AI Copywriting: Game-Changing or Risky for Your Amazon Business?

by Chelsea Cohen July 26, 2023

AI copywriting tools have caught the eye of many sellers as an easy way to create copy for their current product listings, or to generate optimized listings from scratch. Amazon sellers wear a hundred different hats to run their businesses, and these lightning-quick copywriting AI tools seem like the perfect solution for taking the tedious task of listing creation off their plates.

As an Amazon seller for almost a decade, I've spent that time not only selling my own products but also collaborating with other sellers to improve their conversions and rankings. My goal has always been to separate the help from the hype.

There are several things that are very exciting about AI, but there are also things that should give us pause.

The dialogue that I’m looking to open up here is this:

Those trying to ignore AI will be steamrolled before they realize what’s happened, and
Those who run headlong into deep AI dependency will be out-foxed by others who have learned the balance between man and machine.

The world is leveling up right now, and you really have no choice but to keep up. What that presents, though, is an opportunity to outpace the competitors that are coming after you. Sellers can become AI-lazy or AI-innovative.

I’m here to talk about the latter. So let’s go.

When Good Isn’t Good Enough . . .

AI will produce “good” copy. That’s the first conclusion the industry is making.

The thing is, in an AI world, your copy may be “good,” but so is everyone else’s. Damn.

When we connect those dots, we realize that our foreign, English-as-a-second-language competitors’ copy will suddenly be “good,” too.

In a sea of “good,” you’d better be great.

It’s like this: on page 1, when all other images look the same, yours had better look different in order to stand out. When competitors copy your main image, you’d better change it. You’d better be better.

That has always been true in our business. It’s true about your product quality, reviews, images, customer experience . . .

It always astounds me that it somehow gets skipped when it comes to copywriting.

For some reason, while copywriting is probably one of the oldest, most effective sales tools, it has been largely neglected by the Amazon community.

I blame the gurus who’ve preached over the years that “no one reads bullet points.” Well, I have dozens of results and testimonials that say otherwise. Switching “good” copy for “good” copy won’t show much difference. The difference is between good and great.

So let me ask you: Is your copy great?

If you can’t give a definitive yes to that question, you probably have your answer. AI is about to unleash a torrent of “good.” So you’d better be ready to stand out.

The Goal vs. the Distraction

In all the excitement of something new, e-sellers can lose sight of the main goal: increased conversions. Don’t let a bright, shiny new technology and a little bit of time and money savings allow you to forget about or compromise on the actual goal.

We need to keep our eye on the prize and be smart about how we leverage AI to grow our sales numbers – and stay informed about where it might hurt us.

After helping hundreds of Amazon sellers optimize their listings, I know first-hand how powerful listing copy is when it comes to boosting conversions. The formula for high-converting copy is like a puzzle, and when all the pieces are perfectly in place, that’s when the magic happens.

I set out to investigate whether AI was a viable option for product listing copywriting. I also asked two popular AI tools, ChatGPT and Bard, to weigh in on these points themselves.

The result? I found ways that AI can be used to help run your Amazon business, and also specific tasks it definitely shouldn’t be used for – at least, not yet.

AI’s Hiccups

Copyright Issues

One of the risks of using AI to produce your product listings is the legal implication.

Amazon has strict policies that prohibit sellers from using copyrighted content in their product listings. Since there’s no way to know where AI copywriting tools have drawn their content from, it could cause copyright and plagiarism problems for Amazon sellers down the line.

More seriously, AI is not knowledgeable about Amazon’s guidelines regarding claims and deceptive advertising, so it can’t be trusted to safeguard your listing from violations the way a well-informed Amazon copywriter can. And since tools like ChatGPT can only access data up to September 2021, they won’t be up to date on any newer changes to Amazon’s guidelines.

Inaccurate Information

There’s always the possibility that the information generated by AI isn’t actually correct. In a Salesforce survey of over 500 IT leaders, 59% asserted that AI outputs are not accurate, and 63% said AI outputs are biased.

Here’s what Bard has to say about it:

Subpar SEO

When it comes to driving traffic to your listing, one of the most powerful tools in your toolbelt is incorporating high-volume and low-competition keywords in your listing copy.

And the key to getting sales conversions from those keywords is ensuring that they’re highly relevant to your exact product. Long-tail keywords are a huge part of this – not only are they more specific to your exact product than short-tail keywords, they are also often used by buyers who are closer to purchasing.

AI can provide keywords for your product listing, but it can’t offer the type of nuanced research that pinpoints those specific keyword phrases that draw buyers looking for your exact type of product. In fact, long-tail keyword phrases tend to “confuse” AI, to the extent that AI content companies actually discourage sellers from using them with AI tools.

AI copywriting tools also aren’t great at weaving those keywords into your listing in a natural way – at least, not as well as a human can.

I had Bard weigh in on this as well:

AI Copy Sounds . . . Familiar

The average American is inundated with an insane amount of marketing content – 4,000 to 10,000 marketing messages per day, to be exact. And in the midst of Amazon’s fiercely competitive environment, it’s especially critical for your listing to stand out.

The last thing you want is an unremarkable, vanilla listing that blends into the noise.

Since copy generated by an AI copy writer is gleaned from large datasets of already-existing content, it will likely always sound like something your buyers have already heard before.

Bard says it best:

Your authentic brand voice is one area where a human touch is absolutely vital. This is where you have an opportunity to win over your target buyers with copy that’s carefully tailored to match your customers’ tone, even incorporating their specific terminology and expressions.

Entrusting a copy writing AI tool with such a crucial, nuanced task – and expecting it to sound natural – is risky.

Content That Doesn’t Connect

Today’s average buyer can sniff out fake, salesy writing from a mile away. The most effective sales copywriters know and respect this.

AI is lacking the years of experience copywriters have gained from walking the line of selling products without coming across as pushy or needy.

The goal is to win customers’ confidence and trust, and nothing deflates confidence and trust quicker than language that sounds sleazy or fake – or like a stale marketing message they’ve heard a dozen times before.

AI tools may also lack the context and emotional intelligence that are so key when highlighting certain features of a product for its particular audience. Lack of emotion and context = lack of connection with your customers.

Here’s ChatGPT’s take on it:

AI’S HOME RUNS

Now, let’s look at some of the ways AI can be used to support copywriting for your Amazon business. I’ve put together a list of my favorite prompts that give the best results for these tasks.

Defining your target customer
Although ChatGPT isn’t great at generating copy with a consistent brand voice, it’s a great tool to help you nail down who your customer avatar is, so you can create content your buyers truly connect with.
Researching competitors
AI can also be used to conduct competitor research, to give you an idea of your competition’s successes and missteps – so you can compare and contrast with your own product, and highlight those areas where yours is better.
Analyzing customer reviews
AI can also be used to summarize customer reviews, to help you gauge whether your product is solving their pain points and pinpoint areas where it could be improved. (Keep in mind that AI does have limitations when it comes to recognizing context, personal biases, and product features.)
Brainstorming ideas for email series, blog posts, etc.
Once your customer avatar has been defined, you can ask AI to generate blog post ideas and outlines, email topics, and other ideas for content that will resonate with your target buyers.
Generating social media content
When given the right prompts, AI can write engaging, click-worthy social media content for your brand. I recommend instructing your AI tool to break down your other content, such as blog posts and YouTube videos, into bite-size social media posts. AI tools like Opus Clip will even quickly repurpose longer videos into short ones for you. Score!
Writing product inserts
AI tools can quickly come up with a draft for your product insert, which you can then fine-tune to get rid of any generic language and customize it for your unique brand voice.
Writing customer service emails
We recommend using AI to write a customer service email template for your business, and then adding your own personalized response to each customer’s issue. Not only will this speed up the process, it will also ensure that your emails retain a caring human touch and stay true to your brand voice. The last thing a disgruntled customer wants to get is an email that was clearly written by a robot.
Putting together SEO meta descriptions
Writing SEO meta descriptions while staying under the required character count can be tedious. AI will whip one up for you with just a simple prompt.

For all of these tasks, it’s important to tread carefully. Stay mindful of how much information you’re sharing with AI, and never, ever share confidential or proprietary info.

The Bottom Line

As incredible as AI is, it’s not in our best interest as Amazon sellers to use it as our sole tool for creating product listing copy.

Rather than dumping all of your copy tasks onto its virtual shoulders, the best approach is a balanced give-and-take between AI output and human input. AI can and should be used to supplement our Amazon copywriting and support our day-to-day operations as sellers.

But I’m only human. What does ChatGPT think?

Most of us know that the days of “just selling products on Amazon” are long gone, and that building a brand is now the key to success on Amazon.

AI tools can churn out listings for you that may sound good, but they can’t produce copy that’s original, unbiased, and reliably accurate – not to mention copy that employs high-performing SEO fine-tuned to your target audience and their specific pain points, captures your brand’s authentic voice, and truly connects with customers to secure their trust.

That still requires a human touch.

Don’t fall into the trap of taking one step forward, just to wind up taking two steps back. That’s not real progress.

Copywriting That Will Convert Your Customers

So why are so many Amazon sellers drawn to using AI for their listings?

People are drawn to using AI to produce their copywriting because they generally underestimate the power of copywriting. And because they may not be great at writing copy themselves – and because even professional copywriters often don’t know how to produce effective Amazon listing copy – it makes sense that they would jump at any chance to have it written for them by AI.

Why does copywriting matter when it comes to boosting your conversions?

Amazon is a comparative buying platform, meaning that buyers visiting Amazon usually already know what they want to buy. However, they are presented with dozens of viable options on the Amazon marketplace, so they must compare your offering to others. You’re competing with a multitude of other sellers to draw those buyers to your listing and convert them to a sale.

To stand out as a competitive, high-converting product in that kind of marketplace, your listing copy needs to be an optimized, strategically constructed, well-oiled machine. This requires specialized techniques that go above and beyond the obvious optimization methods like incorporating high-volume, high-relevancy, and low-competition keywords.

Here at Catapult Conversions, it means:

- Conducting customer research within the Amazon platform, so that you can explain how your product solves your ideal customers’ specific pain points

- Thoroughly studying your competitors, so that you can show how your product is BETTER than its top competitors on Amazon specifically (without violating the platform’s guidelines)

- Using specialized copywriting techniques – such as Mirroring, Selling on the Skim, and The Hook – that we’ve developed especially for the Amazon marketplace and that consistently get results again and again

- Connecting with your customers and establishing trust with a strong brand voice and authentic tone

- Ensuring that your listing is free of Amazon’s restricted terms, so it doesn’t get shut down for days or even weeks.

These are some of the ways we help our clients boost their conversion rates by 10%, 15%, even 20%.

Our free Sales Boost Analysis zeros in on exactly where your product listing is winning and where you’re leaving money on the table, showing you exact steps you can take right now to drive more traffic to your product and see a significant increase in your conversions.

Here’s what you’ll get:

Customized copywriting strategies to show buyers why your product will solve their top pain points, and why the competition won’t
Easy-to-follow, powerful tweaks you can make to your copy right now that have been proven to help boost sales conversions
Up-to-the-minute keyword research to pinpoint which crucial keywords are missing from your current listing
In-depth competitor research to reveal your competition’s missteps – and how you can use those mistakes to your advantage
A Restricted Terms Scan to catch any off-limits words or phrases currently in your listing – which, if discovered by Amazon, can get your listing shut down for days or even weeks

I developed the Sales Boost Analysis for Amazon sellers who want to maximize their listing’s potential but aren’t sure where to start – or have tried all the usual methods and are looking for something new and powerful to take their sales to the next level.

Check out the Sales Boost Analysis and also be sure to let me know your questions about using AI for your Amazon copywriting. I’ve always believed in “crowd-sourcing” the best knowledge and since it is such a new technology, sharing what we learn will help us to collectively improve our businesses through AI.

References:

https://www.intellectualproperty.law/2023/04/legal-issues-with-using-ai-to-create-content-written-with-help-from-ai/

https://balthazarkorab.com/which-is-better-for-ecommerce-ai-listing-copywriting-or-manual-writing/#But_Where_Does_AI_Actually_Fail

https://canopymanagement.com/optimize-amazon-listings-with-ai/

https://www.nozzle.ai/insights/chatgpt-amazon-fba-tips

https://www.semrush.com/blog/ai-copywriting/

https://www.junglescout.com/blog/ai-amazon-listing/

https://www.zonguru.com/blog/chatgpt-ai-for-amazon-listing-optimization

https://myfbaprep.com/blog/ai-amazon-listing/

https://zapier.com/blog/chatgpt-marketing-writing/

https://clients.checkoutsmart.com/blog/how-to-get-insights-from-amazon-product-reviews-using-chatgpt

https://www.wired.com/story/large-language-model-phishing-scams/