The Problem Marketers Have with Prompting AI

Whenever marketers find out about a new tech tool, they often rush into it using the bare minimum instructions they can grasp. Unfortunately with artificial intelligence (AI), this is going to result in poor deliverables, which sabotage your entire reason for using this technology.

Prompting is one of the most important lessons you can understand before using AI. You never want to rely on a single, generic prompt to use with this tool. For example, don’t just log in and type, “Write a 500-word blog post about how to make money online.”

Prompting needs to be far more detailed and it needs to be done more than once, in most cases, which is known as re-prompting or redirecting. When prompting AI, you may want to include files as part of the prompt, telling AI to write in a certain tone or style – or use the information you attach as the data it works from.

Even if you have no file, you can tell AI in your prompt how it should sound – such as professional, casual, motivational, etc. When it delivers the content, check the style and if you need it changed, ask for it to be altered to more professional, for example.

Another thing you can add to your prompt as a marketer is the length of your content, or how you want it formatted. Do you want a list or sub-headings used – or just paragraph form?

Let AI know before it begins. What about content for search engine optimization (SEO) purposes? Do you want to target a specific keyword phrase, or a cluster of keywords? If you tell AI, it will churn out content that can help you rise to the top of the SERPS (search engine results pages).

If you have specific thoughts about what should be included, be clear on that. If you just ask for ideas on making money online, it might come back with business models you don’t want to include, so give AI a list of what to focus on.

You can also ask it to write for a specific audience. Maybe you’re targeting women or seniors, rather than a general online audience. It can angle the piece to your demographic and that will convert better for you.

When redirecting AI after it delivers content, you can ask for revisions or expansions, or even ask it to eliminate certain sections. It might need to elaborate on a point it made or you may have to correct it on something it got wrong.

You can re-prompt it to alter the conclusion, turning it from a simple re-hashing of information to a strong call to action statement. It can even insert statistics or curate details into the piece to back up your talking points.