We love a good AI prompt as much as the next marketer.
HOWEVER: A good prompt is like a good chat up line. It is just the start of a conversation. If you’ve got nothing to follow up with, you’re hardly going to achieve something earth-shattering.
7 Creative Approaches to Get Beyond the Initial Prompt
So, what do good follow-ups look like? This is where you have to break out of templated thinking and be willing to engage, explore, interrogate, and even play a little. I generally don’t follow (or advocate for) rules here—every conversation is different. But I’ve been observing my own follow-ups and here are some approaches I see success with.
1. The “You Can’t Be Serious” Follow-Up
We sometimes flash AI with a little bit of incredulity and ask it to sanity-check its answer by asking something like:
- “Really!? That doesn’t seem quite right...” or
- “Hmmm, this doesn’t land for me... what else you got...”
AI will often admit to little gotcha moments with this kind of follow-up. But then, we get to the heart of something good (and I often learn what information I need to share with it to get those better answers).
2. The “Let’s Do Better” Follow-Up
We have the same rule for copywriters and AI: The first answer often feels right because it’s the obvious answer.
You have to work harder and dig deeper for the third or fourth answer. So, even when the answer feels good, I ask AI to keep going, saying something like:
- “This is a great start but what are some of other options?” or
- "Could you dig a little deeper into [some aspect of the answer]?”
3. The ‘FIGHT!’ Follow-Up
This can be a fun one. Ask for an entirely different perspective on the first answer AI gave you. E.g., if you asked it to develop a persona for a certain kind of business, go back and ask:
- “Now, be a contrarian and give me an answer that completely disagrees with this one”
Often, you’ll find gold in mashing up the first and second (and even third and fourth) answers.
4. The Iterative, Fine-Tuning Approach
Ask a simple question, and get a simple answer. Then share more information and ask it to refine or adjust its original answer. Continue.
- E.g. “Come up with a subject line for a price increase email from [company]”
- F/up: “Here’s some data we have about our most successful subject lines”
- F/up: “Here’s some of the feedback we received last time we did a price increase”... etc.
Finish by asking “what could we be missing?” (this can be added to any other approach too!)
5. The Role-Playing Follow-Up
When we’re close to finished, I’ll sometimes ask AI to act like the most disgruntled client* and give me critical feedback. This role-playing can also extend to notable people and celebrities. E.g.
- “Write like a [certain famous copywriter]” or
- “Think like a [certain business leader]”
*Note: AI tends by default to be quite cheerleading, which can feel lovely (we all love a little validation!) But asking it to play a more critical role pushes you beyond those mutually congratulating convos!
6. The “Show Your Work” Follow-Up
Sometimes, AI gives you a conclusion without showing its reasoning.
Asking it to explain its thought process or break down how it arrived at a particular recommendation can reveal valuable insights or highlight potential flaws in its logic. E.g.,
- "Can you walk me through how you arrived at that market sizing?" or
- "What factors did you consider when making that recommendation?"
7. The Reality Bites Follow-Up
After getting an initial answer, feed AI some specific, real-world constraints that you or your clients are facing. E.g.:
- "That's a good strategy, but our team is only three people and our budget is limited. How would you modify this plan given those constraints?", or
- “I get that’s the ideal approach, but we don’t have access to this kind of data. What’s an alternative approach?
The Key Is to Get Into a Conversational Flow
These seven approaches just scratch the surface of what's possible. The key is to get out of templated thinking and into a conversational flow. Every time I sit down with AI, I discover new ways to deepen the conversation and get better results.
