Advanced Prompting Techniques

Role Prompting

One of the simplest and most powerful techniques is telling ChatGPT to "act as" a specific expert. This single change dramatically shifts the quality, tone, and depth of the output.

When you assign ChatGPT a role, it draws on the patterns it learned from content written by that type of professional. A response from "a senior copywriter with 15 years of experience" reads very differently from a generic ChatGPT response.

Here are some examples of role prompts you can use:

• "Act as a senior copywriter with 15 years of experience in direct response marketing." — Use this when you need compelling sales copy, email sequences, or landing page text.
• "You are a financial advisor who specializes in helping small business owners." — Use this when you need help with budgeting, pricing strategy, or financial planning.
• "Act as a brand strategist who works with startups and personal brands." — Use this when you need help with positioning, messaging, or brand voice.
• "You are an experienced hiring manager at a tech company." — Use this when you need help writing job descriptions, evaluating resumes, or preparing interview questions.

Why does this work so well? Because it narrows the AI's focus. Without a role, ChatGPT tries to give a general-purpose answer. With a role, it adopts the perspective, vocabulary, and expertise level of that professional. The difference in output quality is immediate and obvious.

Chain-of-Thought Prompting

Chain-of-thought prompting means asking ChatGPT to "think step by step" before giving you an answer. This technique is especially powerful for complex problems, analysis, and strategic thinking.

Without chain-of-thought prompting, ChatGPT tends to jump straight to a conclusion. With it, the AI walks through its reasoning, which usually produces more thorough, accurate, and nuanced results.

Here's how it works in practice:

Example: Business Plan Analysis

Without chain-of-thought: "Is this business idea good? I want to start a meal prep delivery service for busy professionals."

With chain-of-thought: "I want to start a meal prep delivery service for busy professionals in my city. Think step by step: First, analyze the market demand. Then, identify the key challenges. Next, estimate the startup costs. Then, evaluate the competitive landscape. Finally, give me your overall assessment with a recommendation."

The second prompt forces ChatGPT to work through the problem systematically rather than giving you a quick surface-level answer. The result is a structured analysis you can actually use to make decisions.

Use chain-of-thought prompting whenever you need:

• Strategic analysis or decision-making
• Problem-solving with multiple variables
• Evaluating pros and cons
• Planning multi-step projects
• Debugging or troubleshooting issues

Template Prompting

Template prompting is about creating reusable prompt structures with placeholders (using [BRACKETS]) for the parts that change each time. This turns a great one-off prompt into a repeatable system you can use over and over.

Here are three examples of prompt templates you can start using immediately:

Email Response Template

"Write a professional email response to a [TYPE OF PERSON] who [WHAT THEY DID/ASKED]. The tone should be [TONE]. Keep it under [NUMBER] words. Include [SPECIFIC ELEMENT — e.g., a call to action, a next step, a thank you]."

Product Description Template

"Write a product description for [PRODUCT NAME]. It is a [PRODUCT TYPE] designed for [TARGET AUDIENCE]. The key features are: [FEATURE 1], [FEATURE 2], [FEATURE 3]. The main benefit is [PRIMARY BENEFIT]. Write it in a [TONE] tone and keep it to [LENGTH]."

Social Media Post Template

"Write a [PLATFORM] post about [TOPIC]. The target audience is [AUDIENCE]. The goal of the post is to [GOAL — e.g., drive traffic, get engagement, educate]. Include [SPECIFIC ELEMENTS — e.g., a question, a CTA, emojis, hashtags]. Keep it under [CHARACTER COUNT] characters."

The power of templates is that you write the prompt once and reuse it endlessly. Just swap out the bracketed variables and you have a tailored prompt every time. Over time, you'll build a library of templates for every task in your business.

Few-Shot Prompting

Few-shot prompting means giving ChatGPT examples of what you want before asking it to produce something new. Instead of describing the output you want, you show it. This is incredibly effective when you need a specific style, format, or voice.

Example: Product Descriptions

Instead of trying to describe the style you want, just show it:

"I need you to write product descriptions for my online store. Here are two examples of the style I want:

Example 1: 'The Midnight Roast — Bold, smoky, and unapologetic. This dark roast blend is for people who take their coffee seriously. Notes of dark chocolate and toasted walnut. Best brewed in a French press.'

Example 2: 'The Morning Light — Bright, citrusy, and effortlessly smooth. A light roast that actually tastes good. Notes of lemon zest and honey. Perfect for pour-over enthusiasts.'

Now write descriptions in the same style for these three products: [Product 1], [Product 2], [Product 3]."

By providing examples, you skip the frustration of trying to describe what you want and go straight to showing it. ChatGPT picks up on the tone, length, structure, and style of your examples and mirrors them in the new output.

System Instructions & Custom Instructions

ChatGPT has a feature called Custom Instructions that lets you set a persistent context for every conversation. Think of it as a permanent set of preferences that ChatGPT follows without you having to repeat them every time.

Custom Instructions has two parts:

1. "What would you like ChatGPT to know about you?" — This is where you add context about yourself, your business, your audience, and your goals. For example: "I run a small e-commerce store selling handmade candles. My target audience is women aged 25-40 who value self-care and sustainability."
2. "How would you like ChatGPT to respond?" — This is where you set formatting and tone preferences. For example: "Be concise and direct. Use bullet points when listing options. Avoid corporate jargon. Write at an 8th-grade reading level."

Once you set Custom Instructions, every new conversation automatically starts with that context. You won't need to re-explain your business, your audience, or your preferences every time. This saves significant time and dramatically improves the consistency of ChatGPT's responses.

To set up Custom Instructions, click your profile icon in ChatGPT, select "Custom Instructions," and fill in both fields. Update them as your business evolves.