Why AI shouldn’t replace your B2B copywriter

Let’s imagine you want to write a marketing email to send to your audience. You sign into one of the new AI software solutions, you tell the tool what you want (i.e. enter a prompt), you hit Respond/Submit, and seconds later you receive a perfectly adequate email that covers all of the topics you asked the tool to mention. Done. This couldn’t be easier, faster, or perhaps cheaper. What more could you want? A tool that churns out copy in seconds and saves you time, money and resources. Perfect. Or is it? You may have noticed that I referred to the email output as ‘perfectly adequate’, this was very much intentional. You see, if all you want is a piece of copy that does a half-decent job of representing a communication written by a person, then AI is adequate. The output of this technology does seem to be capable of mimicking a human writer. But is that all you want in your marketing collateral? Forget about results etc, do you just want something that will write an email that has a whiff of humanness about it? If so, AI is the ideal solution for your business, and you should stop reading now. Good luck and best wishes for your future endeavours. If, on the other hand, you expect and want more from your marketing communications, then perhaps it’s best you keep reading. 

What is AI and how does it work?

To avoid turning this post into some kind of complex tech examination – we’ll keep this bit simple. AI (artificial intelligence) tools such as ChatGPT are known as generative AI technologies, and they use natural language processing to provide users with human-like responses and outcomes. Importantly, in order to answer questions and fulfil users’ requests, the technology relies on a vast amount of data sets including online texts, books, articles social posts and more. The outcome of all this integrated technology is that users can ask the tool a question (similar to an automated chatbot) and the program examines vast amounts of data, uses it’s understanding of language and provides a human-like response. AI can also be used for image creation, but we’ll stick to words for now. So, with access to a wealth of data, deep learnings, the ability to speak like a human, and the capability to do all of this in a matter of seconds, what’s the downside? Well, let’s examine that now. 

Humans buy from humans

Anyone worth their salt in B2B marketing (and marketing in general for that matter), will know that sales are typically emotional matters. It’s all about feelings. Do buyers feel confident, supported, inspired, courageous, energised? All of these potentially come into play during the buying process – and the feelings are nurtured by your brand’s marketing. We talk regularly about overcoming pain points and creating benefit-led copy. This is all just a way to tap into the emotional side of your audience. In communications, we ‘press’ on a pain point to create discomfort, then we serve out our benefit-led solution to provide relief – it’s the fundamentals of B2B copywriting. So why then would AI not be able to replicate this type of approach? Well with enough prompting, AI may be able to write something that mirrors this approach and does a sufficient job of replicating it. But is that really enough? In Keystone Copywriting’s opinion – no, it’s not enough. When writing copy ourselves or teaching junior writers the basics, we regularly talk about ‘getting into the mindset’. This involves putting yourself in the shoes of the buyer and attempting to feel the variety of emotions they are experiencing, in order to create copy that is more likely to be engaging to read. It’s about empathy. It’s about understanding the human aspects of the audience, in order to become a better writer. The outcome of this approach is usually very carefully considered words and phrases that connect deeply with the reader – e.g., frustration, overwhelmed, desire for more, freedom etc. While you could ultimately prompt an AI tool to add these words to your email copy – is this the same as a writer ‘feeling’ it and empowering a reader to do the same? No.

Make AI work in your favour

While this blog is a rejection of replacing your B2B copywriters with an AI tool, this doesn’t mean the tech should be left out entirely from your organisation. Whether it’s research, planning, or strategy support, AI has a wealth of capabilities and accessible knowledge that can certainly help assist your decision-making. But that’s as far as we’d take it for now. With artificial intelligence entering the marketplace in various guises, and businesses taking tentative steps to integrate It into their tech stack, it’s only right that you avoid being left behind and consider this tech too. While some may see AI as a quick fix for B2B copywriting tasks, this is an opportunity for you to continue relying on trained, specialist writers. By opting for this route, you can continue to ultimately create an engaging voice that can become your competitive advantage in a busy market.

To find out more about creating quality B2B copy and content for your business, speak to Keystone Copywriting today by emailing kenneth@keystonecopywriting.co.uk or call 0330 043 7177