David Weinberger, Head of Growth Marketing, Metigy
Any copywriter or content developer fears the dreaded “writer's block” and will often tell you that the hardest part of the writing process is getting started. This is especially true for those writers who work in marketing and don’t have the opportunity to wait until inspiration strikes to pick up the pen. Instead, these writers are tasked with churning out content, writing in high volumes and a variety of formats to meet deadlines.
Solutions like digital writing tools are designed to help us overcome writer’s block, and they all share one thing in common – being powered by AI. It’s inevitable that AI copywriting will help write the future pages of marketing, but to what extent?
Tools to help, not takeover
It’s not surprising that nearly four in 10 companies are spending up to $14,500 per year on content marketing efforts alone.
Marketing teams require copy for most activities – from product descriptions, eDMs, website copy and blogs, social content, advertising and customer communications. As the online marketplace becomes increasingly saturated, so too does the need for businesses to produce more content that’s both targeted and insightful to help drive brand awareness.
AI copywriting is a great way for businesses to keep up with the need to deliver content at an ambitious pace. AI copywriting uses human inputs to develop content using open-source AI, such as keywords, outlines and short briefs. AI writing tools can be used to automate the time-consuming parts of content creation, such as writing product descriptions for similar items, drafting headlines, creating slight variations of the same ad or social media post and generating draft customer communications.
We know the technology can create draft copy content at lightning speed, but even according to its biggest advocates, AI is still a supplement for human creativity. For example, it doesn’t take a communications expert to know whether you’re talking to a human or computer online or identify when AI-powered headlines have missed the mark by failing to understand context. What does require very human communications expertise, and likely always will, is the ability to navigate the solutions put in front of us to deliver better work.
Driving revenue and efficiency gains
Studies show that two in five SMEs who implement digitisation initiatives experience stronger growth revenue compared to those that don’t. The explosion of AI copywriting has created new possibilities for the industry.
AI copywriting saves businesses time and money by analysing data much faster than humans at a 24x7 pace, ultimately accelerating the content development and editing process. In the same way, by automating tasks such as content for product descriptions or social copy, AI creates space for more demanding marketing tasks like lead generation, creative brainstorming and getting campaigns to convert.
Validating this, research from Quantcast and Forbes Insights shows that since introducing AI to its tech ecosystem, 52% of marketers experienced an increase in sales, while 51% had seen an increase in customer retention.
Thanks to technology, businesses can delegate their copywriting needs and by leaning on AI, content marketers can bring their editor’s mindset, reviewing content and putting the finishing touches on AI-powered content – transforming copy from good to great. Not only is this a time-saver, but can help to inform what content will have a better response and engagement rate, generating greater results.
Unemotional AI
Rather than being a replacement, AI is an enhancement when it comes to copywriting. It serves as the solution to the “work smarter, not harder” mantra that underlines many business cultures.
While AI will change the way copywriters ideate and brainstorm, identifying the winning ideas and connecting them in an efficient, elegant way will still always be the responsibility of the copywriter and marketing team. However, compelling and thought-provoking writing comes from lived human experiences, and this is something that technology is inherently without.
By allowing marketing teams to make more informed decisions about content, AI can generate content and automate tedious tasks. But, what will always remain in the hands of humans is the ability to draw on AI tools, combined with the context of lived experiences, to deliver meaningful campaigns.