How can I improve my business blog with AI?

Blogging for your business or nonprofit is like trying to bathe your dog. It’s complicated and messy, and it may not work out if you’re not careful.

Many professionals need help blogging for their organization. Maybe it’s a matter of writing skills, comfort level writing, time available, or how it fits into the overall marketing strategy. Or maybe you’re a perfectionist and can’t stop tweaking and editing your work.

If you’re overwhelmed by any of those or just want to get more strategic, AI tools may be able to help out. While options like Jasper and Copy.ai exist that are specifically optimized for writing online content, ChatGPT currently has a free version and can be very powerful when it comes to blogging for your business or nonprofit.

Let’s look at some AI-centric strategies to improve your business blog.

1 – Define your target audience 

Knowing who your ideal prospect is will help you write better, more targeted content that resonates with the people you want to do business with.

First, you’ll need to feed info about your target audience into ChatGPT. If you’re in a B2B business, find the websites of a few of your ideal clients, then copy and paste their home pages and about pages in there. If you’re in B2C, find some of your ideal clients on Facebook, then copy and paste a few of their posts into ChatGPT.

Second, ask ChatGPT to help define your target audience by asking it specific questions.

Here’s what these prompts can look like:

I’m going to feed in some web page text from some of my ideal clients so that you can help me better understand and define them. After each submission on my part, I want you to say, “Ready for the next thing,” until I say, “Done.” Then I want you to summarize what I’ve entered. Are you ready?

Warning: despite your instructions, it may start summarizing after each entry. Ignore that and continue. Then, after you’re done and have told it “Done,” use the following prompt:

Given all of that information, I want you to define my target audience. Give me demographics including (but not limited to) Age, Gender, Location, Income, Education, Occupation, Marital Status, Household Size, Ethnicity or Cultural Background, Lifestyle. and Interests.

If you want to take it to the next level, then use the following prompt to get specific personas:

Create three different personas for my target audience. Be sure to include a fictional name, age, DISC style, salary, and other relevant demographics. Also, include at least three psychographic pieces of information per persona.

2 – Develop a content strategy 

Next, you’ll want to come up with topics and even blog titles. This will help you stay consistent and focused in order to accomplish your business goals.

Thankfully, AI can help here too! ChatGPT can help you come up with relevant content ideas and titles based on the services and products you sell.

It’s important that you continue in the same conversation you started with, or at least start by pasting in your target audience information that ChatGPT already gave you.

Next, share some basic information with ChatGPT about your services or products. Then ask it for a list of blogging topics.

Here’s what these prompts can look like:

I’m going to feed in some web page text from my website about what we sell so you can help me come up with relevant blog topics. After each submission on my part, I want you to say “Ready for the next thing” until I say “Done.” Then I want you to summarize what I’ve entered. Are you ready?

After feeding all of that information in, continue with this prompt:

Given all of that information, I want you to come up with a list of 30 blog post topic ideas. These should be topics that are related to what I sell but also what my target audience is likely to search for online.

If you don’t like any of the ideas or want more, simply tell ChatGPT:

Give me 20 more blog post topic ideas based on that same information. Be sure they are related to what I sell and also what my target audience is like to search for online.

You’ll tend to get better results if you repeat the essential elements of your original instructions, as ChatGPT may forget otherwise.

Warning: Don’t just blindly use all the topics ChatGPT suggests. Ultimately, you’re the expert in your field; ChatGPT isn’t. Pick the topics that you believe would make the most sense for your target market and your business or nonprofit.

3 – AI-assisted writing 

Let’s pretend you’ve picked a specific topic you’re going to write about it. It can be difficult to know where to start if you’re not a professional writer. Fortunately, you can have ChatGPT outline your blog article for you.

Use the following prompt:

I want to write a blog titled “TITLE.” I want you to come up with four different outlines for a blog on that topic. Each outline should have an introduction, a conclusion, and three bullet points in between.

If it stops in the middle, be sure to type “Continue.” If you don’t like any of the options, ask for more like this:

Give me three more outline options, still for a blog titled “TITLE.” Again, each outline should have an introduction, a conclusion, and three bullet points in between.

Of course, you still don’t have to take any of the blog outlines exactly as-is. You can mix and match the different bullet points of the outlines into one comprehensive outline that accomplishes your goals. Then simply fill in the article.

4 – Optimize headings for SEO

One goal commonly associated with strategic blogging is optimization for search engines like Google. Headings can help with SEO and make it easier for your ideal audience to read your blog.

Start with the following prompt for ChatGPT:

Below is the current version of the blog I’ve come up with. Given that content, give me a list of 10 options for search-engine-optimized subheadings I can use throughout the blog, not as a title.

Then under that, paste in the current version of your blog article.

Again, ask for more if necessary. And feel free to tweak the headings it provides you with to better fit your content and what your target audience might be searching for.

For additional SEO suggestions, feel free to use the following prompt:

Any other SEO suggestions, given the content of that blog article?

5 – Promote your blog article

Of course, your blog only does you good if people read it. While you can—and likely should—use SEO strategies to get more readers through Google and other search engines, if you have an audience on social media, it can be a great place to get more readers to your blog.

The following prompt will give you some good ideas.

Below is the current version of the blog I’ve come up with. Given that content, give me a list of 10 options for social media posts I can use to link to the article. These posts should be written so they perform well on PLATFORM. Each update should include 2-3 relevant emojis and 5-7 relevant hashtags.

Simply replace “PLATFORM” with whatever social media platform you prioritize, like LinkedIn. If you don’t want emojis or hashtags, simply leave out that part of the prompt.

The human touch

While AI can offer a lot of benefits to help with your business blogging, it should definitely not take the place of a human’s touch. It’s important to remember that it’s not a substitute for a content matter expert or—for that matter—an experienced marketing professional.

But if you’re an expert in your field and you don’t yet have the budget to hire a marketing professional, it can definitely help. AI—specifically ChatGPT—can be a powerful tool to help your marketing efforts.