We live in an AI era, which, in my observation, has two ends. At one end there is brilliance, efficiency, and time preservation, and at the other end there is laziness, incompetence, and a stooge of creativity. The other end happens when people do not understand the soul of marketing. It is understandable why. AI may seem like a messiah that promises quick results and a hands-free marketing experience, and if you are one of those people, then brace yourself for the hard truth. AI may assist you, but it does not have a soul. To have a soul means you have the capacity to empathize, and empathy is a key trait of any marketer. AI cannot help you to be more empathetic; understanding marketing can help you understand empathy. So in this article we will discuss a few salient points about writing without Ai in marketing.
Understanding People’s Reliance on Smartphones
It might seem like an odd place to start, but hear me out. Mobile phones are extremely important, and a marketing executive or social media specialist must understand the unique psychology associated with them. Typically, when it comes to browsing social media, people do it in two situations: when taking a break from work, or when treating work itself as a “break” during social media doom scrolling. Nevertheless, both behaviors are driven by one thing: boredom. People who browse social media want to be entertained, and according to studies, businesses that create engaging video ads have experienced greater financial growth compared to their competitors. You can check out this wonderful article from Levitate Media to learn more about it.
The common denominator is that videos are engaging; they tell a story. Posters, on the other hand, have their importance; they are never useless. However, videos build something deeper: a subconscious level of trust. Entertaining ones make people want to buy the product. Have you seen the Ramesh-Suresh ad on TV? It is so engaging that people even joked about it. The joke itself is brand recall, so next time they go to a store they will definitely pick up a five star chocolate. That is the power of a video ad; even if it does not rely on humor or jokes, it still needs to be memorable. AI humor is worst possible thing anyone can hear – Over relying on AI in marketing for entertaining content is recipe for disaster because Ai do not have original jokes or original ideas – do you know who can come up with unexpected? Humans.
The problem with AI is that it is not memorable, nor is it capable of creating an engaging story. Recently, an entire show about the Mahabharata was released, relying entirely on AI, and the results were disastrous. An AI-generated ad can have a similar outcome. Why? Because it lacks soul; it does not look natural, not one bit.
Content Should Strike the Heart
Marketing, since the dawn of time, has been one-way communication. Customers never get to say what types of ads they want to see because, let’s be honest, ads are an imposition. Imagine someone watching a humorous video and suddenly getting interrupted by an ad; they would be annoyed, especially if they were bombarded with technical ads detailing services. But if they see an engaging one, they might actually interact with it.
The key to creating engaging content can be compared to boxing. First comes the light jab, then you hit with a hook that captures attention. I will use a Thai online advertisement as an example. It is called Unsung Hero. In the beginning, we see the main character demonstrating something many of us in our country lack, a sense of civic responsibility, and he does it without arrogance, as if it is not a burden. He helps people, even animals, and some of them are demanding toward him.
But in the end, when he sees that every donation he made to a homeless woman went toward her little girl’s education, you witness kindness being delivered. That is a mean right hook straight to the heart, and finally, the brand and its message appear. Anyone who are over relying on Ai in marketing cannot create such engaging ads because ai replicates what it knows and not sprout new idea
The brand prioritized the story itself, and the ad went on to receive 128 million views. People trusted them enough that their brand reached new heights. Why did that work? The protagonist in the ad is a common man; he is like us or like people we know. He is, in a way, an underdog because he is alone in doing acts of kindness, and everyone loves an underdog. The key is simple here: emotional investment comes first, the technical details come later when customers decide to engage.
What Makes Content Great?
There is no single formula for writing great content, but there are common denominators that tend to overlap with things that are unique from person to person. Let me give you an example. I like a YouTube review channel called Barbell Pitch Ratings because the creator is clear about why he doesn’t like something, whereas I dislike ThyView because those reviews don’t sound genuine and slightly artificial. Some big actor fans don’t hate it because they write not to offend.
The key here is relatability. We often engage with content that matches our tastes and even personal beliefs.
Many marketers are in a dilemma about this because you can’t choose between one person and the other: what one person finds relatable can be different from another, which is why content should be written with a broad audience in mind.
To do this, the approach must be right. We can’t target a Vijayawada audience with content made for Americans. How do we do it? It’s simple: think like a customer. Recall the engaging ads you saw growing up and use them as templates to create your own. It’s not an easy task; it requires constant experimentation and competitor analysis to discover new storytelling techniques.
The Art of Blending the Ad
A great ad is like a chameleon, seen yet unseen; it draws you in and leaves you wanting more. The best kind of ad achieves this by being non-intrusive. Writing content that people actually want to read is the key, and unlike traditional marketing, digital marketing can do this effectively because people often see ads that match their interests.
Targeting the right audience and creating content that resonates with them is essential. For instance, an academic would engage with an ad that uses technical knowledge relevant to his field — his bread and butter, so to speak. But if you show the same level of depth to an English literature student, would he care? It is simply not in his area of interest, and the ad doesn’t blend, it stands out as a sore thumb. The process of highlighting the audience is called target segmentation.
The Importance of Latest Trends
We live in a world moving at a horse’s pace, and with it come the trends. A few years ago, there was Dubsmash; years later, TikTok arrived. When TikTok was banned, several local apps made their debut. The mediums and trends are ever-changing; they are liberal, not conservative, and they never stay the same. When creating content, you should know what is being posted and what people are engaging with.
These days, video marketing is all the rage, so it deserves your focus. In the world of mutual funds, for example, gold mutual funds are gaining a lot of attention, so an investment advisor should focus on creating content around that. You might ask, “If everyone is making the same content, how can I stand out?” The answer is simple: be better. Analyze what your competition is doing, take a step forward, and surpass them. If your competitors are making long, drawn-out videos, create micro-content with meaningful snippets instead of yawn-inducing bulk. If you only relay on ai in marketing you get saturated content which we do not recommend.
Quality Over Quantity
If you strip down a lot of content across the web, it most often says something simple in a longer format. It may engage a viewer for the duration of the article, but after that, they won’t care. People prefer shorter, straight-to-the-point content. Why say something in 3,000 words when you can say it in 300? Quality content doesn’t go off on tangents; it explains ideas in depth without overwhelming people or hammering the same point repeatedly. If you consistently used Ai in marketing you should know by now that most of ai bot content is duplicitous and even if you ask for more it just over extends a simple point.
If you own a brand, remember this: Meta rewards engaging content more than it rewards immediate sales. While it is true that there is a correlation between engaging content and sales, good content should be shared and reshared across different pages and profiles. This is one of the best ways to stay at the top, even if your ad budget isn’t necessarily huge, because you are getting organic traffic and brand outreach.