Artificial intelligence is changing content marketing — if you know how to use it. At Ravenscrest Consulting we help small businesses, entrepreneurs and marketing teams use AI to streamline content creation, enhance brand messaging and boost digital performance. The secret to success? It starts with writing better AI prompts.

Ever used ChatGPT or similar AI content tools and been underwhelmed by the results? The problem wasn’t the tech — it was the instructions. Prompting is now a core marketing skill. Best practices in AI prompt creation are key to getting good results. When done right it improves content quality, saves time and reduces creative fatigue across blogs, websites, email campaigns and social media.

Vague promAI prompts are the foundation of good communication with AI tools. An AI prompt is a text input that guides the AI model to generate a specific response or output. Writing good AI prompts is critical to getting the desired results from AI tools as it clarifies the task, provides context and ensures the AI model understands the user’s intent. By mastering the art of writing AI prompts users can unlock the full potential of AI tools and get better results in various applications such as generating text, creating images and analyzing data.pts get vague results. AI needs direction — and the more detail you provide the better the outcome.

AI models are the backbone of AI tools and understanding how they work is key to writing good prompts. Large language models like ChatGPT use natural language processing and machine learning to generate human-like responses. These models can be fine-tuned for specific tasks such as writing articles, generating ideas or providing explanations. By understanding the capabilities and limitations of AI models users can craft prompts that are tailored to the model’s strengths and weaknesses and get more accurate and relevant results.

There are different types of AI prompts, each designed to elicit a specific response from the AI model. Some common types of prompts include completion prompts which ask the model to complete a sentence or paragraph; informational prompts which request factual information; and creative prompts which encourage the model to generate new ideas or content. Understanding the different types of prompts and how to use them is key to getting the best results from AI tools. For example using a completion prompt can generate engaging content while an informational prompt can provide specific details and context.

Here are five practical prompt-writing strategies to unlock smarter, sharper AI-generated content.

Vague prompts get vague results. AI needs direction — and the more detail you provide the better the outcome. AI generates responses based on the specificity and clarity of the user input.

Example: You own a landscaping business in Squamish and want to write a blog about spring clean-up.Bad prompt:

“Write a blog post.”

Good prompt:

“Write a 500 word blog post for homeowners in Squamish with 5 spring yard clean-up tips. Use a friendly, expert tone and include a call-to-action to book our spring landscaping services.”

This tells the AI what to write, who it’s for, how it should sound and what action to encourage — a solid formula for localized, audience-specific content. Writing good prompts is key to getting the desired output.

AI doesn’t know your business goals, tone or brand style unless you tell them.

Example: You run a women’s fashion boutique in Whistler and need Instagram captions for your new eco-friendly line.

Basic prompt:

“Write 5 captions.”

Contextual prompt:

“Write 5 playful, modern captions to promote a new eco-conscious spring collection for a women’s fashion boutique in Whistler. Include a CTA in each caption to drive in-store visits or online sales.”

By adding location, tone, audience and purpose you get results that actually sound like your brand. Generative AI tools use natural language processing and machine learning to understand and generate contextually relevant responses based on these detailed prompts. Generative AI can be applied to various content creation tasks such as translation, writing dialogue and resolving complex inquiries.

Need a how-to article? A sales email? A product description? Say so clearly.

Example: You’re promoting an upcoming webinar on AI for marketing.

Bad prompt:

“Write a newsletter about our webinar.”

Good prompt:“Write a short email to small business owners introducing a free webinar on AI for content marketing. Include a hook, 2-3 points and a CTA to register.”

This eliminates guesswork and gets you 80% of the way to a finished draft.

AI works best when you treat it like a rough draft partner — start with its first draft, then edit and improve from there.

Not happy with tone or length? Ask directly.

Example Edits:

• “Rewrite this in a conversational tone for small business owners. Still professional but more approachable.”
• “This is too long — can you shorten it to 300 words and add a CTA at the end?”

The more specific your feedback the faster the AI adapts.

Measuring prompt success is key to refining the writing process and getting better results with AI tools. One way to measure prompt success is to evaluate the output, such as accuracy, relevance and engagement of the generated content. Another way is to measure the efficiency of the prompt, such as time to generate a response and number of iterations to get to the desired outcome. By using metrics like these you can refine your prompts and develop better prompting strategies and get better results and more productivity. Using tools like prompt generators and other AI tools can help you generate and refine your prompts faster and save time in the writing process.

Once you find working prompts save them. Build a prompt library for repeatable tasks like:

• Email subject lines and intros
• Instagram post templates
• Blog post frameworks
• Ad copy for Google or Facebook

Using a prompt generator can help you create content by providing inspiration and overcoming writer’s block. Here are some examples of different types of prompts and their uses: email subject lines to increase open rates, Instagram post templates to boost engagement, blog post frameworks to streamline writing, ad copy for Google or Facebook to improve click-through rates.

Smart content creation isn’t about outsourcing your voice to AI. It’s about using tools that amplify your strategy without compromising your brand. With the right prompting techniques AI becomes a force multiplier for your marketing team.Need help with your AI content system? We create custom content workflows that combine strategy, automation and creativity for small business marketing in Whistler, Squamish and more.

Schedule a call with Ravenscrest Consulting today.