AI Content Writer Tool: Completely Useless or Worth It?
Have you been thinking about investing in an AI content generator but aren’t sure if it’s a good idea?
AI content tools have really increased in popularity, and it’s expected that this trend will continue. After all, they help save time and overcome writer’s block.
But questions still arise. If you use one, does it mean your content writing skills aren’t up to par? Does it undermine your work? Will automated content creation tools eventually replace you and me and our fellow content writers?
We’d like to answer some of your questions, based on the example of one of the leading content creation AI tools, Jasper (formerly Jarvis). Find out if these tools are worth it and what they really mean for your position as a content marketer.
What is a content generator?
A content generator powered by Artificial Intelligence is a tool that, as its name says, generates content automatically. Depending on what tool you’re using specifically, you can receive ideas and texts based on your input and what you’re looking for. These can be anything from Instagram posts to Google Ads headlines to long-form content like blogs/articles.
Reviewing AI content writer tool Jasper
Jasper is one of the most powerful content generator tools out there right now. Just a glance at part of its dashboard shows you how multifunctional it can be.
There are, of course, plenty more options as you scroll down the dashboard. As you can see, you can also select different categories of templates based on what you need help with.
There are two modes to choose from, Starter and Boss Mode.
We chose to trial Boss Mode so we could see what the full package has to offer. Our main aim was to check out the long-form content options, but we gave other templates a try as well.
Long-form content with Jasper
Since this is not intended to be a how-to article, we’ll just have a brief overview of the long-form content options in Jasper.
With the Long-form Assistant, you can choose to write an article from scratch or create a Blog Post Workflow. In both cases, you give Jasper a description of the content you want to create and the keywords you’d like to be included. You can have Jasper write an intro paragraph as well.
The option to start from scratch gives you a blank page with a sidebar, and you can write an outline and commands for Jasper in the editor. The Blog Post Workflow allows you to generate various titles and intro paragraphs prior to entering the editor, but you can decide to write and use your own as well.
The second option is generally better for longer blogs and is usually combined with the Blog Post Outline and Conclusion Paragraph templates for the best results. Whatever is generated can be transferred into the editor.
The advantages of creating long-form content in this way:
• Jasper is fantastic at matching the tone of voice you set.
• It helps you overcome writer’s block by providing tons of different ideas.
• It can help save time. You don’t have to write anything other than precise input and the text is generated for you to proofread and edit.
• You can run the content through a grammar and plagiarism checker.
• 25+ languages are supported.
The disadvantages:
• The content is not ready-to-go (keep in mind that the creators of Jasper do not claim that it is). You need to spend time tweaking it.
• Proofreading and editing may sometimes prove more challenging than planned. For example, if you generate the intro and conclusion separately, there may be quite a disconnect between these sections and the rest of the text, making the process a bit lengthier.
• You don’t know where the information comes from and whether it’s correct. It may happen that a sentence is generated that makes little sense or is just plain wrong, factually speaking. So, you’ll need to double-check the info provided. Again, the creators are pretty transparent about this, as you can see from their statement:
“It is important to note that Jasper is primarily built to write more creatively than he is factual. So, many times his facts will be fillers or placeholders for you to go in and actually fact-check.” (Source)
Ultimately, it can go either way, depending on both your input and the topic itself. It’ll either be a breeze, where instead of spending hours on a quality blog post you just have to act as an editor and fact-checker. This will free up your time for other creative work. On the other hand, you may get stuck in a loop of rereading, rewriting and researching again, which doesn’t seem very beneficial.
Meta titles and descriptions
With how crucial SEO is in the digital world, we tried generating meta titles and descriptions for two types of pages: blogs and services. Here’s how it went; the blog is up first.
As you can see, you give Jasper the essential details and generate several different results. The results are pretty good per se and there’s a lot to choose from. However, it’s important to check the number of characters.
The best practice for meta descriptions is a maximum of 160 characters, otherwise Google will truncate them. Not all generated descriptions will follow this and may end up longer (e. g. the description on the bottom right of the image above).
As for services pages, let’s look at the image below.
Again, we have some nice results. The descriptions are accurate and catchy. However, we run into the same issue. Even though the results are supposed to be SEO-friendly, some of them exceed the maximum amount of characters ideal for meta descriptions.
Content simplifier
One option that catches attention is the Explain It to a Child template. This template allows you to simplify a text for a grade level of your choice. We used a paragraph from one of our API-related blogs. Take a look at the output below.
The original paragraph may not be exceedingly complex, but certainly requires at least a little bit of technical knowledge to fully grasp. With Jasper, we generated a few rephrased versions for grade level 10. As you can see, the template really did what was asked of it.
As content creators, we may sometimes get carried away by our own knowledge on the topic that even when we try to simplify content, there’s still more that can be done to make it easier to process. So, that’s where this tool definitely comes in handy.
Expansion
When inspiration just keeps dodging you, you can use the Sentence Expander to create a longer sentence based on the one you inserted and with the tone of voice you set. See our example below.
Not all the results matched the tone as hoped, but the first and second to last (top to bottom) really hit the nail on the head.
Funny marketing ideas
To top off this discussion, here’s a fun template in Jasper – Ridiculous Marketing Ideas. You just tell Jasper what your company does and see the magic happen.
Obviously, this is designed for entertainment purposes only, so it’s not going to be providing actually usable ideas. But it will get a chuckle or two out of your content marketing team for sure.
The bottom line
Jasper definitely provides an abundance of templates. We decided to demonstrate a few of the most significant ones for SEO content creators, but there’s plenty more to explore. Aside from the ones we showed, we’d also like to point out we tried the PAS and AIDA formula templates and were quite satisfied with them.
To sum it up, there are some useful options there that can potentially enhance your content marketing team’s workflow. That said, we weren’t particularly blown away by the long-form content options, whereas the short-form content templates did prove valuable. Of course, it’s best if the team try it out themselves and make the call.
Our final verdict on AI content writing tools
One thing’s for sure: AI tools for content marketing are not going to replace actual human creators – and they aren’t meant to. They’re essentially there to streamline the process of creating content by giving you strong foundations which to build upon. Ultimately, these tools will always need a human hand behind them to bring the generated content up to standard.
Is it a worthy investment for businesses? That depends. If you have limited resources and/or a very small content team that can easily get overwhelmed by the amount of work, then yes. These tools can indeed free up their time and cultivate their energy, resulting in more ideas and more things done.
On the other hand, if your team is bigger, or the workload doesn’t need easing, or your focus is long-form content, then you might not want to invest in an AI-powered writing tool just yet.
Have any questions? Still wondering what to do? Feel free to reach out to us. Digital agency GRM Digital’s dedicated marketing team are here to help you make the right decision, tailored to your business’s needs.