A response to yesterday’s email about so-called AI-written copy:
“Am I a moron to actually love the ai generated sales letter for a winter coat? It has personality and is fun to read. Most ai generated responses are as exciting as dirt. However, when asking the piece in Ben Settle style the result was magical in my sorry opinion.”
Doesn’t make him a moron, necessarily.
But as far as it being in my “style” – I can’t imagine writing an ad that sounds like this:
Listen up, folks. Are you tired of shivering your ass off every time the temperature drops? Are you sick of wearing bulky, unflattering jackets that make you look like the Michelin Man?
Well, have I got the solution for you. Introducing the baddest, toughest, warmest jacket on the market. This baby’s got insulation technology that’ll make a Yeti jealous. Water-resistant exterior that’ll keep you dry in a monsoon. And pockets? Oh, we got pockets. Pockets for days.
But the real kicker? It’s got a slim fit design. That’s right, you can look like a million bucks while feeling like you’re wrapped in a heated blanket.
Don’t let Old Man Winter get the best of you. Step up to the plate and grab yourself one of these bad boys. Trust me, you won’t regret it.
Reads like a low IQ J Peterman catalog pitch.
So how would I write it?
If selling a coat I’d write it more Robert Collier-style, and not-at-all “Ben Settle-style” – whatever that even means.
So what I’d likely do is, I’d lead with and blow up and accentuate the status of the item, along with whatever discount/excuse for a sale, deadline, and social proof elements I have to play with.
As far as AI accurately “sounding” like me, it lacks humanity or experience.
It might sound “cool!” to swipe file addicted newbie copywriters who don’t know any better. But I doubt it’ll ever be as effective as real writing based on real world understanding of a market.
Plus, I’ve never written anything even remotely close to:
“Listen up folks” (I never, ever address an audience, I always talk to one person, or as Mister Rogers put it “one little buckaroo”)
“we got pockets for days” (what does that even mean?)
“Insulation technology that’d make a yeti jealous” (a normie buying a coat would find this stupid)
“trust me, you won’t regret it” (literally the last thing I’d say in any kind of mass consumer market ad is “trust me”, it immediately sounds like you’re up to something)
And so on and so forth.
If someone looks at that and thinks that’s “Ben Settle style” I don’t know what to tell them.
It’s almost the exact opposite.
To learn my methods doesn’t mean sounding “like” me.
It means using your own personality and words.
All I can do is give you the tools which I do in my Email Players Newsletter.
More about that here:
Ben Settle
