Invest in creativity and make your copywriting more human

Bibi says: “Make your copywriting human-first.

A lot of people are using AI and trying to have it pass AI detectors. However, a lot of language models are based on similar copy and they overuse phrases that were already overused. It's very easy to start detecting what's written by AI – not necessarily by using AI detectors, but by humans themselves.

If you want to have a unique brand voice or you want to stand out, it's really important that you still invest in creativity – whether that's in a really good editor or a great copywriter.”

Is it possible to prompt AI to write with a brand’s voice and a personality, without using repetitive, generic phraseology?

“It is. If you like a specific writer (like Samantha Irby who is one of my favourite writers), you can prompt the AI to write in the style of that copywriter. The problem is that, once it gets into more long-form content, all those phrases and structures still start to creep in.

I'm sure it’s possible to use AI in that way, but a lot of blogs and websites are going to use it blindly, and all those things are going to pass through. Then it's going to be very easy to detect, and humans are going to get tired of that as well.”

What do you think about the legality/morality of an AI copying a popular writer's style?

“If I was a writer and I saw everybody writing in my style, I think that would be horrible. At the same time, it's also part of creative evolution. People learn first by copying the masters and then trying to give it their own twist.

As a writer, you should trust that it is really hard to copy your creativity. As you're evolving, all the people who are stuck at the mediocre level, the only thing they can do is make a watered-down version of you.

If I was a writer, I would sue the AI, because I want to know what they are trained on and whether they are using your copy without permission. However, it's also unstoppable, so I wouldn't be too anxious about it. You're not going to be overruled by other people using AI to copy your voice.”

What does human-first copywriting mean in terms of using AI?

“I use AI all the time, but I don't lose my creativity and critical thinking. I always apply that as a layer on top of any work that I am doing with AI. I use it as a bouncing partner as well, for ideas, because AI is sitting on a huge mountain of knowledge. I think I would be stupid if I didn't use it.

I don’t always use it to embellish the ideas that I already have. It depends on the situation. Sometimes I don't have an idea yet and I just start talking to the AI. In that case, it's more like a conversational partner. If I don't have an idea, I might ask it what kind of stuff people would be interested in if they like Taxi Driver or something like that. Then they come up with those ideas and we go back and forth. It's more conversation.”

What kind of content are you looking to get out of the AI?

“I don't use AI for long-form stuff, I still use human writers, but I do use AI for email copy – like for outreach emails. When you have an email, it is made up of certain elements: you have an intro, a segue, a subject line, etc. An intro can come from different types of ideas. For instance, it can come from a trend that's going on in a specific niche. I'll ask Bing what the trends are for popcorn right now, or something like that, and then I can use that for the intro.

However, an intro can also be a different type of thing. It can be a shower thought. Maybe I'll ask Bing or Bard to come up with shower thoughts around electric cars. It's a really cool thing because the shower thoughts are usually very good.

I have the element, like the intro, and then there are all these different methods I can use to make that element interesting. I'll just talk to AI and ask it to create jokes, shower thoughts, or deep questions about that topic. Then it just goes back and forth. That's how I build the template up.”

How can you be confident that your human writers aren't using AI and would that concern you?

“I use a writing agency for the guest posts that we write for the clients, and I have worked with them for years. I know the owner, and she's not a huge fan of AI. She does use it sometimes, but she doesn't use it for the articles.

Of course, you never know, but I trust her so I know that she's not letting her writers use a one-click AI writer. They might use it for parts of the copy or to come up with ideas but they’re not producing it in one go with an AI writer.

I don’t use AI detectors. They work for a couple of weeks, and then they stop working because AI is evolving so fast. You could still do it. In the end, though, you have to be able to recognise good copy. An average writer can also produce a rubbish piece of content. Use your critical thinking.

We also have an editor within the company who does the last proofing of all the articles, and a human writer can be just as bad as the AI. Google are saying that you can use AI content if you want but you need to make sure that it’s great for the user. In the future, AI might actually start producing better content, but it's not there yet.”

Do you define an individual brand voice when you create articles and how do you ensure that the voice is consistent and appropriate for the client?

“I do a lot of guest post pitching, so it's more about where the guest post could be published than it is about the voice of the client. The writers that we use always check what kind of style or voice the prospect site is using – and that's nothing new.

You can prompt AI to write in a specific tone of voice or style but our writers are not using AI.”

Are there any trends in the type of content that clients prefer at the moment?

“There are two different types of content that I create. One is for the clients themselves, like a linkable asset that can attract passive links and is easy to build links to. The other type is guest posts, which are published on other people's sites.

When we talk about guest posts, it's usually very simple. People are happy with plain text articles, and then they add their own stuff to it. For clients, one thing that works really well, which is more dictated by me, is stats and trends pieces. Those are very easy to build links to and can attract a lot of passive links every year. I come up with that idea, and then they will have some visuals or something, but nothing too fancy.

I use Ahrefs for a lot of content ideation for linkable assets and, in particular, their Content Explorer. When I do research, I reverse engineer the type of question that people have, not necessarily the topic. Then I look at the results and see if it's applicable for the client's audience or if it's something that I could translate to the client's audience.

For instance, when you go to the Content Explorer and you type in ‘how many’, you can start filtering by ‘how many backlinks is it getting’ or ‘how many Pinterest shares’, etc. Then things start popping up and you can see which topic people are looking for or linking to the most that is related to something countable – a statistic, a piece of data, or a fact. That gives me an idea for a stats or trends piece where I can combine all those different things together.

Of course, I do some link-building for it and the client boosts it with some ads. The cool thing is that, once it starts picking up links, that stats piece or trends piece has many different data points within it. The people who are linking to it will usually only concentrate on around three of those. That gives you a lot of insights into what people find most interesting. You will see that it often has to do with money, like how many dollars there are in a specific niche. People are really interested in that.

It was something I was already doing but I was inspired by Stacey MacNaught, and she has spoken a couple of times about how to use these stats pieces as linkable assets. Definitely look her up because she has some great ideas.”

Do you tend to search the phrase that you're thinking of writing about and then look at the results on the SERP to see what else exists there?

“Yes. I would start to look into which keywords you have for that phrase, variations of that phrase, etc. For every keyword, look at who's ranking on it, and that becomes part of the brief.

The writers that I use do their own research, but I can just give them all these examples, inspiration, and sources, and then they start putting the whole piece together.”

If an SEO is struggling for time, what should they stop doing right now so they can spend more time doing what you suggest in 2024?

“What has helped me is working within my own schedule. I can't concentrate for too long and sitting for a long time is really unhealthy for me because it hurts my knees and I have to go to physical therapy. Now, I use a Pomodoro timer. I work for 25 minutes, then I take a 5-minute moving break, and then every hour I go outside and play basketball or something for 15 minutes. If possible, I only work from 11 till 3.

The cool thing about that is that I am way more focused and productive in my work than I would be if I worked 8 hours. Everybody has to figure it out for themselves, but I think the 9 to 5, 40-hour work week is a construct from the Industrial Revolution because they wanted to have kids in school and people in the factories. We should let it go.

It's also really unhealthy when you combine that with desk work. If you ask an SEO about their health problems, so many of those are related to spending too many hours behind the screen. You should try to focus more on your health.

Don’t let other people dictate your schedule, you need to find a way to work that is best for you. Nothing is set in stone; make it clay and mould it to your own needs.”

Bibi Raven is Head Chicken at BiBiBuzz, and you can find her over at BiBiBuzz.com.