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Sad news: You’re never going to beat AI in a spelling contest.
Fortunately, your audience doesn’t hire you based on your ability to spell ‘onomatopoeia’ on demand.
They care a lot more about your experience, expertise and any specific abilities that help you offer the best product or service.
So write about them and it will be a gazillion percent more persuasive than a purely ChatGPT-generated blog.
AI is a timesaver and waster
I think AI is incredible.
It’s the most powerful online tool that we’ve ever been exposed to – and it’s so democratised that anyone with a $20-per-month subscription has access to the same technology as the tech geniuses in Silicon Valley… even NASA.
And in my industry of content & SEO, AI can be an amazing time-saving tool for proofreading, keyword planning and even brainstorming (to a certain degree).
But its power can work against you.
It’s all too easy to disappear down an AI rabbit hole and emerge hours later with nothing more than a bland PDF deck and a generic set of powerpoints… when all you wanted was to give a blog post a little padding.
And for true creativity? The type that makes customers actually connect with your brand?
There needs to be a human involved.
AI’s LLM scrapes existing data, meaning whatever it creates is by definition derivative and unoriginal.
And if you’re in an industry that relies on human connection, e.g. weddings, travel, service provision, this personal touch is what separates you from every other competitor.
The good news? In order to stand out, you just have to be yourself.
With that in mind, let’s dive into five tips to help you write better than AI.
1. Write about whatever AI can’t
LLMs have access to pretty much everything that has been posted publicly on the internet. So yeah, quite a lot.
What don’t they have access to? You. Your memory. Your taste. Your life.
AI can’t write about lived experience because, well, it’s never lived. Even for a second. You’ve lived an entire lifetime.
Breathing, bleeding, singing and crying.
This is your edge.
Share
- Opinions on your industry
- Stories from previous projects
- Client conversations
- BTS reveals
- Thoughts on venues
- Personal connections with other vendors
Be specific in your descriptions and explain why this collection of experiences adds up to you being the right person to hire.
Here’s an example:
I’ve been a professional writer for 15+ years – but I can’t type as fast as AI. And I make more spelling errors.
But I can tell you about that time I holed up in a Bangkok hotel during my pre-Pepperstorm life as a freelance copywriter…
It was 2015 and I was backpacking through South East Asia.
I’d decided to take a few months off from freelance copywriting and live so completely in the moment that I hadn’t even brought my laptop.
However, my fun habit of saying yes to every opportunity easily became quite expensive, especially on a backpacker’s budget.
I didn’t want the trip to end. As I was recovering from a New Year’s Eve Full Moon Party on Koh Phangan, I checked the work email that I had sworn not to open until I returned to the UK.
One request jumped out: a copywriting gig for MakeWell, a healthcare brand run by a friend of a friend.
The money was good. The subject matter was interesting. Paradise could wait.
These were the days of shaky internet, so I set up the client call for a few days’ time, when I knew I’d be able to use a friend’s apartment in Bangkok.
The client was fun, so I agreed to the contract on the spot and immediately after the call ran to a small electronics store to buy a Bluetooth keyboard to pair with my iPad.
I booked a hotel room to hole up in for the next week, with ‘strong WiFi’ taking precedence over ‘cleanliness’ or ‘reasonable soundproofing’.
I anti-bac gelled my hands, put headphones on to mask the sound of next door’s amorous adventures and got to work.
I lived off room service while pulling 12-hr days hunched over the iPad, prodding and pinching the screen every frickin’ time I needed to make an edit.
I emerged from my room with the finished copy and a faded suntan a few days before the deadline. The client was overjoyed that I turned it around so quickly and to such high quality.
The invoice for the work paid for an extended trip through Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam where I had a series of unforgettable adventures and met some incredible people who became friends-for-life.
The cherry on the top? A year later I began Pepperstorm and reached out to see if MakeWell wanted any SEO help.
They were so happy with my previous work that they became one of our longest-standing clients. We helped build their brand as well as three other sister brands with website copy, blogs and SEO over the next five years.
Needs must. I’ve since upgraded my travelling office…
OK, so was this vignette the type of generic content & SEO tip that you can get from an LLM? Not at all.
Did it help you understand more about my character, past experience, commitment to clients and insatiable lust for adventure? I certainly hope so.
And I’m pretty sure that’s what you’ll remember about me and the Pepperstorm brand.
Do this: Write down one personal story from your own history – a client win, a mishap, a memory – that shows who you are behind the business. Don’t overthink it. Draft it exactly as you’d tell it to a mate over a coffee and then tidy up the grammar afterwards.
2. Have a point of view
Thanks to (more than) a couple of lawsuits, AI is learning to hedge its bets when giving advice.
This makes it very useful for general health advice and conservative money-saving tips…
And f*cking useless at creating noticeable content.
You’re an expert in your industry. Show your audience by writing with conviction about the things that they care about.
I promise that this is going to be more engaging, shareable and ultimately convincing of your skills than if you just sit on the fence (or worse, let AI sit there for you).
For example:
Here’s my hot take on AI.
In terms of job destruction in the creative industry, AI isn’t going to be anywhere near as revolutionary as the doomsayers predict.
Of course it’s going to change the world.
And yes, we’ll see a streamlining of agencies. But these agencies will be made up of people. Why?
People will always want a human in control of things that matter.
So what matters? Taste. Timing. Intuiting human behaviour (not just guessing based on an algorithm).
These very human characteristics will affect the decision to choose what to publish – and what not to.
So don’t worry too much about a robot taking your job. Just excel at the (often irreplaceable) human part.
Do this: Think of an original view that you’re confident in (the more contrary the better). Argue your point passionately, preferably backing it up with examples from personal experience. Ask for feedback. This type of real conversation leads to the best engagement, which in turn gets your brand remembered.
3. Show real data & results
Nothing screams “hire me” like a clear example of what you’ve done for a similar customer in the past.
Don’t be shy in sharing testimonials, case studies and video reviews.
Show the impact that your work has had on the type of clients you would like to work with in the future.
Photos, graphs & testimonials are more persuasive than anything AI can trot out.
Because who’s leaving a Google Review for Gemini, really?
Case in point: Remember the story I just told you about editing a healthcare site on a tiny iPad in a Bangkok hotel room…
That led to Pepperstorm signing MakeWell as one of our longest-standing clients.
Their CEO left us this review after we’d been working together for a few years:
I’m so glad I found that Bluetooth keyboard.
Reviews like this show social proof of your skills, deliverables and working style. (They’re also heartwarming to receive.)
Do this: Think of your favourite clients, the ones you would love to work with again. Ask them to leave a Google review that you can screenshot onto your website and socials. Also request a video if appropriate. Build case studies around this content, showing their journey and the impact your results had on their lives/businesses. Then share this content EVERYWHERE.
4. Write like you talk
One of the first generations of AI was predictive text. Your phone or computer predicts what you’re going to say and fills in the rest of the sentence.
This is useful for typing on the fly – but in terms of actually writing like you speak, it’s terrible.
That’s because we develop cadence, rhythms, speech patterns that are unique to us over a lifetime of speaking to friends, family and strangers.
Humour, idiosyncrasies and funny little quirks are hard to fake – which is why everyone can tell when you’ve leaned on AI too much in emails, captions, blogs and (don’t do it!) website copy.
So instead of letting AI fill in the blanks, take the time to write as if you are speaking to your ideal client over a coffee.
I know that the blank page is terrifying. But it’s also the only place where true creativity takes place.
Do this: Record yourself telling your favourite anecdote. Then write it down. Then edit it to make it more ‘readable’. This is your brand voice – write in this style from this day forward.
The best of both worlds = a human who knows how to use AI properly.
5. Use AI
“Errr what?? But I thought the whole point of the article was…”
You read that right.
In order to write better than AI, you should definitely use AI. But only AFTER you’ve done the creative work.
That’s because AI is a tool to help humans work faster and more efficiently – not a replacement for a human.
It’s a good:
- Proofreader – it’ll catch a typo faster than anyone on the planet
- Fact-checker – just make sure you double-check anything important
- Brainstormer – it can generate endless alternative ideas… 90% will be crap, but your skill will lie in finding the gold and then adapting it to your voice
Do this: Here’s a prompt that you can use if you want AI to proof your work without changing your brand voice:
“Proof this piece — don’t rewrite it, just flag issues. I want to keep my brand voice exactly as is.
Check for: Typos, spelling, and grammar errors (don’t flag stuff that’s clearly intentional style — fragments, casual phrasing, hyphens instead of em dashes, etc.)
Broken or dead links — list the URL and what’s wrong with it
Any content, structure, or heading suggestions — put these in a separate section at the end, clearly marked as optional, not baked into the text
Don’t touch word choice, sentence length, or tone unless it’s an actual error.
If you’re not sure whether something’s a mistake or a style choice, ask rather than “fixing” it.”
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DO NOT: Use AI to fill a blank page.
Outsource the heavy lifting
The words on your website are an essential element of your business growth.
They’re how Google ranks you, how AI features you and how your audience learns to trust your brand.
That’s why Pepperstorm’s most popular services include:
They lead to results like those featured in our Case Studies – have a peek at how our clients’ websites now generate high-quality leads while they sleep.
If you’d like friendly experts to take care of your content & SEO, send us a quick message on our website or Insta.
