How to Choose the Perfect Al Writing Tool for Your Small Business — A Beginner’s Guide
Whether you need an AI writing pal for content marketing, copywriting… or both! — we’ve got you!
As the demand for high-quality content grows, learning how to choose the best AI writing assistant becomes increasingly essential for marketers and small business owners.
In many ways, it’s like choosing the right car!
With so many options in the market, selecting the best AI writer that is affordable, factually accurate (saving you more down-the-line research time!) and meets your business needs can be a daunting task. Still, with this guide — and an afternoon of software trials — you’ll be much better equipped to make the best decision for yourself.
Soon, we’ll jump into a lengthy list of key features you should consider when evaluating each AI text generator platform. But first, let’s clarify some marketing jargon:
Content marketing (often 2,000+ words) is a long-term strategy focused on generating content that engages potential buyers. Their readiness to buy from you in the future will likely increase due to the trust you have built with them over time. The formats that content marketing can take include blog posts, articles, infographics, e-books, and social media posts, to name a few.
Copywriting is a shorter-term strategy focused on generating content that persuades readers to take a particular action. Copywriting aims to produce leads, sales, or other desired results. Advertising, product descriptions, website landing pages, and email marketing campaigns are a few examples.
And yes, the two frequently cross over. Just as a good content marketer will use copywriting techniques to make their content more persuasive, a good copywriter will utilize content marketing concepts to ensure their material is valuable and relevant to their target audience.
Ultimately, knowing your specific business goals and target market can help you choose whether to focus more on content marketing or copywriting workflows. If you’re still unclear, we suggest consulting with a marketing professional.
Here are three robust AI writers we think you should explore:
- Jasper — Good for both content marketing and copywriting.
Not as beginner-friendly, pricier than LongShot and Writesonic…
Think Tesla
This AI writing tool generates high-quality brand voice SEO content, such as blog posts, ads, social media posts, ebooks, articles, and reports, in minutes. (It does offer fact-checking; the feature isn’t as integrated as it is with LongShot.)
- LongShot — Good for both content marketing and copywriting.
Good overall value compared to Jasper… Think Mercedes
This beginner-friendly AI writing tool generates high-quality, fact-checked SEO content, such as blog posts, ads, social media posts, eBooks, articles, and reports, in minutes.
- Writesonic — Good for both content marketing and copywriting.
Good overall value compared to Jasper… Think Lexus
This beginner-friendly AI content writer generates high-quality brand voice SEO content, such as blog posts, ads, social media posts, eBooks, articles, and reports, in minutes. (It offers fact-checking through Google Search; the feature isn’t as integrated and on-demand as it is with LongShot.)
The Verdict
We pick LongShot… by a Shortshot!
Designed for marketers, businesses, agencies, and creators, these mighty AI writing assistants are built on ChatGPT-4 or Claude. We believe they’re all strong AI content writers, but if we had to choose one (just one!), we’d pick the “Mercedes” — aka LongShot. We prefer its integrated research and fact-check features — and believe the solution to be a good value for the time it saves us researching topics and jumpstarting those lonely, blank white pages.
Regarding the brand voice difference — where Jasper and Writesonic excel — we handle originality and customization the old-fashioned way… with a human touch! LongShot does allow some tonal options; it’s just not as robust as Jasper or Writesonic.
Key Features
Now that you’re clear on marketing concepts and have a good sense of three potential AI writing apps, here are the features we believe you should consider when selecting the best AI writer for your business needs:
1) Ease of Use
Look for an AI writing tool that is intuitive and user-friendly, so you and your team can quickly learn how to use its various features and increase company-wide adoption. The easier the tool, the more likely it’ll be used!
- LongShot and Writesonic are both beginner-friendly. (Think Canva)
- Jasper requires a steeper learning curve. (Think Photoshop)
Supported Use Cases (Content Marketing, Copywriting, Creative Writing)
Evaluate if the AI writing tool supports the specific use cases relevant to your business. For example, if you need copywriting for email marketing, social media, or SEO purposes; content marketing for long-form writing blogs, ebooks, or research papers; or even creative writing options for short stories and fiction books. Make sure the tool offers features tailored to each use case you desire.
- LongShot, Jasper and Writesonic all excel at content marketing and copywriting.
2) Pricing: Word/Character Limits and Team Usage
It is crucial that any of the AI writers your business uses be able to handle lengthy content, so research the allotted word/character limitations. If you and your team frequently write in-depth blog posts, reports or ebooks, pick an AI writing tool that offers larger word counts without compromising output quality!
Be forewarned, the word usage rates can be a bit convoluted — and quickly qualify your business into a higher pricing plan if you’re a frequent user — so, again, do your research. Try a trial/demo and see how each platform performs and tallies up each letter you type. Each platform tackles team usage (seats) differently, too, so consider the total output desired each month.
3) Output Quality and Accuracy
An AI writing tool’s output quality and accuracy is crucial — if not the most essential factor! Consider a platform that generates fresh, creative, grammatically correct and factually accurate content. These tools use up-to-date natural language processing (i.e., ChatGPT-4, Claude). Also, research how facts are checked and whether the citations are from credible sourced websites, news sites and academic papers.
- LongShot offers real-time, proactive “fact checker” and “claim detection” functions.
- Jasper offers real-time Google Search and Grammerly integration.
- WriteSonic offers real-time Google Search.
4) Templates
Look for an AI writing tool that offers a powerful SEO-optimized template library for different types of content, such as social media posts or email marketing. These templates can save you a boatload of time — dramatically increase productivity in outlining and SEO work, and provide a starting point for your assisted writing journey. (Writer’s block, be gone!)
- Jasper offers over 500+ (the more you pay, the more you get access to)
- Writesonic offers over 100+
- LongShot offers over 50+ (more coming)
5) Customization
Another factor to explore is the customization options offered by your new AI writer pal. Naturally, each business has its unique style, tone, and branding guidelines, so choosing a tool that allows you to tailor the generated AI text to match your brand voice is important. Look for tools that offer innovative ways to adjust the tone, style, and vocabulary used in your content so you can ensure that it aligns with your brand identity.
Please note: As we mentioned earlier, this is where the human touch comes into play. To be clear, we do not see AI content writers as replacements of humans but as enhancers; ultimately allowing businesses and creators to increase their quality content output.
- LongShot has limited customizations compared to Writesonic and Jasper.
6) Data Security and Privacy
Data security and privacy should be a top priority when you choose an AI writing tool. Ensure your selected tool has robust security measures to protect sensitive business and customer data. Look for solutions that comply with industry-standard security certifications and regulations, such as GDPR.
7) Editor (Bulk Content Generator)
A text editor feature allows you to generate bulk content more efficiently. (Although we haven’t used this feature, some businesses may find this functionality useful.) This can be helpful if your company needs to produce a large amount of creative material frequently. Look for an AI writing tool that offers an editor feature that allows you to input specific data or keywords and automatically generates multiple variations of content based on that input.
8) Export Features
Determine if the AI writing tool lets you easily export the generated content in different formats, such as Word docs or HTML. This will make it much more convenient to publish content across various platforms.
9) Integration Capabilities
Look for solutions seamlessly integrating with your existing systems, such as Notion, Salesforce, Slack, Medium or Ghost. Integrations will help streamline your workflow, increasing productivity and saving you time.
- Jasper has more integrations.
10) Language Support
If your business operates in multiple languages and caters to a global audience, it’s important to look at creating tools that support the languages you need. Check if the tool offers multilingual capabilities and can generate content in different languages accurately and fluently. We suggest testing the AI writer’s translation accuracy and clarity during the trial stage.
- Writesonic and Jasper support more languages than LongShot.
11) Project Management
Consider if the AI writing tool provides project management features, such as quickly organizing and categorizing your content into different projects or campaigns. This can help you stay organized and efficiently manage your content creation process for yourself and your teams.
12) Ratings and Reviews
Look for an AI writing tool that has received positive ratings and reviews from sources or industry experts, especially from businesses similar to yours. This can indicate the tool’s performance, reliability and customer support.
- Writesonic has 4.8/5 on G2 (1,600 reviews).
- LongShot and Jasper made Capterra’s Blog Software Shortlist (2022).
13) Browser Extension
Consider if the AI writer offers a browser extension that allows you to access its features directly from your web browser (i.e., Chrome). This can make it way more convenient for you to use the tool, increasing your productivity while browsing the internet or working on various platforms.
14) Customer Support and Training
Consider the level of customer support and training the AI writing tool vendor provides. Look for solutions that offer comprehensive documentation, tutorials, YouTube videos, and responsive customer support to help you and your team get the most out of the tool. Additionally, check if the vendor provides reliable customer support channels such as email, chat, or phone if you encounter any issues or have questions.
- LongShot, Jasper and Writesonic each provide helpful support and training options.
15) Online Community
Check if the AI writer has an active online community (i.e., Discord) where you can engage with other users, ask questions, and share insights. This can provide additional support and resources for using the tool effectively.
Considering the factors above, you can make a more informed decision when choosing the perfect AI writing tool that best aligns with your business objectives and content generation needs.
Remember to thoroughly test any tool you try and gather feedback from your team before committing to a long-term subscription or purchase.
The Three AI Writer Assistants We Like:
First off, we suggest ONLY considering AI writer software powered by large language models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT-4 (not 3.5) or Claude (this robust platform will be reviewed in a future post.) This will help ensure the information you receive is of higher quality and current. As always, you’ll need to do the human writer thing and double-check all the facts.
- LongShot is a good value if you need both content marketing and copywriting. It’ll help you increase your productivity, saving time as you research and outline your writing material. It’s also beginner-friendly!
- Jasper is a top-notch solution if you need both content marketing and copywriting. It’ll help you increase your productivity, saving time as you research and outline your writing ideas. It’s not as beginner-friendly and is pricier — especially if you wish to gain full functionality.
- Writesonic is a good value if you need both content marketing and copywriting. It’ll help you increase your productivity, saving time as you research and outline your writing material. It’s also beginner-friendly!
Starter-Tier Price Comparison:
- Jasper: Creator — $49; Team — $125
- Writesonic: Business — $12.67 (1 user — roughly $38 for 100k words)
- LongShot: Pro — $29 (1 user — 100k words); Team — $59
- * Remember to research word/character limits as well as the number of needed seats for your team.*
Conclusion
Discovering the ideal AI writing software for your business doesn’t have to be daunting; however, it does necessitate some preparatory research, as we’ve laid out above in this guide. We hope you’ll use this as a handy reference as you consider what to try in your content marketing, copywriting or creative writing workflows. Again, key considerations include but are not limited to, user-friendliness, word/character limits, output quality, data security and privacy, customization options, language support, integration capabilities, pricing, and customer support/training.
It’s important to recognize that none of the aforementioned AI tools (Jasper, LongShot, Writesonic) are flawless; each has merits and drawbacks. Thus, it’s imperative to evaluate each solution in alignment with your business goals, budgetary constraints, and expertise level.
Furthermore, remember AI functions best as a powerful tool to assist and enhance the content development process, whether creating articles for your website, a blog… or product descriptions for Amazon. Human guidance and direction will always remain essential, ultimately elevating the quality of AI-generated content.
With an AI writing pal, you’ll ensure your business is tech-savvy and remains competitive, heading into the new era of artificial intelligence.
Here’s to generating high-quality content… a little more quickly now!
Disclosure: To keep our content free, we may receive an affiliate commission — at no additional cost to you — when you click some of the links in this article and make a purchase. Please know, commissions do not affect our opinions or evaluations. As always, it’s essential to conduct your own research and exercise due diligence before making any purchases. Your decision to purchase something is entirely up to you, and you alone. To the best of our knowledge, all content is accurate as of the date posted. This site is brought to you by humans, with the assistance of AI enhancement. Thank you for reading our educational content.
