“In 2024, we will befriend AI and use it for content creation and strategy.” Had I said that five years ago, I’d probably been laughed at or considered a diehard sci-fi fan. Today, this doesn’t sound funny at all.
AI doesn't only create content. It helps content strategists understand their audience, create brand messaging, brainstorm topics and angles, and even create monthly content plans and distribution campaigns.
The quality of AI-provided ideas depends on the quality of prompts you give it. Clear prompts will result in useful insights. Vague prompts will result in pointless responses and a waste of time.
In this article, we will share some prompts you can use when creating your content strategy. But first, let's reveal what sets good prompts apart from bad ones.
What sets good prompts apart from bad ones?
Without context, AI tools like ChatGPT can’t come up with decent responses.
If you want to turn ChatGPT into your assistant content strategist, do your homework — gather relevant information about your product or service and your audience, and give it to ChatGPT so that it learns more about your business. And most importantly, talk to it. Don’t write generic inputs, aim for specific requests.
And we’re moving on to the prompts designed specifically for content strategists.
We will focus on several scenarios content strategists deal with every day. The prompts you will find are not set in stone, and you can change them. Just remember to be specific when interacting with AI tools.
AI prompts for market research
AI tools can unveil some insights you might have missed. When trying to understand what opportunities you have in the market, use AI tools to save time.
Here are some prompts you can use:
Prompt 1: Define market opportunities
Investigate and report on untapped market opportunities for [product]. Evaluate current market offerings and unmet customer needs. Suggest innovative features or services that our product can offer to meet these needs. Examine emerging trends in consumer behavior and preferences that could influence market dynamics.
Prompt 2: Define marketing channels
You are a B2B marketing expert with years of experience in [industry]. Create a list of 10 marketing channels I should consider for [product] to reach [target audience]. Start with the most important channel for my product and audience, and end with the least important. For each marketing channel, come up with 3 specific examples of how I should use it.
Prompt 3: Analyse competitors' strategies
Conduct a competitive analysis for [product] within [industry]. Identify the top 5 competitors, their market share, and their customer base. Examine their product strengths, weaknesses, pricing strategies, and distribution channels. Analyze their recent strategic marketing moves, such as product launches, partnerships, or marketing campaigns. Provide an assessment of how we can compete.
AI prompts for understanding the target audience
Target audience research is the most time-consuming part of a content strategist's job. Whether you use online research, interviews, surveys, or all of these, AI can help speed up documenting your insights and filling in the gaps.
Here are a few prompts for you to try:
Prompt 1: Identify customer segments
Assume the role of a marketer at [company] targeting the [location] market. The company offers [product or service] catering to B2B customers. Identify and describe 5 primary customer segments, specifying the key decision-makers within each segment.
Prompt 2: Define the ideal customer
As a content strategist in the [field], you are tasked with defining the ideal customer for [product or service]. Describe the typical buyer, including their demographics, psychographics, main challenges, values, and motivations. Give this buyer persona a relatable name to facilitate easy reference in your marketing strategies.
Prompt 3: Understand customer fears and challenges
Explore the fears and challenges of your ideal customer, named [name], in relation to [product or service]. Identify 5 realistic challenges and 5 deep-seated fears they face in finding the perfect solution. Discuss the potential consequences if these issues are not resolved.
Prompt 4: Identify customers' pain points
You are a market research expert with extensive knowledge in [field]. Provide a list of 5 pain points of your ideal customer, named [name]. Include reasons for each pain.
AI prompts for product messaging
Ogilvy said: "There is no substitute for homework. The more you know about a product, the more likely you are to come up with a big idea for selling it."
You can only start building a marketing strategy when you know your audience and your product. Can AI tools replace product research? Absolutely not.
No matter how much public data they have been trained on, you still have to analyze your company’s solution, study competitors, and read customer reviews. What AI tools can do is speed up data analysis and help you develop creative messages faster.
We recommend using the following prompts.
Prompt 1: Communicate the product vision
Help me create a compelling product vision for [product] based on our company mission [mission] that appeals to our target customer segment with the following characteristics [characteristics].
Prompt 2: Differentiate the product
Here is a list of complaints users have about [competing product]. [Insert this list]. Identify the most common issues and develop potential marketing messages that highlight how our new product addresses these concerns.
Prompt 3: Create messaging based on customer jobs to be done
You are a content strategist whose [product] targets the following [buyer persona]. Create jobs to be done for this buyer persona, based on the following list of [pains; objections; obstacles; frustrations]. Then, develop 3 compelling product messages that address each of these jobs to be done and appeal to the buyer persona.
AI prompts for keyword ideas
Though SEO is not dead and it’s not time to bid Semrush and Ahrefs farewell, it is safe to say AI has changed the way we approach keyword research. Again, it’s all about speed and efficiency. Thanks to AI, even basic keyword research takes minutes instead of hours.
In case you want to use AI for keyword research, here are the prompts for you to try.
Prompt 1: Write a list of potential search queries a user might enter to find information on this topic [insert topic].
Prompt 2: Consider the following set of keywords and their volume [Paste your keywords + volume data]. Find the most suitable terms to set as primary & secondary keywords for [insert the idea of the page you intend to create]. Generate a table with columns for a keyword, volume, and primary/secondary.
Prompt 3: Identify the search intent of the following keywords [insert keywords].
AI tools for AI prompts: What's worth trying?
As you can see, generative AI tools can become your full-time content strategy assistants without asking anything in return. But you have to be really good at prompts. Providing relevant context in your prompts is a must, but knowing what to ask is even more crucial.
If you are looking for some inspiration to improve your prompts or just find some good ones, there are plenty of resources to consider. Here are some of our personal favorites.
- FlowGPT. FlowGPT is an active community that shares, votes, and comments on the best AI prompts. Just pick a topic, such as YouTube title, Company Profile Generator, or Blog Post, and FlowGPT will connect you with the most fitting AI for the job.
- SaaS Prompts. Designed specifically for the SaaS industry, SaaS Prompts is a searchable database of 500+ ready-made ChatGPT prompts and prompt ideas for social media marketing, product management, and UX design.
- Originality.ai. If you’re searching for a tool that offers prompts for SEO and content marketing but don't want to add information about your business in every single prompt, then try Originality. Simply fill in a brief form and the tool will generate prompts tailored to your requirements.
- Cohesive. If you have some prompt ideas but want to make them even better, Cohesive is your go-to. Cohesive is a prompt editor and it has 200+ templates ready to use.
AI can be good at many things, but you still need humans to build a solid content strategy. That's what we do at Zmist & Copy. Feel free to contact us if you need help defining one.
