Have you tried AI copywriting for your business (and who hasn’t!) but found it a bit lacking? Here’s why it’s probably not doing what you hoped - and how you can fix it! (hint: it involves me).
I did a little experiment and gave ChatGPT (the current free 3.5 version) a few basic copywriting briefs to see how it writes for different audiences and scenarios.
And although there’s nothing wrong with the AI copywriting it gave me - it was readable, had logical structure - the content was, to my standards at least, far from being publish-ready.
Have you thought the same? Here’s why.
AI Copywriting vs Human Compared
You can spot the difference a mile off when you look at AI copywriting and human copywriting side-by-side.
For example, look at these two blog intros.
My test topic: How Law Firms Can Leverage AI to Produce Better Content:
(1) In today's digital landscape, creating compelling content that resonates with your target audience is paramount for the success of any business, including law firms. As the legal industry continues to evolve, Australian law firms are increasingly turning to innovative solutions to enhance their content strategies. One such game-changing technology that has emerged is Artificial Intelligence (AI).
(2) Type in the topic, wait a few seconds, and almost instantaneously, you have a blog or article for your law firm. Too good to be true? Welcome to the world of AI content creation, powered by tools like ChatGPT. Producing copy and content faster than you can think, its quick-fire, prompt-based generation is an easy, fast, and currently free way for law firms to produce regular, valuable content – and it can help with plenty of other copy and marketing tasks. Here are 10 ways AI can supercharge your law firm’s content production.
If you can’t tell (and I sure hope you can) number 1 is ChatGPT’s unedited intro. Number 2 is my equally as fast (!) effort.
What’s Missing? Limitations of AI Copywriting
ChatGPT writes the way it does because it’s a bot (specifically, a Large Language Model or LLM). It can only use the vast amounts of text data and patterns it was trained on to compile a response to your question or request.
This means it has some pretty big limitations:
It does not have real-time access to current information
It cannot guarantee the accuracy or timeliness of the data it provides
There is a possibility of generating incorrect or biased content
It simply cannot understand the context of its responses
Here’s what ChatGPT itself says: It's essential to use ChatGPT as a tool and not rely solely on its output. Combining AI-generated content with human expertise, fact-checking, and independent research helps overcome limitations and ensures the production of high-quality, accurate, and reliable content.
Open AI is now touting its paid version, ChatGPT Plus, which promises even better responses, greater reasoning capability, and creativity.
Regardless of which version you use, businesses relying on AI copywriting would be wise to heed ChatGPT’s advice (which helpfully popped up at the end of the generated content):
While ChatGPT can provide valuable assistance, it's important to review and refine the generated content according to your specific brand voice, tone, and target audience.
And particularly for lawyers and other professional services firms who might be experimenting with AI copywriting:
While AI can provide valuable insights and suggestions, it should always be reviewed, edited, and supplemented with human expertise to ensure the final content meets the specific requirements, standards, and accuracy expected for the given topic and industry.
How to Make AI Copywriting Work for You
As long as you understand these limitations, AI copywriting is a great tool for businesses to embrace, especially when you’re time-poor or don’t have the resource or expertise.
For instance, it can be a helpful starting point if you need content ideas. A blog outline when you’re totally stuck. A basic email reply.
I like to use it as an efficient way to find industry-specific facts, stats, and data (which I’ll then verify of course) for thought-leadership, authoritative blogs.
But beyond this, the real secret to successful AI copywriting (as ChatGPT itself points out) is to bring in human expertise - a professional copywriter like myself - to edit, improve, and interpret what it gives you.
Because it’s this human touch - the personal, emotional connection, the brand and audience understanding, and storytelling skill - that makes copywriting so compelling and brilliant.
When words make you feel something, when they resonate, you’re way more likely to buy. And that applies whether you’re selling legal advice, accounting services, beauty products, or dog food.
So, If you’ve got some mediocre AI copywriting, send it to me. For now at least, AI copywriting works best when humans and machines work together.
Send me a copywriting enquiry here!