Effortless Content Creation with AI: Here's How

The promise of AI in Thought-leadership

Creating content on a regular basis is one the best ways to position your expertise, specially when you send valuable insights to your email list in a newsletter. Yet, creating a solid article can be incredibly time-consuming. In this guide, I will share how I save hours in content creation using AI—and how you can do it too.

The key to using AI in your content is understanding what can be delegated to AI and what should NEVER be deferred to AI. These language models can handle about 80% of the job. They're great at putting ideas together and finding the right vocabulary to communicate effectively.

When used correctly, AI can help elevate our voice and output, positioning our expertise much faster.

What NOT to do

It’s critical that you don’t become lazy and let AI decide what content to create. You MUST understand your audience's pain points and desires, and write about those things. If you can’t attune to your audience, something is already going terribly wrong. It’s valid to use AI to brainstorm ideas, but it’s your job to filter and pick the ones that resonate best with your audience. Check out this quick guide on how to write content your audience ACTUALLY wants to read.

We can train AI to sound like us and write similarly to our brand voice, but it’s never the same (at least for now). I’ve become really good at picking up when something is AI-generated, and it kills my credibility if someone just copy-pastes it. DON’T do this! Instead, edit massively, cut, and don't defer your intellectual property—your voice! After all, the whole purpose of content creation is to build a relationship with your audience, and your audience is pretty smart!

My 9-step process to creating content with AI.

Step 1: Create an Organized Content Calendar

I find it extremely helpful to know what I will publish and write about at least a month in advance. It gives me time to think, research, and fill my brain with essential information. I like to keep a list of ideas, typically writing about:

• Problems my clients faced lately
• General pain points and desires my clients have
• A post jumping into current conversations or events (like this one)

Step 2: Record Content Briefs in My Phone Voice Memo App

This was a game-changer. The process starts with recording a voice memo, dumping all I want to say about a specific topic. The order doesn’t matter. In this brief, I am scattered. I just want to dump all my ideas on a specific topic into one place.

Step 3: Transcribe the Audio

Next, I generate a transcript of the audio—there are plenty of software options for this. I particularly use Otter.ai to generate the transcript.

Step 4: Create a Custom GPT (You Only Have to Do This Once)

ChatGPT has a functionality called GPTs. Think of GPTs as custom versions of ChatGPT with specific instructions, skills, and knowledge. They are great for repetitive tasks, such as writing content.

To create a GPT, go to My GPTs then Create a GPT. You will then start giving instructions to create your recipe.

When you feed the instructions to the GPT, make sure to communicate:

• The goal: Act as an assistant to help you write the newsletter.
• The audience: Explain who the content is aimed at.
• The edge: Explain your brand, USP, and key messages.
• The style: Your brand voice, tone, personality, and writing style.

Most importantly, instruct the GPT in the specific steps you want it to take to help you. For example, my GPT has the following steps:

1. Hugo provides a topic and explanation (based on the transcript of an audio file).
2. Outline the content.
3. Hugo selects parts of the outline, and you assist in writing each section in the specified style.
4. Review and refine grammar and English after drafting.
5. Create an abstract 16:9 image for the post.
6. Brainstorm five short, catchy subject lines.
7. Write a short excerpt for email preview, under 140 characters.

You can test your GPT and fine-tune it on the go. You only need to do this once!

Step 5: Create the Content Outline

I now feed the GPT the transcript I generated, and the GPT returns a content outline. I get ideas from this outline but will wittingly discard anything that doesn’t resonate or feel right. I make sure to communicate with the GPT the final outline we will be working with.

Step 6: Start Writing

At this point, I start writing the content for each section of the outline. I write the essentials and core messages without worrying too much about connecting the sentences smoothly. I drop each portion into the GPT, which uses the instructions from step 4 to create a more elaborate paragraph from my draft. I take each section and edit it further to make sure it sounds like me.

Step 7: Grammar Check

I drop the entire article into the GPT for a grammar check. Then, I proofread the final outcome.

Step 8: Create an Image

ChatGPT comes integrated with DALL-E to create astonishing images. I’ve trained my GPT to create an abstract-style image that I can use in the blog post. Sometimes I request a few changes before I find something I like.

Step 9: Subject Line and Preview Text

Finally, I’ve instructed the GPT to give me 5 ideas for subject lines and preview text. These ideas are usually great, but most of the time I am already set on a title I think would work better—yet I’m willing to be surprised!

I put everything together for my team to process and send out.

BONUS TIP: If your article needs to be well-referenced, ChatGPT is not the best option. Instead, I suggest using Perplexity.

Here is a prompt you can copy and paste to instruct your GPT:

You are a newsletter writer assistant for [my name and brand], tasked with helping write a weekly newsletter titled [newsletter name] focusing on [this topic] for [this audience]. Your purpose is to [educate and deepen relationships with the audience, positioning the brand as a trusted authority in the field]. Your responses should make readers feel [main emotion]. The writing style is [describe brand voice]. The process is as follows:

[Step-by-step instructions on how you want AI to help you].

To seamlessly integrate this content creation process into your broader strategy, you might consider embedding it as part of your email marketing efforts. For a full run down on how to effectively market to your audience, check out our guide: Email Marketing for Coaches | The Complete 2024 Guide. This resource will help you craft email marketing strategy that build strong relationships and convert more leads.