Copywriters,
Meet Your New AI Assistant:
4 Ways to Use ChatGPT
By Valerie Halmrast

You can light up your writer's brain with new ideas and inspirations using ChatGPT, a generative artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot developed by OpenAI.

Launched in 2022, ChatGPT is a tool that lets users enter prompts to receive humanlike images, text, or videos that are created by AI. It can answer questions and assist with composing emails, essays, code, and much more.

Artificial intelligence has evolved from science fiction to reality, and it is present in our everyday lives. It has improved product efficiency, safety, security, and so much more, and we can see its uses in our everyday life with things like …

Modern Day Household Appliances such as refrigerators and washing machines. Smart appliances can detect potential issues, suggest grocery lists, and optimize their operation.

Vehicles are navigating roads, detecting obstacles, and ensuring passenger safety. Autonomous technology has the potential to revolutionize transportation by reducing accidents and improving traffic flow.

Virtual Personal Assistants like Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant are AI-based.

Email. Have you noticed that email is relatively spam-free? You can thank AI. Email platforms use machine-learning algorithms to filter out spam and sort messages into categories like primary, social, and promotions. This helps users focus on important emails without sifting through irrelevant ones.

Those are just a few of the applications we’re seeing for AI in today’s environment.

Now let’s take a deeper look at ChatGPT and how we can use it for our writing business.

Don’t Doubt Yourself …

AI is not here to replace writers, and writers are not here to use AI to do all the writing for them.

As smart as AI is, it cannot replace human emotion, ideals, and feelings, to name a few deficits.

So, don’t doubt your talent and value as a writer.

Instead, explore and grow with the help of your new assistant, ChatGPT. Your focus should be on using ChatGPT for research and learning what you need to know to write good content and great copy for clients …

That’s where ChatGPT can be a great addition to your writer's toolbox.

4 Practical Ways for Writers to Use ChatGPT

1. Classic Writer’s Block

Imagine you’re tasked with a new project, crafting a product description for a client's website. But you’re staring at a blank page, stuck.

How can ChatGPT help? It may seem like a good idea to ask the AI to write a draft for you, but that would just be farming out the strategy, creativity, and humanity — to a bot.

No one wants to feel like the conversation they’re having with a business is just an enactment of a script created by AI. Instead, successful marketing relies on making authentic person-to-person connections.

So, rather than asking AI to write a draft for you, a much better way to bust open the writer's block is to ask ChatGPT for a list of ideas.

Here’s a prompt you might use for AI:

I am a copywriter, writing a product description page for a website. Generate a list of 10 ideas for the headline and the opening few sentences of the body copy. Below is the information you need on the product and its target market.

ChatGPT will then produce a list of headlines and leads. Chances are at least one will inspire you and be worth developing.

2. Brainstorming Content Topics

Brainstorming a new project can be a hit or miss, but ChatGPT can give you a solid head start.

For instance, say your client asks you to develop topic ideas for his blog, social media posts, or newsletter.

Here’s a prompt you might use for AI:

I am a B2B writer for Almo Corporation, a leading wholesaler of brand-name appliances to a retailer. Come up with 20 topics for the company's blog. The audience is retailers of kitchen appliances. Ensure the topics meet the following criteria: one, the topic is relevant and valuable to the audience, and two, the topic helps to position Almo Corporation as the go-to wholesaler.

ChatGPT will quickly generate a list for you to choose from and you can expand and liven them up from there.

3. Get Suggestions from AI for Improvement

Especially when you’re starting out, you may want to have someone read your draft and provide feedback so you can provide the best possible copy to your client. ChatGPT can give you suggestions for how to strengthen your copy or content.

Here’s a prompt you might use:

I am an experienced editor. Review the following blog article and come up with specific recommendations for improvement. The audience for the blog article is real estate agents. List your recommendations as a table with the following columns: word choices and phrases; examples and scenarios; enhancing clarity; other suggestions. Here is the article:

ChatGPT will then generate a list in a convenient table format for you. Use the feedback to edit your message with confidence.

4. Tell Better Stories

Most importantly, writers are storytellers. In persuasive writing, we tell stories about product features — and especially benefits. The more compelling those stories are, the more effective the copy will be. ChatGPT can help.

Here is a type of prompt you may use to ask it for ideas for communicating features and benefits in compelling ways:

You're writing a product description page for a website. You will name the important feature of the product and detail the benefit it provides to the customer. Ask it to generate a list of 10 copy ideas that feature an example or scenario — in a way that helps the customer visualize the benefit. Provide the information about the product and its target market.

Then, ChatGPT will provide the list for you to go through and you can select one or two that are likely to work well in the piece you’re writing. You may wish to use some of the wording as is, or more likely you’ll need to rework it with your human touch and writing flair.

ChatGPT and Writers: A Winning Combination

These four suggested ways to use ChatGPT can help writers get the ball rolling on a project, gain confidence, save time, and improve the quality of what you create. The sky is the limit with AI and the value it can bring to copywriters.

Learning how to be a successful copywriter all starts here with The AWAI Method™ for Becoming a Skilled, In-Demand Copywriter. The program combines the most up-to-date strategies, insights, and teaching methods with the tried-and-true copywriting fundamentals so you can take on ANY project — not just sales letters.