Copywriting

Don’t be fooled by the “slowdown” in AI news and progress.

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For much of this year, AI has been front page news. On top of that, new and more capable models and model versions were being announced on an almost weekly basis.

But now, things seem a little quieter.

When we read about AI in mainstream media, it’s often speculation about an AI bubble. And there’s plenty of chatter about Large Language Models – LLMs – hitting a ceiling, or at least a major slowdown, when it comes to new advances.

OK, you may think, time to relax. This AI thing isn’t going to take over the world – or my job – after all.

Not so fast.

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The advantages of being a slightly older copywriter.

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OK, so maybe I’m a little beyond being a “slightly” older copywriter. That’s what happens when you’ve been writing copy for over 45 years.

You also bump into something else at my age… ageism.

Yup… there is a fear among some prospective clients that I’m too old. I’m not sure what I’m too old for – or why – and so far I’ve been too polite to ask.

But yes, it stings when people look at you and make assumptions about your ability to do good work.

I take a contrary view (shocker!).

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5 Valuable AI Use Cases for Freelance Copywriters.

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AI use cases for copywriters

I still hear people saying things like, “AI can never write as well as a human copywriter.”

Or, “I asked ChatGPT to write an article, and it was terrible.”

Respectfully, these people are missing the point.

Just because AI can’t entirely replace the full set of skills of a human writer doesn’t mean it can’t be valuable.

Look at this through a different lens…

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Don’t use AI as an Easy Button. Use it to get better at what you find hard.

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AI writing easy button

People get excited by how AI models like ChatGPT make it easy to create copy and content at scale.

As a writer you can create way more content when using AI. And yes, it’s a lot easier. No more writer’s block. AI can help you come up with new ideas for content, suggest headlines, and even write a finished draft for you.

And instead of a new post or article taking you two or three hours, or more, you can get it done in 5 to 10 minutes. How awesome is that?

Well, it IS awesome.

But…

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In a world of AI-generated marketing, where’s the Creative Director?

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creative director and team

As a budding young copywriter in the early 1980s, I worked with an art director as my partner, and our work was overseen by the agency’s creative director.

Creative directors were at the top of the pile in Creative Departments. They were the best of the best, and inspired the work of everyone. They shaped the overall creative output of the agency. They also used their experience and judgement to decide whether any particular piece of work was good enough.

In my early days, the creative director would look over my shoulder and sometimes say something like, “Interesting idea, but I don’t think it’s working”. Or, “Bit of a second rate headline, Usborne. Try again.”

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Be the Human In The Loop… And dramatically increase your value as a freelancer.

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t-shirt with logo saying I am the human in the loop

You have a lot of choices when using AI to write copy and content.

First, you can choose between the major Large Language Models, like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude3 and others.

Then you have dozens, if not hundreds of new AI-writing platforms, most of which are using these models as the engines that drives them.

It’s little wonder the web is being flooded with new AI content, most of it sounding like it was written by a well-meaning robot.

The content isn’t badly written. With some decent prompts, most of these tools will give you a very passable first and second draft.

But there IS a problem.

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