Remember this phrase, because it’ll become important later:

“It’s like giving a toddler a chainsaw and just telling them ‘Be careful’.”

Okay, now let’s use our imaginations for a second.

Pretend you’re a financial planner, with 10 to 15 years of professional experience under your brown leather belt. One day, a prospective client pokes their head into your office.

In this scenario, Mrs Prospective Client is in her late 30s and works in the creative industries. She’s standing in front of you today because she’s used ChatGPT to create her own financial plan, and would like you to implement the plan’s recommendations.

What do you imagine the quality of that plan, of those recommendations to be?

If you answered a) “Probably not bad as a starting point, but pretty worthless beyond that”, then congratulations, you’ve won this week’s star prize.

There’s a serious point here.

AI assistants, such as ChatGPT, are incredible. And they’re only getting better. But now, right now, one irrefutable truth about them is worth bearing in mind…

What you get out of AI is only as good as what you put in

Why was it, do you suppose, that you thought Mrs Prospective Client’s ChatGPT-produced financial plan was rubbish?

Simple. Although she’s clearly a successful and experienced professional in her own field, Mrs Client isn’t a financial planner like you.

As a financial planner, you’ve sat countless exams, followed zillions of regulatory guidelines, and spoken to heaven-knows-how-many real clients. There’s value and wisdom in those experiences that’s beyond measure.

You and Mrs Prospective Client could sit down, side by side, in front of identical computers, each with ChatGPT blinking away merrily on your screens. She simply wouldn’t know the best questions to ask to get the bot to produce a financial plan of any real merit. You instinctively would.

Right, let’s fire up our imaginations again.

This time, you’re still an experienced financial planner, but now you want a new website for your business.

You’ve commissioned a national marketing agency to produce your new site. Their designers and developers are handling the coding and usability – the nerdy stuff. But there’s an item on your invoice that in hindsight you’re questioning:

Copywriting.

Why, you wonder to yourself, should you pay thousands of pounds for dozens of hours of a copywriter’s time? Surely, once the agency’s sorted out the geeky bits, you can just ask ChatGPT to do some words and it’ll take 30 seconds flat?

You’re not alone in thinking this way. But in doing so, you’ve fallen foul of one common misconception.

“Copywriting” isn’t the same thing as “writing”

Most people did maths at school, so to an extent they understand numbers. That doesn’t mean they can work in finance.

Most people did English at school, so nominally they know how to write. That doesn’t mean they can be a professional writer.

In truth, financial planners probably write better than most, given the high levels of intelligence the job requires, and the in-depth client reports that need to be produced.

Being able to write semi-decently is essential in all walks of life, though. Even builders and plumbers and decorators need to draft emails and text messages to their customers, and produce quotes or designs to be approved.

But here’s the key difference:

Not everyone is a copywriter.

Copywriting legend Gary Halbert, who used his skills to generate more than £1 billion in revenue for his clients, defined copywriting as:

“The process of writing words intended to prompt a specific action from the reader.”

To better understand the copywriter’s craft, let’s break that definition down.

Halbert mentions “words intended to prompt a specific action.” To be a good copywriter, then, you have to understand persuasive language, and how to construct phrases and sentences and paragraphs that ignite people’s curiosity.

The definition also talks about “the reader”. Good copywriters need to know who that reader is. And not just on a superficial level, but more deeply – what delights them, what frightens them, what they need and what they want to escape from.

In short, copywriters need to have knowledge and experience of the human condition.

That means, for the time being at least, you need copywriters who are human.

The robots aren’t out of the picture just yet though…

AI doesn’t replace copywriters, it complements them

We’ve already established that if you give the likes of ChatGPT the wrong info, you’ll only get unusable pap back.

So, what are the right things to tell ChatGPT to get better content out of it? In other words, what do copywriters know that financial planners and plumbers and everyone else don’t?

The answer, of course, is: plenty. But it’s the specifics that really set copywriters apart.

First, it’s important to understand how copywriting relates to marketing.

Marketing isn’t an art. It’s not “the colouring-in department.” It’s behavioural science.

Don’t believe it? Think about it this way:

Why do some people prefer Pepsi to Coca-Cola? What would make someone buy an iPhone rather than a Samsung? How can you encourage a subscriber to watch Skyfall instead of Mr Magorium’s Wonder Emporium?

Marketing is about finding the answers to these kinds of questions. It’s the study of why people behave in certain ways, and the practice of trying to influence those behaviours.

So, copywriting, as a subset of marketing, is about using words to get people to act the way we want them to. Seasoned copywriters do this through elements such as:

• Headlines and subheadings
• Typography and readability
• Proven frameworks
• Narrative structure
• Emotional appeal
• “Power” words
• Tone of voice
• Rhythm.

Make no mistake: with AI, you can produce a passable first draft faster than you ever could on your own. But pair that capability with the expertise of a qualified copywriter, and you get something really powerful.

ChatGPT is only a silver bullet if the right person pulls the trigger

Remember the phrase from earlier?

“It’s like giving a toddler a chainsaw and just telling them ‘Be careful’.”

It was shared by a speaker at Fix Fest, a copywriting festival run by two of the profession’s leading lights, in July 2024. The theme of this year’s event was, you guessed it, AI.

Suppose for a moment you did give a toddler a chainsaw.

You’d get a better result out of the little ‘un if instead you said “Hold the blade away from your body” or “Cut in a smooth motion.” But you’d get an even better result if you just gave the chainsaw to an adult instead. (Probably less chance of severed limbs and bloodied flesh too; a bonus.)

The analogy here, of course, is that even the most helpful of tools can be misused if they’re put in the wrong hands. But let’s be clear.

If you’re a financial planner considering using ChatGPT to write website copy, the problem isn’t that you’re a toddler in terms of AI. You probably use AI in some professional or personal capacity, and might even follow some of the sector’s most prominent voices to stay abreast of the latest trends.

No, the problem is that you’re a toddler when it comes to copywriting.

You could pore over every copywriting book ever written. But without putting those lessons into practice day-in day-out like a professional does, you’d struggle to reach the same high standards.

It’s no different than it would be for Mrs Prospective Client (remember her?) and her financial plan. She could spend all her spare time reading about financial planning, and still fail to create anything half as good as someone who does it for a living.

Now here’s the good news:

There’s nothing scary about being a toddler as long as you’ve got the right babysitter.

We’re here to help

At Yardstick, we’re all grown up when it comes to copywriting.

Between them, our copywriters have decades of experience in copywriting, marketing, and publishing. So, when they use AI to speed up and sharpen their work, they’re starting from a position of authority.

Put the chainsaw down and access our specialist know-how for yourself by calling 0115 8965 300 or emailing hi@theyardstickagency.co.uk.