How Can SMBs Improve Marketing Campaigns with ChatGPT?

Today, AI is becoming a part of everyday life in several ways. It has been around for decades in various forms and has been honed and improved with new technology over the years to deliver increasingly better performance. That has led to the development of tools like ChatGPT, a new AI chatbot from OpenAI that is getting a lot of attention and creating a whole new discussion about chatbots and just what they can do for business. 

ChatGPT is an open-source chatbot tool that’s designed to follow conversations better than its predecessors, farm information from the endless database of resources on the Internet, and deliver answers to questions or requests based on what you ask (and how). For example, you can ask it to “write me a poem” and it will, but it probably won’t be anything to compete with Emily Dickenson or Edgar Allen Poe. 

So, with that in mind, can SMBs actually utilize a tool like ChatGPT to improve their marketing campaigns? And if so, how can you do it without exploiting AI to a point that it’s noticeable? There’s still plenty of room for humans in your small business, after all—tools like this should simply be an additional resource that you seek. 

Read on to learn more about ChatGPT, how it works, and how it might be able to help you with your marketing efforts. 

What is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is an AI chatbot that is created with advanced technology and capabilities that allow it to follow conversations and deliver more content than other chatbots that came before it. This tool gained popularity quickly and within a matter of days, users trying their hand at the tool numbered in the millions. Suffice it to say, this tool is getting noticed—but is that a good thing or a bad thing?

Ultimately, as with anything, it’s about how you’re using this tool and if you are using it properly, it could offer a lot of support for your business marketing efforts. If, however, you’re hoping to replace your entire marketing team with a single, limited AI chatbot, you better start rethinking your plans because we’re not quite there yet. 

What ChatGPT is:

• A limited resource for information 
• A starting point for several business processes 
• An AI chatbot

What ChatGPT isn’t:

• An essay writer
• An award-winning poet
• An editor
• A human with independent thought
• A content writing expert

Even the developers caution that ChatGPT should be used with care and that the information that it provides could be wrong. After all, the tool is trained to farm information from the Internet—there’s no distinction in finding the “right” information. 

Can ChatGPT write content?

Again, we’re going to refer back to the original caution: use this tool with care. ChatGPT certainly can write content, but should it? Or should it be the primary source of your content? Probably not. While you can get a lot of good ideas from the chatbot, you can’t count on it to understand the nuances of the English language or the rules of proper essay writing. 

What’s worse is companies who have shifted to creating blogs from ChatGPT without further review, edits, or changes. You should use the material that you get from this chatbot as a starting point, not as the end product that you publish. Not only will Google be able to tell, but so will your visitors, and that’s going to ruin your reputation, fast. 

Can I use ChatGPT for my website chat?

ChatGPT makes a great starting point for website chat. However, you’re eventually going to want to have a live person available for those who want to talk to someone, not just get answers from a bot. Some companies make the mistake of investing fully in a bot and using nothing else for website chat, missing out on that component of having a live person available, which is something that many consumers still demand. 

So, in short, you can use ChatGPT to get your website chat users started, but make sure that transferring to a person is an option for those who need it. On the other hand, you could also just outsource and let a human team handle the live website chat for you. 

Inspiration and brainstorming

Perhaps one of the best ways to use ChatGPT that companies have found to this point is as a source of inspiration and ideas. Unlike the human brain, the AI chatbot knows no boundaries or limits in thinking. Therefore, it may come up with more unique, creative solutions for marketing than your human team because it’s not limited by human doubt and other factors. 

Consider asking ChatGPT what kind of topics are trending in your industry, or what the most common searches are, for example. You can even say, “give me some [industry] blog topics” and the chatbot will generate some topics that should be relevant to your industry. If you want to take it further and generate more written content, just make sure that you use that as a starting point for your content creation, not the end-all, be-all of your strategies. 

Skip the bots and stick with human support for better marketing and more

If you’re still skeptical of chatbots, you’re not alone. While they do have their features and benefits to appreciate, they also have their limitations. Students might be naïve enough to think that they can use a tool like ChatGPT to generate an essay and pass it by their teacher, but professionals know better. You’re not going to be able to replace your human team entirely, at least not anytime soon. 

One alternative is to rely instead on outsourced human agents—in this case, the dedicated virtual receptionists at Smith.ai. Our team can serve as your resource for live website chat, while also handling lead intake, appointment scheduling, and support for your outreach campaigns. Plus, we can be your 24/7 answering service so that people get a live person whenever they call, and you never miss another lead.

To learn more, schedule a consultation or reach out to hello@smith.ai. 

‍