Four-step methodology for AI copywriting: from “correct but cold” to “making people want to click”
You can write a perfect work report, but you can’t write a 150-word IG post - this is not because your prompt is not strong enough, but because you have not learned the methodology of using AI to write copywriting.
The most common complaint I have heard in corporate training in the past few years is this sentence: “What the AI writes looks right, but it just doesn’t feel right.” Open ChatGPT and throw in the sentence “Write an IG post for me to introduce the product.” What comes out has neat grammar, complete information, and looks like Wikipedia. You know in your heart that this cannot be used directly, but you can’t tell what is wrong.
The difference is not actually in the AI’s capabilities. The difference is that most people don’t realize that -Writing official business and writing copywriting are two completely different brain circuits.
Writing official affairs trains you to pursue precision: use correct words, complete information, and clearly explain the causes and consequences, so that readers will not misunderstand you. Writing copy is about another thing: what action will the reader take after reading? What this requires is not clarity, but viscosity—a pull that makes people stop, keep sliding, and press the link.
Over the past five years, I’ve broken down this set of differences into a methodology: four steps, a three-tiered structure, and a take-away Prompt template. In this article today, I wrote it down in full.
Why is the copywriting written by AI always inferior? Disassemble the three-layer structure
Any good copywriting contains three layers: insight, structure, and sense of language. Most AI copywriting fails on the first level, fails on the second level if it is not improved well, and fails on the third level if it is not differentiated enough.
The first level is Insight. It’s not market research, it’s translating readers’ unspoken feelings into language. Readers who say “I want a good note-taking app” are information; “I want a note-taking app that doesn’t make me feel bad about myself” is insight. The former can only write reports, while the latter can write copywriting.
The second level is Structure. The reader’s brain is actually guided - with unstructured copy, the reader has to turn every step; with structured copy, he will slide down and get to where you want. The three best structures to get started with in the world of copywriting are AIDA, BAB, and FAB. I will show you later using real brand cases.
The third level is Voice. In the same sentence “Welcome”, if Apple writes “Hello.” it means Apple, and if Starbucks writes “Hello, partner” it means Starbucks. The sense of language is the signature of a brand - what most people lack most is that you have the ability to say things accurately, but are not sure what your tone looks like.
After understanding these three layers, the five most common AI copywriting landmines are clear: correct but without warmth (lack of insight), trying to say everything (lack of structure), prompts that are too simple (no context), trusting AI to the end (lack of manual polishing), and no brand tone (lack of language sense calibration). Each one corresponds to a problem on one of the layers above.
Four-step methodology: Split abstraction into operable processes
Knowing that the three-layer structure is a map will not make you a better writer. What really allows you to achieve stable output is process. I use four steps throughout the entire writing cycle: dismantle the product → lock in the audience → design prompt → manual polishing.
The biggest difference between novices and veterans is not talent, but time allocation. Novices spend 80% of their efforts in the polishing cycle of “writing, revising, revising and writing”, and they can do the preparatory work casually. Veterans spend 80% of their efforts on the first three steps - dismantling, audience, and prompt - and only need 20% of the polishing stage. A solid front position will reduce the pain in the back by half.
Step 1｜Disassemble the product: turn the introduction into a composable three-dimensional canvas
The most common mistake is to open the official website and copy a paragraph to introduce it to the AI. That introduction is the greatest common denominator for “everyone” to read. If you use it as a starting point, the copywriting is destined to become boring.
The correct approach is to split the product into three dimensions - core selling point (the most powerful thing in one sentence, no more than 15 words), unique value (the biggest difference from competing products, what would readers do without this product), and usage scenarios (at what time, situation, and emotion do readers need it most, list three specific scenarios).
Give an example. The core selling point of an online note-taking tool is not “powerful organization function”, it can be: “AI helps you turn scattered notes into a structured knowledge base.” The unique value is not “ten more functions than others”, it can be: “Other tools ask you to classify, this tool does it for you.” With such a sentence, AI will know what to write at a glance.
Step 2｜Lock the audience: reduce “a group of people” to “one person”
Workplace communication trains you to consider all possible readers, but copywriting does the opposite—you have to target a specific person, and the more specific the better. “Urban women between 25 and 35 years old” is not specific enough. “28-year-old marketing assistant who takes the subway and uses her mobile phone at 8:30 on Monday morning” is specific enough.
I am used to using six elements to complete the audience portrait: basic information, daily scenes, current pain points, deep desires, objection reasons, and word usage habits. The first four determine what the copy should say, and the last two determine what the copy cannot say. The same product will target three different audiences, and you will write three completely different opening sentences. Once you do this exercise, you will never go back to your old habit of “writing for everyone.”
Step 3｜Five Elements of Design Prompt: Turn the results of the first two steps into a power of attorney
A good Prompt is not a spell, but a complete power of attorney. I use the “five elements” framework: role, situation, task, format, and example.
The role tells the AI what identity to use (senior copywriter? Marketing director?), the situation is inserted into the product teardown and audience portrait, the task uses specific verbs (write one/rewrite/generate 3 versions), the format determines the number of words, paragraphs and structure (AIDA? BAB?), and the example is pasted one or two paragraphs of the most satisfying text you have written so that the AI can align the tone.
Here’s a little trick: Put the example at the end of the Prompt. The AI will prioritize aligning the last thing it saw, and this small adjustment can make the tone more stable. For more principles of Prompt design, you can refer to “Precision Questioning Skills in the AI Era” that I wrote before.
Step 4｜Manual editing: put 30% of the soul back
AI can help you achieve 70% of the writing level—structure, information, grammar, and fluency. What is the remaining 30%? It’s your insight into the reader, your unique tone, your rejection. Many people submit manuscripts without polishing them, and the result is “AI at first sight.”
The three principles for polishing a manuscript are simple: delete redundancy (delete one sentence in each paragraph and two words in each sentence), adjust the rhythm (add a shorter sentence if it is always long, and vice versa), and add something special (replace verbs, add metaphors that only you can use, and include a real experience of yours).
For a comparison. AI original draft: “This note-taking tool uses advanced AI technology to automatically help users sort out scattered information, making your knowledge management more efficient.” After polishing the draft: “Do you know that feeling - you can never find the notes after writing them? The AI of this tool classifies them for you, and you can still find them three months later.” The difference is just this 30%.
Three narrative frames: Which one to choose depends on where the reader stands.
Step 3 of the four steps mentioned “structure”, let’s expand on it here. AIDA, BAB, and FAB are not rigid formulas, but three different entrances on the reader’s journey.
AIDA (Attention → Interest → Desire → Action) is suitable for scenarios where “readers don’t know they have needs yet”. Asana’s corporate brand video is a textbook example: it opens with specific numbers like “busy work draining almost 3 days a week” to grab attention, then translates abstract values (clarity, accountability, efficiency) into concrete results, and ends with “100,000+ customers” as an endorsement of trust.
BAB (Before → After → Bridge) is suitable for the scene where “the reader is already in pain but has no solution”. Grammarly’s education-themed advertisement is actually a “weak BAB” - it uses the challenges of the K-12 education scene as Before, and uses the vision of students to become better communicators as After, but Bridge (how Grammarly does it) is written more abstractly. If you want to practice BAB, write Bridge as specifically as possible.
FAB (Feature → Advantage → Benefit) is suitable for scenarios where “readers are already comparing plans”. Canva Pro’s product promotional video is a good example of a continuous FAB - a general Benefit opening, a small FAB for each function (Magic Resize, Brand Hub, Beat Sync) in the middle, and a trial CTA at the end. The function name itself implies the advantage, eliminating the need for a lengthy explanation.
Don’t worry when choosing a structure. If the reader is still at the door (not knowing there is a need), use AIDA; if the reader is already knocking on the door (it hurts but there is no solution), use BAB; if the reader is already comparing two companies (making a choice), use FAB.
Differences between the three scenarios: Don’t use the same version to dominate the world
The four steps are a general methodology, but social posts, emails, and landing pages each have their own specifications.
Social posts should grab attention. IG is visual priority, copywriting assistance, the first 3 lines determine whether to “expand” or not. Threads need to be conversational, real, and flawed—perfect copy will not be liked. The first line of LinkedIn should be the “hook” and the end should have a quotable quote.
Emails and Newsletters Subject matter accounts for 50%. The only difference in open rate or not lies in the 30 words of the subject. An email only does one thing - only promotes one main CTA. Too many options means no one clicks. The tone should be like a letter, not like an advertisement, use more “I”, more “you”, and more real dates and details. The details of my entire e-newsletter workflow are written in “Ulysses + AI writing workflow”.
Landing Page is the ultimate copywriting challenge - you have to ask someone who doesn’t know you at all to decide whether to continue scrolling down in 90 seconds. I recommend using the five-paragraph structure of the inverted pyramid: Hero paragraph (one main sentence + one subscript + main CTA), pain point paragraph (write three specific pain points in the reader’s own words), solution paragraph (comparison before vs after), social proof paragraph (three real experiences + numbers), and final CTA paragraph (last persuasion + “why now” push).
Your hidden advantage: Translate professional terms into popular language
Many people overlook one thing - The biggest advantage of copywriting for professionals is actually that you have professional content that others do not. You understand the company’s products, are familiar with the industry, and know details that outsiders cannot see through. The problem is only “translation”.
I teach a tool called the “three-level translation method”: first write the core values into a paragraph using industry terminology (original language), then rewrite it into a version that colleagues across departments can understand (intermediate level), and finally rewrite it into a version that high school students can enter (the public).
Give an example. Original text: “This product is based on the self-supervised learning method of the Transformer architecture. It improves the lexical representation quality of low-resource languages through comparative coding, and improves the lexical representation quality of low-resource languages by 4.2% under the GLUE benchmark.” Public version: “To learn a language, AI usually requires a large number of textbooks. But if there are no textbooks in that language (such as Taiwanese, Aboriginal languages), the AI cannot learn well. Our product has designed a new method that allows the AI to learn more accurately from very little data, and the test results are improved by 40%.” The two paragraphs talk about the same thing, but the readers who can access them are completely different. AI is particularly good at this translation link - you give it a terminology version and ask it to rewrite it into a “version that can be spoken to high school students”, and it can give you three or five candidates to choose from. This is what I repeatedly emphasized in “Use AI Copywriting to Market Yourself”: Your major is your confidence, and AI is your amplifier.
After writing, use the three-layer rubric to check it yourself
Finishing is not the end. I am used to running a self-examination using a three-layer rubric - this is not a score, but a calibration of the distance between what you see as a reader and what the reader really cares about.
Insight: Are you seeing the data layer (age, occupation) or the psychological layer (unspoken fears)? Did you catch something the reader didn’t say? Landmine: I only wrote the demographic description “young people like…” without seeing any specific people.
Structural Power: Is the AIDA/BAB/FAB you use suitable for the readers’ current stage? Is there a hook in the opening? Landmine: 8 selling points crammed into 200 words, and the ending doesn’t let readers know the next step.
Language perception: Does it read like a human being or an AI? Does the tone match the brand and scene? Landmine: There are marketing slogans such as “a shocking debut”, “professionally built” and “unique”.
There is another landmine overall - after reading this, you will feel that this copy can be used by any brand. That is too average and has no differentiation. Good copywriting should make people feel: this can only be written by this brand.
Copywriting is not talent, it is a process of repeated practice
Going back to the beginning sentence: You can write a perfect work report, but you can’t write a 150-word IG post. It’s not because you’re not talented enough, it’s because you haven’t practiced this process yet.
Work experience gives you clarity of information, and copywriting training gives you the viscosity of language. You don’t have to give up clarity, you just need to learn a tone of voice—one that makes strangers stop, read on, and click on that link.
If you want to try this method, here are three things you can do today:
First, pick a product you are most familiar with (any company project, side business, or family store) and spend 15 minutes making a three-dimensional canvas of the product. Force yourself to reduce the core selling point to less than 15 words.
Second, write three audience portraits for this product, each opening with one sentence. You will find that three people will write three completely different sentences about the same product - this feeling is very important.
Third, use the five-element prompt to write an IG post. Do not directly use the version given by AI. Apply the three principles to polish the draft once, and then check yourself against the three-layer rubric.
After running these three things, you will see with your own eyes the difference between the 70% given by the AI and the 30% you added. That gap is the true value of copywriting.
Further reading:
- Use AI copywriting to market yourself
- Ulysses + AI writing workflow
- Precision questioning skills in the AI era
- Make good use of thought chains to create high-quality AI conversations
External resources:
- Asana Corporate Brand Advertising (YouTube)
- Grammarly Educational Theme Film (YouTube)
- Canva Pro Product Video (YouTube)
☕️ Invite Vista to have a cup of coffee
