Using AI writing tools: the 20\/60\/20 rule

Have you been experimenting with AI writing tools such as ChatGPT to get your marketing copy created? Is it producing the results you'd hoped for? Or could it do better? If so, read on.

I've been meeting people in two camps of thought around AI writing tools - those that don't want to touch them, and those that have embraced them full on.

Both are right in their own way.

Those that don't

Those that don't want to touch AI do so because either they want full control over what they produce and want it to be fully on brand and original, or they have privacy and plagiarism concerns and a general suspicion of the unknown.

Those that do

Those that have fully embraced the tools have marvelled at the productivity and the amount of time they save. And the output, to be honest, is good enough for them. It allows them to communicate at a level of English they wouldn't have been able to previously. But then, argueably that takes their messaging "off brand". It's not their voice anymore, it's "someone" else's.

Those trying to make it work with what's there

Those that are experienced in corporate communications, on the other hand, are a little less impressed with AI. Yes, it saves time, and produces a heap of content at breakneck speed. But in it's first-draft form (the draft others without a marketing team may be happy putting out), it's unusable. It doesn't reflect the brand, it doesn't go deep enough into the topic and it is easily identifiable as a cookie-cutter piece from AI - and here I'm not talking detection tools. The format takes the same approach so it becomes easy to spot for anyone reading.

In other words, whatever the input, the output from AI writing tools requires significant editing/rewriting to bring it up to standard and to make it "real" or "personal" with insights into the human "lived" experience.

AI writing tools are here to stay and are just in their infancy. Who knows what will become possible. But for now, we have to work with what we've got - and that means input, quite a lot of it, is still needed from our side.

How to use AI writing tools effectively so they work for you?

I call it the 20/60/20 rule - the amount of time you have to invest or not.

The first 20%

20% of your time is still required in the content planning - what topics do you need to produce? What do you want to say? How are you going to say it? Then there's the question of how you input your request into the tool. Like anything else - you put garbage in, you get garbage out. Now it's pretty useable garbage on first look and saves a shed load of work.

But, unfortunately, on closer inspection, it still needs work. So you have to spend some time getting your prompts right so that you get content out that is passable. That can take a few attempts, and some cutting and pasting to get a passable draft in some semblance of order.

The next 60%

The 60% is where these AI writing tools are genius. This is where they do the heavy lifting, give you great ideas and content that you couldn't possibly produce so fast but which you can begin to mould. But, like I said, it's just a first draft.

But also like I said, you have to know what to put in. TIP: write like you are asking a human, not a machine. Give it as much context as you can so it doesn't have to guess at what you want.

The remaining 20%

And that's where the remaining 20% comes in. Taking that first draft and making it YOURS.

You're going to need to fact check the information provided. That's been well documented since ChatGPT blasted onto the scene (and something that would have been done by a real copywriter at the beginning of the process) that it doesn't do facts well.

Then you're going to have to change the flow, make it less cookie cutter, more you.

Then you need to insert your voice - again the tools can do that to an extent and, over time, can become more practised at it so you have to edit less, but it's still something you'll need to be on top of. If it's not how you'd say it, it needs rewriting.

Then there's your brand stories to add in to give it personality. AI tools can't do that for you. But (TIP) you can run YOUR final draft through the tool again and ask it to grammar- and spell-check for you. You can even ask it to make it more engaging. BUT, what comes back, although good as a final piece, will need to be checked over once again to bring it back on brand. ChaptGPT does tend to get a bit exciteable and that's not everyone's tone!

So there you have it.

I'm a writer by profession so I wasn't best pleased when ChatGHP appeared. I spent the first half of 2023 denying there was a problem when there clearly was. People and businesses were turning en masse to the tool for all their writing needs. Jobs for human writers were few and far between. The second half of the year (yes, I'm slow I know!), I started to look at what they could do for me and my business and how they could support my clients as a baseline while they still needed my input to make it real.

Case study example

For example, I have one project where I get interview feedback for a story and I have to write the story to a particular structure and personally decide what information to include and leave out. If I fed that through ChatGPT, the output could be interesting to say the least, but it wouldn't be what is required for the project. Sometimes you just need the human input.

Now I've come to accept that AI writing tools have a place but you shouldn't hold them in too high regard or your stories and promos will start to lose their spark.

So use them for ideas and to generate low-level content and first drafts. But don't kid yourself that they don't need human input. They do.

If you need help with getting your content straight, talk to us at Proof Perfect.