Let’s talk AI copywriting tools: Forget ol’ Clippy from Microsoft (hey-o, 90s kids)—it’s feeling a little Jetsons up in here because artificial intelligence (AI) has finally made its way to our desks as creative small business owners. The future of content marketing *may* be AI-powered writing software that can create engaging pieces more efficiently than human beings ever could … but is it more effective … ?
I tested 5 tools so you don’t have to. 😉 Today, I’m digging into 5 AI copywriting tools to take your business to the next level.
I feel the need to clone myself constantly as a writer in my business, so I was pumped to do the research for this video. I keep my hourly rate on a sticky note by computer—I know exactly what a wasted hour (lookin’ at you TikTok) of my time costs my business overall. I’m always looking to make every hour worth that as best as I can.
Enter the bots.
What Is AI Copywriting Software?
Think about Spotify on your phone—you log in and some algorithm has learned you and your tunes habits, and auto-created playlists for you. A human-made playlist from your favorite influencer, curator, or even your BFF created for you? Sure, there’s a big chance you’ll love it. But the robot one isn’t terrible—after all it’s pulled songs you didn’t know existed or had completely forgotten about. 🤷🏻♀️
AI copy generators are similar. If you’ve ever used Grammarly (if you’re a Copywriting for Creatives student, you know I tell you to install this asap—even the paid version slays) or Gmail’s autocomplete feature when you’re typing an email … you’ve used AI to support your writing.
Leaning on algorithms and consumer data, artificial intelligence is a crazy helpful tool for helping craft the sheer volume of words necessary to market your creative business.
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In a nutshell, AI content writing tools & software can let you outsource pieces (but that’s key … outsource pieces) of the writing process … tools you can train to edit for YOUR brand voice, write similar to YOUR top-performing ads or emails, etc.
⬆️ Think about how helpful that is especially in a massive corporation, like a Delta Air Lines, where the brand is churning out MILLIONS of messages, and when you’ve got 40, 100, 1000+ different people trying to communicate the same way.
Not bad.
But we’re talking about you, the small business … what does this mean for us?
Pros of AI Copywriting & Content Writing
That brings me to where to find AI copy and content. Aka I tested 5 tools so you don’t have to. 🤩✨ You’re welcome
BUT before I spill the reviews, I want to give you the overarching pros and cons to AI copywriting tools & content generators.
Pro: They Will Not Take Our Jobs
(Well, not yet 😜) Elephant in the room: will this put those of us who work in marketing writing—copywriters, content writers, copyeditors, social media managers, ghostwriters—out of a job?
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After reviewing and digging into these 5 tools and working in digital marketing writing since 2009, here’s my hot take:
Absolutely not.
Empathy and relationship can’t be faked. More on that in a sec.
These free copywriting generators function as bookends to the craft in my opinion: They spit out ample research and studyly first drafts. On the backend, they can Marie Kondo all over your work and copyedit well.
Pro: You Get a Copyeditor on-Demand
My favorite AI copywriting tools were the ones that polished work and eliminated unnecessary words. From strengthening syntax to ex-communication of passive voice, you could absolutely take one of these tools and add it in your editing process to tighten copy.
Pro: Punt Writer’s Block Further Down the Road
The robots can rephrase things and jumpstart your brain in a different direction. Breathe new angles into your writing? Always a win.
Pro: Stay Tight on Voice
Think about it the same way you use customer service or client service templates to keep your brand voice tight and churn out politely, timely responses to the flood of emails … small business is a constant circus, and sometimes I JUST NEED A ROBOT, OK?
Now did I see any of these AI copy generators perform with super-voicy copy? No. But many of them have “witty” or “funny” toggles you can flip on … kinda fun to play in the sandbox.
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Pro: Speed-up Your Content Writing
Note, NOT copywriting … sales copywriting (at least for me!) would not get faster with these tools—if anything, I’d extend my process by dialing & trying more angles, which isn’t a bad thing.
But for social media posts, blogs, articles, research for those … wow. I’d get faster.
Cons of AI Copy Generators & Content Writing Tools
Command the bots to do your bidding because here are the snags I found:
Con: Overall Strategy? That’s on YOU.
YOUR brain is going to have to know where in the funnel the customer is. YOUR brain needs to know Client & Customer Voice Hacking (here’s an article I wrote on how to get started with that). And, YOUR brain needs to know the unique value prop or Onlyness Factor, like my CfC alum know. ⬆️⬆️ Copywriters and content strategists/writers, this is why we won’t be replaced anytime soon. We’re paid to think.
Machines Can’t Fake Relationships
There’s a level of humanity, empathy, and relationship that a machine can’t mimic.
Con: You’ll Definitely Edit the Robot
Remember how you’d say things 3 different ways when you were trying to hit your word count in grade school? You have to watch for that with these tools … sometimes it looks like that.
Con: Time is Money
… And it may take just as much time for you to learn the tools as to do it yourself. But if this maxes your hourly rate? GO.
The Reviews: 5 AI Copywriting Tools & Content Writing Apps
There are scores. Ok? SCORES I tell you. AI copywriting software is a cottage industry of the internet these days.
I randomly selected 5 I’d heard about and had been on my list to try. I played around to see how I’d use them to get more done, and possibly even shave off the need to hire another writer in-house.
This is what I found.
Missinglettr
I may use for … Taking long-form content (like my YouTube scripts, interviews, and blogs) and chopping that into social media posts for Facebook, Instagram captions, LinkedIn posts, etc.
Completely Arbitrary Ashlyn Score? 9/10. Honestly, I’ll probably try it a few times.
Link: Missinglettr.com
Missinglettr pricing? ~$19/mo (free plans available—also, snagged a sweet link from the Missinglettr team: Click HERE to get a secret link & try Missinglettr for an extended 30 days free. WHOOP!)
Writesonic
I may use for … Content writing. Blog/article & episode titles, YES! Possibly intro and outro paragraphs for those, but would need solid editing. I tried it for this blog & didn’t like what it came up with … I liked what my brain came up with better. 🤷🏻♀️ SEO meta tags & data, for sure. MAYBE ads, but they’re pretty basic … blah. 🙂
Completely Arbitrary Ashlyn Score? 8/10. I’m going to try some Google Ads on this, bc that’s been on my list to write anyway, and I’ll clean up my website’s SEO meta tags too with this, just for kicks.
Link: Writesonic.com
Writesonic pricing? ~$15-45/mo—at least that’s the bucket I’d probably be in (free plans available)
Jasper
I may use for … Rephrasing paragraphs. The “Explain it to a Child” feature. Of all the AI copywriting tools I tried, the YouTube titles it came up with were fantastic. V. curious about the bullet maker & marketing angle creator.
Completely Arbitrary Ashlyn Score? **I said 2/10 in the video** I changed my mind. I elevate it to 6/10. For sure, this was hands-down the prettiest tool so I kept trying to make it work. So, I cleaned up a few paragraphs from this here blog with the tool, and the “witty” voice toggle wasn’t shabby. You’ll never know which paragraphs, mwhahaha.
Link: Jasper.ai
Jasper.ai pricing? ~$29-59/mo—at least that’s the bucket I’d probably be in (free plans available)
WordAI
I may use for … Taking long-form text (a blog, a YouTube script, interview, a talk) and cleaning it. This is pretty much all it does though.
Completely Arbitrary Ashlyn Score? 8/10. For that one thing, it does it dang well.
Link: Jasper.ai
Word.ai pricing? ~$29-59/mo—at least that’s the bucket I’d probably be in (free plans available)
QuillBot
I may use for … Taking long-form text (a blog, a YouTube script, interview, a talk) and cleaning it. Pretty sure this one is cheaper than QuillBot.
Completely Arbitrary Ashlyn Score? 9/10. It won on price, but again, it kinda just does that one thing (but does it well).
Link: Jasper.ai
QuillBot pricing? ~$29-59/mo—at least that’s the bucket I’d probably be in (free plans available)
Now I have to go delete and cancel subscriptions with a half dozen AI copywriting tools. 🙃🖥
I always say over here that copywriting is a combination of art and science, and AI gives you the chance to bring in an even more scientific, data-driven approach. Especially as some are free copywriting generators, of sorts.
AI has a place in this world for sure but is your copywriting one of those places? I’ll leave that decision up to you!
For me, as a writer who spit out 200,000 words just on the agency side of our business last year, I’m in. I will add 1 or 2 to these AI copywriting tools to my tech stack. If you can combine your smarts with AI and machine language learning. (again make the bots do YOUR bidding, make ‘em work for you), I think they’re a pretty rad skill-booster.
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Reading Time: 7 MinutesLeaning on algorithms and consumer data, artificial intelligence is a crazy helpful tool for helping craft the sheer volume of words necessary to market your creative business.
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