How to get better results from ChatGPT & other tools
Such AI tools as ChatGPT play a critical role in digital marketing, including content generation and campaign enhancement. Nevertheless, there is one more important thing that most marketers forget about, which is the prompt itself. The art of writing explicit, executable guidelines to AI, called prompt engineering techniques, can turn ambiguous concepts into compelling marketing outcomes.
The giant tech companies such as Microsoft (Copilot), Google (Gemini), Anthropic (Claude), and Meta are competing to be the leading AI presence. However, the essential stage that defines the success of AI is overlooked by the majority of marketers, i.e., the development of effective prompts by skilled human writers.
The rise of AI in digital marketing and how prompting is at the base of it
You may have heard of a brand guide before. Enter: a prompt engineering guide. A prompt engineering guide can be described as a creative brief to be used by an AI. It’s an SOP that turns rough ideas into accurate instructions that produce high-quality content. Learn to do this well, and you will have what many have called a marketing super power.
What is prompt engineering?
Prompt engineering for digital marketing encompasses inputs to generate content that is relevant and aligned to the brand. In order to create better prompts, you should learn about the functioning of AI tools. The majority of them are powered by the large language models that work through predicting text, images and videos based on the patterns and probabilities extracted from training on billions of words.
Although AI may seem human, it is important to keep in mind that it is merely a simulation of a human conversation. The AI systems do not really think, they just guess what the most probable answer will be, given what they have been trained on. Think of chatbots. Creating effective chatbots is one of the more popular marketing strategies for certain businesses these days as the conversations they’re likely to have can be very repetitive. The same can’t always be said for other AI tools.
How do the AI tools work? (language models etc)
Algorithms are not able to read between lines or guess your meaning unless you tell them. AI does not actually understand; it functions on high-level pattern detection. This restraint implies:
- Unless you make it clear for the algorithm, it will not know your true intent
- It cannot read between the lines or make some intuitive jumps
- Improved prompts will give you improved results
Since AI is fully based on your input, you have no chance of success with a vague request such as write me a blog post about XYZ product. The quality of the output will all depend on the roadmap that you provide. Well-made prompts will produce content that will sound like what your brand is all about, and that works in your campaign objectives.
Prompt engineering techniques for marketers
Instead of firing off blanket requests, define some parameters inside your prompt engineering guide. Audience: Who reads this material? Medium: On which platform will it be published? Word count: How long will you be able to keep your audience’s attention? Tone: What kind of a person would your content like to address? Call-to-action: What is the next step that the readers have to make?
Prompt engineering example: Write a 180-character BlueSky post that markets our all-natural dog treats to the millennium pet owners. Incorporate coupon code 10OFF to get 10 percent off on first order. Explore humor and produce 3 results featuring dog jokes. Have a lighthearted mannerism with a dog innuendo.
Examples of effective prompts and tips
- Put Appropriate Limits. It is not possible to avoid making AI-generated content sound generic, so to avoid this, create definite boundaries. Language use: A casual, professional, or technical language? Purpose/format: Do you want comments, shares, calls, or any other action? Figurative language: Do you want to see any rhymes, rhythm, repetition, or anything else?
Example: Speak in a language that’s used to communicate on Discord. Be informative, not obnoxious, and no cursing. Write useful and not by quotation marks. Mark those things that may require human verification.
- Use Role-Based Framing. Make AI embody a certain professional role to activate an appropriate language pattern and professionalism.
Example: Perform as an email marketing strategist. Produce a three-step email nurture series to new subscribers who recently entered our fitness challenge. Assume they have little to no workout experience but want to learn how to stay in shape.
- Provide Examples. By provision of reference materials, you can indicate to AI the tone or style or format that you require. Brand guidelines: How are you going to depict your brand? Tone tips: Which voice is supposed to be avoided or put more emphasis on?
Example: This is one of the best-converting ads we ever ran. Use the ad to mimic the tone and develop an introduction to our SaaS onboarding guide, and don’t output any sentences longer than 10 words.
Do’s and don’ts of prompting for marketers
The initial products are not always perfect. Talk to AI as with a skilled intern. Break large actions into small manageable chunks and apply action words such as generate, summarize, optimize and rewrite. Give it feedback and ask it to improve based on set criteria.
Do:
- Give examples and regulations of brand
- Be precise as regards to audience, platform, and goals
- Write in concrete terms, avoid generalizations
- Proofread work and correct it before publishing
- Develop a successful prompt library
Don’t:
- Suppose AI is informed about your brand
- Formulate conflicting orders (“keep it super brief and make it very detailed”)
- Speak in ambiguous terms that give generic answers
- Publish unreviewed copy-paste outputs
The future of prompt engineering
Some trends are influencing the development of prompt engineering for ChatGPT and other tools. Prompt Builders powered by AI can give low-skilled users automated tools that give them the opportunity to get better at writing prompts. Prompts can be extended to voice, images and sketches to feel more natural to the human being.
Guidelines on inclusive, bias-free prompting in marketing are likely to appear as AI bias draws some concern. Retrievable sets of templates on SEO, email, PPC and other marketing can save you hundreds of hours of labor annually. Marketers who can perfect on-time engineering today will be at a better place to effectively scale their campaigns well in a more AI-driven environment.
Successful Prompt Engineering for Marketers
Not sure how to put AI to best use in your business quite yet? We can help. Technology in AI is growing fast, but it needs tailoring by a human and it may show the unexpected mistakes even in simple calculations. The secret lies in starting simple and developing prompts step by step, following the outcomes, creating your prompt-collection in time.
As you get used to AI, it becomes an ultimate extension of your marketing knowledge. Are you wondering, what is prompt engineering, and what it can do for your business? Let’s build smarter marketing systems, one prompt at a time. But there’s nothing to fear, when you’ve good guidance at your disposal. At inSegment, we specialize in blending digital marketing expertise with emerging AI capabilities through SEO, PPC, creative, and analytics.