Content generation is not content creation

To put it simply, “content generation” is content generated automatically by artificial intelligence. In contrast, “content creation” involves not just copywriting or images, but a whole ecosystem of processes (both in marketing and in other areas).

On the surface, they appear to produce the same thing. But they don’t. Here we present key differences and highlight the value of each.

What is content generation?

Content generation involves the production, or staging, of content generated through artificial intelligence. It is not content per se and does not involve reasoning or research behind it. It relies on data processing from commands through a language processing program.

An artificial intelligence software processes a prompt. Following the user’s command, quoting certain keywords, such software can give certain answers. 

The main qualities of content management are:

• That content, in appearance, responds to the needs of a user.
• Consistent, structured, schematized content.
• You will probably receive content with SEO optimizations.
• You will have measurable results that evaluate the efficiency of the content.
• It is a type of content that saves time and money in processes.

But there are (negative) implications of this type of content. Among them, we have:

• Many AIs have been trained with serious copyright violation problems.
• The generated content may be false, have misinformation, or be irrelevant.
• Depends on constant algorithm updates, which can generate errors.

What is content creation?

Here we have a much broader spectrum of the word “content”. Specifically in a digital marketing context. Content creation is understood as everything related to creative production.

And what is creative production? From copywriting, graphic design, video production, scripting; even editing and SEO optimizations fall, sometimes, into this package.

Content creation, unlike content generation, depends entirely on the human hand. There are criteria, protocols, and human-made processes that make the creation of a marketing campaign possible. 

These creative production processes involve:

• Market research and analysis to understand the type of content needed.
• Production hours, in any of its types, to obtain the creative pieces.
• Proofreading and editing of content to adapt it to your respective campaigns.
• Follow-up, updates, and improvements of the created content.
• Publication and promotion of the created content.

Simply put, content creation involves the production, manual or digital, of creative pieces. A message, an email, an article, a video, an image, these are all products in the overall scheme of a marketing campaign. They are the results of content creation, indispensable for the subsistence of digital marketing.

Can content generation and content creation work together?

Yes, they can. Today, we find in almost any marketing campaign content generation. But, we recommend it only as a complement to marketing processes. It cannot be the overall manager of a campaign.

Many people today reject the use of artificial intelligence as the main engine for content creation. That is because of several reasons: ethical implications, lack of trust, and poor results. There are even some prohibited AI practices in many countries.

In addition, in some search engines or algorithms, this type of generated content can severely affect search results.

Although not indispensable, content generation and content creation are now largely integrated. But one thing is clear: content generation and content creation are not the same thing.

Content creation does not only imply the production of an image or a text. It is the different stages that these products go through to ensure the effectiveness and execution of a campaign.

Content generation should serve as a complement to content creation. It has even been implemented very well in several companies for the automation of internal processes or simple research.