ChatGPT wrote your blog. Who’s publishing it?

You've got AI helping you write. What about everything that comes afterwards?

If you already use ChatGPT or Claude for marketing, you don't need me to explain that they can help you produce a blog draft. But a draft and a published article are different things. Between them sit a series of decisions and jobs that are easy to overlook when we talk about AI making marketing quicker.

That distinction matters because it changes what you choose to improve. You might not need a faster way to generate more words. You might need a better way to get the good words you've already got onto your website, in front of the right people, without rebuilding the process every time.

What does “finished” actually mean?

How many different jobs does it actually take to publish one blog? There isn't a universal number, because websites and businesses work differently. But writing is only one part of it.

An article needs to be accurate, sound like you, work on your website and give readers something worth their attention. It may need an image, a search-friendly page title, a short description and a social introduction. Someone also needs to decide when it goes out, schedule it and check that the published version works.

None of that makes AI-assisted writing less useful. It just means we should judge a marketing workflow by what reaches the reader, not by what appears in the chat window.

I find it more useful to separate that workflow into two kinds of work: editorial judgement and repeatable maintenance. They need different kinds of attention.

Keep your judgement where it makes a difference

The first review isn't about making every sentence prettier. It's about whether the article says something true and useful that you're happy to put your business name against.

Check the facts before polishing the prose. Are product details current? Are names, dates, prices and links right? Has the draft introduced an example that sounds like a real customer story, even though you never supplied one? AI can produce a plausible sentence without having evidence for it, so anything presented as your experience needs particular care.

Then look at the thinking. Does the article answer the question its title raises? Has it explained why your advice makes sense, or simply repeated familiar instructions? A paragraph telling people to “be consistent” doesn't offer much unless it helps them decide what consistency should look like in their business.

Voice deserves a separate check too. Read a section aloud and ask whether you'd actually say it to a customer. You don't have to keep every informal expression, but you shouldn't need to put on a different personality to recognise yourself in the piece.

For example, a hypothetical repair business could publish an article about when to repair an item and when replacement is more sensible. The valuable contribution is the owner's judgement about the trade-offs, not a polished introduction announcing that making the right decision is important. That's the bit worth giving your attention to.

Choose an image that helps the article belong

An image is another editorial decision, not just an empty box to fill. It can make the subject clearer, express your business's character or show something that would take several sentences to explain.

For that hypothetical repair article, a relevant component or an item being examined could be more useful than an unrelated photograph of people smiling in an office. The question is what the reader learns or feels from seeing it, not whether you've technically included a picture.

Check that you have permission to use the image in the intended way. Finding a photograph through a search engine doesn't give you usage rights. Stock libraries have licence terms, and your own photographs can still require thought about identifiable people or private information in the frame.

Once you've chosen it, check the crop on the actual page. Add descriptive alternative text where appropriate so the image's useful information isn't available only to people who can see it. Don't treat that field as somewhere to stuff keywords.

Turn the draft into a usable web page

Moving text into a website is not necessarily the same as preparing it for reading. Pasted content can bring odd spacing, lose headings or turn a sensible article into one long block.

Use proper heading styles rather than simply making text bold. Keep paragraphs readable, check lists and test links. Preview the page on a phone as well as a larger screen, because an image or layout that looks fine in the editor may behave differently when published.

Your page title and meta description should accurately describe what the reader will find. They help communicate the page's subject, although search engines may display different wording. Clear, specific language is more useful than squeezing every possible keyword into a sentence.

This is where a reusable checklist earns its keep. You don't need to make a fresh decision about checking links each week. You need a reliable point in the process when links get checked.

Plan how people will find it

Publication timing is a practical choice, not a hunt for one magical hour. Consider whether the article relates to an event, an offer or a question customers are asking now. Then choose a timing you can support with the rest of your marketing.

The social introduction has a different job from the blog. It should give someone a reason to read, rather than announce that you have written something. Pull out a useful distinction, a specific question or an observation that matters to the intended reader, then explain what the full article helps them understand.

Make sure the destination is the article itself when the platform supports a clickable link. If a channel needs a different route, make that route clear and check that the promised article is easy to find. A strong invitation loses its usefulness if the reader arrives somewhere unrelated.

Finally, check publication rather than assuming that scheduling means everything has worked. Does the page open? Is the image right? Has the social post appeared with the intended destination? A scheduled job and a successful result aren't quite the same thing.

Separate your decisions from your maintenance

You can map this without building an elaborate system. For your next blog, make two columns and put each task in the one that best describes it:

• Needs my judgement: choosing the question, contributing expertise, checking business facts, approving the argument and deciding whether the voice feels right.

• Needs a repeatable process: transferring approved content, applying the usual formatting, setting publication details, scheduling and checking the result.

Some jobs belong partly in both columns. Choosing an image needs judgement; uploading it and checking its crop can follow a process. Agreeing a social introduction needs thought; transferring approved copy into a scheduler shouldn't require you to rethink the whole article.

The point isn't to remove you from your marketing. It's to stop requiring your attention for every step just because your attention is essential for some of them. Templates, checklists, delegated support and connected tools can each help, depending on what you're trying to simplify.

What a whole-month workflow changes

That's the distinction behind Inkie. You share your updates, ideas and direction, and Inkie uses its knowledge of your business to plan the month's content, write it in your voice, find images, schedule it and automatically publish to supported connected channels.

Customers typically spend 30 minutes to two hours a month involved in that process, including whatever reviewing and editing they choose. That's not a guarantee or an estimate of initial onboarding. Some let it run; others edit extensively, and their corrections and updates help Inkie understand their business better.

The useful difference from an AI writer alone is what happens around the writing. Instead of treating each draft as the start of another set of administrative jobs, the monthly process brings planning, production and publishing together.

If you'd like to see that process, you can book a free Inkie Tech Tour. I'll show you around Inkie. I promise I won't ask you to sign up.

Whether you use Inkie or organise things another way, the worthwhile question is the same: what would you do with your marketing if more of your attention could go into the ideas, rather than moving them from one place to another?