Here’s a recent post I made to my LinkedIn. I’m reposting it here so that it can live on in a more permanent place and so that those who subscribe here but aren’t on LinkedIn can read it.

Enjoy this quick argument and the very LinkedIn-influencer writing style I adopted to make it (having range comes with its less appealing extremes, for sure).

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Proofreading is an essential part of producing high-quality, clear, and influential marketing language–maybe now more than ever.

Because now, companies are using AI tools to write their copy and design their ads rather than hiring a dedicated team of humans to do these tasks, so those companies might not have anyone on their marketing team available–or able–to spot the mistakes that LLMs make. Catching writing errors is a skill that far from everyone has.

Here’s an Amazon Music ad I saw today on WordReference, my preferred online dictionary. I suspect it’s AI generated because of the repetition of the word “free” so close together and the missing word in the small print toward the bottom (perhaps they meant “Auto-renew starts at $10.99/month after TRIAL until canceled…”).

Of course, copywriters, copyeditors, and proofreaders all make mistakes, but a robust marketing team of real humans would likely have caught the missing word and noted the unpleasant proximity of “ad-free” and “30 days free” before sending this ad out into the world.

Whether or not your business uses these new AI tools to produce marketing materials, skilled writers and editors always need to be involved in the process. Without us, your business risks sacrificing the human connection at the core of successful advertising just to try to save a buck.

😘