When ChatGPT started making headlines, we know that a lot of copywriters out there became more than a little concerned. Here comes this natural language processor (NLP) that knows how to craft sales copy, blogs, and more.
Here comes another AI tool that’s going to replace us all.
Not so fast, copywriting friends. While ChatGPT is still making some of us nervous, it should be making us excited.
For writers, ChatGPT is an incredibly useful tool that may not only shatter your writer’s block chains, but also cut the amount of time it takes you to draft in half. Seriously, in half.
Here is how to use ChatGPT for copywriters and why you should start using it to write copy asap.
What is ChatGPT?
Before we dive in, it's important to understand what ChatGPT is and how it works. ChatGPT is a machine learning model that is trained on a large dataset of human conversations. It is designed to generate human-like responses to text input, making it possible to have natural conversations with it.
Unlike artificial intelligence art generators for marketing design, users don’t need to understand how to write specific prompts to get the answers they are looking for. Simply type in your request, and ChatGPT generates an answer.
Why it’s an asset.
Computational linguistics has come quite a long way since the early days of chatbots. Natural language processing (nlp) tools now have artificial intelligence to act as their brain, so you can get exactly what you want with a simple text prompt.
This means that you can generate outlines, create site meta descriptions, come up with fun ideas for that new ad campaign you’re working on, and more.
While this tool will never compare to the human element that is essential to a great content marketing strategy, it can cut your drafting time in half during the early stages of a project.
No, it won’t quite get that customer persona exactly right, but it can provide the bones for a specific piece of content. If you’re a freelancer, this will buy you time to scope out new clients. If you’re an in-house copywriter, it can open up your bandwidth to support bigger projects.
Let’s dive into exactly how writers can use ChatGPT to streamline their copywriting strategies.
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When to use ChatGPT
There is a lot more that goes into copywriting than the final draft that readers see. There is strategy, planning, outlines, rounds of feedback and edits, and so much more. For many writers, this planning stage is where ChatGPT will be the most useful.
Topic ideation: Let’s say that you’re working on a series of blog posts about NFT marketing. You have your primary keyphrases but are having a really hard time figuring out what to write about. All you would have to do is enter “Blog topics about NFT marketing” and ChatGPT will come up with a list of topics for you to choose from.
Even if you don’t choose any of those topics, it can kickstart your inspiration engine and help you get the ball rolling.
Outlines: So, you’ve identified the topics that you want to write about, and now you need to create actionable outlines for those topics. Sometimes, this is where we have a tendency to get stuck in a frustrating white-page syndrome cage.
Instead of mulling over every section, go to ChatGPT and ask it to generate a blog outline for each of your topics. Like topic ideation, even if you don’t want to use the outline, at the very least, it can help you get the ball rolling so that you can start drafting sooner.
Meta descriptions: Sometimes, with shorter content like site metas, this is where copywriters tend to get stuck. Ask us to draft a ten-page white paper, no problem. Ask us to write a meta description capped at 160 characters, and we get stuck on it for an hour.
Instead of mulling over what to write, ask ChatGPT to “write me a meta description for a blog post titled NFT Ideas”. It will need expert tweaking to get it just right for your audience, but at least it saved you precious time that could be spent elsewhere.
While ChatGPT is an awesome tool to start using, it does have its limitations.
User beware…
While ChatGPT is an incredible tool for copywriters, there are some important things to keep in mind while using it.
This tool is a powerhouse of information and can make it so much easier to draft that social media campaign or come up with that quirky slogan that will catch your target audience’s eye, but if you want to use it for data-heavy content, it’s going to disappoint you at best or get you in trouble at worst.
For example, if you’re working on a blog post about Medicare changes in 2023 and ask ChatGPT to write it for you, it’ll create a convincing draft complete with data points. It will be so convincing that you’ll want to send it out to your client immediately.
The only thing is that ChatGPT does not have access to the internet, and its information is capped at 2021. While it may deliver a very convincing draft, those data points will be incorrect.
Another thing to consider is that it doesn’t understand the nuances of pain points, target audiences, or consumer personas. If you do ask it to draft an email campaign, you will have to rewrite a whole lot of it.
ChatGPT for writers: like fuel for your copywriting engine.
ChatGPT can be a valuable tool to streamline your copywriting strategies if you know how to use it. It’s the most useful in the initial stages of a project, when we're the most prone to that dreaded writer’s block.
Outline, ideate, and get your engine going.
Just don’t expect it to do your work for you.
We want to hear from you. What are your thoughts on tools like ChatGPT?
