Artificial intelligence is reshaping content strategies, enabling content and marketing teams to deliver personalized, engaging, and efficient content at scale. As technology continues to evolve, understanding its implications and applications in content creation and management is crucial for any marketing professional.
Balancing risk and reward, along with the general use case for AI, will continue to be one of the loudest conversations sweeping through the marketing and technology industries in 2025.
In Episode 3 of "Real Talk, Real Trust with dotCMS," dotCMS VP of Channels & GTM Strategy Ryan Picchini and dotCMS CEO Zain Ishaq are joined by a special guest Kevin Cochran, CMO at Vultr, to discuss this very challenge.
Tune in as they explore how to build a winning content strategy and leverage AI as a vital tool in navigating the complexities of marketing and brand management. You can view the episode on YouTube and Spotify now, or read this blog to learn about their conversation’s key findings and takeaways.
Defining the Value of an Effective Content Strategy
An effective content strategy is not merely about producing vast quantities of material; rather, it focuses on delivering the right content to the right audience at the right time. The best marketers know how to create a broad variety of content that assists buyers at each stage of the decision-making process, significantly speeding up their journey from consideration to purchase.
The integration of AI into content strategies represents a seismic shift in how brands engage with audiences. AI's ability to analyze information and predict consumer behavior plays a crucial role in crafting data-driven strategies that align with user expectations and preferences.
However, integrating AI into content strategies is not just about adopting trending technologies but about fundamentally enhancing how organizations operationalize their content. It's about building smarter, more responsive strategies that meet and anticipate customer needs, with the goal of driving engagement and loyalty in increasingly competitive and oversaturated markets.
AI facilitates the generation of a balance of both short-form and long-form content, tailoring it to meet the specific needs of users at different stages of the funnel, from awareness to conversion. AI-generated summaries, like in conversation recaps, chatbots, meta descriptions, or ad snippets, offer a great use case for using artificial intelligence to decrease the time users spend getting the information they need.
3 Key Considerations When Integrating AI Into Your Content Strategy
1. What is the goal of your content strategy?
Today’s buying committee going through a sales cycle is self-educating, and the resources they consume vary depending on their stage in the buying journey. Because of this, organizations need to produce a variety of content, from business resources to high-level messaging to technical content.
For executive leaders, a well-defined content strategy is crucial as it directly impacts the organization's ability to engage customers, drive conversions, and ultimately increase revenue. It aligns marketing efforts with business objectives, providing a clear roadmap for brand growth and customer engagement. AI's role in this is to provide a data-driven foundation for decisions.
2. How do you measure content’s impact?
The impact of a content strategy is measured through various metrics, such as engagement rates, conversion rates, and ROI. AI-powered analytics tools can track these metrics more precisely, providing insights into what content works and why.
The effectiveness of a content strategy is increasingly measured by its ability to facilitate a smooth digital buying experience. AI tools enhance measurement capabilities by providing deeper insights into content consumption across these stages.
A key indicator that your content is doing its job is when you see that two or more people from the same organization are consuming three or more different types of content on your marketing channels. This type of behavior is usually a strong indicator that the organization’s intent to buy is high.
3. How can you operationalize your content development?
Operationalizing a content strategy in today’s tech-driven market involves more than traditional planning and execution. It now requires integrating AI tools to automate and optimize content creation processes.
Additionally, content strategy deployment now involves multiple stakeholders - from content creators and marketing strategists to data analysts and technology specialists, - each playing a crucial role in creating, distributing, and optimizing content across various channels.
Central to operationalizing content strategy is understanding the customer journey in its entirety and ensuring that every piece of content serves a strategic purpose along this journey. AI can now aid in this process by enabling the reuse of content across different stages of the marketing funnel, maximizing the potential audience and ROI on every piece of content created.
But the debate between content volume and depth continues. Effective marketing tactics ensure that content not only covers a broad spectrum but also delves deeply into topics where depth is needed to engage effectively and meaningfully with your audience.
This overall shift reflects a broader move towards digital-first interactions. AI technologies allow for more dynamic content adaptation to user behavior and market trends, enabling more responsive and targeted strategies. With AI's help, organizations are managing large volumes of content more efficiently and personalizing marketing campaigns better than ever.
However, it has also become increasingly clear that AI still does a poor job of producing new, original content - for now. Readers are getting better at differentiating between machine-generated and human-generated content. Marketing teams should continue to use AI’s seemingly magical powers, but only as a means of data and information accumulation, not end-to-end creation.
The Future of AI-Driven Content Strategies
A winning content strategy drives net-new sales, shortens the sales cycle, and enables content to act as a seller on its own before consumers book a demo.
To effectively leverage AI in building a successful content strategy, marketers should focus on thoughtfully integrating AI tools that enhance their existing workflows and support strategic objectives. This involves selecting AI solutions that align with the brand's goals and customer expectations and continuously monitoring AI outcomes to ensure they add value to the customer experience.
The future points towards a collaborative environment where AI supports human ingenuity by providing insightful analytics, automating routine tasks, and optimizing and personalizing content - allowing creative teams to focus on strategic and innovative marketing campaigns.
Human input will always be crucial for storytelling elements that require emotional connection and unique ideas. AI will increasingly help in making such ideas more efficient and data-driven.
Future content strategy teams will likely consist of a mix of content strategists, AI specialists, and data analysts. These teams will work collaboratively to harness AI's power while ensuring that strategies continue to push the needle.