Using AI as a Copywriting Assistant

AI can generate headlines, bullets, email drafts, and sales page outlines in seconds. It’s fast, it’s cheap, and the output is mediocre.

Mediocre is a starting point, not a finished product. Used correctly, AI is a first-draft machine that saves you from staring at a blank page. Used incorrectly, it produces generic copy that sounds like every other AI-written marketing email in your inbox.

Here’s the workflow for getting good copy out of AI: generate, edit, voice-ify.

What AI Does Well

• Volume. AI can generate 25 headline variations in 10 seconds. This is valuable even if 23 of them are mediocre. The 2 good ones are your starting point.
• Frameworks. AI knows AIDA, PAS, and every other copywriting formula. Ask it to apply one and it will produce structurally correct output.
• Variations. Give AI a draft and ask for 5 different versions — more urgent, more casual, more specific, shorter, longer. Quick alternatives you can mix and match.
• Overcoming blank page syndrome. A bad first draft you can edit beats a blank page you can’t start.

What AI Does Poorly

• Voice. AI writes in a generic marketing voice. It doesn’t know your tone, your phrases, or your personality. You have to add those.
• Specificity. AI makes up numbers and examples. Never use AI-generated statistics without verifying them.
• Emotional resonance. AI can describe an emotion but can’t make the reader feel it. That requires genuine insight into your audience.
• Creativity. AI recombines patterns it’s seen before. It doesn’t invent new angles. The unexpected connection that makes great copy is still a human skill.

The Workflow

Step 1: Generate

Give AI specific context and a specific task. The more context you provide, the better the output.

Bad prompt: “Write a headline for my course”

Good prompt: “I’m selling an online course called ‘Price Your Course Without Undercharging.’ The target audience is first-time course creators who are afraid to charge more than $27. The main benefit is learning to price based on value, not fear. Write 10 headlines using different copywriting formulas.”

The good prompt gives the course name, audience, benefit, and asks for specific quantity and variety.

Step 2: Edit

Take the best outputs and edit them:

• Replace generic words with specific ones
• Remove any language that sounds like a template
• Add real numbers, real examples, real details
• Cut anything that makes you cringe

Step 3: Voice-ify

Read the edited version out loud. Does it sound like you? If not, rewrite the phrases that feel unnatural. Replace “use” with “use.” Replace “improve” with “improve.” Replace “use” with.. also “use.”

Copy Prompts That Work

Here are prompts you can copy and adapt:

Headlines: “Write 10 headlines for [course name] targeting [audience]. The main benefit is [benefit]. Use different formulas including ‘how to,’ ‘who else wants,’ ‘the only,’ and ‘curiosity gap.’ Make them conversational, not formal.”

Email draft: “Write a 5-paragraph sales email using the PAS framework. Problem: [specific problem]. Agitate: [what happens if they don’t fix it]. Solution: [course name] teaches [outcome]. End with a CTA to [action]. Write like you’re talking to one person, not a crowd.”

Bullets: “Write 8 benefit-driven bullets for a course called [course name]. The modules cover: [list modules]. Each bullet should tease a specific result or insight. Mix blind bullets (curiosity hooks) with regular bullets (reveal the benefit).”

CTA options: “Write 10 call-to-action button options for a course called [course name]. The course costs [price]. Make them outcome-focused, not transactional. No ‘buy now’ or ‘click here.’”

For deeper AI workflows — using AI for research, outlining, lesson writing, and admin automation — see Use AI to Build Your Course Faster.

Your Task

Pick one prompt above. Fill in the brackets with your course details. Run it through any AI tool. Take the best output and edit it using everything you’ve learned in this course — benefits over features, specificity, voice, formatting. Turn the AI draft into something that sounds like you.

---