# What does a good prompt look like for a marketer?

Date: 2023-08-18 · Author: Robert Scales · https://guidetoartificialintelligence.com/en/learn/good-prompt-look-like-marketer/

**Answer:** A good marketing prompt reads like a creative brief: it names the product, the audience, the goal, the channels, the brand voice and the deliverables, and it says what the answer should look like. Starting from a one-line request and adding those pieces in two passes turns generic ideas into a campaign plan you can actually run.

Marketers already know how to write a good prompt, because they know how to write a brief. A creative brief tells an agency or a designer what is being sold, to whom, why now, through which channels and in what voice. ChatGPT needs exactly the same information. Without it, the model falls back on the most common patterns in its training text, which is why a bare request tends to produce slogans that could belong to any brand.

*A Beginner's Guide to ChatGPT* suggests building a prompt in three passes: a simple version, an improved one that names the audience and channel, and a refined one that adds steps, structure and deliverables. Here is that method applied to one campaign, with a note on what each change does.

## The scenario

A family-owned garden centre wants to sell more spring-flowering bulbs (tulips, daffodils, crocuses) this fall. Bulbs must be planted before the ground freezes, so the selling window is roughly September to October. The owners run a small Instagram account and an email list, and they have a modest budget.

## Version 1: simple

```prompt
Create a marketing campaign for our garden centre's fall bulbs.
```

**What you typically get (illustrative):** a general plan with ideas like "run a social media contest" and "offer a discount," written for no one in particular.

**What's missing:** the audience, the goal, the channels, the timing and the voice. The model has to guess all five.

## Version 2: improved

```prompt
Create a fall marketing campaign for a family-owned garden centre selling spring-flowering bulbs. The audience is local homeowners aged 35 to 65 who like gardening but often forget that bulbs must go in the ground in autumn. The campaign runs from mid-September to the end of October on Instagram and our email newsletter. Our voice is warm, practical and a little playful.
```

**What changed:** the audience now has a specific problem (forgetting to plant in fall), which gives the campaign its angle. The channels and dates narrow the ideas to ones the shop can actually execute. The voice keeps the copy from sounding like a big-box chain.

**What's still missing:** a measurable goal, the deliverables and the shape of the answer.

## Version 3: refined

```prompt
You are an experienced marketing manager for small independent retailers.

Context: a family-owned garden centre selling spring-flowering bulbs (tulips, daffodils, crocuses). Audience: local homeowners aged 35 to 65 who enjoy gardening but tend to forget that bulbs are planted in autumn. Channels: Instagram (about 1,800 followers) and an email newsletter. Dates: September 15 to October 31. Voice: warm, practical, a little playful. Budget: small; no paid ads.

Goal: increase bulb sales compared with last fall, and grow the email list.

Deliverables:
1. Three campaign concepts, each with a name, a one-line idea and why it suits this audience.
2. For the concept you recommend: a week-by-week calendar in a table (week, channel, content, call to action).
3. Two Instagram captions under 60 words and one email subject line with three alternatives.
4. Two simple metrics to track each week.

Do not invent prices, discounts or statistics; leave a [placeholder] where a figure is needed.
```

**What changed:** the role sets the point of view. The goal gives the model something to optimize. The numbered deliverables replace one long essay with pieces you can use directly, and the table makes the calendar easy to move into a planner. The final line guards against a known weakness: OpenAI warns that ChatGPT sometimes makes up facts, and an invented "30% off" in a draft caption is easy to miss.

Notice that none of the additions is clever wording. OpenAI's prompting advice says the same in plainer terms: be specific about context, outcome, length, format and style, and swap vague descriptions for precise ones. Every line in version 3 is a decision the marketer would have to make anyway.

> **Try it:** Take a campaign you are planning and write all three versions. Run each one in a new chat and mark which ideas you would actually use. The difference between versions 2 and 3 usually shows where your own brief was still vague.

## How do you refine it step by step?

Refinement continues after the first answer, in the same chat, so the model keeps the full brief in view. Work in small, specific steps rather than asking it to "make it better."

Start with selection. Pick one concept and say why: "Go with concept 2, because it ties in with the first frost. Drop the contest idea; we don't have staff to run it." Your reasons teach the model your constraints.

Then narrow the copy. Ask for variations on one element at a time: "Give me five more subject lines, each under 40 characters, none using the word 'spring'." Short, measurable instructions get predictable results.

Next, fit the voice. Paste one or two captions the shop has posted before and ask the model to match their rhythm and vocabulary. Real examples describe a voice better than adjectives do.

Finally, check before you publish. Read every claim about planting times, varieties or results against your own knowledge or a reliable gardening source, fill in the placeholders yourself, and test the subject lines on a small part of the list if your email tool allows it. The book's advice is that a person should always review what ChatGPT produces, and marketing copy, which speaks for your brand in public, is where that review matters most.

## Sources

- A Beginner's Guide to ChatGPT: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BZRRPXZW
- Best practices for prompt engineering with OpenAI API: https://help.openai.com/en/articles/6654000-best-practices-for-prompt-engineering-with-openai-api
- ChatGPT General FAQ: https://help.openai.com/en/articles/6783457-chatgpt-general-faq