How AI can improve your copywriting: The do's, don'ts, and best practices

Key takeaways

• AI can help streamline content creation, but you still need the ‘human factor’ to produce the best-quality copy
• Providing detailed prompts is the key to great outputs – a strong starting point leads to a strong finish
• AI is a tool for content writers and editors to master. The way forward in creating copy will be the person and the programme working together

At AMP27, we've been able to drive a lot of value for clients through Conversation Ads. Read on to delve into what they are, and how you can leverage them in your projects. I'll even give you some top tips to make your Conversation Ads stand out.

Introduction

In today's tech-driven world, AI is reshaping various industries, and pharmaceutical marketing is no exception. Creating informative and engaging content is a constant challenge in this field, and AI-powered writing tools can be a game-changer.

That's not a terrible intro, right?

Well, it was written by ChatGPT. It's pretty succinct, uses some powerful words, and would lead quite well into the topics this article's going to cover. However, to get to the stage of this introduction being usable, I had to insert a lot of detailed instructions. Want to know what the first draft of the AI-supplied content looked like?

“In an era where technology continues to reshape industries, AI has emerged as a transformative force in the realm of content creation. One sector experiencing a paradigm shift is pharmaceutical marketing, where the demand for informative and engaging content is ever-growing. As companies seek innovative ways to communicate complex medical information to diverse audiences, AI-powered writing tools are stepping up to the challenge.”

For me, that's just too wordy and over-the-top – I think the reader would start to zone out after the second sentence. It also screams ‘I was written by AI’ with phrases like ‘transformative force’ and ‘paradigm shift’.

At AMP27, we've been working on a list of ‘do's’ for how our content team can get the most out of AI, and also some ‘don'ts’ if you want to produce compelling material that's still compliant.

DO: Let AI do most of the labour for you

For some tasks, the 80/20 split is a great rule to follow when using AI. Let your chosen AI programme do 80% of the work, then use the other 20% to edit, reference check, and perfect the output.

There's nothing wrong with letting AI do a lot of the slog work of content creation, but you need to remember that you have accountability for what goes out the door. You still need to be proud of the work you produce (whether you had a little bit of help from AI or not).

That 20% is also the ‘human factor’ that takes acceptable content and turns it into dazzling content. It's where you can use the knowledge and skills you've built over the years to bring great insights into your work.

DON'T: Add confidential information

This is a really important one. Although AI is making huge differences to aspects of life sciences like research and clinical trials, pharma companies are hesitant to trust AI with content creation, with a large number banning or restricting usage over confidentiality fears.

Generative AI will use any wording you give it to learn from – which means that it records and retains the information. You need to make sure that none of your prompts contain confidential material.

At AMP27, we're trusted partners with a range of pharma companies, and they need to feel confident that we won't put any confidential company data into a website or programme that we don't control. That's why one of our ‘golden rules’ in our AI SOP is that confidential client information can never be used within a prompt.

Tip: If you're using ChatGPT 4o, you can apply the ‘Temporary chat’ function to add a level of safety to your searches, making sure your prompts aren't saved into the LLM.

DO: Give detailed instructions

What you put in reflects the quality of what comes out. If you use bad ingredients when cooking, the meals you produce are unlikely to win any Michelin stars. In the same way, if you insert poor prompts into the AI tool, you can't expect to get brilliant content out the other side. Some of the best information to input is:

• Target audience
• Intended platform
• Tone of voice
• Key words or phrases
• Wording to avoid
• Examples of good content
• Reference documents (depending on your AI tool)

Giving this kind of information should make the initial output a great starting point. You can then refine, improve, and add instructions so that each new version you're given is even better.

DON'T: Rely on AI to fact-check

ChatGPT tells you this as soon as you start a prompt: ‘ChatGPT can make mistakes. Check important info’. This disclaimer is at the bottom of any output, and you should take it seriously.

AI has a tendency to make bold claims without anything to back them up, which is called ‘hallucinating’. Fact-check all the outputs, and keep in mind that for the free version of ChatGPT, data only goes up to October 2023.

In the world of pharma, we have to make sure our data is accurate, up to date, and meets compliance guidelines. There's no way that every AI tool can accurately apply the 2024 ABPI Code of Conduct to every query. It may be able to tell you what the individual clauses are, but it won't be great at putting them into practice.

You don't want to let a bit of idleness over checking references and substantiating your claims land you in hot water with industry compliance guidelines!

DO: Question the AI

You should never take the first answer as the final answer. Asking follow-up questions will improve the response you receive.

A good tip is to talk to the AI like you would a friend. Ask a question, get a response, and then ask another question based off that. By having this back and forth ‘conversation’, you're also working to avoid bias in the AI's suggestions by challenging its answers.

DON'T: Start from scratch each time

The paid-for accounts on ChatGPT and Copy.ai let you save down specific prompts, tone of voices, and reference docs (nothing confidential of course!). If you have one of those accounts, you should be making full use of building out ‘profiles’ that you write under, ensuring consistency within your work.

If you can only use the free version, you should still make a note of any inputs that you think worked well. Why not save down a document you can refer back to that holds all the prompts that resulted in top-tier work? You don't need to reinvent the wheel each time you use AI – that kind of inefficiency is exactly what AI should help you avoid!

DO: Use AI to improve and check your skills

I've been working as an editor for around 14 years, and although I'm confident in my abilities, running your work through AI can act as a good back-up – especially during busy periods.

I don't want AI to do all my work for me, but being able to have a second pair of ‘eyes’ to highlight things you may have missed, or to give suggestions, is a great way of continually improving your skills.

I switch between using ChatGPT and hemingwayapp.com to check over something I've already edited or proofed, and go through the suggestions to see if there's something I should be looking out for stylistically, or that I can add to my own checklists.

AND FINALLY: Don't be scared of it

I see a lot of worry around the application of AI, especially among my writer and editor friends. I think the main thing to keep in mind is that AI is a tool – you should become an expert at using it.

The way forward isn't for writers to be replaced by AI, it's for them to use AI to their benefit, and produce better quality content in a more efficient way. Surely that leads to happier writers, clients, and readers?

If you're looking for some ways to introduce AI into your digital content creation, why not start with a few of the following?

• Collating research
• Summarising papers
• Generating ideas for content structure or outlines
• Suggesting subject lines (or anything that has pesky character counts)
• Creating social post description variations

Unsure of how AI can fit into your digital marketing strategy or new campaign? Get in touch with AMP27 and see how we can help.