Great writing doesn't spoon-feed every detail. It provides just enough information to create "holes," inviting the reader to participate in the narrative by using their own imagination and experiences. This makes the content more immersive and personal.
The most resonant content, like Eddie Shleyner's "VeryGoodCopy," often starts as a personal knowledge base created for self-improvement. Building without the pressure of an audience fosters an authenticity that cannot be reverse-engineered later.
The act of working through a project over time is where the best ideas are discovered. Shortcutting this tedious process with AI might produce a result faster, but it will likely be far worse because it skips the essential journey of discovery and transformation.
Effective copywriting is the ultimate exercise in empathy. It's not about stringing words together but about temporarily abandoning your own perspective to fully inhabit your customer's worldview, needs, and desires—a fundamentally human act of connection.
AI struggles to create resonant content because it describes perfect, cliché emotions ("magical experience," "wave of love"). In contrast, human writing captures the messy, anxious, and specific details of real life, which is what truly connects with an audience.
Starting with a goal like "get 100,000 followers" forces content to be reverse-engineered for attention, making it contrived. Authentic work comes from creators who focus on genuine interests first, allowing an audience to form organically around that originality.
A marketer's value isn't in executing tasks like "writing a job post," but in understanding and optimizing for the desired outcome, like "getting qualified people to apply." This mindset shift from task-filler to outcome-driver is the essence of effective marketing.
Instead of detailed descriptions, use sparse but evocative details (e.g., "masks and gowns" for a hospital scene). This "anti-description" forces the reader to construct the scene from their own memories, creating a more vivid and personal image than you could ever write.