By Jayne Schultheis - If you're using long-form content to achieve your marketing goals, you have to be strategic in every step. And no step is more critical than the first: ideation.

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Content ideation begins the content marketing process. You sift through potential topics looking for the "just right" fit between the stories you want to tell about your business and your target audience's search intent. And of course, you want content that search engines will choose as the perfect answer to your target audience's questions.

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At Rellify, we help clients create great content that gets seen by the right people. That's why we've harnessed AI in the topic ideation process, particularly in our latest development: the Relliverse™. In this article, we'll look at how to perform content ideation with AI to find keywords and build content that gets long-lasting results.

Machine learning and neural networks

Neural networks are a form of machine learning, and human neural networks are the blueprint for this type of AI.

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Neurons are nerve cells that process and transmit information through electrical and chemical signals. Each one has thousands of synapses that connect with synapses from other neurons. The synapses are "junctions" where neurons communicate with each other. The networks they form enable us to, for example, connect the smell of gasoline with driving a car, filling up a lawn mower tank, and fire, or to connect the sound of a siren with an ambulance, a speeding ticket and a feeling of overall fear.

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Think of an AI neural network as a huge, inter-connected web, where the strongest connections thrive. Through machine learning, the most relevant synapses (topics and keywords) are activated to further fill out the "web" of information. Neural networks create a clear, thorough, accurate overview of how people are engaging with a given topic on the internet. What's more, they can teach themselves to improve. Neural networks excel at topic ideation for several reasons:

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• Learning from large volumes of data. Neural networks can handle and learn from massive datasets. The accuracy and sophistication of the insights they deliver depend heavily on the quantity and quality of the data processed. The more good, specific info one receives, the better it can synthesize valuable material.
• Algorithms for pattern recognition and clustering. Algorithms in neural networks are designed to identify patterns and cluster data in meaningful ways. They detect patterns that are not apparent to humans and "connect the dots" in ways that would be impossible or extremely time-consuming for humans.
• Deep learning. A subset of machine learning, deep learning gets its name from the multi-layered (deep) neural networks that perform sophisticated analysis. These networks can make sense of data with a high level of abstraction and complexity, which is why they're used in advanced applications like natural language processing.
• Adaptive learning and evolution. Neural networks are not static. They evolve as they are exposed to new data. This adaptability allows them to stay relevant and accurate over time.

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Subject-matter AI beats general generative AI

There's a crucial distinction between general generative AI and subject-matter-specific AI, especially as it applies to content ideation and content marketing.

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‍General generative AI, like GPT-4, is designed to process unfathomable amounts of data from a massive range of topics. It offers general knowledge and versatile capabilities. Think of it like a general practitioner who has broad knowledge across many fields, but lacks expertise in any particular area.

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‍Subject-matter AI on the other hand, is akin to a specialist or an expert in a specific field. It's tailored to a particular domain, such as medicine, technology, or finance, and trained on datasets specific to that domain. This specialization allows it to provide more accurate, detailed, and contextually relevant insights within its area of expertise. It understands the nuances, terminology, and latest developments in its specific field far better than a general AI.

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Using the example noted earlier, a subject-matter AI would know which meanings of the word "gasoline" would help an article about electric vehicles rank high in organic search results (Hint: not "filling up a lawn mower tank" or "fire.")

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A subject-matter AI brings in-depth knowledge and nuanced understanding to topic ideation. It doesn't suggest bland topics for a content campaign or create articles with counterproductive tangents.

Introducing the Rellify Relliverse™

The Rellify Relliverse™ is our solution to your need for a subject-matter AI expert. We build custom-made neural networks for clients to serve their specific niches. Each Rellify Relliverse™ points the way toward reaching potential customers and satisfying search engines. Let's look at some of the specific ways a custom Relliverse™ works:

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Deeper understanding of topics/keywords due to the presentation of KPIs

Topic discovery, or ideation, is the first step in content creation. The incorporation of AI allows for the strategic consideration of KPIs (key performance indicators). These indicate to the brief-maker and/or writer exactly what the goals are for the overall campaign and each piece of content.

During topic ideation with a Rellify custom Relliverse™, you receive data on KPIs such as:

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• When topics and keywords spike in popularity
• Search volumes for keywords and topics
• How difficult it is to rank for certain words
• Which words are most relevant to each other
• How relevant certain words are to your core topic

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Understand how your competitors stack up

What's one of the first steps in making sure your content comes out on top? Know your competitors and understand what makes them different from you. A gap analysis conducted within a custom Relliverse™ helps identify differences between the current state of content and the desired state or goals. That is, it helps identify what your current content is missing and what you can do to achieve your objectives. Here's where AI's capacity to process huge volumes of data really comes in handy. By crawling the top competitors' websites and using deep language processing, Rellify can help answer these questions:

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• What are my competitors writing about? What should I write about to best compete with them?
• How many articles do my top competitors have on this topic? How many articles do I need on this topic to also be considered an expert by search engines?
• What keywords do I already rank for in comparison to my competitors? What keywords should I be using to get the highest visibility?

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How to use content intelligence to create great content

Now we get to the real fun — using the data from your Relliverse™ to create expert, relevant content.

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First, you use Rellify's Content Intelligence solutions to build your content strategy. This typically begins with lists of topics and topic clusters, all of which are unique to your business' specific path to ranking as high as possible on search engines.

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With Rellify's Smart Brief, you can easily build detailed specifications and outlines for each article. Use AI to do this with a couple of clicks or manually craft any part you choose.When it's time to start writing, you can prompt Rellify's Natural Language Generation feature to create text for an entire article.If you prefer, use it only to help you by suggesting a headline or subheads, or creating text to answer a particular question. The many AI functions operate from your custom Relliverse™ which understands exactly what kind of SEO optimization your content needs to catch the attention of Google algorithms. Our Article Intelligence Application will guide you on such factors as:

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• Quality of topic match
• Keywords and questions
• Text length/readability/structure
• Links
• Meta descriptions
• Titles

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As you write and edit, the article receives an R-score that reflects how it will perform in search engine results and connect with readers That's what makes Rellify different: better technology, better insights, and better results.

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Benefits of doing content ideation with AI

We'll conclude by looking at the way AI and human analyst teams each bring unique strengths and limitations to the table in the realm of content ideation.

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Strengths of AI in content ideation

As time goes on, these strengths continue to grow:

• Volume and speed. AI can process and analyze vast amounts of data much faster than humans. This makes it highly efficient for extracting insights from large datasets, such as all the material on a company's website, the websites of its competitors and the websites related to its business. Humans are prone to fatigue and can make errors, especially when performing repetitive tasks.
• Pattern recognition. AI excels at identifying data trends and correlations that may not be apparent to human analysts.
• Consistency and objectivity. AI systems can maintain a consistent level of performance without the biases or subjective influences that humans may have.
• Scalability. AI solutions can easily scale up to accommodate growing data and complexity without the constraints that it would place on human teams.
• Predictive analytics. AI can forecast trends and make predictions based on historical data, helping you anticipate content trends and consumer preferences.

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Why you still need humans to supercharge content intelligence

Machines might be useful for doing all the grunt work. However, humans are still an integral part of the topic ideation and content creation process. AI has certain limitations. Here's what humans bring to the table when it comes to content intelligence.

• Contextual understanding. AI may struggle with understanding context, especially in complex or nuanced situations where human insight is key.
• Creativity.While AI can generate ideas based on data, human creativity is essential for original thinking, emotional depth, and connecting with audiences on a more personal level.
• Ethical and cultural sensitivity. AI may not effectively navigate ethical considerations or cultural nuances the way a human can.
• Adaptability to novel situations. AI systems may not adapt well (or as quickly) to entirely new or unprecedented scenarios. It takes a human's quick decision-making to add real-time context.

At Rellify, the fusion of human expertise and AI can accelerate and improve the relevance of your content creation. Content ideation with AI enables you to make strategic decisions based on a custom-made Relliverse™, a neural network that identifies your best content opportunities. Contact us today to get a 30 day trial with no risk and no charge.

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