Want to supercharge your marketing productivity with AI? Prompt engineering is your secret weapon. This post shows you how to craft killer prompts that will save you time in implementing strategies that drive conversions and boost ROI. #PromptEngineering #GenAI #MarketingHacks #AI
Generative AI is a game-changer, but only if you know how to leverage it effectively. Prompt engineering is the key – it’s how you tell the AI exactly what you need. Think of it as how you’d brief a Coordinator or Assistant in your team – GIGO applies here. (Garbage In, Garbage Out.) The better the brief, the better the result.
It’s all in the details. Be painfully specific. Instead of asking “Write a marketing email outlining key selling points for our CRM,” include relevant details: “Write a persuasive email promoting our new CRM software to CMOs of Fortune 500 companies, highlighting the software’s ROI benefits. Frame each benefit as a way to solve a common problem that a corporate CMO might face.”
Define your audience. Try Persona prompting. Instruct the AI to “Write ad copy as a loyal consumer of several products in our range, enthusiastically outlining our product’s time-saving features and convenience when preparing dinner for the family.” As noted above, AI thrives on details. If you have a Persona as part of your marketing strategy, copy and paste the full text, and ask your AI assistant to remember it for future conversations. Then, no need to repeat yourself in the future.
Personality PLUS. Define your brand’s personality or tone of voice (and again, instruct the LLM to keep that in memory.) Use emotive adjectives to describe the style in which the LLM should speak. Try to avoid over-used and banal adjectives like warm, friendly, welcoming, professional. [Few brands want to come across as cold, unfriendly, exclusionary and unprofessional.]
Focus on a personality that truly differentiates your brand. While WHAT you say is important, HOW you say it equally influences the motivational power of your messaging. Use a celebrity, fictional or historical character if it accurately sums up how you’d like the brand to come across. (Think of the difference in style of Marty McFly vs. Han Solo…) For example: “When you’re writing this LinkedIn post, try to sound like a cross between Steve Jobs (visionary) and Forrest Gump (humble and down to earth).”
Optimising the output:
- Keywords: Use powerful terms that resonate with your target audience and align with your campaign goals. (Example: “Craft social media posts using keywords like ‘sustainable,’ ‘eco-friendly,’ and ‘ethical fashion’ to promote our Spring clothing launch.”) These should link to SEO/SEM keywords where possible. Use the 3 most important keywords – not a laundry list.
- Format: Specify whether you want email copy, ad copy, social media posts, or even a full marketing plan. (Example: “Generate a five-point marketing plan for our upcoming product launch, including target audience, key messaging, and channel strategy.”) You can also specify if you want the text in a table. Even better, if you need a diagram, ask your AI to write a prompt to input into ‘text to diagram’ software, like eraser.io. No more spending hours trying to customise Powerpoint Smart Art!
- Iterate: Like fine-tuning a sales pitch, refine your prompts based on the AI’s responses. If it misses the mark, adjust your phrasing or provide more context. That can be as simple as “Try again, but this time use simpler language.” or “Modify to include examples for each bullet point.” or “Make it more succinct.” or “Make it sound less ‘sales-y’.”
Stay tuned for more tips on how to write content, build brands, and just generally be more productive in life and work using GenAI. Reach out if you have questions or feedback!