Every agency owner or marketing team I've talked to in the past 6 months has said some version of the same thing:

"The junior email copywriters and marketers we're hiring just aren't producing quality work."

• Their copy screams AI,
• They don't seem to have original ideas, and
• They want to run everything by AI first.

As one marketing manager said, "The feedback I give seems to be going over their heads. They don't seem to know basic copy principles; they can't format copy for readability, and they've never heard of messaging hierarchy."

Granted, that last one is slightly advanced, but if you've read marketing and copywriting books, you'll know what that is.

So, if you're in the same boat... I have two suggestions for you.

ONE: Get them to do these simple exercises 👇🏽

If you're stuck with someone whose work screams AI, get them to do these simple exercises:

• The 5-3-1 copy exercise.

Write whatever you need to write in 5 sentences. Then trim it down to 3. Then distill that message into 1 sentence.
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Get them to do this over and over again for different types of copy until they get better and faster at it.

They'll hate this exercise, but they'll get better at their craft so much faster.

• Teach them the Rule of One: One reader, one message, one (type of) call to action.

Get them to define these three things before they work on anything.
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- Who are we writing to?
- What do we want to communicate (and why)?
- What action do we want them to take?

Answering these questions alone will give them the clarity they need to write emails that focus on one reader, have one message, and point to one (type of) call to action.

TWO: Invest in their training.

That means organizing workshops, implementation sessions, and bringing in a copy chief.

Get used to your new reality. The new crop of copywriters and marketers seem to be learning from AI instead of reading books and actually practicing their craft. (Oh, the good old days of learning a copy principle and actually practicing it!)

Companies can no longer expect employees to improve with experience or "learn on the job" on their own.

You need to build a training program that nurtures new talent and helps them improve their skills.

The diabolical boss in me sees this as giving new hires some rope.

They'll either hang themselves with it (by not learning or improving) or save themselves (by applying what they learn and improving fast) 😆

As much as we hate it, AI-trained email copywriters and marketers is what the industry seems to be producing. If we want to find good talent, we need to be the ones to train it.

— Samar