Use This Checklist to Write The Best Prompts

If you really want to get better using AI

Using AI is one thing. Making AI write is another.

What I mean by this?

Most people simply prompt ChatGPT with “Write an X”.

They’re either okay with how weak the output is or complain about how dumb AI writes.

These both situations need to be fixed.

Imagine... to write copy, you’ll have to consider multiple things like tone, persona, target audience, etc.

(Let’s call these a checklist)

The same thing is true for prompting.

You must add certain elements to a prompt to get the juiciest output.

The list is long, but I’ll cover the basics here.

So lemme break it down for ya:

1. Task

Task asks you to use the right verbs to help ChatGPT know what to do.

Analyze, generate, and write are a few task verbs to begin a prompt.

Using Task verbs helps in 2 ways:

• Provide clarity on what to do.

• Push AI towards a certain action, create for instance.

Now, let’s put them work.

A simple task prompt could be:

"Write a cold email for a 3 weeks copywriting cohort"

Let’s make it better:

"Analyze all the input data, take out all the benefits, and write a cold email for a 3 weeks copywriting cohort."

The idea is to begin each sentence with an action verb.

2. Persona

A persona represents someone with expertise in a particular area.

In this case, the "someone" is AI.

Remember the email where I asked ChatGPT to write like Sam Parr?

That’s how persona works.

You ask AI to act like a certain person. How?

Based on what it knows about that person.

Let’s put this into work:

"Act as a personal fitness trainer. Tell me how I can lose 10 lbs of weight in 2 months."

Or, specify a famous person:

"I want you to write a blog post in the tone and voice of David Ogilvy."

Yup. The person has to be known on the internet.

(Not a nobody)

3. Context

Context forms the strength of your prompt.

The more context you provide, the better AI will know how to serve your needs.

For that, answer 3 questions:

a) What are the background details?
b) How will the end result look like?
c) What is the current situation?

Now let’s put these into practice:

"I have a severe hair lost and am near baldness(a). I want to grow my hair back and want my scalp to seem black in the next 1 year(b). I can only use natural remedies, like oil massages, consuming healthy foods, and other necessary nutrients(c)."

Clear & specific enough, Isn’t it?

Keep this in mind too:

You don’t always need a fancy, long prompt. You need a well-written one.

You can use my prompts above as structures.

Or you can create your own prompts based on these as practice.

Reply the prompt(s) to this email or share it in my community Chat.

I’ll provide feedback and help you with that.

Annnd… I’ll wrap it up here.

See ya,

Sami 👋