Three Key LLM Prompts to Supercharge Your Creativity

In “Beyond Content Creation: Expanding the Capabilities of LLMs in Construction Industries,” I posited that “one of the biggest hurdles for construction organizations looking to harness the power of LLMs is the fact that many people just don’t know what to do with them.

“It’s not that they don’t know how to use them—using them couldn’t be easier—it’s that they don’t know what to use them for.”

So, in an effort to shed some light on the power of prompting, and to give you some ideas for what you can use LLMs for, I want to offer three prompts that I think you’ll find useful in your work as a marketer.

However, it’s important to remember that these prompts are just starting points and you’ll want to have a back and forth with the LLM to refine your ideas.

Unlike when you ask an LLM a simple question with a simple answer, this isn’t a “one and done” sort of scenario.

The idea here is to have a spirited dialogue with the machine.

In fact, it’s best if you think of it as a person, perhaps an incredibly smart intern, or as a pocket-sized McKinsey consultant.

With that in mind, here are three prompts you can try for yourself.

AI as Researcher & Analyst

Prompt:

“You’re a market researcher and industry analyst. Analyze the latest market trends and customer preferences in the heavy-equipment manufacturing sector, focusing on crane and rigging solutions. Provide insights on key demographics, pain points, and purchasing behaviors. Take your time and double check your work.”

Notes:

The first thing I do in this prompt is give the LLM a role. This is one of the primary strategies you’ll want to employ with any LLM. You’ll also notice that I instructed the LLM to take its time and double check its work. Based on published research, both of these strategies have proven useful in getting the best possible result.

Why this prompt?

Understanding your target audience is crucial for effective marketing. This prompt helps you gather comprehensive insights into your market, ensuring that campaigns are tailored to the specific needs and preferences of your audience. By focusing on pain points and purchasing behaviors, you can develop targeted strategies that address real issues and drive engagement.

AI as Strategist & Planner

This prompt idea comes from the folks over at Forum3 and is an example of a prompting technique called Chain-of-Thought (CoT) Reasoning. What this prompting method does is encourage the LLM to outline its process and explain its reasoning, so that you can evaluate and make any necessary changes along the way. Research has shown that CoT prompting improves accuracy and quality by mimicking the logic flow of human beings.

Prompt

“You’re a market researcher and industry analyst. I need your help planning some upcoming market research for our new rotating telehandler. Let’s think this through step by step. First, what are the key objectives of our market research? Once we establish our objectives, how should we choose our research methods to achieve these objectives? Then, considering our target audience, what are the essential questions we need to include in our research? Do you have any questions for me before we get started?”

Notes:

Notice that, once again, I gave the LLM a role. I also gave it a task and asked it to think through it step by step. Rather than creating the plan right away, we’re focusing one step at a time and then building as we go. Also, I gave the LLM the opportunity to ask if it has any questions for me so that it can clarify anything important before we begin. You’ll find this incredibly useful as the LLM often thinks of things that you haven’t.

Why this prompt?

This prompt is effective because it provides a comprehensive and structured approach to conducting market research, ensuring that all critical aspects of the market and customer needs are thoroughly explored. By focusing on clearly defined objectives, selecting appropriate research methods, and identifying essential questions, this prompt guides the researcher through a detailed process that covers market demand, target audience, competitive analysis, feature preferences, and marketing strategies.

AI as Product Strategist

This prompt comes from Wharton Professors Ethan Mollick and Lilach Mollick and shows how incredibly complicated your prompts can get. I’ve modified it slightly, but the framework is still intact. It’s absolutely worth plugging this prompt into an LLM so you can see what it comes up with. You’ll be astonished.

To begin, give the LLM information about the product you are referencing.

This can be a new piece of equipment or just about anything else. If you can, ask it to do a web search for the product and ask it to summarize the information.

Once you’re satisfied that the LLM has the correct information, continue with this prompt.

Prompt:

Using the information you’ve gathered about the product, go step-by-step through the following:

1) First, list who you think the potential customers are and why they might buy the product, and the one customer group to focus on. Ask if the user has any corrections.

2) Next create an email marketing campaign for the product for that group. That should consist of three emails to induce demand. You should provide the entire text of the emails. Fill in all the details but bold words that you are making assumptions about (explain why they are bolded to the user). Give a schedule for when they should be sent.

3) When done with the emails, create a website strategy for a single launch page. Ask the user for approval.

4) Build a simple landing page for the launch. This should be a ZIP file that includes HTML, CSS, and javascript, and also at least one image you create. The material should be complete, not placeholders. Make it look nice. Consider creating an image for it. You should give the entire ZIP file. Ask if the user has any suggestions or needs help hosting the content.

5) Finally, outline a social media campaign, including posts for Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram

Notes:

 You’ll notice that this prompt has some repetition in it, which is purposeful. LLMs need to be reminded of what they’re doing in long prompts, as they can sometimes forget the middle. You’ll also notice that the prompt has built-in pauses so the LLM checks in with you. This will give you a chance to course correct should you need or want to.

 Why this prompt?

 This prompt shows the complexity of what can be accomplished with LLMs. The output won’t be perfect, but you can imagine a time in the not-so-distant future when it will be.

In the meantime, keep experimenting with prompts.

You’ll be amazed at what you can do.