We sat down with Ryan Meyer, Director of Digital Marketing at Ascedia, to learn more about ChatGPT's impact on marketing.
Ryan Meyer has over 10 years of experience in the digital space and has worked with a wide range of clients from startups to multinational organizations. Ryan also co-founded his own agency, serving as CEO for six years.
Talk to us about ChatGPT — more specifically how this tool is impacting the marketing landscape.
There has been a lot of handwringing about how AI tools like ChatGPT may make some workers and jobs obsolete.
In digital marketing — in particular SEO, copy-writing, and other related functions — the thought is that these tools will automate folks out of jobs. In the short-term, however, these are more likely to become tools in a marketer’s belt that will give them additional capabilities, save time, and provide a starting point for everything from keyword research to authoring meta data, blog topics and outlines, and even head starts on copy-writing.
As of yet, AI tools usually need a human touch/editor, particularly when it comes to things like strategic thinking and making content truly drive value to readers rather than just focusing on simplistic, keyword-stuffed posts. In fact, saving hours of time that would normally be spent on mundane functions will free marketers up to focus on the bigger picture stuff that adds value to their brands and client relationships.
How is the Ascedia team using ChatGPT right now? Where are you seeing the biggest benefits?
We look at ChatGPT as an intern. We can ask it to research ideas for keywords, blog post ideas, and meta data. We can ask it to outline or write initial copy for blog posts. We can ask it to research the competition within a topic cluster, but it’s a starting point to generate ideas and do some initial grunt work.Absolutely nothing ChatGPT does is considered client ready. ChatGPT isn’t a strategist, a creative problem solver, or a substitute for an actual professional digital marketer. It requires heavy human oversight but does provide a support and a starting point for digital marketing functions, particularly in the SEO and content spaces.
Let’s move off AI and more into digital marketing. SEO is such an important channel…what do most get wrong about SEO?
After all these years of SEO being a make-or-break discipline, organizations still get their keyword strategy wrong.Folks tend to put too much emphasis on high volume keywords or ‘internal speak’ — the words they use internally to describe a product or service might not be the same word searchers are using.
Keywords should always be selected balancing volume, intent, relevance, and difficulty. Nothing is worse than spending months (or years!) gaining authority for a high-volume keyword, only to find out it’s not a term that drives conversions.
You have been in the space a long time, tell us what are best practices for an organization to work effectively with a DM (digital marketing) agency? And what should organizations look for in a DM agency?
Look at an agency as a strategic partner and not just a vendor. Look for an agency with the ability to connect the dots between business goals and digital marketing tactics and strategy.
What makes Ascedia a smart choice in this space? In other words, why would a potential client want to work with Ascedia?
We’ve tried to position ourselves as tactic, strategy, and platform agnostic. We find the right mix to help the client achieve what they’re looking to do as a business and as a sales/marketing organization. If something isn’t working, we learn and adjust, even if it’s a core service offering of ours.
Where do you see DM heading in the next few years? What will be the new trends to look out for?
Authenticity has long been a differentiator between successful digital marketing efforts and ones that miss the mark. People say this all the time, but there is more clutter than ever — more opportunities for engagement and more efforts to get consumers’ attention.There are also more tools, and therefore more ways to engage with people online. Organizations now more than ever need to find their tribe online, figure out what role they will play in their customers’ lives, and become a trusted resource in that space. The rest is just tactics to get there.
