AI for Content Agencies: 7 Steps to Scale (Safely) Using AI Tools
AI for content agencies differs from generative AI for general use.
As a content agency owner, your focus is on crafting and executing content strategies to drive business objectives. While AI can aid in scaling these efforts, there are legitimate safety concerns.
For instance, Google’s John Mueller states, “Currently, it’s all against the webmaster guidelines. So from our point of view, if we were to run across something like that, if the webspam team were to see it, they would see it as spam.”
This is just one of many valid safety concerns surrounding AI-driven content production—which is why this post will explore how you can use AI to scale content production without compromising your reputation or results.
Let’s get into it.
What are the Benefits of AI for Content Agencies?
You’re probably familiar with the concept of generative AI, so let’s dive right into a more compelling question: What exactly are the game-changing benefits that AI brings to content agencies?
Buckle up, because there’s a wealth of them, and we’ve outlined some of the most exciting ones below:
Saving Time
Time is a precious commodity in the world of content creation. If you have AI supporting your content creation process in some way, you can free up more time to work on growing your agency without jeopardizing customer satisfaction.
For your team members, AI content creation can reduce their workload in areas such as outline generation, content distribution, and proofreading, enabling them to focus on the more creative side of their job.
Increased Efficiency
Content marketing is demanding! For a single article, a writer may have to:
- Study and analyze the SERPs
- Do a content gap analysis
- Create an SEO-driven outline,
- Etc.
These routine tasks are tough, even if you are doing them for the hundredth time. Needless to say, they tax your productivity.
However, your team will experience an increase in productivity if you employ generative AI to automate some of these tasks.
Don’t take my word for it. Andy Crestodina, the CMO at Orbit Media Studio says, “Any promotional content is faster now. I’ve trained it (AI) to write in my voice. This is early days. It will get better, and we’ll all get better at using it. I’m expecting a 20% productivity boost which is HUGE,”
For me, one of the best features of any generative AI tool is the content gap analysis tool in RightBlogger.
It’s unbelievable how many insights it provides in a matter of seconds after you submit your prompt. If I were to do it manually, it would take me a few minutes to think about that.
Better Collaboration
A typical content team includes several members with separate tasks and functions, e.g., editors, writers, head of content, etc.
Most AI tools allow several members of a team to access their platform and share a virtual workspace. This facilitates better collaboration among content team members, regardless of their location or time zone.
For example, with features such as shared editing, commenting, and version control, your head of content can quickly review the first draft and leave some recommendations for your writers to work on.
This allows team members to be more cohesive and collaborative while putting out the best content possible.
Data-driven Insights
AI tools are faster and can analyze vast amounts of data to uncover valuable insights about target audiences, discover content gaps, and build a data-driven outline.
This enables you to make your content more personalized and data-driven.
Our Point of View: Writers Should Not Be Paid Less Because of AI
With all the benefits of AI, its adoption might mean different things to different agencies, and we just want to chip in our point of view here:
While AI offers numerous benefits for content agencies, it’s essential to recognize the value human writers bring to the table.
Writers should not be paid less simply because AI technology is being used to assist in content creation. The true value of a writer lies not in the number of words they produce but in their experience, expertise, creativity, and ability to connect with audiences on a deeper level.
AI may aid in generating content, but it cannot replicate the unique insights, perspectives, and storytelling abilities that human writers bring to the table.
Therefore, agencies should continue to compensate writers fairly for their contributions, recognizing that their skills and talents are irreplaceable assets in the content creation process.
AI for Content Agencies: 7 Ways to Scale Content Safely Using AI Tools
Now, let’s get to the core of this post—how content agencies can scale content creation using AI tools.
In this section, we’ll cover seven steps content agencies should take to scale their content creation using AI. Let’s get into it:
1. Identify Your Content Needs
Don’t just jump on adopting AI without first assessing your content needs. That’s like throwing things at the wall and hoping something will stick.
AI generative tools may do virtually the same thing, but they have different core competencies.
How?
Some are good at generating long-form content, while others are best at generating product descriptions. Some are built for marketers, while others are, well, generic.
If you don’t understand your needs and how AI can improve them, you end up investing in the wrong software.
To help you map out your needs, below are some things you should consider:
Content Type
What type of content does your agency specialize in creating?
Whether it’s blog posts, social media content, long-form articles, or product descriptions, knowing your niche will guide you in selecting AI tools tailored to your specific content needs.
You should also consider other secondary activities like video or audio transcription. That can be helpful these days when everyone’s trying to weave subject matter’s expert views into their content.
YouTube video transcription is one of the features we offer at RightBlogger. Just grab your YouTube video URL, enter it into the space provided, and wait for your transcription.
The bottom line is: you should also consider any other activity that’s essential to content creation.
Content Optimization
If you run an SEO agency and need help with keyword research, SEO analysis, and content performance tracking, you may consider an AI tool with features for finding keywords and optimizing content for SEO.
Content Distribution
If your agency is responsible for content distribution for your clients, you need to identify any bottlenecks AI can help you eliminate.
For example, do you need to always summarize your articles when distributing them across social media platforms? If yes, your AI of choice should have a feature to summarize your content.
Easy Collaboration
Evaluate your team collaboration dynamics and explore AI tools that facilitate seamless communication and workflow management.
With features like real-time editing, task assignments, and performance tracking, AI tools can optimize collaboration among team members for efficient content creation.
By carefully assessing your content needs across these key areas, you can strategically integrate AI tools into your content agency workflow to scale your operations efficiently and safely.
2. Create an SOP and Map Out How AI Can Help
The absence of a standard operating procedure (SOP) in content creation can result in friction, leading to workflow disruptions and subpar outcomes. You surely don’t want that.
But an SOP will allow you to:
- Set your tone of voice
- Put down a procedure for planning and organizing keywords, content ideas, and topics
- Grant your team members more autonomy without losing standard
- Ensure every piece of content published is up to standard
- Collaborate better with other team members
The goal is to determine where you’ll need an AI assistant, what AI software you’ll need, what role it will play, and which team members will need what.
For example, while everyone on your team needs proofreading software, not everyone requires a keyword research tool.
With a defined framework in place, you can map AI to varied content needs and specific team members without misallocating resources or priorities.
3. Select the Right Tools
Once you’ve identified your content needs and completed your SOP, it’s time to look for tools that’ll help you streamline those processes.
Here are some important considerations you should keep in mind when choosing AI tools:
Type of Content
When selecting AI tools for your content agency, it’s essential to consider the type of content you primarily work with.
Different AI tools are designed to excel in specific areas such as email, blogging, ad creation, product descriptions, etc.
Case in point: RightBlogger’s SEO Keyword Cluster Generator was built with bloggers and content marketers in mind.
In the screenshot below, you’ll see how it helped me develop relevant topic clusters for the keyword “content writing for beginners.”
My point is: understanding the nature of your content will guide you in choosing the tools that align best with your content goals.
Customization Options
Customization plays a significant role in the effectiveness of AI tools for content agencies. Look for tools that offer flexibility and adaptability to tailor them to your agency’s unique requirements.
The ability to customize AI tools ensures they can cater to your specific content creation and management processes, enhancing overall productivity and quality.
Integration Capabilities
You probably have several tools you already use and love.
If such is the case, you’ll ideally want to go for AI tools that fit into your existing systems and workflows and seamlessly integrate with your current tools and platforms.
This is to ensure a smooth transition and a streamlined content production process.
Compatibility and interoperability are key to maximizing the benefits of AI tools within your content agency.
In some cases, however, you may be able to ditch some of your old software if the AI content creation tool of your choice offers the same features.
An excellent example is that most content marketers utilize Semrush’s Keyword Management tool for keyword clustering, but if you use RightBlogger, you don’t need to integrate with Semrush to get that feature.
Budget Considerations
While investing in AI tools can significantly enhance your content agency’s efficiency and output, it’s important to consider your budgetary constraints.
Evaluate the costs associated with AI tools, including initial setup fees, subscription charges, and potential additional expenses.
Most importantly, be sure that the benefits these tools offer align with your agency’s budget and long-term financial goals.
4. Be Selective About What You Automate
Automation is great, but it can also quickly go sideways. While individual bloggers can crank out AI-generated content and go scot-free, you should be cautious as an agency owner.
As a content agency, relying too heavily on AI for creative work could tarnish your reputation.
Additionally, AI-generated content is often plagued by plagiarism, vague or inauthentic ideas, and factual inaccuracies due to previous content generation on the same topic.
This is why you need to find the right balance between automation and human touch, which is key to scaling your agency successfully while maintaining your content standard.
Here are our top recommendations for automating and maintaining quality in your AI-powered content strategy:
Develop a Hybrid Process and Know When to Keep the AI Out
When contemplating automation for content creation, it’s crucial to evaluate the level of complexity and creativity demanded by each task.
From my experience, AI often falls short in certain areas. Even in fields where it excels, such as finance and healthcare, it’s unwise to rely solely on AI.
Certain technical subjects necessitate nuanced and creative input, underscoring the necessity of human involvement.
Assess the intricacies of the required content and determine the instances where human creativity is indispensable, balancing it with the appropriate level of AI involvement.
Personalize Client Interactions
Automating client interactions may seem efficient, but when it comes to building relationships and understanding client needs, a human touch can make all the difference.
It can also backfire!
When AI eventually makes a mistake or they find out you’ve been using AI to communicate with them, you may lose their trust forever.
Ensure Quality Control
Until proven otherwise, the expertise of generative AI remains questionable because, in truth, it lacks true expertise.
Generative AI operates by analyzing patterns in data to predict the probability of one word succeeding another and then assembling these predictions into a cohesive sentence.
They don’t truly “write” in the conventional sense, but guess what should come next in a sentence.
While AI automation can accelerate processes, maintaining quality is the foremost priority for content agencies.
To ensure quality control, certain tasks, like final content review and editing, should be left for humans to guarantee correctness and coherence.
5. Inject Information Gain into Your Content
If you’re into SEO, you’re probably aware of this: information gain is a big deal. It’s what helps your content stand out and really hit home with your audience.
But for those who aren’t familiar: Google Information Gain is a patent that Google filed back in 2020. It’s all about rewarding articles that bring fresh insights to the table.
The whole idea is to tackle copycat content and boost articles that genuinely help readers by offering more useful info than what’s already out there.
This came at the height of the old skyscraper technique, when big brands with viable domain authority outcompeted one another on the SERP—usually by slightly making their article better than the top one.
Here are some ways to include information gain in your article:
- Address unaddressed search intent: A single search phrase can have multiple intents. For instance, while many articles about AI content writing tools target marketers and sales teams, yours could target essayists and academics instead.
- Add newer steps that competing articles didn’t address: For example, when discussing social media marketing for small businesses, many articles focus on conventional tactics like consistent posting, engaging with followers, and targeted ads. Introducing fresh sections such as “Micro-Influencer Collaboration” will set your content apart.
- Include personal perspectives: Many articles are written by writers who lack firsthand experience or personal insights into the topic. If you have relevant personal experiences or anecdotes, incorporating them into your content can enhance its authenticity and appeal.
- Change the entire content structure: While this approach carries some risk, sometimes shaking up the typical search structure can yield significant rewards. For instance, if most articles on the SERP are listicles, consider writing a comprehensive how-to guide mixed with a listicle.
- Add your company’s experience: Did your company conduct experiments that challenged or confirmed industry norms? Have you gleaned valuable insights from customer interactions or feedback? Incorporating your company’s unique experiences and learnings into your content can provide a fresh perspective and increase its information gain score.
6. Monitor and Improve Performance
If you are new to any process, it will take some time before you perfect it, irrespective of the guide you read.
This is why constant monitoring and improvement are key to the success of your new process.
For your AI-backed content creation process to succeed, we recommend the following steps:
Set Content Performance Metrics
To initiate the process of monitoring and enhancing performance, establish metrics and closely monitor them. These metrics may include:
- Publishing velocity
- Engagement rates
- Click-through rates
- Time spent on a page
- Conversion rates
These metrics offer invaluable insights into the impact and effectiveness of your content, directing your improvement efforts effectively.
Feedback Integration
Feedback is a goldmine for improvement. Actively seek feedback from clients, readers, and team members to gather diverse perspectives on your content.
Integrate this feedback into your content refinement process to address areas for improvement and tailor your strategy to meet everybody’s expectations.
For that, you can use:
- HubSpot’s Customer Feedback Software
- Your internal Slack channel
- AskNicely
Prioritize Analytics
Use data to compare your current content performance to your performance prior to introducing AI into your workflow. Examine several measures to discover if you’re gaining or losing and what might be changed.
Tools to do that include:
- GA4
- Google Search Console
- Buffer
7. Ensure Transparency
Transparency is key when implementing AI-backed content creation in content agencies. It’s vital to maintain openness and clarity in the processes involving AI to build trust with clients and ensure ethical standards are upheld.
So, transparency would mean:
Transparency in Data Collection
When utilizing AI tools for content creation, it’s crucial to be transparent about the data being collected. Inform clients about the type of data that will be used, how it will be gathered, and for what purposes. By being transparent about your data collection practices, you can establish trust with your clients.
Explaining AI Algorithms and Processes
Transparency also extends to explaining the AI algorithms and processes used in content creation.
Provide clients with an overview of how the AI tools work, the methodologies behind them, and the potential outcomes. This not only educates clients but also fosters confidence in the AI-driven content production process.
Disclosure of AI Assistance
Clearly disclose when AI tools are being used to generate content. Whether it’s in the form of automated content generation or data analysis, informing clients about AI assistance ensures transparency in the content creation process.
This clarity helps clients understand the role of AI in producing the final deliverables.
AI for Content Agencies: Our Top Recommendations
With all the steps outlined in this post, I thought you’d want to hear our recommendations for the best generative AI tools for content agencies.
So, we’ve included our top AI tools for content agencies below:
RightBlogger
RightBlogger is a generative AI platform for bloggers and content marketing teams. With over 60+ tools for different content marketing needs, it’s the ideal tool for any SEO-driven content agency.
RightBlogger offers the following features:
- Keyword research tool
- Long-form article writer
- Content gap analysis
- Point of view writer
- YouTube Video to Blog Post,
- And a lot more.
It also comes with a Chrome extension that allows you to use it with several apps in Google Chrome.
At $29.99 a month for unlimited usage, it’s the most reasonably priced tool out there. You can sign up for RightBlogger now for free.
Although there is no free trial, you can use our platform for free once and get a refund within 30 days of your subscription if you are not satisfied.
Copysmith
Copysmith is an AI-powered content writing solution for eCommerce storefront owners. It allows eCommerce writers to generate product descriptions in bulk and integrates with a variety of prominent eCommerce platforms, including Shopify, Amazon, WooCommerce, Wix, and more.
Pricing plans begin at $28 per month.
Rytr
Rytr is an AI-powered writing tool that focuses on short-form content. It has over 40 use cases, such as email writing, ad writing, and pitching company ideas.
Although Rytr does not generate long-form content, it has a fair pricing plan, starting at $9 per month.
AI for Content Agencies: How Do You Scale Content Creation with AI, Safely?
The question isn’t whether or not AI for content agencies is a thing. The question is: how can you safely use AI to scale your content creation?
And that’s what we’ve answered in this post. Our seven steps for doing that include:
- Identifying your content needs
- Creating an SOP
- Selecting the right tools
- Being selective about what you automate
- Injecting information gain into your content
- Monitoring and improving your content performance
- Ensuring transparency
If you follow them, you’ll successfully use AI to boost productivity without any headaches.
Written by Ali Faagba
Ali Faagba is a content strategist and writer for B2B SaaS companies, such as Close, Copysmith, and Userpilot. He focuses on AI, Marketing Automation, and Sales.
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