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AIO Model 2.0: We Surveyed 128 Marketers To Find Out How They’re Using Content at Scale

Julia McCoy
Friday, 21st Apr 2023
Julia McCoy
5 min read · Jan 11 2022
aio model 2.0

Back in January, a couple days after joining the team here at Content at Scale, I sketched out a brand-new model called the AIO model based on our user base and their capability to accelerate AI-assisted SEO content output at never-seen-before time and cost savings.

Content at Scale is pioneering huge change in the SEO content industry—so much so, when I saw this new model emerging from what our technology is capable of, I knew we had to capture it and publish a real model sooner rather than later. (Our software is made possible thanks to the convergence of AI and the hard work of a few passionate people.)

AIO is a term our collective leadership team at Content Hacker invented. Both the term and the model were one of the first pieces of work I created content for within hours of signing the work contract for my role here. I was up late, sketching out the first AIO model with my 8-year-old’s crayons. I knew we had to have something on file to capture what I was seeing from our innovation of producing 30M words a month (now 50M).

In the first iteration of today’s relaunched model, I broke down something I called “the old process of SEO content”, vs. “the new process of SEO content” – the latter being the basis for my AIO model.

Before & After AIO: What Content Used to Cost

Essentially, pre-AIO, here was the very basic process of creating content:

  • A human creates the research, outlines the piece, and writes a 2,500-plus-word SEO blog from start-to-finish
  • Another human (editor) reviews and edits to make sure it’s publish-ready
  • Content gets published

The cost for this can be anywhere from five to thirty cents per word, depending on from whom and where you’re hiring from. Typically, you need to give a writer a week’s lead time to write one long-form blog and not get burnt out in the process.

The AIO model 1.0 that I built was based on comparing two important criteria pieces:

  • Human-only content: SEO writer creates a high-quality, long-form blog that cost $200-ish to write, takes hours to write, and an additional hour and human at $40/hour to edit. (That’s on the low end.)
  • AIO content: The cost is now $25 per long-form blog with Content at Scale, and total time is one hour of human editing at $40/hour, taking the total cost down to $65 per piece.

With AIO: What Content Can Be (Dream State = Reality)

My next order of business was taking my model into the real world, where I saw actual numbers, cost savings, and heard all the stories. These delighted me like nothing else. It was a true honor to hold hands with and not only help marketers, agencies, and freelancers adapt—but see the transformation for myself, in ninety-minute-plus Zoom calls. (Real market research, anyone?)

Look at some of these experiences Content at Scale users had.

JourneyEngine was paying $1,800 for 10,000 words from a human agency. Switching to us, they ended up paying $1,500 for 250,000 words. They gained a 25x increase in the words they receive, at a much lower cost.

Jeff J Hunter, case study launching soon, took his team from four SEO copywriters down to one with Content at Scale, and that one is doing the work of eight copywriters. Not to mention that one is a Philippines-based VA that doesn’t know anything about SEO writing. He’s now offering SEO content to clients, something he would never have done without Content at Scale.

Troy, a website owner and publisher, never bothered with hiring a writer. 🤯 Instead of trying to locate a writer to work their butt off to do 1-2 pieces a day, with Content at Scale, he wrote hundreds of pieces without a single human—all managed by one SEO person.

Chiara, a freelancer, saved 50% of her time and escaped burnout. She lives in beautiful Italy, and can spend that extra 50% of her day now outside rather than at the desk. That’s transformation if I ever heard of transformation.

Entrepreneur Nancy Ruiz was able to run her highly-trusted marketing agency minimally so she can take care of her ill daughter, while adding an additional much-requested client service offering and six-figure income stream to her business, thanks to Content at Scale. She would have never dreamed of adding content as a service if it had to be humanly done.

These stories went on, and on.

I come from 10 years of creating human-only content, and it was a chore, let me tell you.

I relate so much to the beauty of this model we’re building, and Content at Scale is the only reason it’s possible.

Today’s story is the 2.0 version of the AIO model, after a few months of being here and taking the time to talk to and survey more than 128 marketers that use Content at Scale in different ways. Let’s get into it.

Results of Our Survey

Survey Results

  • 49% of our users use Content at Scale for their own site
  • 34% of our users use Content at Scale for client sites
  • The remaining 15% are a mix of both
aio model

Average cost savings:

60%

Some saw as high as 80%. 

Average time savings:

70%

Some saw as high as 300%.

Profit margin increase:

40%+

What marketers used to pay (baseline human cost):

.05-20c/word

(Average: 12c/word)

What marketers pay now (with Content at Scale):

.007/word on average, as low as .005/word

Savings: .11c/word, $275+ per piece

Now, let’s look at time savings.

The time long-form used to take:

Baseline human time: 7-12 hours, plus one more hour for editing

With Content at Scale: 1 hour of work.

Savings: 11 hours per piece

The time savings is where users are seeing a ton of transformation. A few of my favorite quotes from our survey:

  • “The cost savings have not only been directly associated with being able to save from hiring a writer (which is for me about a $50 to $70 per article payroll cost savings per article), it has also saved me from spending valuable time trying to find the resources to find, hire, and vet out people. I’d say, even with a minimal subscription, I have saved over $500 per month, even with just a four blog/month plan.”
  • “Easily days worth of hours have been saved. I went from 10-12 hours ideating, organizing, writing, and editing my content pieces. Now it’s a couple of hours.”
  • “Incredible.  24 articles done a month vs. 2 or 3 a month.”
  • “I don’t think the time savings are measurable even; what took a whole day can now be done in less than an hour.”

Ready to Make the Switch to AIO?

Here are my top resources to get you going.

Want copy-paste job description for your AIO writer, & a full worksprint with tutorials for them? That’s my AIO worksprint & SOP. Download now.

Want to learn how to make content #StraightOuttaAI even better?

That’s my C.R.A.F.T. framework.

aio craft

Want to learn every step involved in our C.R.A.F.T. framework? You’re in the right place. To learn more about AIO and C.R.A.F.T, read our individual guides:

Additionally, subscribe to our blog, watch our C.R.A.F.T. and AIO tutorials on our YouTube channel, and read this blog to understand the AIO model.

Free Resources to Train Your Writers into AIO

I’ve been personally training agency owners and teams and helping them convert to the AIO way. Want these? You’re in luck – we’re giving them away.

Free Guide

We put together a full guide for AIO’s – an AIO writer’s worksprint, a job template to hire and find yours, links to our best tutorials and training, and more.

Want this awesome resource? It’s called the AIO Writer’s Worksprint. Download now for free.

Free Step-by-Step AIO Training Course

Additionally, after months of putting AIO and C.R.A.F.T. into action (over 40M words are produced each month by our users at Content at Scale, and our Done-for-You client side is another 500,000 words/month! Talk about AIO at scale 🤯 ) – we put together a step-by-step AIO C.R.A.F.T. tutorial.

Ideal for you, your writers, and any content creator ready to adapt to the CRAFT methodology and the AIO way.

Enjoy!

New to the idea of AIO and CRAFT? Read this to understand the innovation behind AIO. 

Want a written guide that has all the CRAFT steps from the YouTube video? Your wish is our content command. Step-by-step AIO writing tutorial, blog version. 

Written by Julia McCoy

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