Using AI copywriting tools (including ChatGPT) 😑
Are AI robots stealing our jobs? As far as I can tell…not yet! In the meantime, here's how I've been using AI tools like ChatGPT to improve my copywriting, speed, and creativity.
Now, I’m not one for jumping on the bandwagon. In fact, I’ve spent most of my life walking behind the bandwagon, making fun of the people on it.
However, after chatting with other writers in my community, it became clear that very few are using AI as part of their copywriting tool kit.
Although I don’t condone leaning heavily on it for your writing, I do think it can help you work more efficiently, challenge your skills, and explore new areas of creativity. And none of that can be too bad, right?
Here are some of the AI tools I use daily and how innovations like ChatGPT have broadened my creative horizons.
Headline and subject line analysers
Any writer worth their salt knows the headline or subject line is the most crucial component of the writing. No sod’s going to read the rest of the piece if the headline or subject line sucks.
Enter CoSchedule!
I use the Headline Analyzer and Email Subject Line Tester tools almost every day. This clever software gives your copy a score out of 100, with in-depth notes on things like clickability and skimmability, plus tips on how to improve.
It gets its intel from thousands of headlines and subject lines across the web and finds similarities between the most successful ones, so you can apply the same tactics to your own writing.
This comes with a caveat (as does every piece of software in this blog post): your knowledge of the brand TOV, customer demographic/readership, and copywriting training all trump any AI software score.
If you know, through years of experience with a certain client, that something will work despite pulling a low score, I’d encourage you to go with your gut and ignore the software.
Either way, this is a nifty tip for the editing phase of your writing process.
Automatic transcriptions
Don’t be a mug! Rather than copying out interview recordings by hand, get yourself an Otter subscription. This handy AI tool records and transcribes meetings, interviews, and audio/video footage, giving you a cleanly written transcript with a recording hidden underneath.
You’ll be able to pull chunks of dialogue out for quotations without needing to re-listen time and time again.
Since I got it, Otter has saved me masses of time transcribing industry events and means I can give my interviewees undivided attention (which always makes for a better interview!).
Inspirational springboard
Now we move on to ChatGPT. Far from being a lazy writer’s quick fix, this can actually act as a pretty effective creative springboard when used properly.
Simply plug in a request, like ‘give me some song titles about water’ or ‘what are some words to do with rabbits’, and you’ll get an entire list of output, ready to rip into and pull apart creatively.
You can also continually tweak the request, asking for different tones, styles, and genres of thing until you’ve refined the outputs you’re getting. No more trawling the Google SERPs and Pinterest looking for single words and phrases!
Fact-checking and gauging accuracy
Although there's been doubt cast on ChatGPT's ability to be unbiased, I've still found it a handy tool for fact-checking and gauging accuracy.
Simply paste your copy into the chatbot and ask whether the quoted copy is accurate. It'll give you a detailed answer and can even provide areas for improvement. Whether 100% accurate or not, it's still food for thought, which can never hurt.
Getting a second opinion and bouncing ideas
Don't get me wrong — I usually like to go straight to my writing community when I need a second opinion. But sometimes, you can't do that, especially when you're under an NDA or working on something confidential.
So, why not turn to your mate ChatGPT?
I’ll paste entire opening paragraphs into the software and ask for tips on making it more hooky and engaging. I'll ask if my outro CTA is strong or compelling enough. Ya get the picture!
As with all of these AI prompts, I take the answers with a grain of salt — after all, I'm the professional writer here!
Alternative thesaurus
Sometimes, the online thesaurus just doesn’t cut it. In those moments, I head to my mate chat GTP for some extra inspiration.
I ask for a list of synonyms that I can trawl through. It’s delightful to have an instant list to pick through on the search for that one perfect word.
Do you use AI as part of your copywriting process? Are you a tentative beginner?
Come and find me on Twitter and let me know where you’re at and what you think.
