Episode Transcript
[00:00:06] Speaker A: Cracking Copy is a marketing and copywriting podcast where we lift the lid on writing for business and read between the lines of effective copy.
[00:00:16] Speaker B: This is a podcast for creative entrepreneurs and savvy business owners like you who understand the value that great copy can bring to their bottom line.
[00:00:24] Speaker A: We dive into a different aspect of writing for business in each episode. Debunk the myths about how we should write and explore the ways that writing can be fun, conversational and creative while also being high impact for serious results.
[00:00:41] Speaker B: So listen, laugh and learn with us, Ella hoyos and Minnie McBride as we share our words and wisdom in each snack sized episode. Expect some light bulb moments, interesting guests, and practical takeaways as we crack the copy code together.
Hello and welcome to another episode of Cracking Copy. I'm Ella Hoyos and I'm here with Minnie McBride and we are exploring today again the intersection between AI and copywriting. In particular, how we really can enhance our efficiency and productivity with AI.
[00:01:16] Speaker A: Yeah, so this is the second in our AI miniseries and today, yeah, we're diving into how AI can boost efficiency and productivity in copywriting while making sure that human writers remain at the heart of, of great content.
[00:01:32] Speaker B: That's right, very important. Humans first.
[00:01:37] Speaker A: Always.
[00:01:38] Speaker B: AI is reshaping how we write. It's reshaping how we research and optimize content. But does it replace human creativity? Well, not quite. Like we said in the last episode, we don't think so. But let's break it down because it does do some cool stuff.
[00:01:51] Speaker A: It does, yeah. So first of all, when we talk about using generative AI to make writing more efficient for professional copywriters, I guess, and business writers, if, if you know you are writing your own copy of your business. What we're referring to is how AI can streamline parts of this writing process, allowing copywriters and business writers to work faster and then they can basically then put their focus onto high, higher value tasks. So here are some ways that you can use AI to increase your and enhance your efficiency. First of all, idea brainstorming, idea generation is a really good one. So writer's block, you know, you're a bit stuck, I don't know what's where to start. You know, again, again, you can use AI to suggest headlines, angles, variations on your messaging, just to come up with a list of ideas, even just to get you, get you going.
[00:02:44] Speaker B: So, and for many people, I think this is where you will start with your AI writing journey. This is what a lot of people are using it for now as that kind of sparring Partner to come up with ideas and to bounce. Bounce ideas, your own ideas off.
[00:02:58] Speaker A: Yeah. So if you don' where to start. It is efficient to get started by asking for prompts rather than sitting, shaking your head, procrastinating, making coffee, you know, just so, like, for example, you've got a skincare business and you'll look, you know that you've got to write a whole load of weekly blog posts or whatever about spring, summer skin care. And you might just be thinking, oh, God, you know, what could I write about? And then just, just ask, ask AI, ask ChatGPT or one of the other tools to give you some ideas and then you will spark your own ideas and come up with a plan.
[00:03:34] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, just give it some instructions, Give it some idea of who you're writing for and what you want to write about and just get started. Yeah. Another way, another way which is really good way of using it is drafting and structuring your copy. So AI can generate rough drafts of content out or content outlines to speed up the writing process. And this is really good. It can suggest different formats or structures for your content. So if you're writing a social media post or an email or a blog copy or advertising copy, then there are different ways you would structure that work and your AI tool will know that and can create it in that format that you want. For example, we, Minnie and I, when we're planning this series, we put into ChatGPT that we're going to be discussing generative AI in our podcast and how it can enhance efficiency and productivity, the theme of this episode. So we asked it for ideas on how to best structure and it did come up with a basic structure. It gave us timestamps and topic headings. We then went in and asked it a bit more to elaborate on each section so it can go as far as giving you the script if you want, that level of detail. But much of it, there was some repetition in there and there was some blurred lines as well, I think, between some of the topics that we wanted to cover. So we, you know, imagine if Minnie and I sat here and just read out a script. Well, the podcast would be pretty boring in that sense. We like to sort of spark off each other and have a conversation.
[00:04:56] Speaker A: Witty, witty banter and everything.
[00:04:58] Speaker B: Absolutely. So we'll take what the AI tool gives us with a grain of salt and we'll always add our own input and take away, you know. But in terms of getting a structure and an outline together, it did that super quick. So it gave us a framework of which to get going. And I think that was brilliant.
[00:05:15] Speaker A: Yeah. And also when you're doing a series like this and we're trying not to have too much repetition, and obviously there is. We are obviously touching on topics and points that we have touched on, for example, in episode one, but by structuring it that way, we're trying not to do that. And that's quite a. You know, that's really helpful. It is really helpful to do.
[00:05:32] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:05:34] Speaker A: So how else can we be efficient using AI? Well, one of the great ways, and I think lots of people are already using that, is editing and refinement. So AI can assist with grammar clarity, you know, adjusting tone. And, you know, writing assistant tools like this have been around for a while. So Grammarly does what it says on the tin. I know that my son used that and is actually allowed to use that at uni to make his spelling better. They were allowed to use that one. So there's Hemingway editor again, can make your writing more concise and correct. So, for example, I mean, I'm quite prone to lengthy sentences. I know I am. And in the past I would have had to go through and gone, oh, you know, or reread it and gone, oh, I need to do that. But actually what Hemingway does is it highlights them and then you're like, oh, yes, that is a bit long.
[00:06:19] Speaker B: It's nice because it color codes the text, doesn't it? So you can see at a glance where you've been using passive voice instead of active voice, or where your sentence has become so wordy and full of commas and it's too lengthy. You can see where it's too long and at a glance. Because it's color coded into those different sections. Yeah.
[00:06:36] Speaker A: So it saves time. So you know that you can shorten the sentence. You need to shorten the sentence or to split it into. Into two sentences or whatever. So these apps, I think, are a fast track to correct spelling and grammar and they can quickly rephrase sentences and conciseness for better readabilities. They're great. They're not generative AI, but they are AI tools that I think really speed up. Yeah, I think they're accuracy as well.
[00:07:00] Speaker B: Yeah, great for accuracy. They're called predictive AI tools. They predict based on what you've written already. Whereas generative will generate new combos for you. But predictive AI looks at the text that's already there and works within that.
So another way that we like to use AI in our work is personalization and optimization. So, you know, the ability to analyze our audience data to tailor our content more effectively. It's great for that. So making it, yeah. Very personal to our own work. Some of the apps that you might use for that would include Quill Bot, chatgpt, Deepseek being the heavy, the research one Otter AI, which is the note taking app where you can record your meetings and summarize that. Just a little note on Quill Bot. Oh no, I haven't got a little note on Quill Bot. I can't elaborate on that one. These, when we did the research for this show, these are the apps that are coming up that we're suggesting. I cannot promise that I've tested out every single one of these that I'm talking about. So Quill Bot is something I've not tested, but I believe it's a useful tool.
[00:08:04] Speaker A: Well, that's because a lot of these are paid as well and we're not going to, you know, I mean, okay, we could pay for them all and then we'd be quite broke. I think the thing is that we are giving you some ideas so that you can do your own research.
[00:08:15] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:08:16] Speaker A: And choose. Choose the tools that are best for you.
[00:08:18] Speaker B: Choose wisely.
[00:08:20] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:08:20] Speaker B: Also think about how you can use AI to help you create and test different versions of your copy to see which one performs best. So use it for sort of split testing, doing your own little analysis. Ask it to review, critique two different variations that would be a good way to use it to optimize your copy. Now, if you are a Google Workspace user, I. E. You have a Gmail account, the chances are you also have a Google Workspace account. Then Google Gemini is now integrated into Google Workspace. This is Google's AI offering and it's a competitive version of the OpenAI, you know, ChatGPT. It's Google's version. And did you know that you can ask it now to look in your drive? Drive to resurface documents that you want to find. Obviously there's the search function in Google Drive, but also you can interrogate Gemini and ask it to look at your own personal folders and files. And maybe it's like you can't remember what the document was called, but you knew it contained it was about such a thing. Well, you can ask Gemini and Gemini can find it within that it's functionality or you can ask it to automatically create minutes and add it to your client folder specific folder. So these are ways that AI tools can be used a bit more personally to you. You can also use Gemini in your Inbox, in your Gmail inbox to find emails or create new emails that you want to send. So there really are so many ways to make these AI tools work for you in your circumstances, in your situation, with your workspace and your documents and your systems. It is just a question of really finding out what the tools are and what you can do with them, what the functionality is. And that's what we're hoping here by shortcutting some of this research and bringing it to your attention, that we're doing you a service here on, on cracking copy to give you some clues about what tools might be useful for you.
[00:10:09] Speaker A: We're being super, super helpful with this.
[00:10:11] Speaker B: Series, like a public, public service announcement, a public service broadcast, you know, move over BBC.
[00:10:18] Speaker A: Yeah. So, yeah, I mean these are, these are just brilliant. But the other, the other one that's quite interesting. Another saving, time saving example is repetitive task automation. So what do we mean this? Well, AI can generate product descriptions, FAQs and other repetitive content at scale. So obviously this might be quite dry when you ask it to do that. But, you know, we talked about how in the last episode, certainly how you can feed AI tools with your brand, voice and so on. And obviously, you know, it is a rough draft and you can tinker with it, but it's really helpful just for giving you a whole load of descriptions that you might need if, you know, if you're updating a website copy or whatever. So isn't this cheating? Yes, it is. Well, it is, but it's the new normal. I mean, this is what we're talking about is the new normal and, you know, we are having to embrace it. So the skill now is, is how to use the tools, how to get the most out of them and to adapt the output to get the perfect result, the result that you need and you want. So I think also you could think about how you might be able to utilize AI to automate reports, summaries and basic content updates.
[00:11:26] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Actually one tool I've played with in the past is Canva and this, it was an early version, I haven't done it since. But you can bulk create content in Canva and that's obviously using AI. The, the content generated might be a bit lame, but in terms of creating stuff at scale, you give it a prompt and it follows the pattern to create lots of posts in a similar vein.
[00:11:49] Speaker A: So talk on that, didn't we, we did a talk on Republic. This is quite a couple of years ago.
[00:11:56] Speaker B: Yeah, this was.
[00:11:57] Speaker A: You did it for a social Media Festival. And I think there, even then, you, you showed people how to do it. It was quite mind blowing. You know, a week's worth of content just from a couple of prompts.
[00:12:09] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And repurposing prompts to generate more. So I've used it, I've dabbled, I've been a dabbler in that sort of thing, but because the results were a bit lackluster, it's not something I've repeated. But you know, if you did that again or a few times, I'm get to a point where you could actually, you know, make it work for you. And I think it is just a question of experimenting, iterating, optimizing might not be brilliant the first time, but I think these tools are constantly evolving. So if we did it again, those sort of tasks again, maybe we would have, you know, a month's worth of decent social media posts. That would be nice. In half an hour. I'd love that.
[00:12:41] Speaker A: Well, yeah, exactly, exactly. It helped with the wording but also more importantly, which is the time consuming bit for me because I'm not a graphic designer, it's a design and I, being a perfectionist, I tinker, I tinker for hours.
[00:12:54] Speaker B: I'm the same rabbit hole. Another brilliant time saver that AI can offer is to consume a whole sort of wedge of data, whole tome of information and condense it for you so you don't have to do the heavy lifting of reading a 160 page annual report. If you've got that in a digital version, you can input that data.
Example, do you read the terms and conditions every time you buy a piece of new software or even a product? Often they come with a whole, you know, 10 page terms and conditions and you have to click Accept before you can buy.
[00:13:31] Speaker A: No, no, no, no, no.
[00:13:33] Speaker B: I rarely do it and I know, you know, part of me that the sensible inner Ella is saying you really ought to have a look at this before you sign away, you know, buy on the dotted line. Rarely any of us do, we're just time pressed and we just want to get on and buy the thing, we, you know, or whatever. But here's an idea. You can, you know, copy and paste or download those T's and C's then upload them into your AI tool of choice and ask it to and interrogate that data for you. So ask it, you know, explain why this thing happens or explain what this means or, you know, what does the T's and C's say about privacy and data protection or explain these terms and conditions in simple ways that a 10 year old can understand. And then watch and marvel as within, you know, five seconds, you'll get a lovely succinct summary of what you just asked it in a way that's very readable and intelligible and that will give you the gist of whether or not you're making the right choice.
[00:14:31] Speaker A: Yes. So you can do that when you're using these tools as well, but for everything. I mean, it's not necessarily just for copywriters, but generally for life in general. We should probably be doing, doing that, I mean, because no one reads pages and pages no one does. But also you could ask it what your risks are. What are my risks by signing this?
[00:14:51] Speaker B: Absolutely, yeah. And we should all be definitely doing that because that's the beauty of this.
[00:14:57] Speaker A: Yeah, brilliant. Okay, well I need to. Yeah, we're gonna be so smart on this now. Okay, so let's speed through. We're gonna now talk about SEO and keyword integration, which is another way that you can use AI tools. So you know, on page SEO can be quite the challenge and it's quite time consuming because you're researching the keywords and then you've obviously got to work out where you're going to put them. So what about using AI to A, suggest your relevant keywords and then B, to integrate them naturally into the copy for you. So also if you find that your SEO is not working for you, then you could actually use AI to rewrite the copy that you have already produced by perhaps putting in some different, different keywords or maybe slightly changing it. You can get it to help you and you can ask it to do what you want it to do in order to make it slightly different. Yeah, be, you know, another version.
[00:15:51] Speaker B: But ultimately in order to get yourself up those search engine rankings and get your stuff seen better with great search engine optimization with great keywords in your copy.
[00:16:00] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. So good apps to use for SEO. So we've writesonic, there's one that we have found and another one is phrase IO. But you can also just bear in mind that you can use these AI tools to generate meta descriptions for your website, alt text for any photos, etc. And any other SEO friendly elements. So it can actually speed that up and just help you. Yeah, help you to maximize and.
Yeah. Get your SEO working best for you.
[00:16:32] Speaker B: Yeah, there's another app that I use which is AI powered. Now, I don't think it was to start with, but as soon as GPT and OpenAI came on, many of These app developers, they've now integrated AI into theirs. It's called WriterZen. It's an AI powered SEO so search engine optimization, content creator. And with this tool writerzen you can consolidate your research into a singular place for easy hunting, real time drafts and collaborative teamwork. You can find keywords easily with really intuitive sort of point and click keyword clustering. You don't need to search Google endlessly and looking at Google's data endlessly. This sort of is like an aggregator. It generates the best, best findings based on what it finds on the Internet. So I use it for topic discovery, exploring keywords, a keyword explorer, a keyword planner. It's got an AI content creation element to it and it's got a plagiarism checker. So it can tell you from your own content. Yeah. Or from content that you've found online, whether it's. It contains an element of plagiarism which is really good.
[00:17:37] Speaker A: This is a paid app though, isn't it? That you've paid for?
[00:17:39] Speaker B: Yeah. Is this one had a came with a lifetime. I've got the lifetime plan. I think I bought it in a sale on AppSumo and I was wooed by its features and wanting to do SEO. Sort of shortcut SEO really for my own.
[00:17:51] Speaker A: And you think then you would you recommend it? It's a good one.
[00:17:53] Speaker B: So yeah, I mean I, I use it, I don't use its full functionality yet but I use it often and it's an alternative to. Yeah, it's a better alternative to using Google to do all that.
[00:18:04] Speaker A: What sort of price point? Yeah, can I just ask what sort of price point you.
[00:18:07] Speaker B: Well I did get it in the sort of early, early days when it was just out so I can't remember Minnie. Okay, I'll put the link in the show.
[00:18:15] Speaker A: Yeah, we'll put the link because that one's just sound really good so perhaps I should think about getting that one. But there's just so many, aren't there? And then that's, that's the thing, there are so many to choose from.
[00:18:26] Speaker B: So many apps, so many AI tools. Yeah. Where do you even start with it?
[00:18:30] Speaker A: Yes, now you know, somewhere like, like a go compare for AI, don't you?
[00:18:34] Speaker B: Yeah, there are comparison sites you may or may not have heard of. I think there's probably more than one but the one that I like because I can remember it is called there's an AI for that. So it's HHT HTTPs blah blah blah. There's an AI for that.com so yeah, we'll put it in the show notes and it's like a comparison. So you put what you're looking for, your selection criteria, your tool features or benefits, whatever you want your tool to do. And it will give you all the tools that do those things.
[00:19:00] Speaker A: That sounds really good, like they compare. But for AI. Brilliant. Brilliant.
[00:19:04] Speaker B: Yeah, Just help make sense of what can be what is probably now a huge, vast marketplace full of AI tools.
[00:19:11] Speaker A: And there's no way, well, most people can't afford to be on all of them and obviously there are a lot of free ones too and free versions. So that might just be enough for most people. So the human advantage. So despite these efficiencies, AI doesn't replace professional copywriters. I think we're not out of a job yet. It actually, what it does is, enhances, it really enhances our capabilities. The human touch is still absolutely essential for strategic thinking, brand storytelling, emotional resonance and sort of nuanced messaging. Human nuanced messaging.
[00:19:47] Speaker B: That, yeah. We have to remember that AI tools are based on logic, not emotion. Humans bring the emotion, we bring the feelings and the empathy to the conversation. AI brings the facts and the figures and does the trawling for us.
[00:20:01] Speaker A: Yeah, and there's, there's, you know, there's a lack of creativity and originality with a, with a computer program and I think so for anyone that is writing their copy for their business or they are a copywriter like us, you know, AI is more of a collaborative tool than a replacement. It's, it's great. As we have said in this episode, it removes tedious tasks, freeing up time for more high level creativity, strategy and personalization. You know, those are the things that make great copy truly effective.
[00:20:32] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. So in short though, what does AI do? Well? Well, tools like ChatGPT, Jasper copy AI, they can churn out drafts in seconds and that is brilliant. Saving us time. I'll take it any day. So they help with brainstorming, generate social media captions, those things that, you know, we know we have to show up consistently, but we, well, if you're like me, you find it tedious. And they can also even structure articles quickly and help you edit. So they're great for that. Let's get on to how is AI changing? How we write generally is like we said, like we've already covered, you know, it's great at eliminating repetitive tasks. It can check keywords and check grammar, analyze SEO trends, if you've looked at Google trends, that's a good one as well. And deep seek there's this research tool from China is gaining traction, especially for that sort of heavy research written stuff. It's designed to interpret complex queries and provide deeper, more contextual insights.
[00:21:29] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. But it does lack originality and emotional intelligence. So the AI tools can. Generative AI tools can generate content, but often, often they miss the mark when it comes to the brand voice, humor, cultural nuance as well. And they can't replace this intuition and creativity of a human red blooded copywriter.
[00:21:51] Speaker B: Yeah. With a real part and a real pulse. So don't forget, you know, AI, it generates words, but it's human writers that give them meaning. And I really, truly believe that from what we've played with and experimented. You know, AI copy has to start with a human and end with a human to be any good.
[00:22:07] Speaker A: Definitely it does. So if we're looking at using AI wisely, how do we use it wisely? Well, I think by you by thinking of it as a product productivity partner and not a replacement. And as we said, use it just for drafts and research idea generation, like a very, very bright 247 intern who's sitting next to you. And then your human expertise will elevate the content.
[00:22:32] Speaker B: Yeah, certainly will. All right, Minnie, I think that's a wrap. Next time. We're diving deep into new skill sets that copywriters will need in the air era. Yes.
[00:22:42] Speaker A: And we've got some examples. Yeah, we've got got three more to go on this series. So yeah, we'll see you next time.
[00:22:48] Speaker B: Okay, thanks. You have been listening to the Cracking Copy podcast with Ella hoyos and Minnie McBride.
[00:22:55] Speaker A: Don't miss out on future episodes by making sure you hit subscribe down below to keep up with all our podcasts.
[00:23:02] Speaker B: And more details and resources are in our show notes.
[00:23:05] Speaker A: So we'll see you next time.
