August 6, 2024 • 20 mins
In this episode of the B2B Brand180 podcast, Linda interviews Chuck Aikens, Founder of Tymoo and content marketing expert, to discuss effective use of AI in B2B content strategies.
Chuck shares insights on the essential foundational work required before leveraging AI, including understanding target audiences and answering critical strategic questions before writing prompts. He delves into the concept of micro-segmenting audiences, optimizing metadata, and generating authentic content.
Linda and Chuck also review practical advice on using AI for crafting compelling headlines, FAQs, product descriptions, and social media posts.
Chuck also introduces his Tidal Wave Content platform, a comprehensive suite of training, coaching, and processes that helps brands create consistent, engaging content across multiple channels using AI-assisted tools.
01:28 Foundational Work Before Leveraging AI
03:53 Micro-Segmenting Your Audience
05:27 Using AI for Metadata and Content Creation
07:48 Balancing Brand Voice with AI
09:39 Quick Tips for Using AI in Content Creation
15:02 Long-Form Content Strategies
16:55 Tidal Wave Content Concept
More About Chuck:
-LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuckaikens/
-Tidal Wave Content: https://www.tidalwavecontent.com/
-Deciphering Digital Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@decipheringdigital
-Consulting Website: https://chuckaikens.com/
Linda's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindafanaras/
Millennium Agency: Brand Strategy | Marketing | Web Design: https://mill.agency
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@mill.agency/
Linda's Books:
Claim Your White Space
https://www.amazon.com/CLAIM-YOUR-WHITE-SPACE-CRITICAL-ebook/dp/B0CLK8VLYV
Passion + Profits: Fueling Business And Brand Success
https://www.amazon.com/Passion-Profits-Fueling-Business-Success-ebook/dp/B0CLLDDSNX/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Linda Fanaras (00:00):
Hi, I'm Linda Fenares, host of the B2B Brand
180 podcast and CEO ofMillennium Agency.
Today, I am excited to bring inChuck E.
Atkins, founder of TAMU and aseasoned expert in content
marketing and leveraging AI.
He's has two decades ofexperience in website
development, SEO and digitalmarketing, and he's going to
(00:22):
bring us a wealth of experiencetoday, particularly when it
comes to content strategies andhow to really use AI to elevate
brand presence.
And connect more effectively.
He has this concept called titlewave content platform.
It's a suite of training,coaching and processes that also
help brands create consistent,engaging content across multiple
(00:44):
channels using a I.
So welcome, Chuck.
Great to have you here today.
I'd love for you to share withthe audience a little bit about
yourself.
Chuck Aikens (00:53):
Well, Enda, thanks for having me.
a little bit about myself as itrelates to what we're talking
about today, I had a search socalled SEO and content agency
for about 15 years in Denver,Colorado.
sold it a few years ago and havebeen out just working directly
with brands still in the contentmarketing space, which can
include social media and email.
(01:13):
But yeah, that, that's a littlebackground.
It's all I've ever done.
I even not to date myself, but Iwas even doing content is Google
came along many, many years ago.
So, been been at this for a longtime.
Linda Fanaras (01:25):
Yeah.
So you're a true expert.
That's great to hear.
I think we need to talk a littlebit more about the foundational
work before actually leveragingthe I tools.
And I think this is where a lotof businesses and marketers may
go wrong.
It's really how to use a I inthe most effective way.
Can you speak to the audienceabout that a little bit?
Chuck Aikens (01:43):
When we first heard about Chad, GBT, or if you
use a different a I tool you goto the prompt and you start
asking it to do things to seewhat it can do.
And, you know, some peoplestarted with planning their
vacation or doing a recipe orsomething personal.
And some folks jumped right inand started applying it to their
work to their job, to theirbrand.
And it's okay to start at theprompt and play along and see
(02:06):
what happens.
But, but these foundationaldocuments that are needed.
For a, for a business, for abrand, or are things like who's
your target audience?
So what kind of guidelines doyou want to give AI when it's
writing?
What are your value props?
What is your product andservice?
This concept of giving it somedirection so that it can help
(02:27):
you.
As an AI assistant is, isfundamental.
So there's a lot of work to bedone before the prompt, anytime
that you're trying to, to dosomething for your business or
your brand.
And it's okay to start in themiddle, kind of get acquainted
with it.
But to really use AI as amarketing assistant, you have to
have a strategy, you have tohave intention, you have to have
(02:48):
a target audience.
And that, those foundationaldocuments are the starting
point.
Actually, the starting point.
That I teach and coach is yourcustomer, is your target
audience and often microsegmented down into multiple.
and target audience depending onexactly what you might be doing
with your tasks.
So that's a little bit aboutthe, the foundational documents
(03:09):
and what is that ready, fire,aim aim first you know, before
you fire off the prompts.
Linda Fanaras (03:15):
Yeah, exactly.
And I think also it's importantfor our audience to realize that
when you do look at tools likeAI, you almost have to look at
it from the Perspective of Okay,first of all, I need to train a
eye into your point, Chuck.
Okay, who is my audience?
Who's my target audience?
What am I trying to communicate?
And are there any specificniches that you really need to
(03:37):
cater to instead of coming backwith generic copy?
So I love to talk about microsegmenting the audience because
I think this also helps toreally develop content that is
much more in line with what themarketer business or client is
looking for.
So can we speak about that alittle bit?
I think that's an importantthing to tackle today.
Chuck Aikens (03:57):
Yeah.
Well, one one simple way for B2Bto micro segment is to just to
think about the different rolesthat might be involved in, in
the, the buying committee atyour ideal client profile.
So, maybe there's the CFO, maybethere's the salesperson, maybe
there's a product manager, theCEO, like all of these all of
(04:18):
these different folks you know,that they're different roles at
the ICP.
So you could micro segment byrole.
With a B to B, I often will haveeach one of these personas built
out.
Now it, since I'm, since I do alot of persona work, I will say,
and we'll talk about this at theend, but I, but I have a, a
persona building tool that ifyou answer some quick questions,
(04:39):
you can make these personasfast.
And the reason that's importantis if we're talking about.
Having maybe four or fivepersonas into the buying
committee of your target client,like that takes work.
So how can we do it faster?
Maybe you micro segment byindustry.
So you have a persona in, inthis vertical that you're
targeting versus that one.
If you have to message ourmarket to different folks that
(05:03):
becomes a persona that becomessomebody that you can personify
that way.
When you go to work with A.
I.
It knows who you're trying totalk to,
Linda Fanaras (05:10):
right?
Right.
And it can be very, verytargeted as far as the
communication and messaging isconcerned.
You know, there's a lot ofdifferent ways to use A.
I.
You can use it to generatecustomer journeys.
Yeah.
Email, social media.
I mean, the list goes on.
But what about when it comes toactually creating metadata?
(05:31):
How do you recommend ouraudience to use AI in a way that
helps to identify maybe Yeah.
Chuck Aikens (05:43):
And that's a great question.
So, you know, the, the mostimportant piece of metadata
you're going to have in, in apiece of content is going to be
the page title.
So what, you know, like a lot ofpeople will go to a prompt and
say, write my page or write mypost or write my email,
Linda Fanaras (05:59):
you
Chuck Aikens (06:00):
There's an entire thought process or prompting
that can go into the 60characters that make up your
page title and where the keywordis placed.
And more importantly, what isthe keywords you're targeting?
Linda Fanaras (06:11):
Right.
Chuck Aikens (06:12):
The, you know, how, how competitive or you
know, popular is that, is thatkeyword or does anybody even
type it?
Maybe they don't, maybe theydon't even search it.
So there's this concept ofhaving, using AI to help create
ideas for your page titlemetadata that can be used as
that, that leading indicator toGoogle about what the content of
(06:34):
the page is about is it is oneway to put the metadata the
other way.
And this is a little advanced,but you know, you can, you can
use AI to help understand how tomake the content more helpful.
More comprehensive because whilethe alt tags and the title tag
metadata is important, it's alsoabout all the different words
(06:56):
that you use.
Because if if a piece of contenthas a thousand or 2000 words,
what are those words that arebeing used?
You want AI can help you withthat.
What four or five or six topicsshould I cover?
Okay.
You can ask AI that to make surethat you're creating a helpful,
useful piece of content becausethat, that's what Google's doing
(07:17):
is they're going through yourcopy and saying, Hey, is this
deserving to be in the top 10?
Right?
If it's going to be in the top10 and page one, it better be
helping your target audience.
That is what Google cares about.
Most their last big algorithmupdate, which was in March of
this year, was called thehelpful content update.
That is the benchmark.
They don't care if you use AI.
(07:38):
It better be helpful.
It, it better be adding andcontributing to the search
experience for your targetaudience.
Linda Fanaras (07:44):
that's a great point too.
So thanks for sharing that withour audience today.
So if you were to take you know,I guess the question is, is
trying to balance, you know, aunique voice that a brand has.
the authenticity of using AI ina way that maybe is generated in
a very, like, what I'll callcommon way, because it often
(08:06):
comes back with a very similarlanguage.
So how do you start to balanceusing that brand's unique voice
and actually being able toleverage AI into a way that can
help build out effectivecontent.
Chuck Aikens (08:20):
Yeah.
One of my favorite techniques atthe moment is to actually
conduct video interviews ofpeople that either are in the
brand that they're the personthat created or owns the brand
works for the brand or somehowis associated when, when you
start with a video interview andyou get the sound bites and the
authentic language and nuancesthat that a human brings to the
(08:42):
table.
Then as you go to use AI tobuild out that content to write
something, you get such a betterpiece of content that is
authentic because it startedfrom a human perspective.
Now I can do that with writtenword and people can talk into
their phones.
There's different ways to startwith authentic content.
But by far, my favorite is tojust jump on zoom for 45 minutes
(09:06):
not to belabor, but, but, buttypically a 45 minute interview
with someone who understands andis passionate about the brand,
not even passionate, justunderstands it can result in, in
multiple pages of content forthe website or the blog.
Social media clips, video clips.
Just what is it that you know?
(09:27):
What is it that you want to talkabout?
If I start there, the contentends up being so much more
authentic and real than if youstart at the prompt.
Linda Fanaras (09:36):
No, that's good.
So I would love to run through.
I'm going to kind of quiz youand say, you know, how do you
use a I to generate content forX, Y, Z.
And I'd love for you to give theaudience maybe 123 sentences.
Real good solid takeaways, makesure you do this or make sure
(09:56):
you don't do that.
So do you mind if we get stuck?
What can we go for it?
Quick, quick
Chuck Aikens (10:01):
answers.
And yeah, let's run
Linda Fanaras (10:04):
through it.
So, all right, first of all, Iwould love you to tell us how
you would use AI to craftcompelling headlines.
That really entice the user toclick.
Chuck Aikens (10:17):
Yes.
So, I actually would not startthere.
The way to get a headlineusually happens after the
content is written.
Now, I'll think about the hookinitially.
I will ask AI to say, hey, whatis the hook that might be used
on a LinkedIn post or, you know,something in social media?
(10:38):
And that will be an openingparagraph.
Even if I have that hook in thebeginning, once the content is
written.
I'm going to go back to AI andsay, rewrite the hook.
Okay.
The hook is usually a little bitcloser to the end of the
process.
Linda Fanaras (10:52):
Okay.
All right.
And how would you use AI togenerate maybe a helpful FAQ?
Chuck Aikens (10:58):
Oh, that's a great.
So if you have your persona andone of the things that we do
with the persona immediately isfigure out the pain points.
And the problems to be solvedand, and the value props with
those items.
I can use that data, usuallywith a product or service page
and create seven FAQs that Ilove putting on homepages
(11:22):
because it really lifts up theSEO.
But the writing of a question,Followed by an answer.
When you have your targetaudience, your brand promise,
your value props, the thingsyou're trying to solve is is
something that AI does reallygood at.
So a real simple prompt withthose inputs should give you a
lot of FAQs.
Linda Fanaras (11:42):
Perfect.
So how would you approachwriting product or service
descriptions using informativeand persuasive?
Chuck Aikens (11:49):
So, so the biggest thing I would do there is, is as
you write your prompt, you know,act like a copywriter, just gets
into, to general marketing andmessaging.
That the thing that I see mostpeople do is write in first
person,
Linda Fanaras (12:00):
just
Chuck Aikens (12:01):
asking AI to use active voice, write in second
person and use simple languagewill improve almost every
product.
Our, you know, our service pageof B2B because we're, we're
always, I mean, most websites,it's all about I and what I do,
not what you receive.
So just, just taking your copythat you probably have and
(12:22):
saying, please rewrite this insecond person in simple
language, don't use longparagraphs, bullets, like making
it scannable.
Usually improves the efficacy ofthe product page.
Linda Fanaras (12:34):
So how would you help our audience uncover
competitive data in a fewsentences?
Chuck Aikens (12:39):
Yeah, so competitive data usually what
you're looking for is you as abrand or your competitor should
be trying to establish topicalauthority on something relevant
in your industry.
What do you stand for?
What are you talking about?
So what AI can do is it cancrunch a lot of data really
fast.
So I use AI to look for trendsin content.
(13:04):
And maybe even opportunitiesacross the industry.
If I were looking at four orfive competitors to see what are
they covering?
And often it's not very targetedand succinct.
Sometimes it is, but I would beusing that to say, you know, if
I talk about this aspect, ofwhat's going on in the industry.
Then I could establish topicalauthority, which will help in
search and uh, you know, even inthe eyes of, potential clients,
(13:28):
perfect.
Linda Fanaras (13:29):
And then social media, I know a lot of companies
use.
AI for their social media can bevery generic sometimes and just
regurgitate a lot of the samethings.
How do you get that to be alittle bit more creative and
unique?
Chuck Aikens (13:43):
What I'm going to do most of the time, and let's
just say, since this is B2B, youknow, we're talking about
LinkedIn, which is long, longerformat than most social media
platforms.
Really, I'm always trying to gofrom, super long format.
So let's say a video transcriptor a blog post down into the
smaller LinkedIn post.
Again, if we've, if we've donethings like video interviews and
(14:05):
thought leadership andinformative content in our
content waves, all of a suddenthat is what informs the
LinkedIn post.
So I'm not just randomly lookingfor a LinkedIn post.
It's because it's part of a waveof content where the LinkedIn
post Is just one outcome, justlike, you know, an excerpt for
an email might be, or you know,a, a quick a quick video clip on
(14:26):
YouTube.
If, if you have a good contentstrategy, ultimately the social
media content will show up asunique and compelling and
engaged audience.
If you just start at the prompt,trying to make a LinkedIn post,
it will not work, right?
It'll, it'll sound likeeverybody else is putting out
there.
You have to stop for a secondand say, what do I want to be a
topical authority on?
(14:47):
That's interesting to myaudience and what is my wave of
content going to be about?
Linda Fanaras (14:52):
Okay.
Once you do
Chuck Aikens (14:53):
that, it can flow so much easier and the LinkedIn
post becomes so easy to writebecause it's on strategy.
It's on, it's on target.
Linda Fanaras (15:01):
That's a good point.
So, the last quick questionwould be on long form content.
Could be a blog, could be anarticle, could be a white paper.
What are your thoughts on how tobest do that?
Chuck Aikens (15:14):
Yeah.
So, so think of it as, as abuilding process meaning that
what I teach and what I, when I,when I'm working with a brand
and, and making a long formcontent, you start with an
outline and then each part ofthat outline, often three to
five topics that make up thelong format content, those are
individual writing exercises.
And then once you've built outthe, the topical things you're
(15:37):
going to cover in a, in a longformat piece, then you can back
up and write the opening.
You can write the conclusion.
Then you write your hook.
So the, the idea is to startwith a topic.
Understand the helpful subtopicsthat should be covered.
Write each one of thoseindividually, which you can use
AI for to create the base copy.
Then start working on your introand your close to tell the whole
(15:59):
narrative.
And then go and tie it alltogether and enrich it with
quotes and, you know, and imagesand things.
So, most of the time people,they start and say, Ooh, I'm
going to, I'm going to sit downand in one shot.
I'm going to create this thislong format content, and it's
just the nature of trying to dothat.
No wonder we get writer's block.
There's too many things goingon.
(16:20):
But when you understand how toconstruct it just from a
copywriting or an editorialprocess.
It becomes so much easier toproduce it because you can
follow a 5 step process.
It's a method and an approachthat, is more effective.
And, and AI can help, help withthat.
It can help you with an outline.
It can help you identify thesubtopics.
(16:41):
Does it mean you still don'thave to write?
Right.
And you don't have to, you don'thave to contribute in unique
ways.
But boy, it's so much easierwhen you, when you can use a
tool as an assistant to kind ofget you started.
Linda Fanaras (16:53):
Right.
So I'll just wrap up here withthis thing called title wave
content.
It's a concept that you havethat really helps brands create
more effective strategies.
Can you talk about that a littlebit?
Chuck Aikens (17:09):
Yeah, the first two steps inside a tidal wave
content is one, do yourfoundational documents.
I have three tools that I builton the website.
Quick sign up.
There's no pitch.
There's no money to be paid.
You can make your persona brandpromise in your voice and tone.
From that standpoint, the secondstep is to start thinking about
your first strategy.
Whether it be informational.
(17:29):
Which is high frequency and loweffort, or if it's going to be
high connection and and bereally rich pieces that you
don't do whatever the strategyis going to be, that's usually
done in a in a one hour session.
And that's the starting point.
And I do offer a one hoursession to work with somebody to
help them get started, and thenfrom there, who knows?
They can do it themselves.
We can do it together, I can doit for'em, but that's the
(17:51):
concept.
The tidal wave is creating awave of content that once you
say, Hey, this is what I want tobe producing, it's not as much
work to be consistentlyproducing content that's gonna
engage with your audiencebecause you understand what
you're trying to do and how todo it.
And then it's just like having apersonal trainer or somebody to
(18:11):
remind you to say, okay, we'regoing to do this two or three
times a month.
Time to get out of bed and dosome writing today it's having
the processes and the checks andbalances.
But first and foremost, are youdoing the right thing?
Is it going to work?
And you know, whether it's theoptimization that needs to be
done.
or the research that goes intoit to make sure you can truly be
a topical authority.
(18:32):
that starting point is whatTidalway is trying to figure
out.
Linda Fanaras (18:36):
So we can wrap up.
I think that's a great ending.
and I know you offer our customtraining session.
So I'd love you to close withhow individuals, maybe a little
bit about today.
training and then howindividuals can actually get in
touch with you.
Chuck.
Chuck Aikens (18:49):
Yes.
You can find me on LinkedIn atChuck Akins.
You can go to tidal wave contentand sign up.
But yeah, the offer is right nowa couple of times a week.
I'm doing a 90 minute session.
It's it's typically two 50 foranyone listening.
We'll do it for a hundred bucks.
You know, throw me a hundreddollars on PayPal.
Just you know, I can't do it forfree, right.
We're all in business, but yeah,if you'll go through and build
those three foundational docstakes about an hour, then we get
(19:11):
together and, and, We startworking on your, on your content
wave how you and your brandcould better reach out to your
audience through a strategy.
And it's not super complicated.
But we have to have convictionand then commitment to that
strategy to see it through.
Guaranteed, you'll learn a fewtricks about creating content
(19:31):
with AI that'll be helpful.
Linda Fanaras (19:33):
Perfect.
Thank you, Chuck.
So I just want to take a momentand thank our audience today to,
for listening in with myself andChuck at the B2B Brand 180
podcast, we covered a lot ofthings on AI.
And if you would like to connectwith me directly, feel free to
reach out on LinkedIn at LindaFinaris, or you can just go to
(19:56):
lindafinaris.
com and feel free to ask anyquestions that you may have.
And if there's anything we cando for you, we were happy to
help.
So thanks for listening to theB2B Brand 180 podcast today and
have a great day.
Hi, I'm Linda Fenares, host of the B2B Brand
180 podcast and CEO ofMillennium Agency.
Today, I am excited to bring inChuck E.
Atkins, founder of TAMU and aseasoned expert in content
marketing and leveraging AI.
He's has two decades ofexperience in website
development, SEO and digitalmarketing, and he's going to
(00:22):
bring us a wealth of experiencetoday, particularly when it
comes to content strategies andhow to really use AI to elevate
brand presence.
And connect more effectively.
He has this concept called titlewave content platform.
It's a suite of training,coaching and processes that also
help brands create consistent,engaging content across multiple
(00:44):
channels using a I.
So welcome, Chuck.
Great to have you here today.
I'd love for you to share withthe audience a little bit about
yourself.
Chuck Aikens (00:53):
Well, Enda, thanks for having me.
a little bit about myself as itrelates to what we're talking
about today, I had a search socalled SEO and content agency
for about 15 years in Denver,Colorado.
sold it a few years ago and havebeen out just working directly
with brands still in the contentmarketing space, which can
include social media and email.
(01:13):
But yeah, that, that's a littlebackground.
It's all I've ever done.
I even not to date myself, but Iwas even doing content is Google
came along many, many years ago.
So, been been at this for a longtime.
Linda Fanaras (01:25):
Yeah.
So you're a true expert.
That's great to hear.
I think we need to talk a littlebit more about the foundational
work before actually leveragingthe I tools.
And I think this is where a lotof businesses and marketers may
go wrong.
It's really how to use a I inthe most effective way.
Can you speak to the audienceabout that a little bit?
Chuck Aikens (01:43):
When we first heard about Chad, GBT, or if you
use a different a I tool you goto the prompt and you start
asking it to do things to seewhat it can do.
And, you know, some peoplestarted with planning their
vacation or doing a recipe orsomething personal.
And some folks jumped right inand started applying it to their
work to their job, to theirbrand.
And it's okay to start at theprompt and play along and see
(02:06):
what happens.
But, but these foundationaldocuments that are needed.
For a, for a business, for abrand, or are things like who's
your target audience?
So what kind of guidelines doyou want to give AI when it's
writing?
What are your value props?
What is your product andservice?
This concept of giving it somedirection so that it can help
(02:27):
you.
As an AI assistant is, isfundamental.
So there's a lot of work to bedone before the prompt, anytime
that you're trying to, to dosomething for your business or
your brand.
And it's okay to start in themiddle, kind of get acquainted
with it.
But to really use AI as amarketing assistant, you have to
have a strategy, you have tohave intention, you have to have
(02:48):
a target audience.
And that, those foundationaldocuments are the starting
point.
Actually, the starting point.
That I teach and coach is yourcustomer, is your target
audience and often microsegmented down into multiple.
and target audience depending onexactly what you might be doing
with your tasks.
So that's a little bit aboutthe, the foundational documents
(03:09):
and what is that ready, fire,aim aim first you know, before
you fire off the prompts.
Linda Fanaras (03:15):
Yeah, exactly.
And I think also it's importantfor our audience to realize that
when you do look at tools likeAI, you almost have to look at
it from the Perspective of Okay,first of all, I need to train a
eye into your point, Chuck.
Okay, who is my audience?
Who's my target audience?
What am I trying to communicate?
And are there any specificniches that you really need to
(03:37):
cater to instead of coming backwith generic copy?
So I love to talk about microsegmenting the audience because
I think this also helps toreally develop content that is
much more in line with what themarketer business or client is
looking for.
So can we speak about that alittle bit?
I think that's an importantthing to tackle today.
Chuck Aikens (03:57):
Yeah.
Well, one one simple way for B2Bto micro segment is to just to
think about the different rolesthat might be involved in, in
the, the buying committee atyour ideal client profile.
So, maybe there's the CFO, maybethere's the salesperson, maybe
there's a product manager, theCEO, like all of these all of
(04:18):
these different folks you know,that they're different roles at
the ICP.
So you could micro segment byrole.
With a B to B, I often will haveeach one of these personas built
out.
Now it, since I'm, since I do alot of persona work, I will say,
and we'll talk about this at theend, but I, but I have a, a
persona building tool that ifyou answer some quick questions,
(04:39):
you can make these personasfast.
And the reason that's importantis if we're talking about.
Having maybe four or fivepersonas into the buying
committee of your target client,like that takes work.
So how can we do it faster?
Maybe you micro segment byindustry.
So you have a persona in, inthis vertical that you're
targeting versus that one.
If you have to message ourmarket to different folks that
(05:03):
becomes a persona that becomessomebody that you can personify
that way.
When you go to work with A.
I.
It knows who you're trying totalk to,
Linda Fanaras (05:10):
right?
Right.
And it can be very, verytargeted as far as the
communication and messaging isconcerned.
You know, there's a lot ofdifferent ways to use A.
I.
You can use it to generatecustomer journeys.
Yeah.
Email, social media.
I mean, the list goes on.
But what about when it comes toactually creating metadata?
(05:31):
How do you recommend ouraudience to use AI in a way that
helps to identify maybe Yeah.
Chuck Aikens (05:43):
And that's a great question.
So, you know, the, the mostimportant piece of metadata
you're going to have in, in apiece of content is going to be
the page title.
So what, you know, like a lot ofpeople will go to a prompt and
say, write my page or write mypost or write my email,
Linda Fanaras (05:59):
you
Chuck Aikens (06:00):
There's an entire thought process or prompting
that can go into the 60characters that make up your
page title and where the keywordis placed.
And more importantly, what isthe keywords you're targeting?
Linda Fanaras (06:11):
Right.
Chuck Aikens (06:12):
The, you know, how, how competitive or you
know, popular is that, is thatkeyword or does anybody even
type it?
Maybe they don't, maybe theydon't even search it.
So there's this concept ofhaving, using AI to help create
ideas for your page titlemetadata that can be used as
that, that leading indicator toGoogle about what the content of
(06:34):
the page is about is it is oneway to put the metadata the
other way.
And this is a little advanced,but you know, you can, you can
use AI to help understand how tomake the content more helpful.
More comprehensive because whilethe alt tags and the title tag
metadata is important, it's alsoabout all the different words
(06:56):
that you use.
Because if if a piece of contenthas a thousand or 2000 words,
what are those words that arebeing used?
You want AI can help you withthat.
What four or five or six topicsshould I cover?
Okay.
You can ask AI that to make surethat you're creating a helpful,
useful piece of content becausethat, that's what Google's doing
(07:17):
is they're going through yourcopy and saying, Hey, is this
deserving to be in the top 10?
Right?
If it's going to be in the top10 and page one, it better be
helping your target audience.
That is what Google cares about.
Most their last big algorithmupdate, which was in March of
this year, was called thehelpful content update.
That is the benchmark.
They don't care if you use AI.
(07:38):
It better be helpful.
It, it better be adding andcontributing to the search
experience for your targetaudience.
Linda Fanaras (07:44):
that's a great point too.
So thanks for sharing that withour audience today.
So if you were to take you know,I guess the question is, is
trying to balance, you know, aunique voice that a brand has.
the authenticity of using AI ina way that maybe is generated in
a very, like, what I'll callcommon way, because it often
(08:06):
comes back with a very similarlanguage.
So how do you start to balanceusing that brand's unique voice
and actually being able toleverage AI into a way that can
help build out effectivecontent.
Chuck Aikens (08:20):
Yeah.
One of my favorite techniques atthe moment is to actually
conduct video interviews ofpeople that either are in the
brand that they're the personthat created or owns the brand
works for the brand or somehowis associated when, when you
start with a video interview andyou get the sound bites and the
authentic language and nuancesthat that a human brings to the
(08:42):
table.
Then as you go to use AI tobuild out that content to write
something, you get such a betterpiece of content that is
authentic because it startedfrom a human perspective.
Now I can do that with writtenword and people can talk into
their phones.
There's different ways to startwith authentic content.
But by far, my favorite is tojust jump on zoom for 45 minutes
(09:06):
not to belabor, but, but, buttypically a 45 minute interview
with someone who understands andis passionate about the brand,
not even passionate, justunderstands it can result in, in
multiple pages of content forthe website or the blog.
Social media clips, video clips.
Just what is it that you know?
(09:27):
What is it that you want to talkabout?
If I start there, the contentends up being so much more
authentic and real than if youstart at the prompt.
Linda Fanaras (09:36):
No, that's good.
So I would love to run through.
I'm going to kind of quiz youand say, you know, how do you
use a I to generate content forX, Y, Z.
And I'd love for you to give theaudience maybe 123 sentences.
Real good solid takeaways, makesure you do this or make sure
(09:56):
you don't do that.
So do you mind if we get stuck?
What can we go for it?
Quick, quick
Chuck Aikens (10:01):
answers.
And yeah, let's run
Linda Fanaras (10:04):
through it.
So, all right, first of all, Iwould love you to tell us how
you would use AI to craftcompelling headlines.
That really entice the user toclick.
Chuck Aikens (10:17):
Yes.
So, I actually would not startthere.
The way to get a headlineusually happens after the
content is written.
Now, I'll think about the hookinitially.
I will ask AI to say, hey, whatis the hook that might be used
on a LinkedIn post or, you know,something in social media?
(10:38):
And that will be an openingparagraph.
Even if I have that hook in thebeginning, once the content is
written.
I'm going to go back to AI andsay, rewrite the hook.
Okay.
The hook is usually a little bitcloser to the end of the
process.
Linda Fanaras (10:52):
Okay.
All right.
And how would you use AI togenerate maybe a helpful FAQ?
Chuck Aikens (10:58):
Oh, that's a great.
So if you have your persona andone of the things that we do
with the persona immediately isfigure out the pain points.
And the problems to be solvedand, and the value props with
those items.
I can use that data, usuallywith a product or service page
and create seven FAQs that Ilove putting on homepages
(11:22):
because it really lifts up theSEO.
But the writing of a question,Followed by an answer.
When you have your targetaudience, your brand promise,
your value props, the thingsyou're trying to solve is is
something that AI does reallygood at.
So a real simple prompt withthose inputs should give you a
lot of FAQs.
Linda Fanaras (11:42):
Perfect.
So how would you approachwriting product or service
descriptions using informativeand persuasive?
Chuck Aikens (11:49):
So, so the biggest thing I would do there is, is as
you write your prompt, you know,act like a copywriter, just gets
into, to general marketing andmessaging.
That the thing that I see mostpeople do is write in first
person,
Linda Fanaras (12:00):
just
Chuck Aikens (12:01):
asking AI to use active voice, write in second
person and use simple languagewill improve almost every
product.
Our, you know, our service pageof B2B because we're, we're
always, I mean, most websites,it's all about I and what I do,
not what you receive.
So just, just taking your copythat you probably have and
(12:22):
saying, please rewrite this insecond person in simple
language, don't use longparagraphs, bullets, like making
it scannable.
Usually improves the efficacy ofthe product page.
Linda Fanaras (12:34):
So how would you help our audience uncover
competitive data in a fewsentences?
Chuck Aikens (12:39):
Yeah, so competitive data usually what
you're looking for is you as abrand or your competitor should
be trying to establish topicalauthority on something relevant
in your industry.
What do you stand for?
What are you talking about?
So what AI can do is it cancrunch a lot of data really
fast.
So I use AI to look for trendsin content.
(13:04):
And maybe even opportunitiesacross the industry.
If I were looking at four orfive competitors to see what are
they covering?
And often it's not very targetedand succinct.
Sometimes it is, but I would beusing that to say, you know, if
I talk about this aspect, ofwhat's going on in the industry.
Then I could establish topicalauthority, which will help in
search and uh, you know, even inthe eyes of, potential clients,
(13:28):
perfect.
Linda Fanaras (13:29):
And then social media, I know a lot of companies
use.
AI for their social media can bevery generic sometimes and just
regurgitate a lot of the samethings.
How do you get that to be alittle bit more creative and
unique?
Chuck Aikens (13:43):
What I'm going to do most of the time, and let's
just say, since this is B2B, youknow, we're talking about
LinkedIn, which is long, longerformat than most social media
platforms.
Really, I'm always trying to gofrom, super long format.
So let's say a video transcriptor a blog post down into the
smaller LinkedIn post.
Again, if we've, if we've donethings like video interviews and
(14:05):
thought leadership andinformative content in our
content waves, all of a suddenthat is what informs the
LinkedIn post.
So I'm not just randomly lookingfor a LinkedIn post.
It's because it's part of a waveof content where the LinkedIn
post Is just one outcome, justlike, you know, an excerpt for
an email might be, or you know,a, a quick a quick video clip on
(14:26):
YouTube.
If, if you have a good contentstrategy, ultimately the social
media content will show up asunique and compelling and
engaged audience.
If you just start at the prompt,trying to make a LinkedIn post,
it will not work, right?
It'll, it'll sound likeeverybody else is putting out
there.
You have to stop for a secondand say, what do I want to be a
topical authority on?
(14:47):
That's interesting to myaudience and what is my wave of
content going to be about?
Linda Fanaras (14:52):
Okay.
Once you do
Chuck Aikens (14:53):
that, it can flow so much easier and the LinkedIn
post becomes so easy to writebecause it's on strategy.
It's on, it's on target.
Linda Fanaras (15:01):
That's a good point.
So, the last quick questionwould be on long form content.
Could be a blog, could be anarticle, could be a white paper.
What are your thoughts on how tobest do that?
Chuck Aikens (15:14):
Yeah.
So, so think of it as, as abuilding process meaning that
what I teach and what I, when I,when I'm working with a brand
and, and making a long formcontent, you start with an
outline and then each part ofthat outline, often three to
five topics that make up thelong format content, those are
individual writing exercises.
And then once you've built outthe, the topical things you're
(15:37):
going to cover in a, in a longformat piece, then you can back
up and write the opening.
You can write the conclusion.
Then you write your hook.
So the, the idea is to startwith a topic.
Understand the helpful subtopicsthat should be covered.
Write each one of thoseindividually, which you can use
AI for to create the base copy.
Then start working on your introand your close to tell the whole
(15:59):
narrative.
And then go and tie it alltogether and enrich it with
quotes and, you know, and imagesand things.
So, most of the time people,they start and say, Ooh, I'm
going to, I'm going to sit downand in one shot.
I'm going to create this thislong format content, and it's
just the nature of trying to dothat.
No wonder we get writer's block.
There's too many things goingon.
(16:20):
But when you understand how toconstruct it just from a
copywriting or an editorialprocess.
It becomes so much easier toproduce it because you can
follow a 5 step process.
It's a method and an approachthat, is more effective.
And, and AI can help, help withthat.
It can help you with an outline.
It can help you identify thesubtopics.
(16:41):
Does it mean you still don'thave to write?
Right.
And you don't have to, you don'thave to contribute in unique
ways.
But boy, it's so much easierwhen you, when you can use a
tool as an assistant to kind ofget you started.
Linda Fanaras (16:53):
Right.
So I'll just wrap up here withthis thing called title wave
content.
It's a concept that you havethat really helps brands create
more effective strategies.
Can you talk about that a littlebit?
Chuck Aikens (17:09):
Yeah, the first two steps inside a tidal wave
content is one, do yourfoundational documents.
I have three tools that I builton the website.
Quick sign up.
There's no pitch.
There's no money to be paid.
You can make your persona brandpromise in your voice and tone.
From that standpoint, the secondstep is to start thinking about
your first strategy.
Whether it be informational.
(17:29):
Which is high frequency and loweffort, or if it's going to be
high connection and and bereally rich pieces that you
don't do whatever the strategyis going to be, that's usually
done in a in a one hour session.
And that's the starting point.
And I do offer a one hoursession to work with somebody to
help them get started, and thenfrom there, who knows?
They can do it themselves.
We can do it together, I can doit for'em, but that's the
(17:51):
concept.
The tidal wave is creating awave of content that once you
say, Hey, this is what I want tobe producing, it's not as much
work to be consistentlyproducing content that's gonna
engage with your audiencebecause you understand what
you're trying to do and how todo it.
And then it's just like having apersonal trainer or somebody to
(18:11):
remind you to say, okay, we'regoing to do this two or three
times a month.
Time to get out of bed and dosome writing today it's having
the processes and the checks andbalances.
But first and foremost, are youdoing the right thing?
Is it going to work?
And you know, whether it's theoptimization that needs to be
done.
or the research that goes intoit to make sure you can truly be
a topical authority.
(18:32):
that starting point is whatTidalway is trying to figure
out.
Linda Fanaras (18:36):
So we can wrap up.
I think that's a great ending.
and I know you offer our customtraining session.
So I'd love you to close withhow individuals, maybe a little
bit about today.
training and then howindividuals can actually get in
touch with you.
Chuck.
Chuck Aikens (18:49):
Yes.
You can find me on LinkedIn atChuck Akins.
You can go to tidal wave contentand sign up.
But yeah, the offer is right nowa couple of times a week.
I'm doing a 90 minute session.
It's it's typically two 50 foranyone listening.
We'll do it for a hundred bucks.
You know, throw me a hundreddollars on PayPal.
Just you know, I can't do it forfree, right.
We're all in business, but yeah,if you'll go through and build
those three foundational docstakes about an hour, then we get
(19:11):
together and, and, We startworking on your, on your content
wave how you and your brandcould better reach out to your
audience through a strategy.
And it's not super complicated.
But we have to have convictionand then commitment to that
strategy to see it through.
Guaranteed, you'll learn a fewtricks about creating content
(19:31):
with AI that'll be helpful.
Linda Fanaras (19:33):
Perfect.
Thank you, Chuck.
So I just want to take a momentand thank our audience today to,
for listening in with myself andChuck at the B2B Brand 180
podcast, we covered a lot ofthings on AI.
And if you would like to connectwith me directly, feel free to
reach out on LinkedIn at LindaFinaris, or you can just go to
(19:56):
lindafinaris.
com and feel free to ask anyquestions that you may have.
And if there's anything we cando for you, we were happy to
help.
So thanks for listening to theB2B Brand 180 podcast today and
have a great day.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Ridiculous History
History is beautiful, brutal and, often, ridiculous. Join Ben Bowlin and Noel Brown as they dive into some of the weirdest stories from across the span of human civilization in Ridiculous History, a podcast by iHeartRadio.