When we think of artificial intelligence, it’s easy to picture full-blown animatronic humanoids like those we see in movies like Ghost In The Shell, Blade Runner, Ex Machina, or even Her. But the truth is, AI is already here, operating nearly seamlessly in our everyday lives. Just picture things like Siri, Google Assistant, and those chatbots that heavily rely on customer support mechanisms on webpages in all industries. Why shouldn’t we embrace AI help as we look to write marketing copy that converts?
Artificial intelligence solutions are already becoming commonplace in content marketing efforts. One AI bot - created by a company called Persado - wrote ads so compelling that JPMorgan Chase saw a 450% increase in their click-through rate and hired the bot for a 5 year deal. It’s a mind-blowing shift in the way we generate customer-facing materials.
Granted, we’re not quite ready to ditch human writers. Even with the help of tools like Persado’s, human writers will likely always play a strategic role in guiding messaging, reviewing copy options, and keeping content within bounds of their company's goals, voice, and approved messaging. And the truth is, most companies are pretty far from integrating AI in the writing process at all, so full-blown automation is likely a way out for most teams. Still, the middle ground in AI-assisted copywriting is likely something we should all be seeking out.
Indeed, companies like Jarvis and CopyAI have released solutions aimed at automating at least parts of the writing process. Folks visit the website, enter rough versions of whatever copy they’re looking to have produced (product descriptions, website content, a social media post), and the AI generates multiple versions of polished, grammatically correct content to choose from. Some of the tools even allow you to give input about the tone you’re hoping the copy will have. For folks who need small bits of copy, perhaps this end-to-end solution is all they need. Enter the text, choose the recommendation they like, and they’re done. But for teams with more extensive content marketing efforts and holistic messaging and positioning needs, the AI can be seen as a useful tool for a copywriting team to embrace.
Think about it, how much time do writers usually spend in the ideation phase of a copy project? Taking a rough version of the content they need and playing around with tone, positioning, wording and more before they lock on a direction and get flowing with words on the page? Now picture that same process - automated. A writer can take the rough version of the content they’re starting to write, enter it into an AI tool and review the suggestions from the bot. Suddenly they’re starting with a myriad of options, writing prompts, and inspiration. There’s no reason they have to take the bot’s suggestion carte blanche, and instead can use it as a powerful jumping-off point to generate pages and pages of copy off a mere paragraph the bot suggested. Embracing automation may make for greater prevalence of fresh ideas, playful suggestions, new perspectives, and saved time. Writers who learn to embrace this technology rather than fear it are likely to become some of the more competitive in the industry.
Let’s face it. AI is here to stay. And if we can’t beat the bots, let’s befriend them and win together!