Copycat copy

This morning I settled at my desk with a coffee and opened an email with fresh content for a client's website. It soon dawned on me that I had read it somewhere before, everywhere actually.

It was reminiscent of dozens of others I’ve been sent. Different businesses, but the same words, same phrases, same meter, the same pattern. 

Finding the right words is harder than most people realise and far more important than many assume. I remember the days when getting content from client was a long and painful process. I used to challenge my clients to rewrite, rethink, and strip back copy that sounded a little bit more advanced than “A dynamic professional team” or “Delivering quality solutions”

Then AI arrived and we thought the problem was solved.

Almost overnight we entered a new era, where words flow instantly. Pages of content can be generated in seconds: business descriptions, social media posts, email campaigns, website pages. On the surface, this seems like a long-awaited solution. Copywriters were the first profession declared “replaceable”. But we were just swapping one problem for another.

Instead of scarcity, we are now drowning in the sea of sameness and the tsunami is rolling. 

The scale of the problem only becomes obvious when you see copy from multiple companies across industries… that’s me (or any other web designer).

I understand that generated AI content can sound smart, fresh, and unique, but the reality is millions of other business owners are being “fed” the exact same phrases. What feels clever from an isolated perspective, is an active detractor to the target audience who are consuming multiple brand narratives.

LLM AI is incredibly good at assembling sentences. What it cannot do on its own is understand how it really sounds and what matters the most for the business strategy. And that’s the risk.

This isn’t an anti-AI argument.

ChatGPT is an incredible tool. I use it myself: for brainstorming, refining language, checking grammar, and exploring alternative ways of saying something (including polishing this very article). Used well, it can make the process faster and catch errors.

The danger comes when we delegate creative thinking to the machine. We all know AI can’t create something truly new, it can’t see the connections humans can (okay, not every human can either!). And that’s exactly what we do when developing a brand strategy.

AI is by nature parroting the most frequent language. The nature of copywriting for your brand is to voice differentiation. These two things are fundamentally opposed.

After reading hundreds of pages of copy sent to me by clients, certain phrases start to feel familiar. They travel from site to site, personal favourites of ChatGPT.

Consider this the Greatest Hits of AI-Generated Copy

• “We help businesses unlock their full potential”

• “Delivering innovative solutions for modern businesses”

• “Driven by innovation and powered by expertise”

• “Helping brands grow, scale, and succeed”

• “A forward-thinking company at the forefront of (insert industry)”

• “Combining strategy, creativity, and technology”

• “Built on trust, transparency, and results”

• “Where innovation meets execution”

• “Partnering with businesses to drive meaningful outcomes”

• “Focused on delivering measurable outcomes”

• “Helping companies navigate an ever-changing landscape”

• “We pride ourselves on quality, reliability, and innovation”

• “Transforming ideas into reality”

• “Results-driven strategies that make a difference”

• “Shaping the future of [insert industry]”

• “Innovating today for a better tomorrow”

Sound familiar to you?

So, what do we do then? you ask

We all use the same language — and yes, we can teach AI how we want to sound. But the moment we stop challenging ourselves and outsource our messaging to AI, our brand loses its edge.

We don’t need to invent new words (though that’s sometimes exactly what we do in naming).

Treat your copy seriously, it’s not an afterthought.

Finding the right words and narrative is a creative process: brainstorming, peeling back layers of generic statements, and uncovering your unique story.

Take some time and assess your copy with these 7 questions

1. Could this copy come from any company, or does it feel uniquely ours?

2. Does it communicate the tone, voice, and values of the brand?

3. Does every sentence serve a purpose, or is it just filling space?

4. Can the reader digest one main point or unique offer?

5. Does it provide real world examples, proof points, or tangible details?

6. Does it make the reader feel something, or just read something?

7. Is it aligned with the brand’s positioning and messaging hierarchy?

How to make your content more engaging and memorable

These are our golden rules for content strategy

1. Avoid being purely descriptive.

2. Add emotion, make people feel something.

3. Be brave sharing your opinion and back it up with your experties.

4. Don’t just fill space. “Here should be a text” is not a strategy.

5. Support your message with strong visuals.

6. Ignore cookie-cutter SEO rules like “write 1,000 words with these phrases.”

7. Less is more.

8. Revisit your copy at least once a year to keep it fresh and relevant.

9. Say something slightly uncomfortable. Safe messages are forgettable.

Remember: no brand can afford sameness.

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Words are abundant, but captivating stories are rare. Copywriting isn’t going anywhere. Humans still turn words into stories, and strategy still makes them matter.