Writing AI Copy is not hard
You put an input into ChatGPT and get an output that sounds, at times, better than you could have written it.
Of course, I’m speaking to those of you who’d put conversion copywriting on the last rung of your skills ladder.
But writing perfect AI copy demands something extra. At the very least, you want the LLM you use to talk in your brand voice.
You want output that is as close to perfect as possible.
And most of all, you don’t want the response you get to seem canned.
At the very least, you don’t want it to seem as if ChatGPT wrote all of your copy for you.
Your Personality and Voice Are Key
Now, I want to be clear—there’s nothing wrong with using AI to write your work.
However, in an age where Google focuses on rewarding high-quality content, regardless of whether it’s AI-generated, there’s one crucial element missing from most AI outputs: your personality and voice.
Without that, it’s easy for the work to feel generic, and worse, for your brand to feel disconnected from your message.
This is why I advocate for something more. It’s not just about getting ChatGPT to write for you; it’s about guiding the AI to sound like you.
And that’s where knowing how to get the best out of these LLM tools becomes critical.
Getting The Best AI Copy
For me, it starts with two things:
- Learning how to craft a prompt well.
- Understanding the value of structured, scalable prompts.
Think about it this way: Yes you can use simple, conversational prompts like you would with Google and get results that are decent.
But here’s the kicker
When you take the time to build structured prompts, the output becomes much more targeted, consistent, and repeatable.
Yes, structured prompts take more time and effort, but the payoff is massive.
Imagine turning AI into a tool that not only performs a single task perfectly but does so in a way that is scalable across different projects.
That’s the power I want to share with you.
I’ll even give you my blueprint for building structured prompts so you can create AI copy that has personality, saves you time, and can be reused over and over again.
But first, I want to share how I became an expert in all of this.
Spoiler alert: It all came down to practice
My Journey With ChatGPT
When I first heard the word ChatGPT, I was at my desk, dreading the fact that I had to write and automate a 32-email customer journey.
It was three weeks before Christmas, and I was about to hear the word “AI” in a way I had never heard it before, via a CNN newscast.
To be honest, I never get exhausted by my work. No matter how much it is or how large the projects get to be.
But this one seemingly routine task—writing a customer journey—had me all up in my feelings. I just didn’t want to put on my writer’s cap.
An Experimentation with AI Copy Begins
Maybe you’ve felt this way too—not wanting to start on an aspect of your online business, so you find distractions like checking social media or doing laundry.
Around the holidays, especially Christmas, procrastination becomes my best friend, and I slide from procrastination to overwhelm.
One day, while watching CNN, Sam Altman, now known as the leader in AI, discussed how artificial intelligence could augment work.
It hit me: maybe AI could help me with the 32-email sequence I needed to write.
I logged into ChatGPT, experimented with some prompts, and saw how they could be useful. Long story short, the holidays were saved.
(Quick heads up: the email marketing campaign I composed was wonky at first, but that’s a hilarious story for another time.)
That’s when I started experimenting with AI as a way to build parts of my online business and my offers faster.
Key Discoveries: Crafting Your AI Copy
Now, I want to share some of my most important discoveries about:
- Getting your AI copy to adopt your brand voice
- The importance of scalable prompts
#1 | Train AI to In Your Brand Voice
In my 8-Step Guide to Understanding Your Brand Voice, I get into the weeds of brand voice discovery.
If you don’t know your brand voice, you and ChatGPT will be working at cross-purposes—and that’s not ideal.
To create AI copy that truly represents you, don’t expect tools like ChatGPT to provide something that feels intrinsically yours.
It won’t. It can’t.
Instead, you’ve got to train it in the way you want to sound.
Here are some useful tips for training AI to capture your brand voice in your AI copy:
→ Provide Context from Your Brand Voice Documents: Instead of “uploading,” copy and paste excerpts from your brand voice guidelines during each prompt session. This will provide a foundation for the AI to understand your tone.
→ Feed It Your Most Used Phrases: Include your signature phrases or common language that defines your brand. This will help ChatGPT mirror your unique style.
→ Iterate Frequently: Keep refining the prompts and outputs. Each session helps the AI align more closely with your brand voice.
→ Copy and Paste Verbiage from Your Blogs and Website: This allows the AI to understand your typical writing style and word choices.
→ Ask for Tone and Style Identifiers: Prompt the AI to identify and emulate the tone you prefer. You can say things like, “Write this in a friendly, approachable, and conversational tone.”
HINT: The more you engage with the AI, the better you’ll get at refining it. In turn, the AI will deliver results that are more in tune with your brand’s unique voice.
#2 |Begin With A Goal
Ok let’s to goal setting.
There’s something my Dad use to say to me and I think you probably would have heard it from your parents too.
It goes like this.
” You can’t know where you’re headed without a goal.”
It’s the same with a Large Language Model.
When it comes to creating effective AI Copy, a well structured prompt always has a clear objective.
I’ve found that when you start being specific and clear about your goals, the responses you receive from ChatGPT become narrower and more relevant.
You see a well-defined goal gives the AI a clear path forward, enabling it to leverage its pre-trained knowledge to produce high-quality output.
I like placing my goal at the top and then repeating it at the end.
This is just something I learned in the good ole’ days of ChatGPT-3; a practice I still use today.
#3 |Build Step-by-Step Until You Get A Stacked Prompt
It took me hundreds of hours working with ChatGPT to realize that the AI prefers order.
My guiding principle is simple: Garbage In = Garbage Out.
In the 100 prompts I created for the AI Copy Collective, you’ll notice that my language is simple and direct (I avoid ambiguous words), but I also include additional steps in my prompt requests.
I stack all my prompts because lumping information together does necessarily lead to clarity.
By stacking prompts, you make it easier for the LLL to generate accurate AI copy that meets your needs.
I provide 100 examples of this in the AI Copy Collective.
#5 |Get Personal with Your AI Copy
Ok as you progress with building a structured prompt you’ll notice you have clarity.
But there’s something else’s, you’ll also realise that combining human and artificial intelligence produces the best results.
Structured prompting becomes more specialised, useful, and fun.
By giving your prompt layers, even asking the AI to collaborate with you on a problem and brainstorming with it, you personalize your experience.
When I debate and iterate with AI, it acts as a trusted tool, while I take on the guiding role for the model.
Sometimes I am in the lead, so it’s my intelligence guiding the AI.
Other times the AI gives me insights or language I didn’t even think of.
That’s the kind of synergy I love the most.
Sometimes, it feels like AI was designed for this kind of interaction—it makes the process feel more human.
#6 |Be Specific
Given the advanced capabilities of ChatGPT’s subscription model (GPT-4), there are many types of outputs you can request.
For instance, you can ask for an image, an explanation, a chart, a table, a document, an Excel spreadsheet, or even a website.
The more specific you are with your requests, the better your AI copy will be. Not everything has to be in a Word document.
#7: Tell it about your target audience
Ok this is an oldie. And all the OG’s of my blog know I preach enough about knowing exactly who you serve.
Your customers
Your followers
Your perfect people
Your ideal avatar
Your community
ChatGPT writes best when it know when it knows who you serve.
For example: do you serve single mothers? Millenials? Men who love fashion? Female Founders?
I need my AI to understand who I am trying to reach.
Often, I feed the system my target audience and their pain points and deepest desires.
Then I check to make sure it understands by referring back to my core people.
I want to make sure the AI stays on track as much as I can so the AI copy I receive, reads well.
Pro tip: Once you throw in a copy and pasteable blurb about your audience, the AI remembers it and acts accordingly.
It’ll make your life so much easier.
Ok these are my seven guiding principles that have served me well.
Ok let me leave you now with a structured prompt, which you can find HERE as a short form reel, *** loved doing this one****
You’ll see structured prompting at work and how I layer a prompt to get the best results.
