Cinematic Sales Copy: How to Write Attention-Grabbing "Scenes" Using ChatGPT
Picture this:
You're alone at the kitchen table, hunched over your laptop, fingers hovering above the keys.
You've got an article due, but you're floundering... you've been here an hour, racking your brain for an "angle" to start the piece, and nothing's working.
"I'm a fraud," you think. "I can't evern string a single sentence together."
The cursor blinks, and time slows to a crawl. Anxiety grips your chest... like a caged animal, you feel trapped, isolated, powerless.
"Is this what copywriting feels like?" you wonder. "This is hell!"
If you've ever written copy, I know you've been there. And reading that scene, you probably felt it, too.
Scenes thrust your reader into the action, no warmup needed. Just Boom! and they're seeing, hearing, and feeling your copy.
The problem is, most copywriters don't get the logic of how scenes work. So their scences come out awkward and unnatrual, and actually make their copy weaker.
But with ChatGPT, writing powerful, gripping scenes is easier than ever.
In just a few minutes, you can write an effective copy scene to use in your next email, sales letter, or advertorial.
Here's the process I'm using:
Step 1: Persona
When writing with AI, always start with a persona. Without a persona as your foundation, your copy will miss the little true to life details that make it feel real.
The good news is? AI can help write your persona, too.
As long as you know your reader's:
- Gender
- Age
- Line of work
- Main challenges
- Desired outcomes
ChatGPT can create a persona with deep insights into your reader's emotional drivers.
Here's the core of my initial persona prompt:
Your prompt does NOT have to be this long to be effective. As long as you know your reader's demographics, challenges, and ideal outcomes, ChatGPT can run with it and create a persona for you.
Step 2: Initial Scene Prompt
Once you've got your fleshed-out reader persona, it's time to start writing your scene. Start with a prompt like this:
Describe a scenario where {avatar name} is trying to {achieve outcome}, but is {met with challenge}. Describe in vivid, cinematic detail how {avatar name} looks and feels. What is he telling himself in that moment? What thoughts and emotions are coursing through him?
Note: The items in brackets are variables, that you'll swap in the relevant details for your avatar.
Here's what I put:
And here's what ChatGPT gave me:
Not bad at all. There's a lot of good material to work with here. But it's going to need some trimming & shaping to be usable.
Step 3: Distilling Down & Adding Key Details
Note: at this point, the conversation between you and the AI will become more organic and fluid.
But for the purposes of illustration, here's how mine played out:
To tighten things up, next I said:
Step 4. Editing
When you tell ChatGPT to be creative, it tends to go overboard and write purple prose that would never work as sales copy.
That's what happened in this case:
Too long and flowery. But again, that's okay. Over the top copy is easier to work with than flat, lifeless copy you have to build back up.
At this point, it's time to leave the AI realm and start editing the scene yourself. ChatGPT can take you 85% of the way, but you'll need to do the final touches yourself.
So paste your scene into Google docs (or whatever you use), and begin chopping it down. Edit your scene down until it's quick and punchy, and conveys maximum emotion in minimum word count.
The Takeaway
Copywriting scenes are powerful. When done right, they can dramatically boost your engagement and conversions.
And thanks to AI, scenes are easier to write than ever. So embrace our robot overlords, and start leveling up your copywriting game.