What actually is ChatGPT?

Launched in November 2022 by OpenAI, ChatGPT stands for Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer. To you and me, this basically means it’s a bot that has been fed mountains and mountains of data. It then uses this data to provide answers to… well, pretty much anything. It can answer questions, summarise information, generate copy, write code, and so much more – and will attempt to do as authentically as possible, mimicking a human conversation.

ChatGPT can be a lot of fun. But while asking it to cook up nursery rhymes about WWE fighters might be an amusing way to pass the time (probably for a minority that one!), is ChatGPT equally worth using to create highly effective, targeted content for your business? Let’s discuss.

What are the key benefits of using ChatGPT?

• It’s quick and easy to use – this can make your work much more efficient. For instance, rather than spending hours putting together a blog, ChatGPT will create you one in seconds (we did write this one though!).
• If you have an internet connection, ChatGPT is accessible to all.
• It can help with idea generation when you’re battling creator’s block.

Sounds incredible, right? Not so fast…

The danger of cutting corners

The thing is, just because you can use something, doesn’t always mean you should, or at least not all the time. Sure, you can use ChatGPT to write your new landing page copy, or to quickly whip up an email you need to send out within the next 10 minutes, but what’s the cost? Quality: that’s the cost. And if the quality drops? So could your traffic, sales, revenue, reputation… and so on…

That might sound terribly pessimistic, but let’s dig deeper into this.

You’re one the greatest assets your business has (if not the greatest asset). You understand your brand, its values, and its mission better than any bot ever could. And by getting ChatGPT to create your content, you are at risk of losing the very things that make your brand stand out. You may well start to sound just a bit more like everyone else does.

Let’s say you’re a holiday cottage based in the South West and you want to write a social media post about the best nearby beaches. ChatGPT will sort that out for you. But it will sort it out for anyone else too. And so, if we’re all using the same bot to cook up the same fun, snappy content, you’re going to lose your brand’s tone of voice.

While you can train ChatGPT to learn more and more about your brand and the writing style you’re after, this does take time and a lot of steering. And let’s be honest, regardless of the tone of voice you’re after, ChatGPT always leans towards relatively cheesy, sales-heavy copy. That might not be what you’re after.

No original content

Let’s reflect again on how ChatGPT works. In simple terms, it’s fed masses and masses of information and learns how to imitate this information as best as possible. In other words, it’s regurgitating existing content. No new ideas. No fresh opinions. Just copy and paste in a thousand different ways. So, if you’re looking to create original content with original ideas, you can’t leave it all to ChatGPT.

Will Google penalise content created by ChatGPT?

Google hasn’t stated that it’s outright against ChatGPT. In fact, their opinions concerning AI have been fairly inconsistent over the past years. On the one hand, Google’s Managing Director Sundar Pichai has described AI as the key ingredient to making people “more productive than we have ever imagined.” Google even has its own rival to ChatGPT called Bard. On the other hand, Google claims it will penalise content generated by AI.

While there are certainly ways that Google can detect whether content has been AI-generated, they haven’t officially confirmed whether they are actively tracking this.

But one thing we do know is that Google is against content that doesn’t make sense or add value. Any content that Google considers spammy will certainly be ranked lower.

In Google’s guidelines, they talk about “Spammy automatically-generated content” which they define as: “content that’s been generated programmatically without producing anything original or adding sufficient value; instead, it’s been generated for the primary purpose of manipulating search rankings and not helping users.” They give examples such as text translated by an automated tool without human review, or text generated through automated processes without regard for quality or user experience.

The thing is that ChatGPT is notorious for producing this type of content – blogs stuffed with keywords but that don’t actually provide any substance. And so, you cannot rely solely on ChatGPT to help you climb the ranks of Google. Instead, you should be focussing on creating valuable content that your target audience will genuinely engage with.

Thinking practically

ChatGPT is good, but it’s not perfect. Sometimes it slips up and creates copy that simply doesn’t make sense, or is full of false information, or is just repeating the same sentences again and again. That means you have to go through your work with a fine-tooth comb and edit it. And that’s fine – to an extent. If you’re spending too much time cutting and snipping away at your ChatGPT-generated content, all it’s doing is giving you a false sense of efficiency.

So, is ChatGPT not worth it?

Is this to say that ChatGPT is worth ignoring? Not necessarily. Firstly, ChatGPT isn’t going to be the end of AI – not even close. And as systems evolve, they are going to offer a lot more potential. So, knowing what’s out there will only help you and your business to remain agile.

And yes, we know we said ChatGPT isn’t the best place for creating original content, but nevertheless, it’s still a useful tool for idea generation. If you can’t think of any new blog ideas, for instance, ChatGPT will happily give you some inspiration. By all means take it, but be prepared to bring your own ideas to the table too.

The key with ChatGPT is that the more specific you can be, the better. If you ask it to create an entire marketing strategy for you, it’ll be generic and relatively useless. If you ask if to recommend 5 free tools for social media content creation, however, you’ll get a much more defined answer.

The more you use ChatGPT, the more you’ll understand its strengths and weaknesses. And the better you’ll become at delegating tasks to it.

If you would like more digital marketing advice, get in touch with the MiHi team on 01566 232323 or email us at hello@mihidigital.co.uk.

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Their reputation means that their work takes them way beyond their base in Swansea, just as ours does from our little office location near the Tamar. That’s actually how they got in touch with us; they were facing some SEO problems and were referred on by another agency who knew that we were the perfect fit for them.

Having solved their SEO issues, we then moved on to building their new site. Taking a relatively primitive original version of just five pages, up to one with more than thirty pages full of tree surgery services and advice, will help them rank for even more key phrases, as well as reach more people in the process.

This one really has been a win, win, win!

You can visit their new website here: cantellowtreesurgery.co.uk

If you want to know more about how MiHi Digital can help your business grow, then get in touch with the team!

Call us on 01566 232323 or email hello@mihidigital.co.uk.

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If you’re here, it’s likely that thought is going through your mind! Writing content that enthrals potential customers and appeases search engines can seem like an overwhelming task. Fortunately, we’ve created a step-by-step guide and broken it down into three easy parts to help you produce thoughtful and targeted content, that will deliver traffic right to your digital doorstep.

So, grab a cup of tea or coffee and a biscuit (or two!) and let’s get started with part one!

What is website copy?

In short, website copy is the term used to describe the main body of text on your website. Its purpose is to tell visitors about your brand, advertise your services or product, guide visitors around your site and direct them to what action you want them to take.

Before you start writing your content, there are a few things you need to keep in mind.

1. Purpose

Before you begin writing it is essential you understand its purpose. Knowing what you want your website copy to achieve will help you craft the perfect content to support your goals. Ask yourself questions like:

• Are you trying to sell a product or service?
• Is your main goal to attract new clients and generate more leads?
• Do you want to create a community?
• Are you trying to improve customer satisfaction?

Be specific with your aims. The more you can define exactly what information you want visitors to your website to know and what action you want them to take, the more successful your website copy will be and the easier it will be for you to write!

2. Research

Research topics will vary depending on the nature of your website, however, the most basic yet vital research you should undertake is to understand your audience and know your competitors.

Audience:

The more you know about your target audience, the easier it will be to convert them into customers. Try to get into their mindset and ask yourself, who are the people coming to your website, what do they want or need and what terms are they searching? By writing copy that speaks to them in a way they can relate to or solves problems you know they have, you can create a foundation of trust that will generate loyal customers.

Competitors:

It is almost certain that visitors to your site will be looking at competitors’ websites to determine their best option. To convince visitors to choose you instead, it is key you know what your competitors are offering. Find out what they are doing, what audience they target and what type of content they are producing. This will allow you to make strategic decisions about your own website as well as spot trends you can use to get ahead of the rest.

3. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

SEO can seem like a bit of a scary exhausting obstacle. See what we did there? Yeah, sorry about that. Whilst it may seem daunting at first, writing with SEO in mind is important for helping your website to rank higher for relevant searches.

• Keywords: From researching your audience, you should know what words they are searching for. These are your keywords. Whilst you should avoid keyword stuffing, adding keywords to your titles, subheadings and body text will help increase traffic to your website.
• Metadata: Keeping it to one or two sentences, write clear and enticing descriptions of your web pages to encourage click-throughs.
• URLs: Ensure your URL is descriptive yet as concise as possible.
• Interlinking: Interlinks are links that direct your visitors from one page to another within your website. Including interlinks points users towards other valuable information, (potentially preventing them from leaving your website and looking at a competitors), as well as showing search engines that you have other relevant information.

These are the absolute basics of SEO, but they are a great first step in climbing the search engine ranks and reaping the rewards of more website traffic.

Preparing to write your content may seem like a tedious task, however, taking the time to really understand who you’re speaking to and what your content needs to do will help you get some top-notch content right from the get-go.

Don’t forget to check out part two and part three of our ‘How to Write Content for Your Website’ guide, where we focus on what you need to think about whilst writing and what to do when you’ve finished writing!

If you’re wrestling with your writing and need help, give us a call on 01566 232323 or email us at hello@mihidigital.co.uk

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Increase website traffic
A study by HubSpot Marketing showed that businesses with a blog get up to 55% more website traffic. Blogs are a great way to answer questions, solve problems your customers have, advertise new products/services, and allow your audience to get to know your brand on a more personal level.

Take the time to research what questions your audience is asking/what they’re interested in and try to answer these questions and provide a solution to any pain points. Content that offers value will help to attract potential customers to your website and increase your leads.

Good for SEO
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. Optimising your website is important to ensure that it ranks higher in search engines and is therefore more visible to potential customers.

Some of the factors that go into ranking in search engines include new content, keywords, the number of indexed pages and backlinks. By updating your website with high quality blogs on a regular basis, you can cover all these areas, which will help to improve your search engine rankings and attract more customers.

Creates content for social media
Blog content is great for repurposing as social media content, helping you to fill up spaces in your social media content calendar, as well as encourage users onto your website.

You can simply link to your blog as a whole or turn it into bite sized chunks of information, reels, highlights, infographics, or videos. You can even repurpose it to go out via email as a newsletter. The possibilities are endless!

Establishes authority within your industry
Not only does a blog allow you to connect better with your audience and give them a greater insight into your brand, but it also positions your business as an authority within your field.

Having a blog that is consistently updated, well-written and offering high-value content tells your customers that you are a credible source of information. We all like to purchase from brands that we can trust, and a blog will go a long way in helping to establish this trust with your customer base.

Drives long-term results
The good thing about blogs, particularly those that cover certain topics or answer specific questions, is that they continue to generate traffic. This is why it is so important to make sure you’re providing relevant content that is helpful to your target audience. Many businesses find that a large percentage of their organic traffic arrives on their site via blogs, this means that a blog is still working hard for you weeks, months or even years after you uploaded it.

We hope this has inspired you to get blogging but if you’re wrestling with your writing and need help with your digital marketing strategy, give us a call on 01566 232323 or email us at hello@mihidigital.co.uk

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And we know exactly where we want to stay when we finally make it to East Anglia…in a converted windmill of course! The stunning 7 storey Old Mill at Big Stay Norfolk is the perfect place to take the whole family.  The quirky circular bedrooms in the mill tower are beautifully cosy but the 105 square foot living space is just breathtaking.  It opens out onto an epic garden with sweeping views across the Norfolk countryside. Big Stay Norfolk also boasts the historic Hall Farmhouse.  In a quintessential village located in the heart of Norfolk, the farmhouse is another substantial family escape with a 120sqm kitchen opening out onto an acre of garden. 

Better yet, both are pooch friendly so you can explore this lovely corner of the country, with the family hound too.

Take a look around this gorgeous pair over on their new website bigstaynorfolk.com

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Well, that’s exactly what’s happening right here in the South West! The scientists at Trelonk Wellbeing and the University of Plymouth have been taking crops and plants that have been grown for centuries across our green and pleasant land and putting them to real use; lavender, borage and sunflower (to name just a few) are all being put through their paces in the lab and going on to make a real difference to people’s daily lives.

So where does MiHi come in? Although we probably can’t help you sleep, what we can do is get the word out about this innovative brand. Having previously worked with a London-based agency, Trelonk teamed up with MiHi to build the second iteration of their website, which allows you to understand the right mix of products for you and buy them online.

As with all of our sites, we’ve included plenty of SEO work to enable the brand to reach further, as well as our unique understanding of ecommerce to increase conversion.

We’re looking forward to sampling some of the products in the future, but for now you can take a look at their site here: trelonkwellbeing.com

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MiHi Digital, which has grown to be one of the most respected agencies within the region’s tourism sector over the past decade, was set up by Director Mark Worden from a single laptop on the Exeter Quayside in 2013. The company, which helps on all aspects of online marketing, has now gone on to work with more than 500 organisations from across the UK and three other continents, turning over a combined £600m between them.

Mark said “More and more businesses now understand the importance of marketing their products and services online and are embracing it. Our mantra has been to help and support firms in making the most of the time and budget they spend by adopting a strategic and integrated approach, whilst also cutting out the technical jargon!”

A large proportion of business growth has been attributed to client recommendation, which accounts for more than half of all new enquiries.

Mark explained “Everything at MiHi revolves around delivering excellent service, results, and value. For as long as we’ve been delivering this, our clients have been telling other people about us! There is no better recommendation than from someone that has used your services and that’s a key to how we’ve been able to grow over the years”.

Future business growth is also on the horizon with the past 12 months seeing more enquiries than ever before.

Mark added “As a business we’re continually growing; we’re investing in our team, our skills and continually evolving the services we offer to our clients. It’s an incredibly exciting time and we’re all looking forward to the next 500!”.

For more information on MiHi Digital services please visit www.mihidigital.co.uk

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Established 16 years ago, the long standing national and international Coprorate Live Wire awards recently introduced regional categories to recognise those top firms showing demonstrable commitment to going above and beyond to support their clients and business communities at a more localised level.

This award is further recognition of MiHi Digital’s achievements and the firm is proud to add it to their UK Enterprise Awards ‘Best Web Design and SEO Agency’ win in 2020 and the similar 2019 accolade in the LUXLife Global Excellence Awards.

MiHi Digital Director Mark Worden said: “With an unprecedentedly turbulent 12 months for small and medium sized businesses, we have seen a significant increase in the number of clients seeking to improve their online presence.  Having taken on over 70 new clients in the last year, this win demonstrates our commitment to delivering top notch expertise and unbeatable levels of service and we couldn’t be more thrilled.

Our team continues to grow to keep up with increasing demand from clients across the region and it looks like an exciting 12 months ahead helping more South West businesses to level up their online offering.”

For more information on MiHi Digital and their marketing services please visit: www.mihidigital.co.uk

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