Task: write clear, functional body copy for a software development company’s services page.
Many months ago I hired four freelance copywriters to draft our services index page. I planned to hire the best one for more work.
The results were poor.
Buzzword bingo. Adjective soup and hyperbole. Incorrect verb-noun usage.
I was going to give up and just write it myself. Then I had an idea: I asked our dev team to give it a shot. I encouraged them to use ChatGPT. The brief was simple — just describe, don’t sell. Same brief as the copywriters.
Their output was clear, jargon-free, and demonstrated expertise. Sure, some was not good, but overall their output was better.
To settle it, I ran a poll in our team Slack comparing the best copy from the writers with the best from the devs.
The devs won by a landslide.
What I take away from this
1. The barrier to entry for copywriting is zero. The average quality reflects that — the median copywriter is pretty poor. As a copywriter, you only need to be “good” to be in the top quartile or decile. If you’re hiring, then you might as well be paying top-tier rates; anything less will underperform ChatGPT.
2. People closest to the audience often write the best copy even if they are not writers. Selling HR software? Let HR pros take a stab at it. Marketing a finance tool? See what your finance team can do. Domain expertise can uncover unique insights, even if writing isn’t their speciality.