We’ve become reliant on technology to handle everyday tasks on our behalf, and there are tons of tech solutions that make our work quicker and easier. Something that has really taken the business world by storm in recent years is the rise of automated writing tools.
Grammarly boasts 30 million users every day and can be used for everything, from penning an email to writing a novel. Writing technology has a huge range of benefits for anyone who writes anything online – correcting spelling, correcting grammar, and making emails sound more professional are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what this software can do.
However, we must be careful about implementing software writing tools in business. AI-led writing software is undeniably helpful, but relying on it for high-value content leaves too much room for error.
Powerful content must have a human touch, and online writing tools haven’t yet come far enough to emulate the same prowess and nuances in writing that come naturally to professionals. Writing software doesn’t understand your business or your readers, which leaves you vulnerable to inconsistencies and brand-damaging mistakes.
Tech Solutions Are Everywhere – Businesses Should Choose Carefully
Technological advancements are progressing faster than ever before. It seems like there’s an automated solution for everything – vacuuming your floors, turning on your lights just by clapping, and now you can even buy forks that track what you’re eating!
So, it’s hardly a surprise that online writing tools like Grammarly and ProWritingAid have exploded onto the business scene. Content teams all over the world are using this type of software to avoid mistakes.
These tools have been designed to help writers by giving them hundreds of checks and features that automatically highlight and make corrections for spelling, grammar, punctuation, and tone. They highlight mistakes that are so easily overlooked, such as repeated words and double spaces.
This should be a good thing; however, there are troubling challenges that can come with relying on writing tools, especially in business, where every word that comes from a brand counts toward reputation and revenue.
Software Writing Tools Aren’t Perfect
Great content comes with great value. In fact, Google has named content the most important factor it analyzes for SEO performance. It helps you build rapport with your readers and attract new leads. For businesses that do content well, there’s a direct return on investment that can be easily measured.
Software writing tools are great for the everyday person, but they’re not without their shortcomings for businesses that are trying to get the best out of their content. Businesses that take content seriously need a solution that streamlines the writing process rather than disrupts it.
On the surface, automated writing tools improve our productivity by taking proofreading out of the equation, but they actually interrupt our workflow.
Stopping writing to check every amendment that comes from a writing tool – even those that aren’t relevant – can significantly impact productivity. It takes your team’s heads out of the game, causing them to frequently lose focus.
There are countless studies that show the problems that come with multitasking, including increased distractibility, memory problems, and a decrease in productive, effective work. Where these tools seem to be helping us in the short term, they could encourage us to respond more easily to distractions in the long term.
And then there are errors. What this software lacks is the wider context of your writing. They don’t understand who your audience is, the purpose and goals of your content, or what you’re writing about. They don’t have an understanding of your brand’s writing style and tone of voice.
That means that the stylistic choices you make in your writing can be flagged as incorrect, even when they’re the best choices to make. Opting for the corrections of a robot can lead to confusion in your brand’s communication and consistency is key when it comes to building trust with a consumer.
Creating clear, concise content is one area in which humans excel more than computers. To ignore that is to dehumanize the experience of your brand. When writers become reliant on tools like Grammarly and ProWritingAid and blindly make the corrections posed to them, the writing is no longer being driven toward its ultimate goal by a person who understands it.
According to a Quill Content study, 80% of the consumers they studied were likelier to buy a product with a description that was translated by people rather than machines, despite both being just as easy to understand.
Replacing people with robots in the writing world is not going to benefit you in the long term because your customers are real people who want to connect with real people.
A Simple Solution
It’s not all doom and gloom for content teams, though. There is a simple solution that can help you level up your content seamlessly.
Hiring a group of editors in-house to work closely with your content team can save time and drastically improve the quality of the work being produced. You’ll have a group of trained professionals who know your business intimately – they’ll be able to empathize with both your content and audience and make changes to fit.
Having people who understand the context surrounding the content, with real-world knowledge and expertise relating to the subject, will allow you to take your content to the next level.
A person who knows your business and understands the content topic will be able to fully understand cultural references, your target audience and what they want, and localized or industry-specific references.
This not only takes the pressure off your writers’ shoulders but also has an undeniable impact on the performance of your content.
But What Are the Costs?
Having an editorial team working for you may be more expensive than using writing tools, but there are other costs that can affect your bottom line more drastically than new hires. We need to think about the cost of poor content.
Could content with errors be affecting your business’s reputation? Could it be preventing you from attracting clients and hiring quality employees? Could it be confusing your readers and confusing search engines? These implications can be incredibly costly.
Josh Bernoff estimates that businesses lose $400 billion annually just from bad writing choices. It’s a bold claim, but it makes sense. Mistakes like using too much jargon, not organizing your text, and not being clear waste time for your team and readers. These errors are easily picked up by a trained professional but not a writing tool – the technology simply isn’t there.
We’re not saying there isn’t a time and a place for writing software – but it isn’t always for businesses that want quality, consistency, and returns from their writing. It’s much better applied to lower-value, shorter content and email interactions.
Opt for People Over Software
However, there is another flexible solution that businesses can easily implement to get all the benefits of an in-house editorial team without the costs associated with hiring.
The solution is outsourced proofreading and editing services for businesses that are just like an in-house editorial team, but they save you time on staff training and they’re a much more cost-effective alternative.
Choosing to hire an external team of dedicated editors who have taken the time to understand your business and your goals for the content you’re producing means that your writing maintains its purpose and is completely tailored to both your brand and your audience.
Your editorial team can review your content based on your brand’s style guide (or even create a style guide for you!), which means that any inconsistencies in tone or house style can be amended by your editor. That can’t be achieved by software at this point.
Plus, they’ll save your team time on hiring and training staff and freelancers. That means your team can focus more on high-value tasks like content strategy, ideation, and production.
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