Just how do you chat with ChatGPT to get the best results? There are two main ways to prompt AI: put in one massive prompt and then hope for the best, or start with a simple prompt and keep following up and guiding the AI along to refine your output. Each has its own advantages.
Putting in one massive prompt doesn’t require you to follow up, but your prompt has to be very well thought out. One error, even if it’s a typo, might confuse the AI and get you a bad output. Using follow-up prompts, on the other hand, might take a while to think through, but because you’re breaking the prompt into several steps and actually chatting with ChatGPT, your results will be more refined for your situation.
Today, I’m going to show you how to create follow-up prompts so that you get the best output possible. Follow-up prompts build up to a result across multiple prompts. In fact, they are designed to work their way up to a result.
Here’s an example of a follow-up prompt sequence:
- Prompt: As a marketing consultant, what are the key factors to consider in topic?
- Prompt: Given these factors, how can we X?
- Prompt: To do X, what tactics are most effective?
- Prompt: How can we measure these tactics?
- Prompt: Create a plan for these tactics.
If you speak to AI this way, you will have a higher chance of getting superior results than using one massive prompt.
Now, let’s see this in action. Here is an example of a follow-up prompt sequence:
- Prompt: As a marketing consultant, what are the key factors to consider when developing a marketing strategy for a new weight loss coaching program?
- Prompt: Given the factors you mentioned, how can this business effectively filter out people who will buy the program from people who just want free stuff?
- Prompt: Based on the target audience that is most likely to make the purchase, what types of marketing sales message and campaigns will resonate with them? Provide examples.
- Prompt: Considering the marketing sales messages that you suggested, estimate the effort involved and your confidence in the campaign success. What campaigns will generate the most profit with the least amount of work?
- Prompt: Based on the insights gathered, act as a marketing consultant who specializes in weight loss coaching. Create a comprehensive marketing strategy for the coaching program, including target audience, sales message guidelines, campaigns, and measurement metrics.
As you can see in these examples, we gave AI a persona and an action. We then provided context and constraints with some of the next steps. And at the end, we asked for a specific format.
To make sure you create the best follow-up prompts for your business, follow this framework:
- Context: Expand on the background information of your topic.
- What: What are you trying to accomplish and what does the AI suggest?
- Why: Ask AI why these suggestions are the best.
- How: How do you implement the suggestions in the most effective way?
Follow-up prompts are an extremely powerful exercise that forces you to break down a process into substeps that the AI probably wouldn’t otherwise think about. This often leads to greater clarity on your end and better results on the AI’s end.
So, do you like this framework? Let me know in the comments, and I’ll create more for you. In fact, don’t forget to hit the subscribe button and the notification button because in the next episode, I’ll be giving you my best sales prompts to really 16x your business. See you in the next episode!
