to approach it.

Audit your conversion pages with Smart Brevity as your filter. Read your homepage headline and ask whether it communicates your value proposition in one clear sentence. Read your service pages and ask whether the first paragraph tells the visitor what they need to know or whether it buries the point in background. Apply the Axios test: if someone reads only the first sentence of this page, do they understand what we do and why it matters to them?

Audit your authority content for depth. Look at your blog posts and ask whether each one covers its topic thoroughly enough to be genuinely useful to someone researching that subject. A post that scratches the surface of a topic contributes very little to your SEO or GEO objectives. Better to publish fewer, more substantive pieces than a high volume of thin content that doesn’t answer the question.

And at every level, apply the sentence-by-sentence discipline that Smart Brevity advocates. Every sentence should earn its place. If you remove a sentence and the meaning doesn’t change, remove it. That principle is compatible with writing at any length.

A Note on Structure

One area where Smart Brevity and content strategy are in perfect alignment is structure. VandeHei’s framework is explicit about leading with the most important point and layering depth below it. This mirrors exactly what good SEO content structure looks like: a clear headline, a strong opening that signals what the piece covers, well-organised subheadings that allow the reader to navigate, and a logical flow from broad to specific.

That structure serves human readers, search engine crawlers, and AI systems simultaneously. It’s not a compromise between brevity and depth. It’s a writing discipline that makes both possible at once.

If you haven’t read Smart Brevity, it’s worth your time, particularly if you write a lot of internal communications, proposals, or social content. Just don’t let it talk you out of the substantive website content your business needs to compete in search. The two can coexist. In fact, applied correctly, they make each other better.

If you’d like help thinking through your content strategy, including where to invest in depth and where to sharpen your messaging for conversion, get in touch with the HyperWeb team.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long should website content be for SEO?

There is no universal ideal length. The right length for any piece of content is whatever it takes to thoroughly answer the question or topic it addresses, without padding. For core service pages, 500 to 1,000 words is typically sufficient. For blog posts targeting competitive search terms or covering complex topics, 1,000 to 2,000 words is more appropriate. The key principle is depth and relevance, not word count for its own sake.

What is Smart Brevity?

Smart Brevity is a communication framework developed by the founders of Axios, outlined in their book of the same name. It advocates for leading with the most important information, using plain language, and respecting the reader’s time by removing everything that doesn’t earn its place. The core principle is that brevity is a form of respect, and that most business communications are significantly longer than they need to be.

Does brevity hurt SEO?

Brevity as a writing discipline, cutting padding, jargon, and redundancy while keeping substantive depth, is entirely compatible with strong SEO. Brevity that results in thin content lacking genuine depth is a different matter. The goal is efficient depth: content that covers a topic thoroughly without wasting the reader’s time.

How does content length affect GEO and AI search visibility?

AI search tools favour content that comprehensively covers a topic with clarity and structure. Thin content is unlikely to be cited in AI-generated responses. However, length alone does not guarantee visibility. The combination of genuine depth, clear structure, and efficient writing is what earns visibility in both traditional and AI-powered search.

The post Smart Brevity vs SEO: The Content Length Tension Every Business Needs to Resolve appeared first on HyperWeb.

Independence and Ownership: Building your business website on self-hosted platforms such as Shopify and Squarespace means sacrificing control to an intermediary. These platforms can change at a whim or, worse, collapse altogether. Just like you wouldn’t rely on a Facebook or LinkedIn account as your primary home online, as a business, you need total independence and control. If your business is mature or is growing, your website, too, becomes more and more of an asset. An asset you own is far more valuable than an account with a service provider. If selling your business is part of your plans, this factor is important, particularly if you are selling products online, as your self-contained website becomes an asset in the sale.

Align with your site’s goals: Before choosing the best website platform, you need to consider what you want your website to be and do. Understanding what functionality your website has to have will help narrow down the options of platforms. Developing an e-commerce website? Pick a platform that specialises in e-commerce or has easy integrations for e-commerce like WooCommerce.

Unlimited integrations: Plugins allow you to enhance your website’s functionality. You can easily incorporate features like shopping carts, contact forms, application integration, and more. It’s important to select a website platform that supports custom plugins and integrates seamlessly with popular business tools. This will empower you to automate and streamline your daily operations effectively.

Access to Customisation: Choosing a website content management system that allows you to customise the theme, design and functionality of your website is important for the right user journey. Some platforms use themes that are harder to adjust, while others allow you to customise almost every aspect of the web page with no coding whatsoever. Be careful when choosing self-hosted platforms that they don’t limit your customisable features behind steep pricing premiums. Platforms such as WordPress have unlimited web page design options and don’t limit your creativity.

SEO Features: SEO (or search engine optimisation) is the process of improving your website to increase visibility to Google and other search engines. A good website content management system has, or allows for, SEO elements to be analysed and adjusted to suit the keywords your business wants to target. Many self-hosted platforms do not allow for dedicated development access required to fully optimise a site for search engine success.

Blogging Tools: Blogging is an important feature for search visibility, creating authority, and fresh new content for your website. It allows you to share information about your business and its services, but it also allows you to share opinions and thoughts on certain topics. Make sure the website content management system you choose has an easy-to-use blogging tool that is accessible and attractive to your users.

What we recommend:

Platform systems such as Shopify and Squarespace can be useful if you are new or a start-up and you want to keep initial setup costs low. We can deliver effective solutions with these platforms within their constraints. However, we recommend WordPress because it is easy for business owners to use, and it gives businesses complete freedom and ownership of their website without being beholden to enforced platform changes. It offers this while allowing us, as website developers, the ability to develop a website designed to suit your target market. It also allows us to develop the functionality you require for your business operations without making any trade-offs or sacrifices. Basically, it is the best platform for businesses that want to make no compromises when it comes to presenting a compelling experience to their users or integrating with business operations.

If you are contemplating a new website and considering which content management system and website platform to choose, we would be happy to assess your current situation and future goals.

Interested? Contact us to book your free initial consultation.

The post Choosing the Right Website Platform for Your Business appeared first on HyperWeb.

So, if you are going to use it, we thought we should offer some tips to ensure the outputs will work in your favour rather than have similar effects to stock photography in many cases, i.e., looks ok, but something doesn’t feel right.

1. Prompt it with a storyline.
2. Use multiple tools.
3. Apply the “Would/Should you say that” tests.

Storyline Prompts

There is a common thread to compelling content writing. Content that tells a story is often more compelling than straight-up opinion-giving or fact-scribing. It is important to remember this when using generative AI. So instead of simply asking it to, for example, “write a blog post about the benefits of ethically sourced materials in clothing production”, use a storyline.

I considered using the StoryBrand framework, which can be found here. Most movie plots, novels, and songs adhere to this structure, so why shouldn’t compelling marketing content? Here’s how it unfolds:

1. Your customers are the lead character (think Luke Skywalker).
2. Their problem is the villain, representing a product or service need.
3. They encounter a guide, which is your business.
4. This guide presents them with a plan, showcasing your product or service, and provides the reasons and means to access it.
5. The guide then calls them to action, prompting them to buy or inquire.
6. Along the way, they’re helped to avoid pitfalls, such as missing out or continuing with their initial problem.
7. Ultimately, the customer completes their transformation journey, emerging as a hero. Psychological and physical benefits from your product or service highlight this transformation.

If you want to keep up with the jargon, we are about to embark on some prompt engineering. Let’s compare two prompts and their output. We are using ChatGPT-4, and I’m leaving in American English spelling to make another point. The first prompt is a task request, while the second prompt sets a scene. Let’s look at the prompts and the key differences in their outputs.

1. “Write a compelling blog post about the benefits of the ethical sourcing of materials in our product HyperJeans on reducing the impacts of fast fashion on the environment.” Click here to view the output: https://chat.openai.com/share/93b508e2-dc17-487c-95b7-35008fdc2606
2. “Our company is called HyperJeans. Our customers want ethically sourced materials in the clothing they buy, and they feel it is important to reduce the impact of fast fashion. We manufacture and sell high-quality and long-lasting clothing made from materials free from human slavery and the use of plastics. We offer our products on our website and want to educate consumers about them. You are an expert in the benefits of ethically sourced supply chains. Write a blog post that talks about the features and benefits of our products that compels a customer to buy our goods and contribute to the reduction of the negative impacts of fast fashion.” Click here to view the output: https://chat.openai.com/share/7839a46f-21d3-496d-b124-a2d42ac4ab2d

What do you notice?

Output 1 is very matter-of-fact. I’m not saying it is factual, and it would need fact-checking. Indeed, it says that our product has a percentage decrease in water usage. Does it?
Output 1 does position the product with the benefits of using ethically sourced materials and does address how this reduces the negative impacts of fast fashion. This is what we asked it to do.

BUT

Output 2 immediately addresses the customer and their psychological needs, so from the outset, we are talking to the customer’s need, not the general product benefit.
Output 2 expresses company values while detailing the product benefits and then positions these benefits as a psychological gain to the customer.
Output 2 ends with a call to action and sets the scene of a movement. The concluding paragraphs are quite good, if a little hyperbolic.

“HyperJeans isn’t just another fashion brand; it’s a revolution. By merging quality, ethics, and longevity, we present a sustainable model that challenges the fast fashion industry’s status quo.

By choosing HyperJeans, you’re not just buying a garment; you’re investing in a vision. A vision of a world where fashion is kind to the earth, respectful of its workers, and worthy of its wearers.

So, the next time you’re on the hunt for that perfect pair of jeans, remember: with HyperJeans, you’re not just wearing a product; you’re wearing a promise. A promise of quality, ethics, and a brighter future for all.”

Wow. Which output do you think is more likely to encourage readers to buy the product?

Which brings me to my next two tips

Use multiple tools

Using a second or third generative AI application with similar prompts, perhaps adding more tone of voice, e.g. I neglected more demographic detail in my original prompts, so I could add that the customer is female, aged between 18-35, for example. Then compare the outputs. You will find the structure is similar, the key points mostly align, but there may be another one you can include. Because the structure is similar, comparing the two outputs forces you to read them and comprehend the content before putting together the final content. It also allows you to put the next tip into action.

Apply the “Would/Should you say that” tests.

Read the content in your own voice and the voice of your company. Generative AI can be quite over the top with adjectives, so make sure they actually match what is being described. Is it actually “ground-breaking” or “revolutionary”? Would your or your company’s voice say that? Also, the general language, would your brand say “would suffice” or “will do”? Remember, the more generative AI is used, text, video, and images, the more important authenticity will become in standing out and touching your target market.

A second part of this is to apply the “should you say that” test. I’ll include spelling in this, and you must ensure your content doesn’t include American spelling in the output. You could ask it to rewrite or write in Australian English and tone of voice, but you might end up with something practically useless.

“Fair Dinkum Fashion: HyperJeans, the True Blue Aussie Choice

G’day mate! In today’s world of fly-by-night fashion, many of us Aussies are cottoning on to the environmental, ethical, and societal blowback from our clothing choices. With tucker bags full of tossed-out togs and hard yakka for many workers, the fashion industry needs a good shake-up. And who better to do it than our own HyperJeans?”

Applying the “should you say that” test forces you to read the content critically to remove anything that is factually dubious, that potentially leaves you open to liability or criticism, and in the case of content such as used in this example, if you do not walk the talk generated by the AI, you can expect to be the subject of consumer-driven criticism, potentially on a large scale.

So, now using generative AI isn’t that much of a time saver after all. There is a craft backed by knowledge in using it to its best potential for a company, not only in marketing but anywhere content is used from a company perspective. Marketers understand consumer psychology, and product and service subject matter experts know their subject. It is important that both play a role in content creation. Generative AI plays the role of the intern, a pretty good one that gets better as it learns but still is only able to provide the starting point.

The post If you are going to use ChatGPT, help your hero appeared first on HyperWeb.

I am using the term Content AI in this article to encompass the many software that generates many forms of content based on text inputs. Examples of its potential use include blog posts, social media content, email content, position descriptions, book chapters, and fiction, the sky is the limit. I have been tinkering with an application called Jasper for almost a year and have more recently been able to compare it against ChatGPT.

You will have heard about ChatGPT, an application that uses artificial intelligence and natural language processing techniques to understand and generate human-like responses to text-based inputs. If you have had a “play” with it, which is what the first interaction feels like, you will have likely had your mind blown by its capabilities. You will also find yourself assessing its upsides and downsides.

With nearly twelve months of experimenting with it, I have a conflicted view. It has amazing benefits straight out of the box, and the potential is incredible. However, I am worried about the effect it will have on the professional development of developing marketing professionals, as well as anyone working in an industry where the ability to write creatively or technically is a skill to be honed and developed into one’s own strength. I might have had the same view of the pocket calculator when it was invented (it was before my time … just). I still have the same view about Canva.

Being a marketing agency, Content AI can dramatically reduce the amount of time it takes to create social media content and longer form content. However at what cost? The best analogy I can think of is letting a professional swimmer compete wearing flippers. They might get there faster but have they improved their skills and technique? I understand that times have changed and we make use of other AI software to reduce the amount of time and the application of personal expertise, but Content AI used in haste and for expediency, or to cover for individual shortcomings, poses the risk that budding content creators become at best pilots that drive the creation of content, or at worst, button pushers and copy and pasters. An AI Policy is being considered as part of employment conditions as one way to manage its use. I fear and accept that in the very near future, the ability to use ChatGPT will become an essential criterion in job advertisements for marketing professionals, especially for junior roles.

Enough about my own internal wranglings. Let’s look at Content AI itself. Whilst ChatGPT is now the most widely known and has brought Content AI into the mainstream, the technology has been around for a few years. I have been experimenting with Jasper for almost 12 months, with more recent comparisons and testing against ChatGPT. Jasper uses the same GPT-3 engine as ChatGPT, but the interface is structured toward content writers specifically. It has pre-built generators for the different types of marketing content and has inputs for tone of voice and SEO keywords. All of these are available for use in ChatGPT as well except you need to include these in your prompt. ChatGPT has many other uses (although Jasper now has a chat interface) including general information gathering, it can even write a happy country song including chord progression, and generate useful code for website development!

The downsides first

Content AI struggles with current events, and it warns that there may not be enough in the tank for anything occurring after 2021. This is sweet relief for journalists and content writers dealing with recent events. Secondly, because it effectively aggregates tone of voice it is hard for it to localise a tone of voice, e.g. how the world talks about wine is not how Hunter Region winemakers talk about wine. There are also inevitable factual errors and lapses in cultural sensitivities. A side note in regard to the accuracy, I asked Jasper to name the Australian team for the first test against England in 1977 and it got 7 from 11, ChatGPT got none correct.

There is the risk of duplicate content and SEO penalties. There are already rumblings that the Google Algorithm will be able to detect AI-generated content on websites and subsequently websites would be penalised for it. This is yet to play out or be tested, but if Google does implement this, it will come at the risk of human-generated content being penalised. It is a warning though to those generating website and blog content largely reliant on AI. In my opinion, ChatPGT poses the biggest risk Google has ever faced, which is why it has released its own version called Bard. Microsoft has invested heavily in ChatGPT integrating it now with Bing and its office products. It makes sense that Google will do what it can to ward off this competition. In regard to duplicate content, which can earn an SEO penalty, using AI-generated content could result in your content being largely identical to pre-existing content.

As I have written about previously, Google already penalises content written for search engines. However, if you can pilot your AI-generated content towards content that is helpful, it will not be an issue. Your content must demonstrate E-A-T (experience/expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness). The danger with Content AI is that the outputs may deviate from that framework. Rigorous scrutiny and editing must be applied to it prior to publishing.

Risk of copyright infringement exists because AI generates content from a massive bank of existing content. There is a chance that a trademark or copyright could be infringed upon if large amounts of text are generated and unchanged from its primary source. There is also a reputation risk if AI content is used in your marketing content and contains factual errors and misleading information.

There is also a wider issue that concerns me a little, Because the engines use billions of documents produced the world over, how much of that was originally produced by the western world? And how much of that by white Anglo-Saxon males? What is the potential long-term impact on other cultural and minority voices and tones of voice?

What are the benefits?

I am simplifying them here as I know there will be plenty of opportunity to highlight how Content AI is going to benefit marketers and content creators in the future. I also save some demonstrations and examples for another day.

The biggest benefit is time-saving. These tools save A LOT of time. It probably takes me around 2 hours to research, write, edit, and publish a blog post. With the experiments I have undertaken so far, I can generate a reasonable blog post on a basic topic in around 15 to 20 minutes. This is time saved that can be devoted to other more strategic marketing activities and business development.

Another benefit is that it can help with writer’s block. Don’t know what to write about, ask the AI to come up with 10 blog post ideas for your particular service or product category. Once you choose a topic, you can ask it to start a post in a helpful tone of voice aimed at your target market and you are away.

Jasper in particular can create an entire campaign using the AIDA (attention, interest, desire, action) framework for content promoting a particular product or service that can be then rolled out over a campaign period. It isn’t great, but it saves time and beats writer’s block or idea stagnation.

A less positive benefit is that it lowers the barrier to entry for non-writers to be able to create content. Going back to my comment about seeing the ability to use ChatGPT becoming commonplace on job advertisements for marketing roles, expect to see it alongside ‘no marketing experience required’. However, it can offer small businesses without the resources to hire marketing agencies the ability to generate content to help with their marketing. I have offered encouragement to businesses to produce blog content for a long time, now add Content AI to the tool kit to help you to do so.

I have seen a post on LinkedIn from a Content and Social Media professional that you should think of Contact AI tools as your intern. I don’t mind that analogy, though the author has a self-interest. It can get things started and do a bunch of the grunt work and it learns and only gets better as it goes. The downside is that the operator doesn’t necessarily gain a lot of experience or skill development from it other than fine-tuning prompts.

How to manage it?

The danger with AI-generated content is that it can lack the uniqueness and the perspective and tone of the author and business. It is important to ensure that AI content has credibility and is of acceptable quality and follows Google’s helpful content guidelines. Perhaps it is a role of a marketing professional to apply quality control guidelines backed by brand guidelines including tone of voice. It must include humans in the content production process, and you can’t rely solely on AI to generate content.  Lastly, it goes without saying that fact-checking is essential.

I believe every business should put a policy in place regarding the use of AI for producing content and images on behalf of the company and clients. This policy would be in terms of having staff declare when content is AI generated for use and to include in the quality assurance process the checking of facts, accuracy, and corporate and regional tone of voice prior to publication.

I should point out that like all technologies before it, there are risks that come with efficiencies but there are also huge benefits. My fears of how it will impact certain professions are realities that have been faced and dealt with in the past. I should also point out that this post was written without the use of Content AI. You can probably tell as it sounds a bit like I am an old man yelling at The Cloud.

Image generated by Dall-E with the prompt “hyper-realistic person representing artificial intelligence”.

__

Disclaimer Note: You can take a look at Jasper via this link. It is a partner link, which I have never done before, however, this software is a game changer, so I am happy to promote it.

__

The post Content AI – The Ups and Downs in Business appeared first on HyperWeb.

The constantly changing Instagram algorithm is hard to keep up with but know one thing for sure – Instagram is favouring (promoting) reels over images and it doesn’t seem to be changing anytime soon.

While it is possible to grow on Instagram without reels – creating reels is a great way to increase followers and engagement. In fact, they are a real growth hack!

Not only are they addictive to watch, consumers are 95% more likely to retain the message or remember a product or service when consumed via video. 

We often remind our clients who are hesitant to dive head first into the world of reels that it’s an excellent opportunity to:

• Create connection with your audience
• Add value by sharing hacks, tips, tricks and how to’s
• Build trust and credibility in your niche – remember you are the master of your art and your knowledge about your product/service is your strongest USP (unique selling point)

While diving head first may seem daunting, we encourage you to dip your toes in the reel pool by trying these 5 hacks:

• Create original content

As Instagram has evolved so has the desire for perfectly curated feeds. People want original and approachable content that they can relate to. This means no one is judging you (they are actually supporting you) to create non-polished reels that foster connection and add value.

• Use texts or captions

Did you know that 85% of reels are watched without sound? Make sure you always use text in your video or captions if you’re speaking. It’s also an invaluable tool for those who have hearing difficulties. 

• Don’t post a reel once

Have you spent hours making a reel, only to use it once? This may shock you, but you can actually re-post the same reel 1, 2 even 3 times. Remember, when you post a reel you are competing with hundreds of thousands of other reels – at the same time (some may even be communicating the same message as you) and, it might take 3 posts for your reel to reach your target audience.

• Don’t use a video that has a TikTok watermark

Instagram devalues reels or videos that have been created in other apps. Make sure if you’ve made a video on TikTok you don’t post it to Instagram with the watermark (there are watermark removal apps available on the app store – however they can decrease the quality). The best way to avoid this is to create your content directly in the Instagram app.

• Include 3-5 hashtags

It’s hard to know whether to hashtag or not but using 3-5 hashtags will help the Instagram “algorithm” understand your content and serve it to relevant audiences.

At HyperWeb, we create marketing strategies that include reel creation and management within a wider strategy. Looking to take your brand or business to the next level? Get in touch today and find out how we can help you.

The post Are reels the only way to grow on Instagram? appeared first on HyperWeb.

So, how do we get people to pay attention for extended periods and create a lasting impression? By connecting with them through the art of storytelling.

Think about the last time you learnt something new, was it over coffee with a friend? Or listening to a podcast on your way home from work?

A study by Stanford University revealed that people remember stories 22x more than facts and figures.

Tapping into people’s emotions sharing the good and bad is how stories inspire, motivate, and eventually, drive action.

Creating a narrative around your brand will not only foster brand loyalty, but it also humanises your brand and inherently markets your business.

Storytelling sets compelling brands apart from simple businesses and one-time customers to loyal consumers who return repeatedly.

We’ve shared 5 examples of good storytelling to help get you started and inspire your next campaign.

• Know your audience

Before you put pen to paper, you need to understand who will be reading your story. Who wants to hear your story? Who will benefit and respond to your story?

Take some time to research your target market and define your buyer personas. This process will allow you to become familiar with whose reading, viewing, or listening to your story.

• Keep your story authentic

Stories make us human, and the same go for brands. When brands are transparent and authentic, it brings them down to earth and help consumers connect with them and the people behind them.

• Put your best foot forward

Share the most valuable parts of your story at the beginning rather than saving the best till last. You immediately want to lure the reader and not only connect with them but compel them to share your content with others.

• Use your customers stories

Rather than proving expertise and skill by showing off case studies and statistics share the impact of your brand by sharing customer testimonials or stories.

• Foster community and collaboration

Tell a story that moves readers to discuss and share your story with others. Use a situation or experience that other can relate to and say, “me too”.

Struggling to get your messaging, right? We know it can be to put your own story into words. We can help – get in touch today.

The post How to master storytelling in your marketing appeared first on HyperWeb.

However with today’s dominance of social media and online white noise you have to do more to cut through to your audience, you have to act smart, capitalising on your contacts, drawing in potential customers and offering more to existing clients. Of course all of this takes resources and time, that’s where a primarily automated Digital and Social Marketing Workflow comes into play.

A Digital and Social Marketing Workflow connects all of your digital and social marketing processes with your website sitting nicely at the core. The purpose of this workflow is to minimise gaps and maximise potential.

To explain how a workflow could look like we are going to use Shop Example A.

Shop Example A sells jewellery to a market audience of 20 – 40 something females. Shop Example A primarily serves it’s online purpose with an e-commerce website, recently engaging a growing audience outside of its typical local market reach. Due to this influx in audience they want to ensure their business is setup online properly for growth.

Workflow Approach 1: Target a new audience

Get them in

The following activities within the workflow create a fresh and ever changing environment for the user as well as providing great SEO results bringing you up the google-search-rank ladder.

• New products added ongoing (maximise productivity and schedule product releases each season ahead)
• New product ranges advertised through homepage slider & automate NEW Products area
• Google or Facebook ads (based on budget reach can vary but very beneficial for a new business online)

Keep them in/interested

These days its not enough to bank on a first time visitor to buy straight off the shelf, collecting data and revisiting them via email alerts and social media capture will keep the brand front of mind for when they next need, whenever that may be, in a week, a month or a year!

• Connect Mailchimp and offer an incentive for potential customers to sign up for news and specials (eg. 10% Off their first purchase at Shop Example A)
• Automate a welcome email to the new subscriber within a week and encourage them to return to the website and to follow them on social streams.
• Include a wishlist to the ecommerce store that they can add their most wanted products to, ensure the wishlist can be shared and most of all returned to within the next month to encourage a return to fullfill their wishlist cart order
• Enable and encourage Social Media sharing and Pinning of products to Pinterest.
• Integration of shop assist applications such as AfterPay to encourage buy now / pay in instalments for a noticeable increase in sales behaviour.

Workflow Approach 2:  Target existing or post audience

Keep them interested

It is generally known in the business world that it costs 3 times as much to acquire a new customer than to sell to an existing customer. So take advantage of your existing customer database and ensure they keep coming back for more.

• Birthday offer – automated from Mailchimp list information gathered on sign up, limit them to the month of their birthday with a minimum spend.
• Mailchimp e-news campaigns, at least once a month either targeting new ranges or sale campaigns linking back to website.
• Blog posts at least weekly, automatically shared via all social media streams
• Automated Instagram to social media setup so real time candid pics (at markets, jewellery in the making, behind the scenes photo shoots, product teasers) are shared instantly with audience.
• Utilise the hashtag #shewearsshopexamplea to share customer pics of them wearing the jewellery, you’ll share it, they’ll share it; opening up more exposure to relatable target audiences.

Keep them informed

Automatic customer service is the way of the future, the customer wants to know instantly that their order has gone through, that tracking is available when the product has been shipped, and if they have a problem they want to know that their customer service enquiry has been received and is being looked at.

• Automated tracking process of shipped item to advise customer when item has been shipped, the tracking number (and link) and completion of order.
• 2 weeks after completion of order an automated email is sent asking them how they found the process and ability to review their item, also encouraging social media share with applicable hashtags eg #shewearsshopexamplea
• Automated and instant customer service reply email with an estimated turn around time and contact details should they need to contact you about their problem.
• Keep your customers informed of any changes in circumstances including, but not limited to, privacy policy, brand identity and general trading updates. Oveall business transparency will strengthen a business to customer relationship.

As you can see with Shop Example A, with a little work and a lot of automated data handling, your business workflow will run smooth and results will speak ten fold to customers and industry watchers alike.

Is your business looking for to implement a Digital and Social Marketing Workflow? Contact us today.

The post The Digital and Social Marketing Workflow appeared first on HyperWeb.