It feels like every week, new AI tools are being released, whether it be Google, Open AI or otherwise, but up until now, we have only seen HubSpot dabbling with beta features or side projects like ChatSpot. However, HubSpot have taken a big step forward and introduced their latest hub; Content hub. An AI-powered toolkit that will equip marketeers with all the tools they need to streamline their daily processes.
What is Content Hub?
It isn’t every day that HubSpot launch a new hub, so when they do, we should pay attention. Content Hub represents a shift in how HubSpot are thinking about content creation, but also how marketeers can access AI tools to enhance daily workflows, adapt internal processes, and use a streamlined omni-channel approach to creating and launching their campaigns.
Content Hub is the latest hub from HubSpot, joining the line-up alongside Marketing, Sales, Service, Operations and Commerce. Strictly speaking, it isn’t a new hub, but instead an evolution of CMS hub. Moving forward, CMS hub will cease to exist, although it’s worth saying if you already have CMS hub, you won’t lose access to any of your current tools, but you won’t gain access to any of the new features either.
What Makes Content Hub Different from CMS Hub?
Whilst many of the core features will remain the same (premium hosting, design tools, domains and so on), HubSpot are layering on a series of new AI-centric features built around content generation and ideation. Whether you use the Brand Voice tool to ensure your content stays on brand, or let Content Remix create entire omni-channel campaigns for you, HubSpot has gone all-in on AI for this release. Let’s dive into some of the key features.
Content Hub Key Features
Content Remix
Possibly the most impressive new feature, and certainly the one you’ll want to dive into and play with when you first get your hands on Content hub is Content Remix. HubSpot have created a familiar and easy-to-use interface resembling a workflow that allows you to map out entire campaigns using AI to generate blogs, landing pages, images, audio transcripts, social posts, ads, and emails at the click of a few buttons.
In our testing, the generative AI (powered by OpenAI) is good, and HubSpot’s interface gives the opportunity to add additional instructions, guide the tone of voice or set specific templates for it to use.
The example in the screenshot below was generated entirely by HubSpot’s AI tools in under 5 minutes, with just a handful of prompts.
As with all current generative AI, there are limitations. For example, the AI tools aren’t always subject matter experts, especially if you’re asking them to create a landing page about the services your business offers. On top of this, we need to be cautious from an SEO point of view as currently using large amounts of AI-generated content can impact rankings negatively.
Having said that, this tool gives you a great way of mapping out ideas, getting the bones of the content in place and improving your workflow when it comes to creating omni-channel campaigns.
We were also impressed at how well the AI transcript feature worked, with convincing voices able to read out your content which can then be embedded on your web pages using HubSpot’s new Podcast module. This is a great new feature that will enable better accessibility on your pages whilst also giving your visitors a better experience and more ways to consume your content.
AI Blog Writer
HubSpot have also brought AI tools to their standard blog writing interface. Simply click on Generate blog post and you’ll be taken through a simple process where you can feed the AI with an idea or get it to generate an idea from scratch. It will then take your idea and give you a series of blog titles, including their target keywords, monthly search volume, ranking difficulty, and keyword intent (all powered by SEMrush).
Here you can tweak titles, or re-run ideas to see what else the AI can generate. Once you’re happy, you can then outline the structure of the blog with subheadings (all pre-filled by the AI), before generating the blog. There are various tools within the editor that will allow you to re-word sections, expand on specific points, add new sections, or add AI-generated images based on the text.
As a taster (pun intended), here’s an excerpt and image that were generated for a blog on ‘family meal ideas for the summer’:
Brand Voice
The final tool we’ll mention is Brand voice. This is a straightforward feature that allows you to ‘train’ the AI by feeding it a sample piece of content from which it will then pull out key characteristics such as authoritative, informal or helpful. These attributes are then saved within your Brandkit (this is where you normally save your company logo, colours and so on) and can be accessed via the AI content assistant tools anywhere you’re writing content within HubSpot.
Simply select a piece of text, click the diamond icon that appears and ask the AI to re-write the text using your Brand voice, and you’re done. We see this being a useful way to keep consistency in your content and really useful way of keeping short-form content like social posts and ad copy on brand.
Should you Use AI to Generate your Content?
These tools are very impressive, producing content that is, at least on the face of it, convincing, accurate and consistent. However, we advise using these tools (and any other AI tools for that matter) as part of your content creation process, not as a tool to replace humans. When you dig into the details, there is often a lack of depth to the content or the specifics of what you’re trying to say won’t be quite right. Also bear in mind that if your competitors are also using these tools, they might end up with content very similar to yours, so you still need humans to keep your content unique and different.
Your audience want useful content with a unique viewpoint to help them solve their challenges. AI can speed up the ideation and creation process but can't replace the advice of an expert with hands-on experience. Use AI tools to be more efficient so you can create better content that is more unique and appealing rather than to create more volume of content that will say the same as any other website. Remember, humans want to connect with humans.
At Innovation Visual, we invest time and effort getting our experts to test these tools, investigate their impact on search rankings, and see whether they improve efficiency or not.
For more information on using Generative AI to produce content, take a look at our article on Google’s EEAT guidelines or watch our DMA (Digital Marketing Answered) podcast on How to Engage Your Audience in the Face of Generative AI Noise.
The good news is that we do see value in using these tools, for improving efficiency, driving ideas and streamlining workflows. However, in the same way that a hammer can’t replace a carpenter, these tools are only effective in the hands of marketeers who have context, skill and an understanding of how and when to best deploy the tools. We see these tools as being more like a nail gun, a great way to streamline your processes and ensure consistency, but not a replacement for the carpenter.
Ready to Improve your Content Process?
If you would like to find out more about Content hub, see whether it’s a good fit for your business or get a demo on these tools, contact us and our in-house HubSpot experts will be able to help.
We can also advise you on the best content strategy for your business – whether you use HubSpot or not – to beat your competition and reach your targeted audience.
