Weekly Logbook #4 – Experiments with ChatGPT 4o, Mind Mapping, & Non-Marketing Related Skills to Work On

Hey there Champs! Hope this past week has been bountiful and success-filled for you. I’m back with the weekly logbook and have some interesting insights for you!

In today’s edition of the weekly logbook, I’ll go over the latest ChatGPT model, known as ‘4o’. “One Word” — It is truly ‘MAGNIFICENT” — I’ve been playing with it the entire week and it’s just eons ahead of the previous models.

I’ll dive into some cool experiments in this article, will talk about the importance of Audience Personas (& how to create them), and non-marketing skills that separate ‘great marketers’ from the good ones. Without further ado, let’s get started.

Supercharge Your Content Marketing With ChatGPT 4o:

First off, the ‘O’ in 4o stands for ‘Omni’ which represents the model’s capabilities across multiple different channels. Now, with 4o, you can interact with Artificial Intelligence in any combination of text, audio, image, and video and generate any kind of combinations. You can type in a ‘text’ prompt, follow-up with a recorded prompt for clarity, and finish off with a video output! And 4o does all of this in less than half a second!

The model is also incredibly fast and will be available to users even on the ‘free plan’. What I really like is that finally, the model allows ChatGPT to remember all of your conversations, across multiple different threads — You no longer have to sift through threads to find what you were looking for.

And that’s about it for 4o — Now let’s get into the main topic. And this is a cool little experiment that I ran with this model:

Task: Get ChatGPT 4o to generate a list of ‘keywords’ related to Artificial Intelligence & Tech.

Now this is pretty simple, right? Except, that I took on the approach of a ‘data scientist’ and wanted to test 4o’s capabilities.

Note: While I was so excited to share this experiment, I mistakenly selected ‘Temporary Chat’ when I had done this. And because of that, I no longer have that chat 🙁

But here’s the process I followed (You can try this too):

1. Ask ChatGPT to generate a ‘list of keywords: Here you have to be specific. Mention the brand/company name, what industry you operate in, what you intend to do with the keywords (what the purpose is), long-tail vs short-tail mix, and most importantly, their ‘intent’ in the SERPs.

Here’s the prompt that I wrote:

“Act as an Expert Content Marketer with a decade of experience in Content Strategy, Planning, and Data Analysis. I am the Founder of a Media Startup focused on content around AI & Technology. I want to start creating content for my startup, in order to get traction online, and to build a brand. I want you to generate a list of keywords around AI & Technology, make sure it’s a mix of long-tail and short-tail keywords. And I want you to specify the intent on a range of 1-5, and where those keywords can be utilized. And finally, I want you to map these keywords on the Customer Journey”.

Now this is a hyper-specific prompt and you don’t have to follow the same approach. However, make sure to include these elements in your prompt:

i) Your Brand
ii) Industry
iii) Type of Keywords
iv) Your Business/Campaign Objectives
v) The purpose behind your prompt

This is the output 4o came up with.

2. Ask ChatGPT to specify keywords for different segments or marketing channels: I gave another prompt asking ChatGPT to select keywords across and classify them according to their specific marketing channel; SEO, Content Marketing, Paid Search, Social Media, etc. And it did just that.

3. Specify your immediate goal or need: Now, my main goal was to find a list of keywords related to ‘Content Marketing’, so I went one step further and asked ChatGPT to select only those keywords which are relevant to my content marketing needs. What was really cool is that apart from the generic ‘tabular approach’, ChatGPT 4o created an in-build ‘Excel/Google Sheets-styled’ Grid which was fully editable. Previous renditions of ChatGPT can do this too but normally the grid isn’t editable like in this case.

Finally, I wasn’t stopping here so I actually asked 4o to provide the reasoning behind why it selected these keywords. And it made some really interesting points:

 

What are your thoughts in this little experiment? And how do you think I can improve this? Would love to hear your thoughts! 

You can check out my LinkedIn Post on this experiment too!

Generic Prompts are a BIG NO-NO!

You might have noticed it too but majority of ChatGPT users right now are using ‘generic prompts’ without purpose and meaning, just for the sake of using AI for convenience in life.

I personally believe that in order to truly master AI and become a ‘Master Prompter’, you have to understand ‘Prompt Engineering’ on a technical level and be on top of why you post a specific prompt. By knowing the elements of what makes a great prompt, we can get much better outputs from AI. I made a LinkedIn post on the importance of being an ‘analytical thinker’ and here are some fresh tidbits from that post.

Many marketers have jumped on the AI bandwagon for good reasons, hoping to outpace their competitors. However, this surge has led to a common pitfall: laziness. We’ve become complacent, often failing to:

• Think critically, assuming AI knows everything.
• Assess the output provided by AI tools like ChatGPT.
• Care about the quality of AI-generated content, trusting it blindly.

In the same experiment, I did one more thing only a ‘Data Analyst’ would have done: I asked ChatGPT 4.0 to create a chart displaying the effectiveness of these keywords based on industry standards, ranking them from 1 to 10.

Not only did it deliver an insightful chart, but it also generated a ‘CSV Grid’. This grid is editable, allowing for easy manipulation of data without needing to transfer it to external tools like Google Sheets or Excel.

With these analytical tools, I can now:

• Create topic clusters based on the effectiveness of keywords, focusing on those with higher rankings.
  Develop a content calendar that prioritizes more effective keywords.

This approach underscores the necessity of using AI in a more analytical and specific manner. By understanding the ‘why’ behind AI-generated outputs, we can create more targeted and impactful content strategies.

The Secret Recipe to Break out of Content Ruts:

As Content Marketers, most of our time revolves around doing research, sifting through keywords, and creating actual content. However, maintaining momentum in content creation often leads to burnout and creative blocks. I personally follow a certain process that helps me break out of these ‘Content Ruts’.

And this process is called… “Mind Mapping”!

Mind Mapping is a mental detox ‘of sorts’, helping you filter out unnecessary thoughts and unlock fresh perspectives for your content strategy. This is a strategy that the 1% of Content Creators follow and I’m so glad I was introduced to this concept by none other than ‘Simon Squibb’, who’s been in Marketing and is a serial entrepreneur spanning decades of industry experience. He shares that experience in his YouTube channel.

Here’s the step-by-step process I follow, along with many other creators, to overcome content ruts:

1. Pen & Paper Magic: While digital tools are convenient, there’s just something spiritual about using a pen and paper. It has a freeing effect on your creativity. It allows your imagination to run wild and taps into your deepest creative reserves.
2. Central Idea: Start by placing your main theme or topic at the center of the page. This acts as your anchor, giving your mind a focal point to build around.
3. Branch Out: Draw branches for subtopics, ideas, and related concepts. Don’t overthink this part—let your thoughts flow freely and see where they take you.
4. Connect the Dots: Look for connections between different branches. This often sparks new ideas and insights, revealing hidden links between concepts.
5. Refine & Prioritize: After completing your map, refine and prioritize your ideas. This helps you structure your content plan more effectively, ensuring that the best ideas take center stage.

Bonus Tip: Approach mind mapping with purpose. Don’t write down every single thought that comes to mind—think critically about each idea before committing it to paper.

Once you’ve completed your mind map, return to the drawing board. Use tools like Keywords Planner or Answer the Public to build out a content or keyword repository. (Stay tuned for a future post on this topic!)

Non-Marketing Skills Every Marketer SHOULD KNOW:

In Digital Marketing, we’re mostly limited to a certain set of skills.

First we have the ‘T-Marketer’, who has broad knowledge across multiple domains and very specific ‘specialist’ knowledge in one domain. We then have the ‘Generalist vs Specialist’ debate but all of these are limited to Marketing-specific skills i.e. Social Media Marketing, SEO, PR, Paid Advertising, so on and so forth.

However, there are some external ‘non-Marketing’ skills that I work on every single day. And I think all of my fellow Marketers should do the same. And I’ll keep these short for you. Here are the skills that I’m working on, right now:

1. Design Thinking: Every Marketer should have a ‘design-specific’ skill whether it’s something visual like Graphic Design OR UI/UX. I personally love UI/UX but I also love theory and in that regard, ‘Design Thinking’ is a key skill everyone who wants to venture into Entrepreneurship should have.Design Thinking helps you understand and address the needs of your audience. It forces you to adopt a user-centric mindset, you can create more impactful and engaging marketing strategies. The focus is on creating designs that are both intuitive, solve real-world problems, and are replicable, with scale.

   This skill involves empathy, ideation, and iterative testing, ensuring that your solutions are both innovative and effective.

2. Philosophy: Studying philosophy helps you develop critical thinking and ethical reasoning skills. It encourages you to question assumptions, consider different perspectives, and make well-informed decisions.For marketers, this means crafting messages that are not only persuasive but also ethically sound and deeply resonant with diverse audiences.
3. Storytelling: The ability to tell compelling stories is at the heart of effective marketing. Storytelling helps you connect with your audience on an emotional level, making your brand memorable and relatable.Focus on developing narratives that highlight your brand’s values, vision, and the benefits it offers to customers.
4. Entrepreneurship: Understanding entrepreneurship can give you a deeper insight into business operations, risk management, and innovation. It helps you think like a business owner, allowing you to create marketing strategies that align with broader business goals.This skill also fosters a proactive and resilient mindset, essential for navigating the dynamic marketing landscape.
5. Psychology: Psychology provides valuable insights into human behavior and decision-making processes. By understanding psychological principles, you can create more effective marketing campaigns that tap into the motivations, desires, and pain points of your target audience.This knowledge allows you to craft messages that resonate deeply and drive action.