I know, I know… Another ChatGPT blog post.
Last week, Joe briefly shared his thoughts on the current ‘action figure’ trend, where he referenced the influx of LinkedIn posts showcasing personalised toys created using ChatGPT’s image generation feature. He, somewhat politely, described those who are sharing their figures as sheep, which was a slight kick in the teeth for me, considering I’d actually made my own figure mere hours before he sent me over the blog post to proofread…
Anyway, I enjoyed creating my action figure and sharing it with my friends – plenty of people even messaged me asking how they could create their own! However, after referring them all to the chatbot, I received a lot of questions as to how I’d finetuned the image to my exact specifications, with a fair few of my friends struggling to get the AI to churn out the design they were asking for.
That’s when it hit me. We’re almost two and a half years on from the release of the well-known chatbot, yet it seems that many people still don’t understand how to use it in the most effective and efficient way.
If this sounds like you, keep reading! Let’s look at some different ways that marketers can leverage ChatGPT to streamline their work process, with some helpful prompt templates to kickstart your AI experience.
How to get the best responses from ChatGPT
Yes, AI is incredibly smart, but let’s not forget that it’s ultimately just a bunch of ones and zeros. I’m not going to sit here and act like I have any clue how ChatGPT works, but I know that it can’t ‘think’, it simply reviews large amounts of existing information, like text, images, audio, and video, and is able to learn from relationships in the information. How? I don’t know. But it does.
The good news is, you don’t need to understand how ChatGPT actually works to be able to utilise it effectively. Here are my two biggest tips for getting the best responses from ChatGPT:
Whatever you think is enough information – double it!
ChatGPT works off of prompts, and your chosen prompt is all the context it has in relation to your specific query. Yes, it can access incredible amounts of information in order to generate its response, but you need to tell it exactly what you want it to produce.
While it’s counterproductive to increase the size of your prompt just for the sake of it (repeating information can sometimes lead to confusion and a less valuable response!), you should make sure you’ve included every detail you can think of to help the AI understand the request.
Tell ChatGPT about your brand. What do you do? Who is your target audience, and what do they want or need? Input your brand guidelines and tone of voice. Be very specific about the type of response that you want. No detail is too small – it all works towards finetuning the output.
Give real, helpful feedback
If the response isn’t quite as you’d hoped, give ChatGPT feedback in the same way you’d give a coworker feedback. Don’t just select the ‘bad response’ button and close your browser window in frustration. The AI can review its own response and compare it with your feedback, generating a new response with your requested changes that better suits your goal.
The free version of ChatGPT-4 has a limit of 25-30 interactions per 3 hours. You have a lot of wiggle room to make amendments to the same response, so don’t be afraid to utilise it!
ChatGPT prompts for marketing
Here are some of the ways I like to use ChatGPT for my day-to-day marketing tasks, with some example prompts for you to try in your own work.
Using ChatGPT for content, copywriting, and idea generation
Now, I have very mixed opinions about simply copy-and-pasting some AI-generated content and passing it off as your own. AI can make mistakes, and it’s nowhere near the point of being able to write to the standard of a trained copywriter.
I find ChatGPT incredibly useful at sparking inspiration for my own writing. Need to churn out a bulk of social media posts? Tell ChatGPT about your company (in detail), and give some guidance on general topics to cover. Hit ‘go’, and watch the ideas roll in. I’ve never actually taken its suggestions verbatim, but it’s a great way to get inspired. Perhaps you like a phrase that it’s used, or a direction that it’s taken one of your proposed topics. This can be a great starting point and really speed up the process of writing social media content, especially if you’re experiencing a moment of writer’s block!
ChatGPT can also be helpful when writing other types of content, like ads, emails, landing pages, and blog posts. It might suggest a structure or layout that you hadn’t considered before, or generate some clever copy that will really appeal to your audience.
In my opinion, when it comes to content creation, use ChatGPT for inspiration, not as a means to jump straight to the finish line.
ChatGPT prompt for idea generation
“Act as a content strategist and SEO expert.
I need blog post topic ideas for a [type of business or brand] that targets [describe your audience] who are interested in [industry/niche/topic].
The content should align with [goal: e.g., increasing organic traffic, educating the audience, generating leads, establishing authority, etc.].
Please suggest blog post titles or ideas that are:
- Relevant to [product/service/niche]
- SEO-friendly and searchable, suited for the following keywords: [target keywords]
Do not suggest ideas that cover the following topics: [specific content ideas that you have already used, or do not want to cover]”
From the response, you can easily skim through the generated ideas and review whether any are unique or valuable for your needs. You may choose to use a topic and title exactly as formatted by ChatGPT, but you could also see a suggested topic and immediately spark an idea of where else you could take it.
Using ChatGPT for matching tone of voice
As a marketing agency, we have a wide range of clients, each with their own unique tone of voice and style guide that content must adhere to. As much as you learn the quirks and nuances of each one quite quickly, there’s always opportunity for a slip-up!
When you’ve written a piece of content, pop it into ChatGPT and get AI to assess how well you’ve stuck to the rules. Remember, ChatGPT can make mistakes, so always review its response before taking it as gospel!
ChatGPT prompt for checking tone of voice and style
“Act as a brand voice and content editor.
I will provide a piece of content along with a tone of voice document and style guide.
Your job is to review the content and evaluate how well it matches the tone and style guidelines provided below.
Tone of Voice Summary: [paste tone of voice description, rules, nuances, etc.]
Style Guide Notes: [e.g., grammar preferences, formatting rules, word usage, etc.]
Please give your feedback in three parts:
- A brief overall assessment
- A list of any tone/style inconsistencies
- Suggested edits with explanations
Here is the content to review:
[Paste your content here]”
Using ChatGPT for competitor analysis
Whether you’re about to start a larger analysis project, or just want a quick overview of a particular competitor, ChatGPT is the ideal time saver for generating a baseline for competitor analysis.
ChatGPT prompts for competitor analysis
Your chosen prompt will change depending on the goal of your analysis. Where relevant, include URLs to specific pages within your competitor’s site for a more focused analysis that suits your needs.
“Act as a brand strategist. Summarise the positioning, tone of voice, and value proposition of [Competitor] based on the following website copy: [paste homepage or ‘About’ section here].”
“Compare the core offers and messaging of [Your Brand] and [Competitor]. Highlight key similarities, differences, and opportunities for differentiation.”
“Analyse the blog content strategy of [Competitor]. What topics are they focusing on? What kind of tone and audience are they targeting? Suggest content gaps or opportunities we could explore.”
- Tweak this prompt slightly to analyse a competitor’s social media strategy!
“Analyse these customer reviews for [Competitor]. What are the most common complaints, praise, and emotional drivers? Summarise in bullet points with quotes.
[Paste reviews, or link to review page]”
Using ChatGPT for finding statistics
I’ve only recently started using ChatGPT to help find statistics, but it’s been a real game-changer! Statistics can be useful to help back up your points when writing content, but a strong statistic can also be a good starting point to spark new ideas for a content piece.
Remember that ChatGPT can make mistakes (have I drilled this point in enough yet?), so always investigate any statistics that it generates to ensure they are relevant, credible, and recent. Luckily, the AI will cite its sources for each statistic, making it quick and easy to evaluate each one.
ChatGPT prompts for finding statistics
“Give me up-to-date statistics on [topic] relevant to [industry or audience], including sources.”
“Suggest 3–5 compelling statistics to support a blog post about [topic]. Include stat, source, and how it could be used as a hook or insight.”
“What are the latest statistics about [demographic] and their behavior related to [topic]?”
ChatGPT is a tool – learn how to use it!
Learning to use generative tools like ChatGPT is vital to keep up with the rapidly evolving pace of AI technology. The best thing is, it’s easy to learn! Test out some of the prompts above, or ask ChatGPT for suitable prompts for the task at hand. It’s as simple as “Suggest a fill-in-the-blanks prompt for [task].”
Don’t be scared of the tool: embrace it! Have a play around, and learn all of the different ways it can help to streamline your workload.
