Trending
If you need another reason why ChatGPT is NOT a copywriter, I have a story for you. I had to fix an article written by ChatGPT for a client last month.
Remember people: ChatGPT is a search engine. It scrapes the internet for content, mushes that together, and delivers results in a narrative format. For this reason, it is great for research and ideas.
But it cannot write and therefore it saves you no time or money.
The story behind this article
I got an email from a realtor’s assistant. They needed to submit an article to a national publication asap, and they needed help polishing what they had. No problem.
But then she said that it was mostly written by ChatGPT.
Once I removed my keyboard from my face, I responded. “Sure – send it over. I’ll take a look, and let you know how much it’ll cost.”
The article was about the history of townhouses in New York City. I love real estate in general, so I was excited to work on this.
But then I read it. Dear reader, it hurt my eyes.
Normally, I would schedule a call with the realtor and interview them so I could write the article using their words and expertise.
Because we were on a super tight deadline, I didn’t have the luxury of my usual approach. But I also knew I could help, so I employed a new approach.
Here’s what I did.
How I fixed an article written by ChatGPT
I looked up the client’s writing style
I went to their website and social media accounts to get an idea of tone of voice. If you read my stuff, you know that accurately conveying my clients’ unique tones of voice is a hallmark of my copywriting style.
I don’t want my clients to sound like me. I want them to sound like them.
Because real estate is so visual, I didn’t find a ton of content to work with. But their bio sounded genuine, and surprisingly, it was not stuffed with adjectives and the same old verbiage every realtor uses. (“I’m detail-oriented, responsive, blah blah.”)
So, I knew they write in a conversational tone, sound personable, and have some very specific areas of expertise.
I removed so! Much! Fluff!
So much of the article sounded like a real estate listing:
“… a balance between city convenience and traditional home comforts.”
“… designed to blend elegance with practicality, fitting gracefully into the dense urban fabric.”
“… embodying both sophistication and urban charm.”
So. Bad.
“The article isn’t selling real estate!” I thought to myself. “It is supposed to be educational.”
I stripped out all the fluff that wasn’t educational or helpful content. If the fluff had been actual fluff, it would have filled my office, floor to ceiling.
Next I did research and made edits to make the article more specific and useful
With the fluff removed, I had barely anything left to work with. So, I started researching to find more concrete information. I found plenty, including some interesting facts that might come in useful during trivia night at a bar.
For example, I expanded on how townhouses originated and why they became popular in New York City as the city expanded.
(This also reminded me that New York City was originally filled with forests, streams, and wetlands, and the original European settlers built farms in lower Manhattan. So hard to reconcile that image with today’s loud, crowded, and busy downtown.)
I also reworded a lot of phrases.
For instance, I have no idea what “traditional home comforts” means in the context of housing styles. It’s too vague, so you can interpret it as you wish.
Well, people love to misinterpret all the time, so, “a balance between city convenience and traditional home comforts” became:
“A nice balance between city convenience and a traditional, multi-story home.”
Better, don’t you agree?
Want one more example? Great.
It was mentioned that historic townhouses are often updated to feature “modern amenities.” Like what? Well, based on my own knowledge, I know they include open-plan kitchens, skylights, and walk-in closets.
I added a conversational tone of voice
ChatGPT is rightly criticized for having no distinctive tone of voice. Well, when you’re pulling verbiage from a lot of different sources, that is bound to happen.
Because I knew this realtor writes in a conversational style, I made sure the article sounded like they were talking directly to the reader.
Removing the fluff definitely helped. Who the heck would actually say,
“Designed to blend elegance with practicality, fitting gracefully into the dense urban fabric”?
No one in a conversation!
This sentence was changed to:
“Many townhouses were converted back to traditional layouts that offered more living space on dense urban blocks.”
Could you hear a person saying that last sentence in a conversation? Me too.
That sentence is also specific and helpful, whereas the original is not.
If you insist on using ChatGPT, follow these three rules
Ask it very specific questions to get the best responses possible.
If something it produces sounds off, do your own research to verify the information.
And rewrite everything so it sounds like you.
Yes, this takes time, but there are no shortcuts when it comes to creating authentic content.
Related: Top 5 Marketing Tools to Accelerate Your Sales Growth