I could have written this post in 14 seconds!

But I chose not to.

Why? 

Because convenience does not always mean improvement

The three-click blog post

Hubspot loves to make things easy for its users, and it has rolled out a free tool that allows you to generate a blog post. This is how it looks:

Step 1: Feed an idea into the Blog Generator

Step 2: Select a title

Step 3: Select an outline

Step 4: Get a bland blog piece

See my wonderous AI blog

What went wrong?

For a start, it was anodyne. Boring. I wanted to give up by the third paragraph. I think that's because I have read most of its recommendations on other websites before, and AI does not pretend to do anything except pattern matching.

No one wants to 'master' anything outside of a BDSM club, and 'optimizing' makes me wince. Have you ever heard anyone use it outside of a board meeting? I've never once 'optimized' my 

On top of that, I typed the headlines into Google and came back with 38,000 results, none of which seemed remotely interesting. I left the corporate world to avoid this jargon, and it's depressing that it's crept back in the name of convenience.

So, unless you are good at prompting, you need to edit the piece so you don't sound like a tin can on steroids. If you are using AI blogs to avoid the need to write in the first place, this is bad news. If you are using AI to avoid the need to think about content marketing in the first place - it's even worse news because you have

a) demonstrated to your customer that an algorithm can replace you

and 

b) Trying to shortcut thinking for your brain is like trying to shortcut exercise for your body. Yes, it's convenient, and it will bite you on the arse at a later date when the world moves on and you are left wondering what went wrong. Thinking critically - especially in a time of instant deepfakes and scammers - is crucial. 

I am not against using AI as an assistant, only when it's your master. 

This is how I did it, without selling my voice or mind.

I wrote this blog in just 10 minutes. 

1) I wrote down (on paper!) my outline. Just one sentence per paragraph and the point of the article. A pen and paper makes me slow down and focus. I can also doodle (great for creativity) or walk around the room talking to my cat. 

2) I then used Loom to record a quick video talking about the blog. 

3) I copied the Loom transcript and edited it with help from Grammarly.

4) I added it to my Hubspot blog and used Hubspot's reminders to finish the piece and add pictures, metadata and SEO wording.

One step further.

People buy from people, and if you can't get directly in front of them, you can use video. In the near future I plan to do more webinars and podcasts and use AI to recreate the content as video snippets, gifs, blog materials and emails. You still get me (and my voice), but the time spent on admin will halve. Oddly enough, Hubspot feels the same way - if you get the Pro version of its marketing plan, you also get its new Remix engine that does it all automatically.

I would rather spend my on creativity, connections and serving my clients. The repetitive tasks I will leave to the machines.