AI Writing Tools: What Founders Actually Need

AI writing tools multiply every month. New entrants. New features. New promises.

After testing most of them, I’ve simplified my stack to almost nothing.

The Landscape

General purpose:

Marketing-specific:

  • Jasper: $49/month (Creator)
  • Copy.ai: $49/month (Pro)
  • Writesonic: $19/month

Specialized:

  • Grammarly: $12/month
  • Hemingway: $20 one-time
  • SurferSEO: $89/month (SEO content)

What I Actually Use

Claude Pro: $20/month

That’s it. Just Claude.

Everything else is either redundant or not worth the money.

Why Claude Beats Marketing Tools

Jasper, Copy.ai, and similar tools are ChatGPT wrappers with templates.

The templates are:

  1. Prompts you could write yourself
  2. Not adapted to your voice
  3. Generic by design

For $49/month, you get prompts worth $5 of effort.

Claude (or ChatGPT) with your own prompts produces better results. Because your prompts understand your business.

My Writing Workflow

Blog posts

  1. Outline main points myself (5 minutes)
  2. Ask Claude to draft each section (10 minutes)
  3. Edit heavily for voice and accuracy (30 minutes)
  4. Proofread (5 minutes)

Total: 50 minutes for 1,500 words.

Human-only alternative: 2-3 hours.

Email sequences

  1. Describe the goal, audience, and offer
  2. Ask Claude for 5 email sequence
  3. Edit for tone and specifics
  4. Test with real subscribers

The first draft gets me 60% there. My edits make it sound like me.

Social media

  1. Share the blog post or key message
  2. Ask for 5 variations for LinkedIn, 5 for Twitter
  3. Pick the best, edit
  4. Schedule

Batch creation. 30 minutes for a week’s content.

Landing pages

  1. Describe the product, audience, and goal
  2. Ask Claude for headline variations, body copy, CTAs
  3. Pick and refine
  4. A/B test live

The variations are valuable. AI generates options faster than I could.

The Prompts That Matter

For voice consistency: “Write in a conversational, direct tone. Short sentences. No corporate jargon. Specific examples instead of generalizations.”

For expertise: “I’m writing for startup founders with 1-5 employees. They’re technical enough to understand concepts but not developers. They’re skeptical of hype.”

For structure: “Start with the problem. Then the solution. Then the evidence. End with clear action.”

These three elements beat any template.

What About Grammarly?

I used it. Cancelled it.

Most AI tools handle grammar already. Claude catches errors in context.

If you need dedicated grammar help, the free Grammarly tier is enough.

What About SEO Tools?

SurferSEO and similar tools optimize content for search rankings.

They work. But they also homogenize content. Everyone optimizing for the same keywords produces the same bland articles.

I write for humans first. Add keywords naturally. Don’t obsess over scores.

If you need custom AI tools built by AI consultants Melbourne, that’s different from buying generic optimization tools.

The $20 Test

Here’s my rule: If a tool costs more than Claude ($20), it needs to provide unique value that Claude can’t.

Most marketing AI tools fail this test.

They’re wrappers. They’re templates. They’re convenience features.

Not worthless. But not worth 2-5x the price.

What I’d Tell New Founders

  1. Start with Claude or ChatGPT. $20/month.
  2. Develop your own prompts. Tailored to your voice and needs.
  3. Edit everything. AI first drafts, human final drafts.
  4. Add tools only for specific gaps. Not general writing.

The AI writing industry sells convenience. But the convenience isn’t hard to replicate with good prompts.

Save your money for things only money can buy.