How to Make AI Work Harder and Smarter for you

Happy New Year Sellify Success Club members!

We have crunched the numbers from the recent poll we posted before the holidays and found that an overwhelming number of you want to learn how to better use ChatGPT to improve your e-commerce business. So, over the break we’ve been busy researching and writing about this topic over the next two months we will post several articles on this topic.

It was not surprising to hear that everyone wants to learn more about ChatGPT. AI is still in its infant stage and doesn't always deliver the “magic” that you hear some people talking about. Just ask it to write 800 words on any topic and you're probably not going to get the most coherent results. However, you can turn ChatGPT into a stellar sidekick by learning how to ask it better questions, aka "AI prompts."

Using ChatGPT as your reliable research assistant can help draw attention to your e-commerce store. That's Sellify's mission — to help entrepreneurs like you find more success by marketing and growing your business.

Here are some tips on how to make ChatGPT work harder for you to help you achieve your marketing goals in 2024. In today’s post we’ll cover five ideas with examples that will help you quickly get more out of ChatGPT:

1. Be specific about who you are and what information you want.

2. Use examples to provide additional context.

3. Talk to ChatGPT like a human being and write conversational questions.

4. Ask ChatGPT to assume your identity.

5. Break down complex prompts into short, straightforward questions.

Be More Specific

Have you noticed how vague ChatGPT can be? It's likely because you are being vague. The less information you provide in your AI prompts the worse your results. When you are as specific as possible, you will get more informative answers. It's that simple. 

Say that an e-commerce business selling T-shirts wants to improve its marketing. It enters the following ChatGPT prompt: "Give me three marketing ideas for 2024." Because the business didn't tell ChatGPT that it sells T-shirts, it will receive a generic response that may not be all that useful.

Providing ChatGPT with specifics, like what exactly you are selling, will generate better results. Here's a much better prompt to use: "I own a small e-commerce business that sells T-shirts. Give me three marketing ideas for 2024." Because ChatGPT knows the focus of the business, it will provide more suitable marketing suggestions, such as:

• Run user-generated campaigns with photos of customers wearing T-shirts.

• Use augmented reality to allow customers to "try on" T-shirts virtually.

• Launch subscription box services for lovers of T-shirts.

Take a look:

Provide Examples

Large language models (LLMs) are complex algorithms that make it possible for AI tools like ChatGPT to understand your questions and provide intelligent answers. They work best when given as much context as possible. 

You will get more helpful responses when you include an example or two in ChatGPT prompts. So, instead of just asking ChatGPT for ways to improve your e-commerce marketing, tell it what you are really trying to achieve. 

Let's say a business wants to drive more potential customers to its online store. It uses the prompt, "Can you give me some ways to improve my e-commerce marketing?" This prompt generates actionable marketing suggestions for the company but doesn't contain tips for achieving its specific goal. For example, it talks about rewarding repeat customers and retargeting campaigns but doesn't offer helpful ways to do so.

Here's a prompt that will generate a more detailed and useful answer: "Can you tell me some ways to improve my e-commerce marketing? For example, how can I attract more people to my store?"

With this prompt, ChatGPT provides suggestions such as:

• Create a blog and regularly publish content related to products, customer interests, and industry trends. 

• Build and segment email lists to send targeted campaigns to potential customers.

• Use personalized content to drive repeat business.

See ChatGPT's full response below:

Be Conservational

Communicate with ChatGPT like you would a real research assistant. Use everyday language that is easy to understand. Real conversations are what train large language models, so talking to ChatGPT like a human can sometimes produce more effective results.

Here's an example of a formal prompt: "I would like to acquire information on several marketing strategies suitable for implementing in my e-commerce business for the year 2024." To this, ChatGPT generates an informative answer with suggestions such as using blogs, infographics, and user-generated content. 

Now, here's an example of a more informal question: "Hey, can you give me some cool marketing strategies for my e-commerce business for 2024?" This more conversational prompt resulted in different suggestions, including using interactive content marketing, such as quizzes, polls, and videos. 

Engaging in a human-like conversation with this technology can result in more context-aware responses, like these:

Ask ChatGPT to Assume Your Identity

This one might sound weird, but it can actually lead to more effective answers. By asking ChatGPT to put itself in your shoes, it can generate more fitting responses to help you improve your marketing.

For example, ask ChatGPT to imagine it was the owner of an e-commerce business. What marketing techniques would it use in 2024?

With this prompt, Chat GPT offers recommendations like:

• Create engaging and interactive content on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. 

• Build a community around a brand through forums, social groups, and online communities. 

It even provides an entire hypothetical marketing strategy that a business can use over the next 12 months. And it did it all in just a few seconds. See for yourself:

Break Down Complex Prompts

As you start getting more competent with your AI prompts you can take your conversations from idea generation to the next level: high-quality research. Let's suppose you've started the strategy to start generating content regularly on your blog. Instead of inputting a long and complicated prompt into ChatGPT, try asking it one thing at a time.

Say that you want to understand the most popular marketing research papers about a particular topic so that you can create a better blog post on the topic. Here's an example of a sequence of prompts that will get you more specific, in-depth information:

• Enter the following prompt: "Who are the 10 most cited authors in the field of content marketing?"

• Wait for ChatGPT to generate a response.

• Enter the following: "What content marketing topics are these authors most known for?"

• Wait for ChatGPT to generate a response and then pick a few authors that write about the topics you are interested in.

• Ask ChatGPT to list the five most cited papers of those authors.

• Ask ChatGPT to summarize each author's most popular papers in 200 words.

Now you've got a really good sample of content to draw from when working on your article or blog.

The above is an example of prompt chaining, in which you input specific, straightforward prompts into ChatGPT instead of asking it multiple questions simultaneously. This strategy guides large language models through complex tasks and can improve the efficiency and clarity of responses. 

Get the Most Out of ChatGPT

In 2024 AI tools like ChaptGPT will become an increasingly important part of our lives in and out of work. Developing your AI prompting skills can help you generate more relevant ideas, deeper insights, and more accurate research as you go about your day-to-day activities. Here's a quick recap:

• Be specific about who you are and what information you want.

• Use examples to provide additional context.

• Talk to ChatGPT like a human being and write conversational questions.

• Ask ChatGPT to assume your identity.

• Break down complex prompts into short, straightforward questions.

Using these simple ChatGPT techniques can result in more powerful marketing results for your e-commerce business.

Thank you for reading! Here’s to your continued success.

Mike Simmons
CEO at Sellify Success Club