Artificial intelligence (AI) is proving to be valuable in the digital world, and is only expected to grow in its capabilities, usage, and need. And whether we like it or not, most of us use or encounter AI daily, be it through facial recognition, smart home devices, voice assistants, and more. Knowing it’s a part of our everyday lives doesn’t make it surprising that the use of AI in content creation is rising, thus sparking questions for many brands, business owners, and copywriters around the globe.

Is AI effective in creating content? Do I miss out on the human element when using AI writing tools? What is ChatGPT? How can I best use AI in writing for my company or clients? Will AI replace my job?

If you’re staying in the know, you might have seen many content and marketing thought leaders saying something like, 

“AI won’t replace writers, but writers who use AI will replace writers who don’t.” 

This statement is eliciting various reactions and opinions, but one thing is certain, the use of AI in content creation is growing and creators of AI tools will continue finding ways to make them more effective.

The reality is, the brands that aren’t producing relevant, high-value content frequently are falling behind — and AI helps mitigate this issue as it allows writers to produce more content and to do it faster.

Good human writing doesn’t just happen, it requires time, thought, and practice. Writing is an involved process, and writers who generate blog content likely follow or consider the following factors: research (topic/SEO), topic selection, content outline, content creation/writing, review/edits. Today, AI writing tools can help writers streamline some steps in their writing process and make the writing better — and in some cases, these tools can even generate an entire piece. The question is, how quality and accurate of a piece can AI generate? Some writers utilize AI writing tools exclusively for content outlines, while others add inputs that generate entire blog articles. In either case, 

the more the writer knows, or the better the writer, the better the output.

 And still, we must not forget about the limitations of AI (hang tight, we're almost there).

What are the Pros and Cons of AI Writing Tools?

While AI is intelligent, it’s not perfect. It has its own unique advantages and disadvantages, and just like any other tool, the strategy team at VIA encourages brands to consider how AI affects their writing approach. Let’s explore some of the pros and cons of AI for writers, content creators, and the advertising industry overall.

 Regardless of how it's used, it will save time. What previously took hours, can take minutes with AI-assisted writing.

 It’s probably more expensive to hire a human than to use AI writing tools. Start ups, businesses with a tight budget, or those that lack resources to hire/support writers might consider AI tools.

 Every AI writing tool varies, but some can generate blog topics, assist with SEO, generate location-based messaging, and more.

 AI is still fairly new, and it’s bound to improve with time to make writing easier, faster, and better. Right now, it’s the worst it’ll ever be.

Using AI tools frees up time which allows writers to focus on other aspects of their work.

AI can’t replace storytelling. Most AI writing tools can’t accurately capture brand voice or write compelling copy that resonates with users the way a skilled writer can.

 AI can only execute what it’s trained to do, therefore there are limitations in its outputs.

 In addition to grammar, syntax, and punctuation errors, AI generated content can include inaccurate information and even risk plagiarism as it scrapes the internet for existing information on topics.

AI tools attempt to replicate humans/the real world, but they aren’t effective in generating content with human emotion, nuance, conviction, and experiences of a specific person/brand.

AI writing tools shouldn’t be seen as technology that will replace humans, but rather as a supplemental tool for writers. Ultimately, AI writing tools pose a variety of benefits and writers should 

leverage AI to produce better content in less time.

Popular AI Writing Tools and Technologies

If you’re new to the world of AI, or just want to learn more about the various writing tools and technologies in the market, this is a good place to start. AI is piquing the interest of not only our strategy and creative departments, but our clients and friends of VIA, and as we gain more experience using AI tools and technologies, we will update this blog.

 - Developed by OpenAI, the same company that created 

, the AI art generator, ChatGPT has gained a lot of hype in the last few months. With its language model, humans can ask questions and receive outputs, feed ChatGPT a prompt and have short and long-form copy in seconds, and more. Since ChatGPT is fairly new, it’s still developing, meaning there’s room for improvements. OpenAI’s website includes a section on ChatGPT limitations and states the following, 

“ChatGPT sometimes writes plausible-sounding but incorrect or nonsensical answers.”

Learn more about ChatGPT, GPT-4, OpenAI, and more

 - This generative AI platform allows people and businesses to create content in various forms, including but not limited to, social media copy and video script copy. Jasper’s website includes eight ways the tool can help its users unlock their creative potential 

 - This AI platform is another popular tool used to generate content. Writer leans into its capabilities to learn a brand, including voice, style guide, and more, to generate content. Explore more about the product 

I’ve attended two conferences/events since October 2022 that co-founder and CEO of Writer, May Habib, has been a guest speaker. I’ve been able to learn about Writer, its capabilities, and how to most effectively use the tool.

Though AI tools and technologies are generating mixed opinions, reviews, and even uses, the reality is that AI technologies will continue to grow and be used in society.

It’s important to know how your industry will be affected by AI, and how you can use AI as an opportunity to reach your business goals, save money, and be more efficient in your approach.

 and how our strategy and design departments can help you reach your content strategy, copywriting, and branding goals. 

Content Strategy

 AI Writing: Pros, Cons, Insights, and Powerful Tools

One of the unique values of working with VIA Studio is our ability to manage and integrate brand, marketing strategy, and digital seamlessly. You'll see this reflected in our work with our most valued clients, such as WARE.

In late Summer 2020, we began a partnership with WARE Inc., a commercial & industrial boiler rental and service company specializing in sales, rentals, service, parts, and boiler training. WARE was looking for a partner with strong digital skills and enthusiasm to match theirs. WARE was already a well-oiled machine with a digital marketing ecosystem that included their 

, ongoing digital campaigns, a CRM system that needed to be migrated, and a list of work they wanted to get started on as quickly as possible.

One of the first tasks we undertook after beginning our partnership was an extensive audit of WARE’s ongoing paid search campaigns. We immediately took stock of what was working well and should continue, what needed to be updated to improve performance, and collaborated with WARE on creating campaigns to take advantage of uncovered areas of opportunity.

With the audit complete, the first campaigns we set up on behalf of WARE was a boiler rental campaign that targeted users in Texas and surrounding areas. This campaign had an immediate impact as shortly after it was launched, the February 2021 blizzard in Texas knocked numerous plants and facilities offline, and WARE was able to help these areas with fast and efficient boiler rental services.

VIA Studio also launched campaigns to support WARE’s boiler room parts and supplies website 

A product-specific campaign to promote their introduction of Armstrong traps 

A general awareness display campaign promoting the website to boiler technicians, plant and facility operators, and others in boiler and boiler-adjacent fields.

Along with the digital marketing campaigns, we quickly got to work making a slew of enhancements to 

. After completing a thorough analytics and user experience (UX) audit, we discovered that site search was how most users were navigating the site and making purchases. Leveraging a predictive search service, 

, we enhanced the site search experience to make it predictive - making the search far faster and more functional.

Lastly, we developed product wishlists for BoilerWAREhouse.com so boiler technicians can easily keep track of products they regularly purchase but perhaps not at regular intervals. These product wishlists can be set up for specific boiler rooms they work on, products specific to a piece of equipment, or however the purchasing technician needs to keep track of their supplies.

A vital part of every website enhancement implemented on BoilerWAREhouse.com are user experience considerations. Each update was planned and executed with user experience front of mind for our design team, in collaboration with the VIA strategy and dev teams. User flows, barriers to conversion, and web design best practices were at the forefront of every update. 

Whenever possible, user data from Google Analytics and 

, an all-in-one conversion optimization suite, was leveraged to ensure we were informing our decisions with user data.


Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Services

When we began our partnership with WARE, they were using 

 as their Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform but asked for our help to migrate to a new platform, 

. In conjunction with WARE’s internal team, we migrated their customer and lead data, set up lead services for their various website forms, QA the new service, and wind down their use of HubSpot.

With their data and services migrated to their new CRM service, we got to work setting up visual workflows for their various lead forms to make sure that users were receiving proper automated email follow-ups, our and being informed about additional, relevant services from WARE.

Similar to the visual workflows, we also created a cart abandonment email workflow for BoilerWAREhouse users. These cart abandonment emails remind users of products that have been left in their carts and encourage them to return to the website to complete their purchase. These cart abandonment emails can also include promo codes in the future to further entice users to complete purchases.

With general workflows in place, VIA Studio is now working with WARE to leverage personas and customized workflows to ensure that all automated communication from WARE is relevant to the user, their role, and their needs. These workflows based on personas will offer an even greater level of personalized content and customization.

In addition to our technical services like website updates and CRM management, we are thrilled to have opportunities to flex our creative muscles with WARE and assist them with content generation for various marketing needs.

One of the first tasks we undertook for the WAREInc.com website was managing 

 and creating content for it. We started with an audit of their current blog articles to determine what content resonated most with their audience and recorded the most engagement. We also reviewed WARE’s YouTube channel, 

, for inspiration as well. We ultimately agreed to a blog publishing frequency of 2 articles per month with all new content and custom imagery.

We develop social media content calendars on a monthly interval to ensure WARE is always active on their various social media platforms. This content includes the promotion of services, blog content, and observations of holidays and staff achievements.

Another content generation project that we launched at the start of this year, a quarterly email newsletter. This newsletter ensures the latest WARE news, services, and promotions are regularly delivered directly to subscribers’ inboxes. Given the amount of content generated each quarter on behalf of WARE, it often acts as an overview of some “in case you missed it” pieces, with a couple of new elements developed specifically for the newsletter.

A year into our relationship with WARE and our partnership has been even more fruitful than either party could have anticipated. WARE’s strong desire for a truly collaborative partner who can not only accomplish their ongoing work but be bringing them new and exciting ideas to execute has kept the WARE account team on their toes, but to be honest, we wouldn’t have it any other way!

And if you think we're just blowing steam, take our client's word for it!

"After several marketing firms and many missed deadlines, we have finally found someone that is both creative, technical and on time. Working with VIA has been a breath of fresh air as their guidance, new ideas, organization, technical ability and customer service has been exactly what we have been looking for. We are excited for the future to keep dreaming and planning with their team. Finally our success is in partnership with a firm that gets it."

- Ritchie Ware, WARE Inc. Sales & Marketing/Chairman


B2B Marketing

Marketing Campaigns

WARE + VIA Studio: A Partnership that can Handle the Pressure

Web Design

Custom Dev

Frontend Development

User Experience

Ecommerce

Stave & Thief Society

Photography

Art Direction

Mr. Boston

Content strategy is the delicate art of deciding what to say, when to say it and where to say it. Contemporary audiences interact with your brand on many different platforms at different points in their journey to becoming a customer. Through our user-focused content processes, we can help you make informed decisions on what to say, when to say it and where to say it.

Content Strategy

Content Strategy: Case Studies

01

Stave & Thief Society

02

Mr. Boston

Content Strategy: Blog Posts

AI Writing: Pros, Cons, Insights, and Powerful Tools

WARE + VIA Studio: A Partnership that can Handle the Pressure