By Valentine J. Brkich
When you’re a writer, you have to be able to take criticism. Because, make no doubt about it, it’s inevitable.
I just never thought I’d be criticized by a robot.
Case in point, recently, the Head Honcho (official title) brought me into her office to discuss our current web copy. She had asked ChatGPT to give her a list of the top 10 local marketing agencies and, much to her dismay, ours wasn’t on the list.
When she asked ChatGPT why, it gave her a bunch of recommendations regarding our web content, where it was lacking, and how we could tweak it to become more SEO friendly and, therefore, more easily found by potential clients.
Since I had written much of our website copy, I have to admit, it kinda stung having artificial intelligence (AI) criticize my actual intelligence, at least as far as my writing goes. But like I said, as a writer, you have to be able to take it. And in this fast-paced world of AI, you have to be willing to harness the power of this dynamic technology to improve wherever you can.
So, taking AI’s advice, I made some tweaks to our web content. Then we again asked AI to review the copy and provide suggestions, which, considering the amount of feedback it provided, it was more than happy to do.
And you know what? It was nice about it. For example, instead of just jumping into what was wrong with my edits, it started out with a compliment: “This is a great evolution of your homepage copy!” How nice! Then it gave me a list of “What Works Well”—complete with a flame emoji for a dramatic effect—that served to butter me up even more before diving into its suggestions.
It kinda reminded me of when my teenage daughter needs a favor, but instead of coming right out with it, she makes sure to tell me how much she loves me and how I’m the best daddy ever!
Works every time.
So, after easing into the critique, AI then provided me with an “optimized version” of the content I had written and explained why it was more effective in achieving our desired goals, i.e., making us more visible to potential local clients. Using these recommendations, I was able to make further improvements to our content that, hopefully, will yield positive results down the road.
The key takeaway here is that when it comes to your marketing, there’s always room for improvement. And unless you’re taking advantage of the amazing AI tools that are readily available, you’re never going to reach your full potential.
Remember: AI doesn’t have an ego, and neither should you when it comes to optimizing your marketing efforts.
