CASE STUDY: Using Artificial Intelligence for Content Marketing
Envision has been using Artificial Intelligence to provide an innovative competitive advantage to our clients. In this post, we will specifically look at the use of cognitive analytics and NLP (Natural Language Processing) for the purpose of content and search engine marketing (SEM).
"Regenerative Agriculture"
Recently, we developed the site www.freshlygrown.ca on behalf of the Food Water Wellness Foundation. We used AI to help us communicate the message of "Regenerative Agriculture" which is not as common or popular as the message of "sustainable farming." This was a challenge for sure, but a worthy one.
We always advise clients to avoid competing with popular keywords already dominated by competitors. Instead, it is best to look for keyword "gaps" or "verticals" that reach the same audience but with a lot less noise. If you are able to claim a set of keywords before your competitors, then you can create a sustainable advantage. The term "Regenerative Agriculture" presented such an opportunity.
Step 1: Analyze the Most Popular Content
Generally, the first step is to take a look at what is working already in terms of online content. Using our tools, we were able to identify 153 popular articles on regenertaive agriculture that totaled 34,373 shares across all media channels. We could then analyze which channels are the most popular, all the way down to the best days to publish, content length and who the authors and social influencers are.
Step 2: Run Cognitive Analysis on Popular Content
Using Artificial Intelligence, we were able to analyze the top articles to detect and extract information such as concepts, entities, sentiment, and keywords. This can now be done in a matter of hours compared to the days required for manual processing. For our client, one analysis we did was comparing overall sentiment and emotions of content between the keywords "Regenerative" and "Sustainable" agriculture. We then grouped the data according to the most popular domains which were considered competitors.
We found that, in the most popular articles, the overall sentiment was not very positive (in one case very negative) and all the most popular content was written with language indicating anger and disgust. This gave us a baseline to compare it to the keyword "Sustainable Agriculture" to see if there was a difference.
Although sentiment did somewhat improve, anger and disgust were still the primary emotions. So we decided to analyze content that the client had experienced previous success with. The difference was very drastic. Our client's content, titled "FWWF Rootstock" (second to last on the chart) was very positive and used language to express the emotion of joy. This was an important insight. We decided to adopt a "contrarian" strategy for the content, differentiating our content from every competitor. Often, you will want to follow the trend. But in this case, the client was having success going against the trend and now we understand why.
What we did next was use the recommendations from the Natural Language Processing analysis and write our own content. The result is the last article titled "#F2THacker Rootstock Post." And as you can see, we were able to recreate the same sentiment and emotion while communicating information about "Regenerative Agriculture."
Step 3: Build Target Personas
The last step was to run some more analysis, but this time on the target audience. This allows us to understand how to best use our NLP data to reach key influencers. In other words, we can use AI to increase the chances of word-of-mouth exposure. We are even able to understand online social behavior which opens up a whole new analytics known as "Social Listening."
Is using Artificial intelligence right for you?
This is a great question. If you are trying to break through stiff competition or have a large amount of data you believe could provide competitive insights, AI is definitely for you. The best part is, AI is now more affordable than ever and you don't have to be a data scientist to take advantage of it. This gets us really excited on behalf of our clients!
Let us know if you'd like to explore the possibilities.