Getting Started with ChatGPT

Digital Marketing - Study Notes:

Setting up ChatGPT, the ChatGPT user interface, and key features

Getting started

To get started with ChatGPT, follow these steps:

1. Go to the ChatGPT website: chat.openai.com.
2. Click Sign up.
3. Enter your email.
4. Create your password.
5. Open your email to verify your email.
6. Enter your details, such as first name, last name, organization, and date of birth.
7. Select ChatGPT.

Using the interface

ChatGPT uses a simple chatbot interface. In other words, there’s an input field where you can type your queries, known as prompts. And then the AI-generated response displays below your prompt. You can then ask follow-up prompts to further refine the answer.

Familiarize yourself with the user interface, identifying key features that can be leveraged for digital marketing purposes such as customization options, language settings, and output formats.

For instance, you can now set custom instructions in your account that will apply across all conversations you have with ChatGPT. You can add information about your business, your challenges, and the type of content you want to see from the AI. This will significantly improve the quality of the output you receive, if you take the time to craft these instructions carefully.

It is also possible to use ChatGPT to generate multimodal content, meaning you can create new image content as well as text. This applies to data visualizations too, because ChatGPT can now read files and generate insightful charts. The technology is very powerful, but the important point to note is that you need to direct it with purpose. Consider your goals when configuring your ChatGPT workspace.

Getting started with prompts and creating your first prompts

The key to success with ChatGPT is knowing how to write effective prompts. If your first prompt doesn’t deliver the result you want, ask it follow-up prompts. So, for example, instead of asking “What are SEO best practices?”, ask “What are SEO best practices when trying to drive traffic from young female users to your online clothing store? List five best practices as a bullet list with explanations.”

In other words:

• Tell it exactly what you’re looking for, and…
• Tell it how you want it to display the response, in terms of media format (chart, image, text) and also the tone of voice.

If you find the response too complicated, you can then ask it to simplify the response for a specific target readership. For example, “Can you simplify that for a beginner audience?”

You can also limit the response by setting a context or providing constraints. For example, “Can you summarize that in one sentence?”

Remember, the more guidance you give ChatGPT, the more likely it is to deliver the results you want.

A solid starting point for building good practice with prompts is to use the RISEN framework, where you simply structure your prompts as follows: role, instructions, steps, expectation, and narrowing. This checklist reminds you to instruct ChatGPT in a more thorough way, and increase your chance of getting useful responses.

Best practice for creating effective prompts to support digital marketing activities

Bearing all that in mind, what are some best practices for creating effective prompts to support digital marketing activities?

• Be specific: Clear, specific prompts yield better results. If you’re generating an email subject line, instead of just asking for “an email subject,” ask for “an email subject line for a back-to-school marketing campaign”.
• Experiment with prompt length: While brevity can be effective, sometimes longer, more detailed prompts help the AI to better understand the context. Experiment to find the right balance.
• Set a tone: If your brand has a particular voice (formal, casual, humorous, and so on), indicate that tone in your prompt. For instance, “Generate a playful post announcing a summer sale” would guide the AI to generate content that matches your brand’s voice.
• Ask follow-up prompts: If you’re not happy with the first response, ask it follow-up prompts to further guide it.

Just as there are best practices for creating prompts, there are also best practices for what to avoid. These include:

• Don’t be ambiguous: Phrases that have multiple meanings can yield unpredictable results. For instance, avoid using jargon that might be interpreted differently in different industries.
• Don’t skip the review: Never use AI-generated content directly without reviewing and possibly editing it. The AI might not fully capture nuance or brand voice in the way a human would.
• Don’t assume it knows your brand: While ChatGPT is a powerful tool, it doesn’t have access to specific data or strategies related to your brand unless you provide this context in the prompt.
• Don’t feel the need to be polite: Recent research shows that being rude or blunt gets better results.

Monitoring and analyzing ChatGPT performance

Treat any content you create using ChatGPT just like you’d treat any other marketing content you generated. In other words, monitor its performance and then tweak it as necessary.

Set up metrics to monitor the efficacy and performance of ChatGPT in your digital marketing activities. And analyze the output quality, making adjustments for better results over time.

Among the metrics you could measure are:

• Speed of content creation
• Clickthrough rates
• Time spent on content
• Conversions
• ROI (return on investment)

Cost-efficiency and scalability with ChatGPT

ChatGPT enables digital marketers to generate large amounts of content, both at speed and at scale. This can lead to several cost efficiencies. For example:

• Market research: You can use ChatGPT to quickly gather information about industry trends, competitor analysis, and customer preferences. This helps to reduce the need for costly manual research.
• Keyword research: ChatGPT enables you to quickly carry out keyword research, so that you can develop content that’s likely to perform well on search engine results pages (or SERPS). This avoids the need for expensive keyword research tools.
• Content generation: ChatGPT can help you generate a wide range of content, including blog posts, social media updates, product descriptions, and more.
• Content personalization: Using ChatGPT, you can personalize content, based on users’ preferences and behavior. This increases the relatability of the content, so it will better resonate with people and ultimately lead to conversions.
• Customer support: You can use ChatGPT as a cost-effective customer chatbot, using it as the first line of customer service.
• A/B testing: You can A/B test your content, using suggestions from ChatGPT. This then enables you to optimize your content for maximum impact.
• Ad copywriting: ChatGPT can help you to write your ads for your pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns. This may lead to increased clickthrough rates, and a reduced cost per click (CPC).
• Content distribution: You can ask ChatGPT to suggest content distribution and promotion strategies. If these strategies are successful, it will increase the reach of your content.
• Reducing repetitive manual tasks: Coupled with an automation service such as Zapier, ChatGPT can help interpret and categorize the data you pass between your marketing tools. For instance, if you have a zap that automatically adds leads from a lead magnet to your CRM system, adding ChatGPT to the zap could guess the person’s name and company.

But don’t forget the role that human oversight provides in ensuring that the content is of a suitable quality, and that it aligns with your brand’s voice and objectives.

For maximum efficiency and impact, you should aim to integrate ChatGPT into your existing marketing technology stack.