Reverse AI Prompting for Marketers
AI (artificial intelligence) is quickly becoming a staple in the arsenal of tools online entrepreneurs use to establish and grow their business. But one of the biggest problems they have with it is understanding how to prompt properly for what they need.
One process that can help you immensely is called reverse prompting. It’s like deconstructing a dish so that you know what the ingredients are and how to get the perfect end result.
There are other ways to work with AI effectively. For example, you can simply ask it how to prompt it for what you need. But using a reverse prompting procedure is often more powerful in allowing you to bypass unwanted results.
You are going to flip the process and start with the end goal in mind and work backward with AI. Most people simply tell it to write about a topic or create an image they can see in their mind.
When you are reverse prompting, it may take a few more steps, but you are going to eliminate the reiteration process where you have to continually have AI redo its work because it hasn’t quite delivered what you want.
When you engage in reverse prompting, you are creating a map for AI to follow so that its output is virtually identical to what you were hoping for. Many marketers have given up on working with AI because they can never use it properly due to poor prompting.
Reverse prompting is a more precise process and can be used for a variety of tasks such as creating a high-ranking blog post, developing an email series, brainstorming an info product, etc.
This will become part of your personal workflow and elevate your prompt process from something basic that delivers mediocre results to something that pays off for you time and time again.
Oftentimes, when you ask AI for a broad result, like a complete pillar blog post, you’re going to get subpar output. But breaking it down into smaller steps using a reverse prompting process means you will have a cohesive piece in the end that requires fewer revisions.
Everything you do with AI from this point forward should result in stronger output that helps you get what you need without having to waste time on the trial and error prompt process – and it works for text, images, video, audio, and other tasks like strategy and analysis.
The Basics of the Reverse Prompting Process
To begin understanding the process of reverse prompting, you have to change the way you think about starting your interactions with AI. In the past, you probably logged on and started commanding it to do something for you, like write an article or email for you.
This is problematic for the Internet as a whole, because the results are often generic and underwhelming to say the least. You end up sounding like every other person using AI, rather than a formidable online niche leader who has authenticity to offer their audience.
With reverse prompting, you’re starting at the destination point and backtracking so that AI better understands exactly what you want. Your prompt will begin by describing the final result you are aiming for, then breaking the task into smaller steps for AI to handle so that it has a specific framework to operate from.
When you are simply commanding AI to write an article about a topic, it has limited information about exactly what you need and it has to try to interpret that request to the best of its ability.
You might find that the content is very vague or broad, or sometimes even the opposite where it is overly complex and not suitable for what your average consumer needs from you.
What usually follows is a process of having to re-prompt AI and continually tweak it until you have something that can pass for the kind of content you hope represents your brand in the best light.
This is a very frustrating process for most marketers, and it leaves you annoyed that your goal of saving time and possibly having better content has been ruined. The reverse prompting solution allows AI to narrow the focus and eliminate the guesswork.
Not just about breaking down the process. You are going to be providing it with things like media, content, and instructions that help it have a better understanding about your needs.
There are different ways you can go about reverse prompting, too. For example, you can start with an image that you upload to AI and ask it to give you a full description in meticulous detail and then provide you with a prompt to get that same level of detail for your particular graphic needs.
Or, you might start with a piece of content that you want your style to mimic or AI to mimic of your own style of writing, and ask it how to prompt it so that the end result of your new content using AI will mirror that same tone, style, length, and other factors.
In some cases, you may not have something ready made. In that case, you will have to start out with detailed instructions of the end result you want in your desired outcome. You’ll be telling it ahead of time what the article will look like when it is deconstructed – such as the tone, structure, use of language, length, style, and more. Then when you go through your individual tasks to create the content, you’ll be able to refer to that outcome.
For example, if you are asking AI to generate a bulletpoint list for a sales page that promotes a make money online info product, it will be able to abide by the slant and style you asked for rather than coming up with something on its own.
With this particular niche topic, if left to its own devices, AI might create bulletpoints that are hyped up and spammy sounding. But what if your info product was geared towards an audience you wanted to convey sympathy to, such as those who are heavily in debt and looking for a solution to become financially stable?
Going into it, you could either show AI a sample of that style of writing so that it could reverse engineer it for your future work. Or, you could prompt it with something like this: “I’m going to have you create a sales letter for me about a make money online product, but I want every aspect of the copy to be sympathetic to the reader, because they are struggling to make ends meet. What is the best way to prompt you for this style whenever I have you create elements such as headlines, bullet points, and a call to action?”
AI will give you prompt instructions, like this:
Headlines:
“Create a headline that acknowledges the reader’s financial challenges while offering a message of hope and empowerment. Make it relatable and non-intimidating.”
Example: “Struggling to Pay the Bills? Here’s a Simple Way to Start Earning Online Without Risking What Little You Have Left”
Without that reverse prompting process, you might have gone into AI with a command like this: “Write a headline for a make money online info product for the sales letter.”
The results would be something very different: “Unlock the Secret to Earning $100/Day Online: A Step-by-Step System for Beginners and Pros Alike!”
The preliminary process where you have AI help you reverse engineer the prompt process will keep you from having to go back and forth continually to get the proper output.
Nobody wants to have to micromanage AI because it defeats the purpose of having a tool like this. Regardless of what niche you are in, such as marketing, survival, health, or fitness, you need AI to help you in a specific way that resonates with your audience.
Preparing the Foundation for Good Output
A good foundation will help AI gain clarity about what you need and the results you expect. Instead of having to figure out all of the details on your own about what you need to provide to it, let AI guide you in the process of training it for the best outcome.
Let’s take an example of creating an email autoresponder. You don’t want to just tell AI to write it. You first have to understand what the purpose is for your email. It might be educational to showcase your leadership and authority in the niche.
Or maybe you are sending out a promotional email, helping to drive sales to your own products or something you are promoting as an affiliate marketer. Before you simply tell AI a command prompt to write it for you, use the reverse prompting process first and ask for its guidance in how to prompt it effectively.
An example might be this: “I need you to create a promotional email about [product]. What details do you need from me in order to write this in a way that will convert well for my target audience?”
AI is going to give you a list of the input it needs, similar to ingredients that go in a recipe, and it might include something like this:
- A description of the product you are promoting
- Any particular benefits or unique selling points you want highlighted
- An overview of your target audience and their pain points and goals
- The tone you want used in your communication
- The length of the email you prefer
- The type of slant you want, such as a teaser/curiosity or direct pitch
By going through this process with AI up front, you avoid the back and forth chat that wastes more time and causes you to be frustrated with the results. If there is anything in the list that you aren’t sure about, you can have AI help you make the decision on those elements.
The reverse prompting process is one where having a swipe file you can access comes in handy. You can take a variety of emails you have received from other marketers that you feel are effective and have AI analyze it so that it can tell you how to prompt it to get similar results in terms of style and persuasion.
If you are writing something like a blog post, you might give AI an example of a blog post you feel is impressive and ask it to analyze it and reverse engineer a prompt you can use to get it to create blog content that is equally effective.
This type of preliminary collaboration with AI is going to deliver the best results, regardless of the task or intention you have in working with this type of technology. It’s a proactive approach, which initially may seem like it takes longer, but you’ll see that it’s more efficient in the end.
Reverse Prompting for Content Strategy
Let’s take a look at an overall content strategy you can use as an online entrepreneur by adopting a reverse prompting workflow. Remember, you’re always working backward with AI using this process.
We’ve already talked about giving AI your initial goal for the content and possibly an example of content that you want it to use as inspiration for things like structure and tone. This helps it implement your vision quickly.
But there are other ways you can use AI with your content strategy. For example, many marketers like to develop a content calendar so that they can be consistent in their publishing. You can use reverse prompting for this process.
Normally, you might instruct AI to brainstorm topics and plan posts, but with reverse engineering, you can ask AI first what it needs from you in order to create a comprehensive, varied calendar for you.
It might tell you that it needs to know the categories you use for your content, the goals you have for each piece, the platforms you’ll be publishing it on, along with any special dates or promotional events it needs to align with.
It may also ask for examples of any past content you have written or had someone else write that performed well with your specific target audience. If you don’t have any, you can also submit any competitor examples that you admire so it knows what style to mimic.
You can also use reverse prompting if you want to have AI implement an SEO (search engine optimization) strategy for your content. For example, you might first prompt it to analyze other top performing blogs in your niche and identify high-traffic keywords being used and then suggest a prompt that will help it create blog content for you that leverages that information.
Another way you can use the reverse prompting process is if you are in brainstorming mode with AI. Instead of just asking it to brainstorm ideas for your niche topic, start with the end result and then work backwards.
For example, you might say something like, “I want to write a book that ranks high on Amazon in the survival niche based on what consumers are leaving negative reviews for so I can provide better content for them. Analyze the lowest rated books in the top 100 bestseller list for this topic and create a prompt for book ideas that will help me outperform them.”
AI will then come back with a reverse engineered prompt like this: “Develop a comprehensive survival guide that offers practical, step-by-step instructions using current techniques and tools. Include advice for high-quality visuals to aid understanding, and present the material in clear, accessible language. Organize the content logically to cater to both beginners and experienced survivalists.”
If you are planning some sort of marketing campaign where content is going to play an important role, you can prompt AI to help you collaborate with it for this purpose. A good reverse prompt might be something like: “I’m launching a fitness eBook. Give me prompts I can use with AI to better plan the awareness, consideration, and conversion stages of my campaign.”
AI then gives you a whole host of prompts for increasing visibility and generating interest, addressing objections and building trust, and encouraging the final purchase. They might be things like this:
- Provide email subject lines and preview text ideas to announce the launch of my fitness eBook to my subscriber list. (Awareness)
- Write an email sequence (3 emails) for people who downloaded my free workout guide but haven’t purchased my fitness eBook. (Consideration)
- Draft a sales email with urgency for a limited-time discount on my fitness eBook, including clear CTAs and value propositions. (Conversion)
You could also go through the process of taking a competitor’s campaign and having AI deconstruct it so that it can give you prompts that will help you outperform them with your own product launch.
If you want to use AI for a process like outlining when you are creating content, you can have it reverse engineer an existing book to give you a comprehensive outline and then ask it for a prompt to make something unique out of that, which also fills in any gaps for the reader.
Reverse Prompting for Analysis Tasks
The reverse prompting process can come in handy when you are using AI for an analysis of data. There are different types of analytic processes marketers use to better their business, including a competitive analysis, an analysis of their own content, or a data analysis that is gathered from social media or their own site.
If you want a competitive analysis, your goal is to understand what’s working for other people so that you can replicate that, but you also want to identify any weaknesses in their strategy to uncover opportunities you can leverage for your own benefit.
You can have AI perform this task better by asking it what information it needs and what prompts to use to help you understand the tone, structure, and topics others are using for engagement. You can also ask it for prompts that will help you find gaps in their content so that you can fill that need for the audience.
AI will then give you information requests such as any links to specific competitors you want it to analyze, more specification about what gaps you need to fill, such as content, products, or an audience that is not being served within that community.
It might also ask you if there are any specific metrics you want taken into consideration when it comes to engagement. This might be comments, likes, or shares of the content with others.
You can then prompt AI to take its analysis into consideration and develop a specific content strategy that helps you fill a need and stand out among competitors in a way that others are not yet doing.
For an analysis or audit of your own content marketing strategy, you can reverse prompt AI like this: “Attached is a low performing blog post I published 6 months ago. It gets very little traffic and is not ranked well. What information do you need from me and what prompts should I use to have you help me identify its weakness and tweak it so that it performs better?”
AI can then look at the content and give you specific information about how to prompt it so that it helps you rewrite and improve existing content to achieve your goals. For example, it might pick up on the fact that your call to action statement is weak and doesn’t encourage visitors to interact.
When it comes to a data analysis, ask AI how to prompt it to analyze the data you upload in a way that will help you eliminate strategies that are not working and focus more on those that are.
It might ask for certain things like a spreadsheet of the metrics or certain benchmarks you feel are more important than others. But it can give you a prompt or a list of prompts to use in taking that information and making use of it.
It might come back with a prompt you can use based on that data to help improve results, such as, “Rewrite the attached call to action statement in my blog post to include a question that drives more comments, shares and likes.”
Optimizing Your Reverse Prompt Process
As you begin using reverse prompting more frequently, you’re going to find that you have preferences about the way it works. Just like traditional prompting where you start off with a specific command for a task, you can tweak your reverse prompt process to be tailored to the best output.
This is a strategy that requires multiple steps. Instead of an instantaneous one and done command, you will work more closely with AI to develop the right queries and prompts that make your outcome flawless.
You can compile a list of common things AI needs for specific tasks, prompts that work well for certain types of output, and questions it may have that you need to answer. This makes the reverse prompting process move more quickly.
Then, you can copy and paste those common items into AI and ask it if there’s anything else it needs in addition to this for your ultimate goal. You can also develop a template for specific types of tasks or content so that you know all of the different individual things you need to have AI give you a prompt for.
For example, with sales copy, you would have the overall tone, length, headline, storyline, bulletpoint benefits, call to action statement, etc. For the optimization process, you can ask AI for different ways to prompt it for the best output.
A good example of this might be a prompt like: “What are some different ways to prompt you for a list of bulletpoint benefits?” AI can give you different prompts to test such as a general request, prompts for bulletpoints that are geared to a specific audience, those that are focused on specific features, those that are framed for problem solving, those that are comparative, emotional, persuasive, and so on.
You can keep a file of these on hand so that whatever your purpose is, you’ll already have this reverse prompting process completed and you can plug it into AI on the fly. You might also want to look for browser extensions for AI tools that can easily incorporate data into your prompts – or find a tool that has a built-in library of prompts that you can modify as needed.
Examples of Reverse Prompt Use in Marketing
If you are a marketer who needs a week’s worth of social media posts, you might start by giving AI a broad goal like increasing your follower count on Instagram and having it reverse engineer a process and prompts to help you create content that allows you to achieve that.
Or maybe you have customer feedback that you need help with because your blog posts are being viewed as either too technical or lacking concrete action steps they can apply.
You can upload that to AI and give it a reverse prompt to analyze the feedback and create a set of prompts you can use for your plan to revise the content to appeal to the needs of your visitors.
You might also use the reverse prompt process to create a webinar for your target audience, but all you have is a broad topic to begin with. You can give AI the topic and your goal and ask it to give you a set of prompts you can use in developing a comprehensive outline and strategy for a webinar that will help you build your list and ultimately sell your products.
If you are going to be using artificial intelligence seriously, it’s time to end the practice of bare minimum commands and start leveraging this tool as a collaborative influence that has the capacity to deliver strong output with the right prompts.
You don’t have to be a professional, top tier AI user. That’s what reverse prompting is all about. With many tools, you have to know instinctively or through a huge learning curve how to use it.
But with reverse prompting, you’re literally having AI guide you in how to use it to the best of your abilities. Unfortunately, most marketers don’t know that they can ask those questions or give AI an end result you are aiming for and have it work backward to achieve the goal for you.
With this strategy, regardless of what kind of task you are using it for, you are going to get rid of the experimentation process that eats up your day and causes a lot of frustration, and replace it with a new level of efficiency and creativity in your business.
