Project Overview

This conceptual project showcases my approach to crafting thoughtful, emotive and high-performing copy enhanced by professional AI tools.

Kensington Tours is a Toronto-based luxury travel agency that specialises in creating personalised holidays worldwide. For this project, I designed an entirely new homepage layout and refreshed the copy and content. I also created a newsletter sign-up welcome email as part of a life-cycle campaign.

I used a combination of ChatGPT and Perplexity AI for second-stage copy edits, leveraging these new tools to enhance the tone of my copy and optimise its intent for AI search and AI overviews.

Stage One: My Role

All of the copy in this project went through three rounds. During the first stage, I crafted my own copy from scratch. I wanted to enhance the personable feel of Kensington’s copy and convey quickly that it’s the brand’s tailor-made holidays that set it apart from other luxury travel brands.

Copy techniques:

• Conversational questions – these invite the consumer to engage with the brand.
• Use of internal language – customers will always deal with a ‘Destination Expert’, so I wanted them to know what this means early on.
• Use of brand taglines and slogans – ‘We take travel personally’ is one of the brand’s taglines. To me, it perfectly explains why all of the brand’s holidays are completely unique to the customer.

Stage Two: AI Integration

The second version was written by AI tools. To achieve this, I plugged my initial-stage copy into both ChatGPT and Perplexity, along with specific instructions on what I wanted the AI to give me feedback on.

Let’s use the spotlight banner as an example this time. Here’s what I asked the AI:

‘I’d like you to take a look at some copy I’ve written for a luxury travel brand. This copy will feature on the brand’s homepage, as a spotlight banner for its monthly ‘Destination of the Month’ feature. I’d like you to optimise the copy for AI search and overview.‘

[header] Destination of the Month: Seychelles

[copy] Think of paradise and it’s the Seychelles archipelago that comes to mind. It’s home to the world’s largest land tortoise and one of the world’s smallest frog species. Comprised of 115 islands, it’s the ideal destination for both explorers and those who dream of relaxing in a tropical wonderland.

[CTA] Request a Quote

The initial-stage copy above (my own version) flows seamlessly and fits perfectly with Kensington’s luxury tone and branding. However, the AI feedback revealed that in order to optimise it for AI search, I would need to make it ‘entity-rich, descriptive, and intent-aligned‘. Put simply, I needed to explain in simple terms what the module is talking about and why it matters to a user who’s searching for the following ranking keywords:

• “best time to visit Seychelles”
• “luxury Seychelles holidays”
• “what to do in Seychelles”
• “Seychelles private islands”

AI Rewrites

Stage Three: Final Edits

When working with AI tools, I like to combine my editorial judgement with the AI’s more functional, formulaic approach. Yes, the copy needs to be attractive to AI tools and search engines, but attracting and retaining real humans is the end goal.

Key Decisions:

1. For the final version of the spotlight banner (pictured above), I removed ‘Destination of the Month’ from the title. I decided that this phrase holds more internal value, as it’s not a relevant keyword and it doesn’t signal any intent to AI or traditional search engines.
2. Neither of the AI tools provided a strong editorial opener for the spotlight banner. Both versions sounded factual, rather than emotive. My final edit (‘Experience true paradise in the Seychelles…’) is softer and more premium. It also removes overused beach-related phrases such as ‘crystal-clear’ and ‘powder white’.
3. I removed the wildlife facts because they don’t align with popular search keywords or AI intent. Instead, I used the AI’s more succinct phrasing: ‘ideal for both adventure and relaxation.’
4. I optimised the CTA exactly as the AI suggested. ‘Request a Quote’ was action-oriented, but it was vague and generic. ‘Plan Your Seychelles Trip’ shows clear, specific intent.

Final Outcome and Insights

I used the above technique to craft copy for both the homepage and the welcome email. I changed the prompts I gave the AI based on each deliverable (homepage hero copy, spotlight banner, email subject line etc.).

By leveraging AI tools, I was able to combine my creativity as a dynamic writer with the AIs expertise on search and visibility. This was effective in two key ways:

1. It made content strategy faster, because I didn’t have to conduct keyword research or consult with SEO experts on an optimisation strategy.
2. It made revisions faster, because I didn’t have to wait for an editor to come back to me with copy feedback.

Overall, using AI actually gave me more autonomy over my work as a writer. It allowed me to strategise and optimise, as well as be critical of my own creativity and form conclusions based on my own expertise.