Learn to write compelling copy with generative AI

- While AI is wonderfully helpful, you are going to fight some common problems like wordiness, accuracy of facts and ideas, and boring copy. Let's talk about four ways to handle these problems. First, fight wordiness with specifics. To fight wordiness, be very specific with your AI tools about your desired length, then tell AI exactly where the copy will live and who it will be written for. AI can understand context, that a social post on your LinkedIn profile should be shorter than an in-depth blog post for the company website. Use this prompt: "Please write a blog post approximately words in length. Give a quick summary of this article, and add a few takeaways at the end." Second, use compelling evidence. You might have heard that AI can hallucinate facts and create data out of thin air. While this is becoming less and less of an issue over time, it's important to provide instructions to help ensure the accuracy of your responses. Tell AI how you want it to source and research material. Do you only want to use academic journals? Are you open to the AI citing less reputable sources as long as it includes clear caveats? Do you want the AI tool to source data? How about hypothetical examples? Use prompts like these to be direct about your needs. "Cite your sources." "Use data in your response." "Use historical examples in your response." "Use a hypothetical example that would be relevant to professionals." "Please only use academic sources." "If you're using a less reputable source, make a clear distinction for the reader." Special tip: copy and paste the LinkedIn profile of the person you're writing for, and ask the AI tool to customize the copy for them. If it's a customer archetype, create a sample LinkedIn profile of your ideal customer. For example, I might tell an AI, "I am writing a marketing page for my website on my course People School. My ideal student is a high achieving professional who wants to level up their career success. Here is a LinkedIn profile of one of our current students. Please write copy that would appeal to other students like them." Third, provide prior examples. AI can quickly create content that engages, resonates, and converts if you give it examples of previously produced work that you're looking to emulate. Try this prompt: "Use this sample copy to write new copy on X topic. Copy the tone and style of the sample below." This is very helpful when writing cover letters or job application emails. Use a template with a great example like this: "I am adjectives. Please write me a cover letter that is for this job. Paste job description. Write a short sentence on what about the job appeals to you. Use the example copy below and mirror it in tone and style." Special tip: AI powered tools can also analyze your resume and optimize it for the specific job you're applying to. Pace in information about the company and job in question, and ask the AI tool to give you insights into the company culture and update your cover letter to match. Fourth, use psychology. Ask AI to use psychology in its copywriting so it can pull from psychology research to help craft the best answers. This will let the AI know that you want it to tap into known human behavior principles when creating copy for you and help it be more engaging. Here are template prompts you can use to fight boring or sterile responses: "Use psychology when writing this copy." "Be willing to form opinions. Ask me questions if you need to know my stance on this issue." "Be persuasive and charismatic." "Communicate with more confidence." Use these tips to create persuasive content for any kind of writing. And of course, anytime you don't like a response, you can always prompt AI to try again, or, come on, you can do better than that. Research has actually found that simply asking an AI to do better or telling them that an answer is important for your career will make the AI give you better responses.