Why I Believe AI Copywriting Tools are Great for the Content Industry

As the founder of a content marketing agency, I believe AI copywriting tools are one of the best things to happen to the content marketing industry in a while. I might even go as far as to say for the writing industry as a whole.

The easiest way to explain my thinking behind this is to start off by highlighting some of the issues that I’ve noticed over the years of working in this industry. I’ll start by addressing three issues, and then why, based on these issues, AI copywriting tools could be a win for this industry.

Let’s dive in.

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The issues in the content marketing industry nowadays

There are too many average writers

Anyone who reads a lot of content online or who has hired writers knows this: there are a lot of terrible writers on the market. I’ve hired around 10 writers, and I’ve asked people to do over 30 paid tests. Very few people who apply to our roles get a paid test, and of those who do the paid test, very few end up working with us.

The reason is simple: the barrier to entry is low. Anyone can call themselves a writer. All you need is a laptop and an internet connection and suddenly you’re a writer. You can slap together a website, write a couple of articles and get a testimonial, and now you’re a freelance writer.

But a lot of these writers don’t write great online business content: articles that are designed to educate the reader or encourage them to take action. Perhaps they would be better suited writing journalistic articles, or getting into creative writing.

Sometimes the reason a piece of content is bad is because the strategist is too focused on SEO, or simply that the writer hasn’t been trained for business writing. But as someone who has trained a lot of writers, I know that many times it’s simply because they aren’t able to put themselves in the mind of the reader. You know the type of content I mean: introductions that use cliches, paragraphs full of fluff and filler words and content that doesn’t really add anything to the conversation.

Business writing comes down to clear thinking.

Over the many writers I’ve hired and the samples I’ve read, it comes down to: are they writing something clearly, or is it really just gibberish? Great business writers can communicate clearly.

Who’s hiring these average writers? These writers are often used by guest posting sites that are trying to build links on PBNs (Private Blog Network). They are also used by agencies and sometimes companies that want to publish 50+ blog posts per month on Top of the funnel topics like “What are payments” and “What is a payment method”. They are also used a lot in the SaaS space, where topics are focused on lifestyle rather than a specific product or pain points.

Because the barrier to entry is so low, anyone can call themselves a writer. This has led to an industry with a lot of unqualified writers which has brought down the overall standard of content.

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Freelance writing has become a “side hustle”

I’m not saying this is inherently a bad thing – just that freelance writing has become part of the hustle culture. If you head to Twitter you’ll see a lot of people bragging about how much they’re charging and how little they’re working.

This has resulted in a lot of people getting into freelance writing to make quick money, rather than to build a career or write great content that is meant to be read.

Once again: there is nothing wrong with doing things for money. But there is no denying it has an impact on quality. If you can get paid £100 to write something that takes 1 hour to write, that’s easy money.

If you’re used to getting paid £100 for something that takes an hour, then you’re unlikely to want to spend 3 - 4 hours on something that pays £200 – because your hourly rate is therefore lower.

These writers are focused on getting the highest hourly rate possible, so some of them will do the minimum they can get away with (caveat: not all of them. There are also people who want a high hourly rate but care about the quality).

But there’s an issue: you cannot write a great article in 1 hour.

At Mint Studios, one in-depth, conversion focused article takes us around 2 weeks, 2 - 3 people, 2 - 3 rounds of revisions and a lot of thinking. Very far from an hour.

So if you’re a writer whose sole goal is to write as a side hustle, what are your options?

Charge a lot more per article so you can spend 3 - 4 hours and produce something of high quality.
Write average articles.

Which do you think is easier? If you’re just in it for the money and don’t really care about the writing itself, then it’s a lot easier to do the bare minimum.

Most people create content for brand awareness rather than for growth

If you head to most company blogs, you’ll see titles like the following:

Do you seriously think anyone reads these?

Most people see the blog as a nice to have, something that is for entertainment and fun, and yes, maybe education. They might try to rank for keyphrases that have nothing to do with the product or market that they’re in but it’s fine because it’s for education/entertainment purposes and the main success metric is traffic.

If traffic is increasing month over month, then everything is great. It doesn’t matter if we’re a payment company ranking for “top activities to do in London as a tourist” and that article does not bring in a single customer.

When the content you write is lifestyle and for awareness, then generally your standard for writing is lower: the writer doesn’t need to know about your product, your market or your customer to write the article. It’s easy to outsource, and it’s easy for the writer to write.

This is fueling the “side hustle” side of freelance writing, which makes writing seem like a walk in the park, full of articles on travelling, productivity and budgeting.

But as we’ll see in a second, in 2023 fewer companies will have the money to spend on something that is a “nice to have”, and will be a lot more focused on ROI. A blog for entertainment won’t factor into ROI.

Why AI copywriting tools are a great thing for the content marketing industry

Considering the issues I’m highlighting above, let’s look at why AI copywriting tools would be a great thing for the content industry.

AI tools will weed out bad or average content writers

It’s simple: why spend £100 on an average writer, when you can spend £0 on an average article? Not just that, but the article is produced instantly and you don’t have all the back and forths.

More agencies and companies will turn to AI tools to write the bulk of an article. Sure, they’ll likely have an editor who will fix any errors, check for plagiarism and add a few key sentences here and there. But that editor will likely replace five writers.

Weeding out the average writers will hopefully also reduce the side hustle freelance writers: those who are part of the content mill writing world and are trying to bash out as many (average) blog posts for the highest rate possible.

Good writers will be noticed and paid more (hopefully)

So now that AI is taking care of the average, easy content, someone still needs to write the real, useful, product, customer or sales focused content.

If you’ve already saved money by using AI tools, then hopefully you’ll be looking for someone excellent to help you write the excellent content. That means that you will actively be looking for someone who writes well. They are hard to find, but the great thing is that when you read their content, you can immediately tell they are good – especially when compared to content written by AI.

Essentially, my hope is that AI content will help great writers stand out a lot more, and hopefully that will mean that they can command higher rates. If you’re trying to hire someone to produce excellent content, what’s your alternative? AI content can’t understand the features and benefits and translate that to the specific pain points of your target buyer.

However, I could be wrong. Some people will always buy based on price and might still try to get excellent content by hiring average writers.

Most exciting of all: writing will be a more respected skill

This is the ultimate reason I think AI copywriting tools could be revolutionary for writers across the board.

Similar to the marketing and video production industry, people don’t respect writing as a skill set. Good writing looks easy, because it’s easy to read. And because anyone can start typing and call themselves a writer, then they also think it’s easy. But anyone who’s done serious writing, serious reading or hired writers, knows how hard business writing is.

I used to think people just needed better guidance, but over the years of testing and working with writers, it all comes down to what I mentioned earlier: clear thinking.

Writing is a skill that can be taught, but being able to think clearly is something that is more entrenched into a personality. When was the last time you read an article and went “Wow”? I’m sure you can count the number of writers you follow and like on one hand.

My hope is that because AI will weed out bad writers, we’ll be able to notice the difference between AI writing and real, human, great writers a lot more. Great writers will hopefully get the respect they deserve.

In an ideal world, writing is as respected as coding, and people understand that great communicators must be great writers as well.

There are many other topics I haven’t touched on such as whether Google will penalise AI content (some say yes, some say no, the jury is still out).

At Mint Studios, we’re a writer led agency. We don’t use AI tools and I don’t see us using them in the near future, but who knows.

At Mint, we focus on helping fintech companies get an ROI from their blog, by creating in-depth, interview-based content that also ranks on Google and acquires customers. Our methodology has helped fintech companies bring in customers worth over $60k and get a positive ROI on their content efforts. We do that with four pillar approach:

🏛 Content strategy focused on Bottom of the Funnel

🏛 Content for the level of your reader and focused on your product

🏛 Content based on interviews with experts

🏛 Content with a measurable ROI

Most content marketing agencies are content mill SEO farms that write Top of the Funnel content to drive traffic, not business. Very few do what we do, so if anything, we’re excited that AI copywriting tools are on the market.

With AI tools, more companies will use content marketing for serious sales and product content that will help with customers acquisition, and less “lifestyle” blog content that no one really reads. That’s a win in my book.

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