There’s stuff AI is really good at. The stuff that doesn’t really need to perform; the stuff that doesn’t really need to stand out. But, with due respect, if there’s a copywriter that thinks ChatGPT’s latest draft is perfect, I would suggest they weren’t a very good copywriter in the first place.
Over the past six months, I’ve seen a real uptick in people looking for an expert eye on their AI-generated copy. After all, the algorithm can spit out the words – but it still takes knowledge and experience to know whether it’s actually any good.
In almost every example, I’ve seen one thing that the AI consistently misses – the fact that high converting, highly impactful copy takes people on a journey.
Why customer journeys are core to writing great copy
Whether you’re plotting out a sitemap, thinking about UX, or refreshing and reworking a funnel of content, customer journeys matter. We want as many customers as possible to move on a journey from not giving a hoot to being your biggest fan. And biggest spender.
As a freelance copywriter, I’m constantly pushing to understand where in the journey the copy is going to sit. The task of getting attention from a cold start is radically different to reassuring prospects in the final moments before they take action.
When you think about classic copywriting formulae, audience needs and desires are fundamental. But beyond the emotional and practical desire – for example, to feel confident by joining a brilliant gym – audiences always have more micro, in-the-moment needs. Why should I care? What do I need to know next? What will the experience of saying yes mean in practical terms?
Copy works when it meets people where they are on a moment-by-moment basis – and that extends to every individual sentence in your copy.
The importance of connective tissue in copywriting
Ask any copywriter – we freaking love to start sentences with conjunctions. Conversational or more formal, educational or aspirational, conjunctions have a more important role to play in copy than perhaps any other part of speech.
Why? Because that’s how we lead readers through a journey. And that’s where a lot of AI-generated copy falls short.
When I read this kind of copy, I’m overwhelmingly seeing a series of individual sentences placed side by side. I know, I know – that’s what writing is. But there’s very little sense of guiding people through a structured journey, taking them from one idea to the next in a way that feels natural, human, and persuasive.
Why does this matter? Because:
- Cognitive overload happens fast and people only remember information when it’s fed in small, delicious pieces
- People continually prioritise information and copy can influence what’s seen as important and what feels more secondary
- Keeping people engaged (and reading) means leading them carefully from one sentence to the next, one paragraph to the next, and one idea to the next
- Our copy needs to sound like a person, because we find people talking to us naturally persuasive – think about my willpower when I’m reading a list of things to buy versus the mystical ability of the car salesman to make me overspend on whatever a ceramic coat is (I think about it a lot)
Taking your audiences on a journey through your copy
In part, copy that takes people on a journey is copy with good structure. But it’s also about the instinctive ability to know how that structure should be paced out.
Let’s say we’re using some sort of formula for high-performing copy – AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) is always solid. Okay, great, but do I spend 100 words on Attention? 200? Is it just the headline? The significant challenge is understanding when to move on, not based on when other examples of copy from the internet move on, but your understanding of the audience you’re writing for and what they might be feeling at any given moment.
A sense of journey also comes out in the nitty-gritty of the writing. It’s things like:
- Overtly connective words like ‘But…’, ‘And…’, ‘So…’
- Words that indicate a structure and flow of time – ‘First…’, ‘Next…’, ‘Then…’
- Sentences that literally tell people where they are, introduce new ideas, and make sure everyone knows happening – like ‘Okay, let’s talk pricing.’
- Sentences that refer back to and anchor previous sentences in a smart way – like ‘And safety is just the start’ to move from a paragraph about safety to something new
They’re simple techniques, but they involve a distinctly human level of awareness and empathy with the reader. More than anything else, it’s this connective tissue that ties all your copy together, makes it significantly more persuasive and, ultimately, builds stronger connections with your readers.
