You will be able to write a prompt that gives an AI assistant your reader, customer language, proof and structure.
Imagine hiring a freelance copywriter and giving them one sentence: "Write a homepage for my workwear shop." No information about your customers, your products, your prices or what you want the page to do. You would not expect good work back. You would expect something generic, because generic is all anyone can write with that brief.
An AI assistant is in the same position. Lesson 8.1 showed what you get from a one-line prompt. This lesson shows how to write the brief you would give a good freelancer, and why it changes the result.
A useful brief for an AI assistant covers four things.
The target reader. Who will read this, what situation are they in, and what do they already know? "Working women in Singapore, mostly 25 to 40, who wear modest clothing to the office and find most workwear either too revealing or too shapeless. Many are buying online for the first time from a small shop and worry about fit."
The goal of the piece. What should the reader do or think after reading? "Click through to the blouse collection. The page should make them believe the blouses will fit and look professional."
The structure. Give it the shape you want. You already know several from this course. "Use problem, solution, proof, action. One headline, a two-sentence intro, three benefits each with one line of proof, then the call to action."
The facts it may use. List the facts, and say that it must use only these. "Sizes XS to 3XL. Bust and hip measurements for every size on each product page. Free exchanges on size within 14 days. Hidden button placket so blouses don't gap. Rated 4.8 by 63 buyers (an example figure)." Telling the AI to use only the facts you give it reduces the chance that it invents its own.
This is the step that makes the most difference. Copy the most relevant phrases from your voice-of-customer file into the prompt, and ask the AI to use them.
"Here are phrases my customers have used. Use their words where possible, especially in the headline and intro: 'I'm tired of safety pins between my buttons.' 'Everything modest looks like a sack on me.' 'I need to look like I belong in the meeting.' 'I never know my size online.'"
With those phrases in front of it, the AI writes from the language your readers actually use rather than from the average of all fashion copy, and the headlines it suggests are far more likely to name a situation your reader recognises.
If you have a piece of writing whose tone you like, paste a short sample and say what you like about it. It might be an email you wrote to a customer that got a warm reply, or a competitor's page you admire for its plainness.
Then say what to avoid. Be specific. "Avoid these words: redefine, effortless, timeless, versatile, journey. Leave out exclamation marks, strings of three adjectives and setup-and-twist contrasts. Write in plain English that a busy woman would read on her phone." The patterns from lesson 8.1 are a ready list.
You can also give it your rules from module 7: short sentences, active voice, plain words.
AI is most useful when it gives you options to choose from. Instead of asking for a finished homepage, ask for ten headline options, or eight hooks, or five versions of the intro. Then choose, using the criteria from lesson 2.4: clarity, specificity, relevance and believability.
Asking for many short variations has two benefits. You get more ideas than you would on your own in the same time. And you stay the one who decides, which keeps your judgement and your knowledge of the customer in charge of the result.
Once you have chosen a headline, you can ask for the next section, and so on. Building a page in pieces gives you a chance to correct the direction at each step, rather than receiving a whole page and trying to fix everything at once.
Farah's prompt from lesson 8.1 was one line. Her new prompt was about 250 words: the reader, the goal, the structure, the facts, six customer phrases, a short sample of a customer email she liked, and a list of words to avoid. She asked for ten headline options first.
Among the ten were "No more safety pins between your buttons" and "Office blouses that fit, in sizes XS to 3XL, with measurements on every page". Both used her customers' words or her real facts. Neither would have appeared from the one-line prompt. Several of the ten were still weak, and she discarded them. That is normal. The point is that the good options were now in the list.
When you put the two outputs side by side, the gap between them shows you how much of the quality depends on what you put in.
For the activity, use the same AI tool as in lesson 8.1 so the comparison is fair. Build your new prompt from the writing kit you already have, and keep both outputs, because lesson 8.4 asks you to submit your prompt alongside your work.
Rewrite your lesson 8.1 prompt with reader, goal, structure, facts and customer phrases, and compare the two outputs side by side.
Junxiong-WFG Organisation is an authorised representative of AIA Financial Advisers Private Limited (Reg. No. 201715016G).