5 AI Prompts to Help with Small Business Content Marketing

Small businesses operate with very limited budgets. As a small business owner, you need to make smart decisions with your marketing — decisions that help you stretch that budget as far as possible. One such decision is the choice to use AI to help improve your content marketing. 

Of course, using AI is easier said than done. Generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot require you to provide input that describes what you want the AI to deliver. This input is called a prompt. Prompt writing may seem simple, but it’s not. Anyone who’s tried to get ChatGPT to write a blog post or create an SMS message can attest to that fact.

Over time, you can hone your prompt-writing skills, but you’ll need something to get you started. We’ve listed five AI prompts to help with small business content marketing.

5 AI prompts to accelerate content marketing success

1. Write a blog post of [# of words] words explaining [add topic] and why it matters to customers of [add your business]. My audience is comprised of [give details about your audience’s makeup] and they frequently choose my business because of [add information about your audience’s pain points]. 

This prompt tells your AI tool to create content that will live at the top of your funnel. It’s an educational post that helps your audience understand their problem. It’s one of the first steps in finding a solution to their problem. The post should outline the topic, why it matters, and how it relates to both the reader and your business. Naming the audience and detailing their pain points is critical in helping tell the AI to be extra specific with the content so it’s less generic and tailored to your brand and its customers.

2. Act as a copywriter and analyze the audience of [add business name]. Create a 15-page whitepaper that discusses what you feel are the strengths of our [add service name] service and why it matters to our audience members. Highlight five challenges [service name] helps them overcome.

Whitepapers, eBooks, reports, and other content can act as lead-generation tools if you put them behind a gate. When a website visitor provides their name and email address, they’re able to download the content. Of course, you don’t have to make this gated content — it can be just as powerful as a freely available download. By including a reference to the brand and its product, the AI will be better equipped to approach the topic in a way that’s helpful to your specific readers.

3. Take on the role of an expert email copywriter. Create a five-part email series. The first email should be an introduction to [add business name] for new signups. Each subsequent email should highlight a pain point the lead is experiencing, explain two potential solutions to that need, and explain briefly why [add business name] is the best choice. All emails should have a friendly, casual tone that connects with [business name]’s brand.

This prompt will help you create an effective email series that is triggered when someone signs up through your website. It acts as an introduction to your business, as well as an educational tool, teaching people about the solutions to their problems, while simultaneously positioning your business as the answer to those problems. By adding a note about the tone, the AI will be able to deliver it in your brand voice and better aligned with your brand’s positioning.

4. Identify popular topics that audience members of [business name] would find interesting. Generate a list of 20 topics that would make good Facebook posts. All 20 topics should be relevant to [upcoming season].

With this prompt, you’ll get a list of topics to discuss on Facebook that should be interesting enough that your audience will engage with your posts. You can use those posts to create discussion, drive traffic, encourage purchases, and more. If you want, you can refine the list to the top five or 10 and then ask the AI to create short posts about the topics. This is a great prompt to generate blog topics, too.

5. Generate a podcast episode about the latest trends in the [industry name] industry. The episode should focus on innovations driving those trends and what [add business name]’s customers should know about them. The episode should be [add length] minutes long.

Podcasts are incredibly popular today. However, it can be challenging to write scripts. This prompt lets you tap into that popularity while providing structure for your episode. You can stick to the script, adlib, edit it for flow, add a co-host, and more. By including the industry name, it gives the AI more context as to who the listeners would be — and what type of information they’d find most valuable.

Caveats and conditions

AI is still pretty new and not all large language models are the same. You must know a few best practices when it comes to AI-driven content marketing.

1. Most AI models have problems with information accuracy if they haven’t been trained on your data. You mustn’t copy and paste content from the interface and publish it. Verify any facts first. 

2. Unless the AI has been trained in your brand’s voice, you’ll want to do some fine-tuning so that the language reflects your business’s personality and preferred style and tone.

3. Don’t think of AI-generated content as “final.” It’s more like a rough draft. You’ll want to spend some time rewriting, reorganizing, and refining it before going live. Think of it as a junior copywriter who still needs the final touches from a senior editor.

Be prepared for the results

With your content marketing now in overdrive, you’ll want to ensure that your team is ready for the results. That could mean a dramatic increase in the number of phone calls, form fills, and web chats you receive. Smith.ai’s virtual receptionists and next-generation AI help ensure that not only are you prepared, but that every communication is answered immediately and that your team is free to focus on their critical tasks. From 24/7 phone answering to industry-leading AI and human-staffed web chat, appointment booking, and lead screening and intake, we enable your business to thrive.

To learn more, schedule a consultation or reach out to hello@smith.ai.