After what seems like dozens of hours playing inside of AI copywriting programs, reading so many articles, taking a course or two, and going down some Twitter rabbit holes, I can now safely say that AI has landed a job inside my biz.
I like to think of it as my junior copywriting assistant. I use it to improve my copy and my clients’ copy every single day! It’s been a huge help.
But still think it sounds more like an episode of The Twilight Zone than real life? Keep scrolling because I’m going to be showing you how AI can fit nice and snug into your biz (without taking anyone’s job!).
#1: You have to TEACH AI your brand voice, not just tell it
AI can fit into your workflow if you teach it your brand voice, not just spit out prompts and expect it to know HOW to say it. A lot of people don’t like AI tools like ChatGPT mostly because they don’t know how to use it yet.
And one hundred percent when you first start playing with this, it’s gonna sound like a robot. But that’s not how you want to sound, so, you have to teach it your style and tone.
If you know your brand voice, make sure you dictate that. You can literally just copy and paste verbiage from your brand guidelines into ChaptGPT.
And the more you do it, the better you’ll get at guiding it through edits (aka…asking it to rewrite!).
#2: Give it some structure
Beyond brand voice and personality, you want to narrow it down even further with syntax style.
How long are your sentences? Do you use jargon? Is it easy to read? Do you like to start sentences with “and” or “but”?
Make sure you give it rules, whether that’s a character count, only using a certain number of words per sentence, or avoiding things like passive voice.
Another thing I like to do is tell it to use as many contractions as possible. Why? Because it’s little stylistic nuances like these that will make a big difference in how you use AI for copywriting! (I also just really like writing like I talk and this helps me get that AI-generated copy closer to my own voice).
P.S. — you can also try it out with copywriting formulas or frameworks too!
#3: Be specific with what you ask
The more you give the bot, the more output you’ll get back. The better prompts you give, the better of a tool it will prove to be.
It’s like using a machine correctly, even something as simple as the oven. If you don’t have the settings adjusted correctly, you’re going to burn your food. And you can’t exactly blame the oven for that. It’s because you cooked it for 10 minutes at 400 degrees, not 5 minutes at 350 degrees.
So when I’m asking these tools to write different types of copy, I’m telling it exactly what I’m writing.
Writing an SMS campaign? A sales email? A Facebook ad? Social media captions? Go ahead and tell the bot what the purpose of the writing is. You’re likely to get much better results.
#4: Give it some examples
You can give ChatGPT a few examples of the type of copy you want and tell it to format things in the same way. It can pick up the structure and the outline. So whenever you give it a prompt, load it up with a couple of examples of what you’re looking for.
#5: Tell it about your target audience
Yes, you can even include who it’s going to be delivered to or who the target audience is.
When I’m starting a new chat, I tell the system my target audience and their pain points. Then I check to make sure it understands by literally asking it, “Do you understand?”
Pro tip: Be sure you have that copy and pastable blurb that you can throw in whenever you start a new project! It’ll make your life so much easier.
#6: Don’t forget to ask questions
Once you get some responses back, don’t stop. Ask it to expand further. This will help you get closer to what you want, and help you find more ways to tell it what you want in the future. You can even ask ChatGPT questions, like if it can go back to a section and continue writing.
You have to play around with it and make it your own.
#7: Make it your research assistant
It’s no surprise to people that have been around me for a while — I love data-driven copy full of facts. And so when I learned that ChatGPT could act as the research assistant in my back pocket, too…y’all, I was thrilled.
But whether you’re facts-driven like me or not, you need to make sure that you have informational data points to speak on. Yes, people buy with their emotions, but they back it up with rational thinking. The proof is in the pudding, as they say.
Ask it to give you specific data points, facts, analogies, quotes, or statistics. A parameter that I like to give it is to use sources. You can also plug in a link and ask it to summarize that source.
#8: Use them with templates
Okay, so now you got a few AI hacks in your back pocket to help you get more leverage from it. But I’ll leave you with one last thing to blow your mind…
…you can also use ChatGPT to help you fill out templates from The Copy Bar Template shop! You can give it all the talking points I gave you above (like dictating voice, sharing your target audience, etc.), and make these templates go even further in your small biz.
Reading Time: 4 Minutes Reading time: 4 min. After what seems like dozens of hours playing inside of AI copywriting programs, reading so many articles, taking a course or two, and going down some Twitter rabbit holes, I can now safely say that AI has landed a job inside my biz. I like to think of it as my […]
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