AI tools are the next big thing in content creation. Like it or not, they're here to stay, so you have a choice: do you use them, or do you avoid them?
If you've chosen to use them, you need someone who knows how to get the AI to do what you need it to do, and that means hiring a prompt artist or AI Copywriter.How can you hire such an individual?
AI isn't perfect. The major systems, including ChatGPT and Jasper, have warnings to those who would use their content. The AI reuses words and phrases (because those are mathematically likely to be common in similar contexts), they struggle to generate long-form content, and they need review to make sure the things they state are factually correct.
All of this is a struggle for long-form content (where you can hire an AI content writer), but it's rarely as much of a problem for shorter content, like product descriptions.
Product descriptions are an interesting form of content online. They've been through a lot! A decade ago, just about every store selling a given product would have the same product description as any other store because everyone just got that information from the manufacturer. Sometimes, if you were lucky, a company would add some additional value to a listing, which would quickly be copied by everyone else.
Then Panda hit, and Google's rules against duplicate content terrified marketers. There was a massive push to revamp and rewrite product descriptions to be completely unique, under the theory that duplicate product descriptions throughout a site would nuke it from the search rankings.
Of course, this rarely actually happened, because it wasn't product descriptions that Google was concerned with analyzing at the time. Instead, Google was focused on long-form content and blog posts. Product descriptions were spun out and made unique throughout the web, but as it turns out, most of that was wasted effort.
After all, if you have a product with a fixed brand name, fixed specs, fixed description, and more, how do you write uniquely about it? How do you make yours different from a thousand other stores, even if those stores all sell the same product in the same way? You really can't, not in broad strokes.
This is where AI comes in. AI can generate unique or unique-enough content based on a prompt, and that prompt can be something as simple as asking for a description of a given product. But that can be pretty tricky since the AI is more likely to be working in a conversational style, which might not be appropriate for your product descriptions.
When you hire someone to generate product descriptions using an AI tool, what you're doing is hiring someone to do two things.
The first is knowing the AI system inside and out. It can be a struggle to get an AI to generate exactly the kind of content you want in a consistent manner so your product descriptions throughout your site are congruent with one another.
Often, to do so, you need to have the details of a product already on hand. The AI can only specify information that it has, and that means you either need to give it the information or it needs to have been part of the overall training set. Since you can't guarantee that the information was part of the training set (and the training set isn't public), that means your AI writer needs to have the product information on hand in a way that can be given to the AI such that it can generate a product description.
The second thing your AI product description writer does is act as a combination of editor and fact-checker. Since product descriptions are generally so short – usually just a few dozen or a few hundred words – you don't need a stand-alone editor to handle your review, fact-checking, and style adherence. Instead, your AI writer will need to pull double duty, generating the content, comparing the output to the information that needs to be in the description, and polishing it up.
An experienced AI writer will know how to wrangle the AI into generating the right kind of content in the right format.
This is the tricky part. Where and how can you find a product description writer to use AI to your advantage?
You can put out a job ad, of course. Sites like Flexjobs or even just Monster or LinkedIn can do well, and the techier the audience in general, the more likely the applicants will know about AI and how to use it.
The other option is to look for freelancers who put AI expertise in their bios. There are a lot of writers who are currently fearing for their livelihoods and who are pivoting to learning how to use AI to their advantage, so this is a rapidly-growing crop of people.
Hiring for this role is pretty much just like hiring for any other role. You generate a job ad or a pitch, you find a place to post it (whether that's a job listing site or the inbox of a freelancer), and you interview, test, and hire someone to do the job once you find someone who meets your criteria.
One option you always have is to post a job listing on my job board. I'm working to make the best job board for freelance writers and editors and the companies that hire them. But I can't do that without people like you posting jobs.
This is a significant question you'll need to answer for yourself. Are product descriptions worth using AI to generate?
On the one hand, product descriptions are generally quite tedious to write, so offloading that work from writers to an AI can give you a great way to streamline your writing expenses while also freeing up talented writers to focus on deeper, more nuanced, and more important content. Since AI struggles with long-form content, particularly if it needs factual accuracy and independent conclusions, it makes sense to use it to relieve the burden on your writers for the more tedious tasks.
A lot of this depends on how good the AI is at generating a product description.
Here's an example of what ChatGPT can do:
Prompt: "Write a product description for a bottle of Vitamin D capsules."
Result:
"Introducing our high-quality Vitamin D capsules, designed to support your overall health and wellness. Each bottle contains 60 easy-to-swallow capsules, each one packed with 1000 IU of Vitamin D3, the most effective and absorbable form of this essential nutrient.
Vitamin D is crucial for the proper functioning of your body, helping to support strong bones, healthy immune function, and a balanced mood. Unfortunately, many people don't get enough of this vital nutrient from their diets or from sun exposure, especially during the winter months. Our Vitamin D capsules make it easy to ensure you're getting the recommended daily intake of this important vitamin.
Our Vitamin D capsules are made from high-quality ingredients and are free from artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives. They're also suitable for vegans and vegetarians and are gluten-free, so you can feel confident that you're making a healthy choice for your body.
To use, simply take one capsule per day with food or as directed by your healthcare professional. With regular use, our Vitamin D capsules can help you maintain optimal health and wellness all year round. Order yours today and start experiencing the benefits of this essential nutrient for yourself!"
For a simple prompt, this is pretty good. It makes specific claims that can be edited to reflect the truth of your product (for example, if your bottle has 120 capsules, you'd need to change that detail), and it includes more useful information about why the vitamin is valuable. This is the level of content you can expect from a raw AI output prior to adjustment and editing.
I'm not personally making a judgment about whether AI is good or not for the state of marketing, content creation, or society. What I will say, though, is that AI can be a good tool for generating unique-enough content that would normally be almost a waste to pay a freelancer to write. It then allows you to use your budget to pay writers to write the better flagship content you need as part of your marketing.
There are two major sources of risk with using AI to generate product descriptions.
The first is if the AI uses incorrect details, those details aren't caught and fixed in the editing process, and they end up published on your site. If a consumer buys a product based on that description, only to find out that the description was wrong, you're going to, at best, need to fulfill a refund request. At worse, you could even tangibly harm a customer, depending on your niche and the risks inherent in your products. While this isn't very likely, if you and your writer grow complacent, it's a tangible risk.
The second and more likely risk is that standards for content put forth by Google or just by societal pressure make AI content a negative factor. Google has a complicated stance on AI content (they generally don't mind it as long as it's generated with value for users, not just for their algorithms), but once detection tools become more common, using raw, unfiltered AI content could be a red flag. You may need to be prepared to do rewrites and revamps in the future.
Otherwise, though, AI content isn't inherently risky.
Yes, probably. Anyone can sign up for ChatGPT or Jasper and generate some product descriptions, but it takes at least a little bit of talent and knowledge to review the output, edit it to match a product's actual specifications, and polish it up to match the rest of the descriptions on your site.
Remember, though, that the content you're given as part of a test is largely reflecting the AI's ability to generate content. It can be impressive on a surface level, but it's the subtle details that you actually need to watch for.
When you ask a potential freelancer or employee to generate a few product descriptions for you, check for:
It's worth only working with your chosen freelancer on a probationary basis until they've passed your tests and have proven themselves. Once they've passed, you can negotiate a more permanent pay rate, sign a contract, and get to work.
Are you ready to get started? If so, feel free to check out my job board. You can post a job opportunity (or, if you're an AI writer, look for a job opening that matches your specialty) and find someone to work with in short order. If you have any questions, please feel free to drop me a line as well. I'm always more than happy to help you out however I can.
