Customer Reviews for Copywriting: Mine Them with AI

Most small business copy sounds like everyone else’s. Your customers have already written better lines, and they are sitting in your reviews. Voice of customer research captures how customers describe their needs, problems and desired outcomes in their own words. ¹ This tip uses customer reviews for copywriting: you give an AI assistant 30 to 100 reviews, it pulls out the phrases buyers actually use, and you rewrite one headline with them in about 45 minutes.

What you need

• 30 to 100 reviews of your business. Copy them from Google, Trustpilot, Etsy or wherever your customers post. Google’s Business Profile dashboard has no “download all reviews” button, so for a set this size, copy and paste is fine. ⁵
• ChatGPT or Claude. ChatGPT accepts spreadsheet formats such as XLSX and CSV. ² Free users are limited to 3 file uploads per day. ² Claude can work with CSV, TXT and DOCX files, and it needs code execution and file creation switched on for XLSX. ³ Pasting the text straight into the chat avoids both limits.
• Your current headline or the first paragraph of your homepage or main product page.
• Optional: 10 to 20 reviews of a competitor. Useful sources include reviews, testimonials, Reddit threads and social media comments. ¹

Step by step: turn customer reviews into copy

1. Collect a mix of reviews. Include happy and unhappy ones. Positive reviews highlight key benefits, and critical reviews highlight friction points and unmet expectations. ⁴ Put them all in one document.
2. Remove personal details. Delete surnames, emails and order numbers before you paste anything into an AI tool.
3. Run the prompt below. Paste the reviews under it and send. You should get back themes, exact phrases and a count of how often each one appears.
4. Check the quotes. Pick three phrases from the output and search for them in your reviews. If one is not there, delete it. Ask the AI to quote only what is in the text.
5. Rewrite one headline. Look for repeated phrases, specific product benefits, complaints and emotional descriptions. ¹ Take the phrase that appears most and build your headline around it. Keep the customer’s wording. Do not polish it.
6. Test the new version against the old one. Create two versions of the same headline or landing page: one based on the original messaging and one informed by voice-of-customer research. ¹ Use an email subject line, an ad or a simple split test on your page. Give it two weeks.

Save the phrase list somewhere you can find it. You will reuse it in ads, emails and product descriptions.

The prompt

Paste this into ChatGPT or Claude, then add your reviews underneath and fill in the capitalised placeholders.

You are a conversion copywriter. Below are customer reviews of [BUSINESS NAME], which sells [PRODUCT OR SERVICE] to [TARGET CUSTOMER]. Use only what is in the reviews. Do not invent quotes.

1. List the 5 most repeated benefits, each with an exact quote and how many reviews mention it.
2. List the 5 most repeated complaints or doubts, with exact quotes.
3. List 10 short phrases customers use that I could reuse word for word.
4. Describe the customer's situation before they bought, in two sentences, using their language.
5. My current headline is: "[CURRENT HEADLINE]". Write 5 new headline options built from the customers' own phrases. Keep each under 12 words and in a [TONE, e.g. plain and friendly] tone.

Reviews:
[PASTE REVIEWS HERE]

Make it better

• Run the same prompt on a competitor’s reviews. Compare the two lists. The phrases only your customers use are the ones to lead with.
• Use the unhappy reviews for an FAQ. Ask the AI to turn every complaint into a question and a short, honest answer you can put on your site.
• Treat reviews as a starting point. People who write reviews skew very happy or very annoyed. Call or email three quiet customers and ask the same questions before you commit to a big rewrite.