5 Prompt Tricks for ChatGPT
Being a school marketer is one of the most essential but challenging positions that very few in the school community fully understand or appreciate. The struggle is real to come up with fresh, engaging content for emails, social posts, ads, and blogs, not to mention the added “bonus” of having high expectations placed on you with limited budgets and little to no help. Sound familiar?
Luckily, we now live and work in the era of ChatGPT and if you haven’t started using this yet in your everyday life, you are missing out! While this new technology is a game changer in many ways, users are quickly realizing that the results they get out are only as good as the prompts they put in. In this blog post, we'll share some specific prompt tricks on how to get the best results saving you time and energy in your day to day.
Before we dive into some specific examples, there are some things to remember when prompting ChatGPT no matter what type of content you are creating for best results.
Relay, specifically, what you are asking it to do, i.e. “write an email, blog post, social media post”
Define the audience it is intended for, i.e. “parents of high schoolers interested in private schools and also love soccer”
Be specific: The more specific information you provide to ChatGPT, the more accurate and relevant its suggestions will be. (I like to prompt the old: “I want to ____, for an audience ____, and in a ____ tone or “voice”. I will provide you the keywords for context, audience description, and other context for the “voice”, do you understand?)
Customize your prompts by adding your school’s name, mission, or location, i.e. “You are a private school in Orlando, Florida with a focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion”.
Add website copy, mission statement, or any other relevant copy to help it define the “voice” or tone you would like it to write in, i.e. copy and paste your well written admissions paragraphs or about us section.
Revise the results! Once you get the results you don’t have to be done. Further define what it puts out to get better results, “this is a goodstart , can you make it more persuasive and have more language focused on diversity on campus”.
Ok now for the meat and potatoes…
Emails
Emails are an essential tool for communicating with parents and keeping them informed about your school's events and activities. But crafting the perfect email can be a time-consuming process.
Prompt Trick: Provide keywords related to your message, specify the target audience, the length it should be, and indicate the style or "voice" you want the email to convey. Something like
“You are a private school in Orlando, Fl. with a key focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion. I want you to write an automated email drip campaign consisting of 4 emails, spaced one week apart, no more than 3 paragraphs each, to prospective parents who have visited our open house but have not yet applied. Their children would be potential elementary school students and each email should sequentially provide stronger awareness of the application deadline of Feb. 12th and also have clear calls to action. It should be a friendly but persuasive tone and I will give copy examples for context on the voice.”
Bright Idea: Consider using ChatGPT to generate different email subject lines and preview text. After you have edited your copy to perfection, paste it back in and ask to have “catchy” or “attention grabbing” headlines and preview text for this email.
Social Posts
We all know the power of social media for promoting your schools, and also know how everyone is vying to stand out on a saturated platform.
Prompt Trick: Define the post you are trying to make and the platform you’re posting on, the target audience, and the word count desired. Something like:
“Write me 2 social posts highlighting our community Diversity Fest event on campus this upcoming Saturday. Please make it fun and inviting for prospective families interested in private schools. We will need 1 with 150 characters for a Facebook post and 1 with 100 characters for an Instagram post.”
Bright Ideat: Use ChatGPT to generate different captions and hashtags for different social media platforms. Each platform has its own style and audience, so tailor your messaging accordingly.
Blog Posts
Blogging is a great way to tell your school’s story, provide valuable information to parents, and improve your website's SEO.
Prompt Trick: Provide specific details about what your blog post is going to be about, who the intended audience is, the length it should be, and the “voice” or “tone” it should have. (provide examples for tone if possible). Something like:
“You are a small private day school in Tampa, FL. called ChatGPT Academy that has a mission statement of “to inspire students to become leaders with a passion for knowledge, global vision and innovation while developing character in a nurturing and diverse community”. Write a 1500 word blog post about the top 3 benefits of being a part of your school community will have on the audience's children, with the audience being elementary school parents interested in private schools. Make the tone warm, welcoming, and persuasive and use key elements of the mission statement for context”.
Bright Idea: Use ChatGPT to generate different introductions and headlines for your blog posts. The introduction is the most important part of your post, as it determines whether readers will continue reading. Use ChatGPT to generate attention-grabbing intros, and make sure your headline accurately reflects the content of your post.
In conclusion, ChatGPT technology can be a valuable tool for K-12 private school marketing and communications directors who are looking for ways to create engaging and effective copy on a tight schedule. By using ChatGPT to generate prompts for emails, social media posts, and blog posts, you can save time and effort while still producing quality content that resonates with your audience. With a little creativity and customization, ChatGPT can help you achieve your marketing and communications goals and showcase your school's unique strengths and values.
