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Are you planning to do copywriting with AI?
There are many reasons why you should.
AI can save you a lot of time by quickly generating content. It can help maintain consistency in tone and style across your work. Plus, even the best AI tools cost much less than hiring a full-time copywriter.
However, without the right approach, AI written copy can fall flat, failing to turn your readers from doubters to believers. This will leave you with no choice but to go back to the keyboard and come up with a prompt that can unleash the maximum power of AI.
So, how do you harness the potential of AI while avoiding common pitfalls?
That is where the do’s and don’t come up.
DO: Use AI As A Starting Point
Don’t get me wrong: I am a strong believer in AI’s capabilities.
Yet I believe that the time when copywriters could leave everything to AI is not yet here. There are a few things which, as copywriters, we can entrust to AI. For everything else, the human brain is still our best friend.
Take brainstorming.
With good prompts, tools like ChatGPT, Gemini and (my favorite) Perplexity can offer an excellent list of potential topics, titles, or even key points for your content, helping you overcome the dreaded writer’s block.
AI tools can also generate first drafts of your copy for you.
That is especially the case if your prompt that includes the main points you want to cover, your preferred tone, and any specific instructions you may have. As long as your prompt is clear yet thorough, the first draft may exceed your expectations.
You can also boost SEO with AI tools.
With good prompts, they can help you identify (and include) relevant keywords in your content. Plus, you can use them to write meta descriptions, generate suitable tags, and even write ALT descriptions for the images you\’re going to include.
DON’T: Ignore Quality Control
In case you don’t know it already, AI can make facts out of thin air.
Need proof?
How about the time when Air Canada’s chatbot lied to a customer, costing the airline thousands of dollars in penalties? Or when a US-based lawyer had to apologize in open court for submitting a brief full of falsehoods generated by ChatGPT.
Similarly, Zillow had to let go of hundreds of employees after its AI-based algorithm made a mistake in predicting home prices. Besides being forced to let some of its best people leave, the company had to write-down inventory worth over $300 million.
While a copy with inaccurate facts may not do as much harm, it could still tarnish your reputation as a copywriter. Such inaccuracies can make you appear unreliable, causing clients as well as readers to lose trust in your abilities.
Worse, it could hurt the brand you’re trying to promote, misleading customers and leading to confusion and distrust. Over the long term, this can result in loss of customer loyalty and hurt the brand’s credibility in the market.
DO: Craft Personalized Narratives
If there’s one thing AI is pretty good at, it’s at crafting personalized narratives, especially if your prompt includes lots of information about customer behavior.
For instance, there was this one time when I was writing copy for a fitness app.
I had enough data on the user’s age, demographics, workout history, and goals. Yet I was unsure on how to use all that info to create a compelling message for the readers.
Enter Perplexity.
Fed with the above information, it came up with a copy that not just reminded the target audience about their ultimate goal — getting in their best shape. Our potential customers were also informed of how the app was going to help them along the way.
Sure, the AI-generated copy wasn’t entirely free of errors. For one, it spoke to one reader (Emily) and not the thousands who had the app downloaded on their devices. Another mistake I had to correct was the over-use of certain words.
But I prefer tweaking an ad over staring at the blank page of MS Word.
DON’T: Overlook Brand Voice
Do you think that Alex Hormozi (Google his name in case you don’t know who he is) personally writes all his tweets?
I for one don’t.
But I cannot be sure.
Why?
Because I have seen him talk in person. And that’s where the source of confusion lies: his tweets read the same way as he speaks. There’s virtually no difference between both.
For copywriters promoting brands, maintaining this level of consistency is crucial.
Just like Alex Hormozi, your copy should reflect the tone and personality of your brand, regardless of whether you’re writing a blog post, social media ad, or newsletter.
This consistency won’t just build trust and credibility.
It will also ensure that your audience can easily connect with and recognize your brand’s identity. This, in turn, will help you make a lasting impression and forge connections with your audience.
DO: Use AI for A/B Testing
I am a first hand witness of how AI tools can be your best buddy for AB testing.
This one time I was writing copy for an eco-friendly product.
My target market consisted of millennials and members of Gen Z. The problem I was facing was whether to focus on the product’s environmental impact (which studies showed appealed more to Gen Z’rs) or its cost savings (a more attractive proposition for millennials).
To check out which angle my copy should target, I asked Perplexity to produce two variations of copy – one focusing on the product’s greener footprint and the other targeting its cost-effectiveness.
Then, I ran both these variations.
To my surprise, it was the version touting the product’s environmental impact that resonated best with both segments of my target audience. Without AI as my writing companion, it would have taken me hours, if not days, to reach this conclusion.
DON’T: Rely on Simple Inputs
Imagine you are writing a blog post on the benefits of meditation.
How would you prompt your favorite AI tool? These are your options:
- Write a blog post about the benefits of meditation.
- Write an in-depth and thoroughly research blog post that delves into the benefits of meditation, including its impact on mental health, stress reduction, and overall well-being. Incorporate expert opinions with references.
I think you already know the answer.
Prompting the AI tool with the first input would result in a piece of content that would most likely be generic, bland, and boring. In contrast, the 2nd prompt would give you a blog post that would most likely (after a few tweaks) be ready to publish.
Another reason the 2nd prompts would work best is it narrows the focus of the AI. Instead of relying on the abyss that is the open web, it would make the AI only look for expert opinions. This would result in the content that is high-quality, genuine, and trustworthy.
DO: Use AI for Grammar and Spell Checks
After being a loyal Grammarly user for over 10 years, I cancelled my business plan subscription on 30 November 2022.
That\’s the date when ChatGPT was released.
After using the chatbot only once, I realized it could do everything Grammarly does. That too without costing me a penny. All I had to do was craft a prompt that instructed ChatGPT to make sure that my writing is free of grammar and spelling errors.
While my initial use of ChatGPT focused solely on grammar and spelling, I quickly discovered that its capabilities extend far beyond those basics. Thanks to a recent update, I now use it to maintain a consistent writing style across all my work
Here’s how it works.
I provide ChatGPT with links to both my previous writings and the draft I’m currently working on.
The tool then reads these documents and compares them. Next, I instruct it to ensure that my new draft matches the style and tone of my earlier work. This feature helps me keep my writing style uniform and polished, making it much easier to produce cohesive and well-aligned content.
Conclusion
Want to promote your brand with world-class copy? Our experienced team of copywriters would not only drive traffic to your website but will also nudge your business’s profits in the right direction. Need proof? Get in touch for a free consultation.
