How to Take the Guesswork Out of Content Marketing With AI

Ceralytics is a content intelligence platform that uses AI to predict which content you should create next. The tool uses natural language processing to analyze competitors. It also uses machine learning to tell you how well content on competitor sites is performing.

The result? 

You take the guesswork out of content marketing. You know what has worked in the past — and what will work in the future — for your target audiences.

We spoke with Ceralytics Chief Strategist Brandon Andersen to learn more.

In a single sentence or statement, describe your company.

Our content intelligence platform gives you data-driven insights on what content you should create to drive traffic and conversions on your website.

How does your company use artificial intelligence in its products?

We utilize natural language processing to read and analyze every page of content on our clients' websites, and the websites of their competitors. The NLP engine determines the topics that each page is about and indexes it accordingly.

We also use machine learning to identify how well content on competitor sites is performing. Based on publicly available information we know about competitor sites and each of their pages, our algorithm determines which pages are driving the most traffic to a site, and which pages and topics are not doing well. This is essential when learning from competitors. Being a copycat doesn't help your brand, because you're just as likely to copy poor performing content as you are top performing content. Our content intelligence identifies which content you should emulate (and enhance to make 10x content) for your own site.

What are the primary marketing use cases for your AI-powered solutions?

Creating a content strategy, SEO strategy, and understanding the real needs of your target audience so you can deliver the content and products they actually care about. We take out the guesswork of content marketing — no more throwing content against the wall to see what sticks. We identify what has worked in the past and what will work in the future with your target audiences.

What makes your AI-powered solution smarter than traditional approaches and products?

Competitive audits and website audits take a ton of time. They can take weeks or months to do. Then, once they're done, they're often never updated. Our platform performs these audits every day, so you always have up-to-date and actionable information for what content to create next.

Are there any minimum requirements for marketers to get value out of your AI-powered technology? (e.g. data, list size, etc.)

The minimum requirement is an understanding that content marketing and SEO are not quick fixes. They are investments that take time. So a commitment that the content recommendations and strategies we produce will be executed with content is a must.

Who are your ideal customers in terms of company size and industries?

We serve companies of all sizes in most industries. Some of our most ideal customers are those who have found themselves left behind when it comes to content marketing and SEO, and they need to catch up to the market leaders. We help them identify what is actually working in their industry, and help them identify where their competition has already made mistakes and wins. This gives them an advantage in playing catch up, because they can learn from the mistakes of their competitors and just focus on the content that actually works.

What do you see as the limitations of artificial intelligence as it exists today?

The biggest limitation of AI is the cleanliness of data you put into it to analyze. For a lot of AI solutions, such as those for sales and finance, your input data needs to be amazing in order for you to get unbiased results. Often, data has unseen errors that drive false correlations.

Luckily, with the data we analyze there isn't much in terms of error and omissions to account for since many of the data sources we pull from are external from the client.

What do you see as the future potential of AI in marketing?

In the long run, AI is going to help make the 1-on-1 connection with consumers that marketers have been dreaming about for a long time. Understanding what users want before they even know it will be a game changer. That's what we're trying to do.

Any other thoughts on AI in marketing, or advice for marketers who are just starting with AI?

"AI" is a buzzword. Don't buy into AI systems just because they sound too good to be true. They probably are. (Being the co-founder of a platform that utilizes AI, this probably seems counter-productive.) But AI is just a tool. You don't buy yourself a hammer unless you have something you want to hit with it. Don't buy AI systems unless you know exactly what business problem you have and that AI is truly the best tool to use to solve it. Sometimes AI isn't the answer.