Tales of ChatGPT taking away jobs from writers, editors, and creators in the marketing and communications world have been widely exaggerated. I don’t expect advanced chatbots like ChatGPT taking away any jobs. But, I do see an opportunity for people who know how to use tools like ChatGPT to make a massive improvement in the quality, quantity and velocity of their communications output.
In the hands of a talented copy writer or marketing communications specialist, ChatGPT can help create helpful content to get into the inboxes and on utility websites to engage customers. All it takes is a bit of training in prompt engineering, or how to ask ChatGPT for help.
Here’s how to craft a helpful prompt for a marketing communications specialist to build an article suitable for an email campaign or website blog post about energy efficiency. The key elements of a prompt include:
- Context
- Objective
- Audience
- Style
- Format
Context - set the stage for your chatbot about your request.
“We are an energy utility in the mid-atlantic with customers that purchase gas and electric service from our company. We regularly provide content on our website and in email campaigns about tips for energy efficiency that customers can use in their homes to save energy and money on their energy bills."
Objective - tell your chatbot exactly what you want it to do.
“Write an article to inform customers about the benefits and methods for winterizing their homes. Include five cost-effective tips that customers can take in the fall to prepare their home for colder temperatures in the winter that will save energy and reduce their heating bills.”
Audience - help your chatbot understand who its writing the article for including any helpful insights that could improve the relevance of the content.
“The audience will include homeowners of medium to large homes with the potential for high heating bills, or owners of older homes that may lack modern energy saving improvements like smart thermostats or the latest insulation materials.”
Style - help your chatbot understand the tone and style of your utility to keep the content consistent with your communication guidelines and customer needs. Tell your chatbot how to say things AND what style or tone to avoid.
“Write in an informative style to establish credibility for the tips with the audience. Avoid the use of hyperbole and do not include language about guarantees.”
Format - tell your chatbot specifically what format and output you expect based on where you expect customers to read it.
“Write an article in 500 words or fewer for placement on our website as a weekly blog.”
Here’s an example of the completed prompt suitable for entering into an AI chatbot like ChatGPT. I challenge everyone to put it in their chatbot of choice and examine the output.
“We are an energy utility in the mid-Atlantic with customers that purchase gas and electric service from our company. We regularly provide content on our website and in email campaigns about tips for energy efficiency that customers can use in their homes to save energy and money on their energy bills. Write an article to inform customers about the benefits and methods for winterizing their homes. Include five cost-effective tips that customers can take in the Fall to prepare their home for colder temperatures in the winter that will save energy and reduce their heating bills. The audience will include homeowners of medium to large homes with the potential for high heating bills or owners of older homes that may lack modern energy saving improvements like smart thermostats or the latest insulation materials. Write in an informative style to establish credibility for the tips with the audience. Avoid the use of hyperbole and do not include language about guarantees. Write an article in 500 words or fewer for placement on our website as a weekly blog.”
Using this exact prompt, ChatGPT produced a compelling blog-like introduction and 5 reasonable tips for winterizing my home, including one tip that never occurred to me. Any skilled writer could polish the content easily to make it suitable for customers. But, in less than an hour from prompt to final editing, any marketing communications specialist can have an article ready for your utility blog or website that would normally require a day or more of work.
I certainly wouldn’t turn ChatGPT loose on content directly updated to a utility website, but in the hands of an decent writer, AI tools like ChatGPT can significantly increase the quality and quantity of informative content available to customers. By tweaking prompts for audience or style and tone, MarComm teams could take a single topic like home winterization and personalize it for different customer segments to maximize the effects of blog engagement or email campaign performance.
Utilities are right to be thoughtful and deliberate about AI and how to incorporate these powerful tools in your operations. We hope that this quick primer on writing a prompt can help you experiment with tools like ChatGPT safely with an eye towards engaging more effectively with your customers. Please leave a comment or question about your own experiments with Chatbot content.