It sounds like the setup to a cheesy joke from a book my 9-year-old brought home from the library, but when I stumbled into this analogy while chatting with Fractal’s content writer Tim it actually hit home for both of us. So, why IS writing content with a generative AI platform like ChatGPT like doing the laundry? I don’t want to spoil the punchline, so let’s figure it out.
The Setup: Separating the Laundry, or Writing a Prompt
Let’s start at the top. The first thing you need to do when you want ChatGPT to spit out a blog post is ask it for one. If you’ve used an AI writing platform before, you’ll know that this prompt has to be carefully crafted in order to get it to create what you want. To tie it into our laundry analogy, this is the process of separating your clothes into the correct loads based on colour or usage.
Let’s use an example: I need to give a client a short, engaging, and informative listicle about how to wash a cat that sells their new cat shampoo. I can go to ChatGPT and say “I need a 500 word blog that lists all the steps in washing a cat”, then add in a link to the shampoo somewhere, send it live, and call it a day. This is like stuffing your whites and your colours in together, tossing in a lug of detergent, and setting the machine to the quickest wash possible. It gets the job done, but the result isn’t going to be pretty.
Instead, I could do some research about how to properly separate my laundry to avoid colours bleeding or prints cracking – or how to craft my prompt to get something that’s properly engaging, unique, and informative and that I can build out to emphasise the right parts. I can use a prompt like:
“I write for a marketing agency and one of our clients is looking to sell a new line of cat shampoo. As part of this, we want you to write a 5-step listicle of approximately 500 words in the style of Buzzfeed that details how to bathe a cat for the first time and includes sales language for Moggy’s Gentle Oatmeal Shampoo. The writing is targeted at young pet owners and should be modern, engaging, and fun.”
This way, we’ve covered all our bases and done everything we can before starting to ensure our outcome is the kind of content that we’re actually chasing – or, that our whites don’t come out pink.
The Middle: Drying the Laundry, or Editing Your Content
It doesn’t matter whether you hang your wet clothes out for a day or two, or chuck them in a dryer for an hour, you don’t want to put wet clothes into your drawers. In the same way, you don’t want to send a blog post live without going through it and editing a bit.
ChatGPT’s biggest flaw is that it can confidently and convincingly present information that’s just factually wrong. In our earlier example, if a vet or even the client was to read through the blog and find some of these confidently incorrect statements, it would reflect pretty badly on our research and writing abilities! Instead, take the time to read other blogs on the same topic, cross reference your content and your research, and ensure that what you’re presenting isn’t musty, mouldy, and stinky. Or, you know, factually wrong.
The End: Properly Folding and Hanging, or Promoting Your Content
We’ve all had those weeks where the clothes go from the couch to the bed to a chair and back to the couch because we just don’t have the time or energy to put it all away. In that same vein, it’s easy to just put the blog up on your website, link to it on socials, then move on to the next task. But properly folding and hanging your clothes helps them last longer, look better without ironing, and with a proper system you’ll know where to find specific things later. If you properly set up your blog’s promotion campaign with tight custom audiences, SEO optimization, and search campaigns, you will ensure that your content is seen by the people most likely to need it or to follow through on your value proposition and make a purchase.
So, why IS writing content with AI like doing the laundry? Because at first glance it might seem like something that takes no effort and gives you everything you want, but it actually takes thought, research, and a little elbow grease to create something that you’re happy living with.