Claude for copywriting hooks (2024)

Copywriters and marketers (including myself) are increasingly using Claude – specifically 3.5 Sonnet.

So I decided to hammer out a post about where I'm at with Claude in terms of how I use, approach and pull the model into my copywriting process.

If I had to sum Claude 3.5 Sonnet up into one word, I’d say:

HOOKS

Let me explain.

“Help me find the angle”

If you feed the model the right data & context , Claude is a fantastic short-form copywriting tool.?

For example, when I have an article draft written or some rough notes for what I want to articulate, I hop into Claude and write in the following:

—--

I need you to help me riff on the angle for an article draft I’m writing about [topic]. Your output needs to come in the form of 25 headline & intro paragraph variations written in the same pithy, conversational writing style as me. Side note – do not use colons and make sure each headline is sentence-case. For context here is what I have so far…[paste in whatever you have written].

—-

Here is an example thread I had for this newsletter, where I pasted in 2 pages of unstructured notes & babblings on this topic:

And here are some usable language outputs I took bits and pieces of:

Not copy-and-paste-able, but still pretty usable IMO.

Notice how I’m coming to Claude with an idea that I already formed. Never asking the model to do any work for me, only to help me build on what I already have.

Claude is not going to come up with an angle out of thin air but it will help you crystallize the ideas you’re trying to express by giving you usable language.?

In a vacuum this might not seem groundbreaking, but when you write all day every day (like me) it’s massive.

Why this works so well for me → when I get excited about a concept it’s really easy for me to write about it. All I need is the angle. But when I get stuck and communicate with Claude where I need ideas, it works so well.

When Claude works, it WORKS

Claude is useful because it will word something in a way that I never thought of which gives me a whole different angle to look at a concept through, so then I get excited, and then that gives me the juice I need to hammer out my own content because that’s how I work when it comes to doing my own content writing.

I already have my angle, clarity on my market, and the “what” of what I want to say and I need help putting words and sentences together.

Website copy

I’ll take an existing wireframe I wrote in the past and train Claude on the structure, length, approach, style and clarity to emulate.?

This is why I strongly recommend you keep a living, breathing archive of your best work you can go back and reference – I use this web copy example a lot (scroll to bottom of page) if I ever need to feed the AI examples of some of my best work & writing style.

Then I’ll add in some public VOC data if it’s relevant, then I’ll have the model write headlines and body copy. And I typically use bits and pieces of the output that are really good. And of course, there is a lot of iteration as with any model use.

If you want an in-the-weeds example post of how you can do this, go here .

With my clients who have a lot of website traffic or use Unbounce landing pages, Claude was leveraged when I put together hero section copy variations for some of their product launches and LinkedIn ads for paid traffic for A/B testing.

Email subject lines & hooks

Email is (by far, and it’s not even close) my favorite marketing channel of all time. Maybe I’m biased because I do this newsletter and I’ve been a Ben Settle subscriber for too many years but oh well.

For these newsletter pieces, I always run my ideas through Claude to see if I can get some more unique angles.

As Joe Sugarman famously said:?

“The sole purpose of the first sentence in an advertisement is to get you to read the second sentence. The purpose of the second sentence is to get you to read the third sentence, and so on, down the page.”

I think Joe Sugarman would’ve been a Claude power-user.?

If you’re a marketer or copywriter at a large company that’s sitting on a bigger list, Claude is A/B testing gold for subject lines (and not the B.S. A/B testing most companies do), but you can generally test out “angles” and styles to see which resonates more with your list.

Voice & tone

Does wonders for website copy when your client has a solid brand voice. I’d say the “writing voice” side of Claude is very good. One thing I’ve really noticed is that Claude is excellent at writing brand-oriented copy. Like pithy ads and such and also good for attention-grabbing headlines.?

If you’re the type who loves to do sessions to get creative language, you should really spend some time with Claude if you haven’t already.

If your client has a creative brand or unique style (that is actually unique and they’re not afraid to take copy risks) then Claude is fantastic. Claude is, in general, less jargony by default. I’ve noticed that you really have to fight ChatGPT and remind it over and over again to use YOUR words (not its own which is generic watered-down horseradish text from the internet).

I still write my own hooks (but I use Claude to give me options)

As I write about a ton in this newsletter, don’t fall into the trap of “either/or thinking” with using AI models. Using models like Claude or ChatGPT shouldn't mean you abandon any well-working part of your copywriting process.?

It’s additive.?

Claude will never be able to write great hooks on its own without an expert copywriter. To write hooks you have to have a deep understanding of your market context, product & audience. No amount of training can substitute for that.

Some parting thoughts on the Silicon Valley side of things

I say all of this with a caveat that this is rapidly evolving and will probably check in in 2025 or so and see where I'm at with Claude. Also that I really like Dario Amodei (Anthropic CEO) and his sister they're definite follows on the AI conversation more broadly (they don't blow smoke up your arse about how AGI is gonna automate you away, which makes them significantly less annoying than some other people in the AI space... IYKYK).

Claude is a “frontier model ”, so a lot of future models and products we’ll all probably use will plug into Claude or at least use it as a component (multiple model accesses), so Claude is a good skill to have. As this is not a fly-by-night startup. They’re investing many billions so I’d say it’s a good pick to spend some time in.

Anthropic is still very much finding PMF for their core product (user hooks, interface, mobile app, etc.) but the underlying model is really good. I much prefer an “open canvas” and try not to get way too wrapped up in the features but that’s just personal preference. I have a rough template in my head and I don’t like to add way too much structure to my process.

Ok that’s everything I have so far with Claude.

How are you using Claude? Send me an email or dm and let me know!