So you’ve finally discovered ChatGPT, Claude, or whatever shiny AI toy your nephew told you about. Congratulations! You are officially part of the future of marketing!
OK. Not really. Not the way you do it.
Here’s a scene that’s been played out way too often lately. Someone types “write me a LinkedIn post about property insurance” into the AI platform of their choice. Thirty seconds later they have 200 perfectly formatted words. They are well written, elegant even. Maybe a bit long for Instagram, but well written anyway. They are immediately cut and pasted in the right place and then posted. The proud author then sits back and waits for the engagement to come in. But that never happens.
Here’s what’s actually happening on LinkedIn, blogs, and pretty much every other content channel right now. Far too many professionals, even marketers, use AI as a glorified content vending machine. Connect a topic. Leave a post. Rinse and repeat.
The real problem is that there are no edits and no personalizations required. Zero considered whether the output actually sounds like something a human would say, let alone the author.
And the nice thing is that the audience knows it. They can smell it. As soon as they start reading these AI-generated masterpieces, something feels off. It’s too polished, too predictable and completely lacking in authenticity.
Because AI uses these distinct patterns, people can sense when it’s being used, even if they can’t quite determine the rhythm. And if everyone uses the same tool the same way, it all sounds like we had the same robot ghostwriter. Because we probably did. That’s why doom scrolling is more like being dead in the water in a sea of sameness.
Already seen. Only worse.
It wasn’t long ago that every marketing post started with “Imagine a world where…” or started with a rhetorical question. There was also a time, not so long ago, when every piece of content had to contain a numbered list, because some gurus said that lists get more clicks. As it should be, we’ll do it again. But this time it’s worse.
AI tends to pump out the same predictable sentences and sentence structures over and over again. It’s accurate. Efficient, even perfect. As a writer, I can tell you that more than once I have marveled at some of the turns of phrase that AI has written on my behalf. But as people scroll past hundreds of posts every week, they start to feel it. They can feel a certain rhythm that screams, “I didn’t really write this.” Think contrast framing, series overkill, or way too many em or en dashes – which is a huge pet peeve of mine (I liked using those long before AI did… along with brackets and ellipses).
Professionals need to remember that their audiences are not idiots. They’re probably reading five (or fifteen!) other messages today that sound exactly the same. At some point they just start scrolling past them all.
Authenticity, anyone?
Authenticity is one of those timeless concepts that your marketing should be built on. It’s been that way since anyone even started marketing. It works. Always has been, and always will be. People want to do business with people they know and trust, not with content factories or whatever agency has hired the best fast engineer.
When someone reads content, he or she needs to hear the author’s (or in some cases brand’s) voice, which means the author’s personality, factual thoughts, and expertise. If someone’s message could have been written by one of their competitors, why would they choose the author over one of them?
Good marketing is always about connection. It’s about showing potential customers that the content creator understands their world and their challenges, and demonstrating expertise in a way that’s useful rather than just self-promotional. It’s basically the same proven sales technique that has always worked in our industry.
AI can’t do that for you. After all, it doesn’t know your customers. It also doesn’t really understand your market the way you do. It hasn’t taken you 25 years to learn the nuances of your industry.
But if that’s the case, why let a computer speak for you?
Use AI. Don’t let it use you.
Please don’t get me wrong. This is far from a suggestion that people will turn off AI altogether and return to the old days of staring at a blank screen for three hours.
AI is a fantastic tool. It can help brainstorm ideas or overcome writer’s block. It helps many organize their thoughts and clean up their grammar. It will even draft a first draft that can (and should) completely rewrite the author’s own voice.
That last part is the most important. Complete rewrite. That’s the step far too many people skip, and it’s the only step that really matters.
The smart way to move forward is to use AI for the concept. Then make it yours by adding your stories or including your specific industry knowledge. Thought leadership is a powerful approach to marketing communications. Furthermore, don’t be afraid to inject your personality. Start by saying things like you would say to a customer over coffee.
Most importantly, get rid of the “AI speech” and corporate fluff. Ditch the phrases that sound like they came from a 2015 marketing book. And whatever you do, eliminate the content framing – start by including it in the prompt. Make it sound like you, because the way you write largely determines how people will see you and/or your brand.
Your move
Your competition is already using AI, and they are probably doing it exactly the same as you. This offers enormous opportunities for differentiation. Start by being the only person who actually sounds like a person. That means sharing real insights from real experiences and writing content that couldn’t have been written by anyone else around you.
Right now, our industry, like most, is drowning in AI-generated noise. It actively discourages people from going to platforms like LinkedIn in search of real, authentic content. They’re desperate for something that doesn’t sound like it was written by a committee of robots. So why not be the one to do that and see what happens?
Or, again, feel free to just keep doing what you’re doing. Keep posting content that sounds like everyone else’s content. And you’re left wondering why no one is engaging with those brilliant AI-generated messages.
Brian Rieger is the president of True Impact Communications.
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of HousingWire’s editorial staff and its owners. To contact the editor responsible for this piece: [email protected].
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