AI for Cannabis Content Marketing: 7 Best Practices for Harnessing Tools Like ChatGPT
Leverage AI Tools Like a Pro for Your Cannabis Brand’s Content Marketing
No doubt about it, AI tools like ChatGPT offer some cool opportunities for enhancing your cannabis brand’s content marketing. With the right practices, AI-powered language programs can help you grow your brand’s digital footprint and produce more content that’s relatable, informative and engaging. The right practices are key, though. Having spent a good deal of time working with programs like ChatGPT in the context of cannabis content marketing, here are some of the best practices for effectively leveraging these tools that I’ve learned so far.
1. Perfect Your Prompts
When it comes to AI language programs, the quality of output generated relies heavily on the quality of your input prompts. If you want a program like ChatGPT to spit out a 700-word, SEO-optimized blog written for novice cannabis consumers in a conversational tone that educates them about the shelf life and storage of cannabis edibles, for instance, make sure to include all those details (and more) in your request prompt. For longer-form content with multiple elements or any sort of narrative arc, it’s also a good idea to include a solid outline in your prompt, along with your target keywords and any other information you want incorporated.
2. Edit. Edit. Edit.
One of the most crucial aspects of using AI language programs in your cannabis marketing is always running the content by a skilled human editor—ideally one that's fluent in cannabis—before putting it out into the world. Most content that comes directly from AI language programs is fairly rough at first. Even if your prompts are super detailed and comprehensive, you’ll always want to treat your outputs like first drafts that are not ready for prime time. And assuming your AI-generated copy is free of inaccurate and nonsensical information (which is not always the case, so fact-check everything), going back into the draft and doing some fine tuning almost always results in a more effective piece of content for your cannabis brand. At the end of the day, it’s usually the human touch that seals the deal.
3. Mind Your Compliance Ps and Qs
As always, when developing content for a highly regulated market like cannabis, be sure that you’re not making claims or statements that could lead to regulatory problems. Don’t assume platforms like ChatGPT will draft content that complies with local and national regulations, even if you specifically prompt them to do so. AI language programs make mistakes and can produce inaccuracies. They are programmed on internet data, and there is a lot of inaccurate, noncompliant information out in the world that may very well make its way into your outputs.
4. Expect the Weed Puns
This one is not so much of a best practice as it is just something to be aware of. For whatever reason, ChatGPT and similar AI language programs really love weed puns. Most cannabis content you ask these programs to generate, especially if you prompt them to write in a more casual, conversational tone, will be chock full of (subjectively corny) weed puns.
For example, the prompt for the blog that you’re currently reading—which an AI writing program initially drafted, then I heavily revised and edited—included a directive to “not use weed puns.” Despite that, the output was filled with quips like this: “If you're ready to inhale the future and get higher engagement rates, here are the best practices for leveraging ChatGPT for cannabis content creation.”
5. Maintain Your Authentic Brand Voice
While ChatGPT and its peers are great at generating human-like text, they are still, at their core, machines. They don’t excel in the somewhat more subjective areas of writing and editing like nailing a particular voice and tone. Even if you include specific brand voice attributes in your input prompts, the voice and tone of the output may not align with what you have in mind.
6. Don't Get Lazy
ChatGPT and the like are tools, not replacements. It's tempting to let AI handle the bulk of your content development (and anyone who says otherwise is a bald-faced liar....just kidding). But I'd wager that most content marketers who have spent time working with these AI writing programs would agree that the blend of human creativity and expertise with AI efficiency usually works best for effectively capturing the nuances of your cannabis content marketing goals at scale.
7. Regularly Review, Optimize and Update
No surprise here, but it is worth repeating that monitoring your owned content for currency and making updates when needed is important, especially for any high-value content that becomes outdated. Unfortunately, the training data for commercially available AI writing tools only extends to January 2022, so they can’t help on this front.
It’s also critical to keep an eye on your engagement metrics and have a human member of your team analyze those metrics. If a particular topic or format isn't hitting the mark, adjust accordingly. AI is extremely useful, but it doesn't yet have the ability to understand subtle distinctions and audience preferences the way you or I can.
Want to learn more about how Grasslands can leverage AI to supercharge your cannabis brand's content marketing program? Let's talk!