Content creation can be a demanding task, whether you are a blogger, YouTuber, social media marketer, business owner, or writer for ‘traditional’ media.
But lucky for us, we’re living in the AI era. Enter ChatGPT, the wonder of modern technology that has quickly become a go-to solution for creators, that will take away some heavy lifting out of the content creation process for us.
You too might already be using it in your creative process, and have realized that simply using ChatGPT is just the beginning—knowing a trick or two of prompt engineering will multiply your productivity many times over.
If so, you’ve come to the right place. This article discusses the top 7 prompt engineering techniques that every content creator should know. From guiding ChatGPT to acting as your creative assistant to getting your work critiqued with constructive feedback, these techniques will not only save you time but also enhance the quality of your content.
Table Of Content
1. Zero, One, and Multiple-Shot Prompting
Zero-shot, one-shot, and few-shot prompting are foundational techniques in prompt engineering. These approaches involve providing examples to ChatGPT to show it what you’re expecting, rather than cracking your head trying to tell it your requirements in words.

You can control how much guidance to provide, ranging from no examples (zero-shot), one example only (one-shot) to several (few-shot). The example prompts below demonstrate how they work:
- Zero-shot prompting – Instruct ChatGPT to perform a task without any examples.
Write an introduction for an article about AI in marketing.
- One-shot prompting – Provide a single example to help set the tone, format, style, expected outcome, etc.
Generate five catchy YouTube video titles based on my transcript. Here’s an example of the style I’m looking for: “10 Insane AI Tools That Will 10x Your Productivity.”
- Few-shot prompting – Give several examples for ChatGPT’s reference. This is particularly useful when you’re looking for consistency.
I will send you three articles by Jackson Will for Cats' Nature magazine. Analyze his writing style, and we will work together to develop an article that resembles it. Here are the articles: <send the 3 articles>
This technique is among the most important prompt engineering techniques for content creators. We explain it in detail in the following article. Be sure to check it out!
What Are Zero-Shot, One-Shot, and Multiple-Shot Prompting, And Why Is It A Prompt Engineering Technique You Must Know
2. Ask Before Answer
“Ask Before Answer” is another useful prompt engineering technique for content creators. To apply it, you explicitly request ChatGPT to ask clarifying questions before providing an answer. Typically, you might ask it to clarify information mentioned in your prompt, such as general requirements, the target audience, or any specific details and focus areas.

Why apply this technique? Because it ensures that ChatGPT fully grasps your requirements before it goes the whole nine yards and attempts to complete your task. This approach saves you some headaches from rounds of back-and-forth revisions, making your interaction with ChatGPT more efficient.
Here’s an example prompt that applies this technique. Notice how we added the instruction, “Before you start writing, ask me any questions if you need clarification” to implement the Ask Before Answer technique.
Write a blog post about the benefits of keeping multiple cats as pets. The target audience is [insert target audience]. The blog post should include the following information: [insert details]. This will be published in Cats' Nature magazine. Before you start writing, ask me any questions if you need clarification.
3. “I Want You to Act As”
As you can imagine, the information ChatGPT possesses is vast and diverse. Sometimes, it can be a challenge for it to narrow down its responses to fit a specific style, tone, or expertise level that aligns perfectly with your desired response.

You can help by assigning a persona to it. The “I Want You to Act As” technique instructs ChatGPT to take on a specific role, providing a framing so that it responds in a way that reflects the persona you’ve set. This will make its output more relevant to your intent.
For a content creator, this technique is particularly useful for generating diverse content types, especially when you yourself have to assume a role while working on the content. Let ChatGPT take on the same role as you.
Here’s an example of how to apply this technique:
I want you to act as an experienced crime scene investigator who has handled criminal cases like murder, domestic violence, and robbery...
4. Fill in the Blank
It almost feels like the ‘Fill in the Blank’ technique was created specifically for content creators. The idea is simple: provide ChatGPT with a partial sentence or structure, and let it complete the rest. The most common formats for this technique include:
- Blank space: This is useful when you’re struggling to find the right word. An example prompt is:
Fill in the blank for me:
Cat scratching furniture is the most ___ issue that cat owners have to face.
- Ellipsis: When you’re at a loss for ideas to complete a sentence, let ChatGPT do it for you. For example:
Help me to complete this sentence:
Three reasons why cats and humans should consume more vegetables are...
By now, you should see how this technique alone can help with writer’s block. Just toss some initial ideas (or even words) into ChatGPT using this technique, and see what it throws back to you. Simple!
5. Reverse Prompting
Let’s face it: crafting a good prompt is difficult. We know we need to be clear and specific when prompting, but that’s often easier said than done. Even content creators, who are supposedly expressive, can find it challenging to put their requirements into words.
‘Reverse Prompting’ is a technique you can use in situations like this. This method flips the traditional approach: instead of you supplying a prompt to ChatGPT, you ask ChatGPT to provide the prompt for you. This can be done by showing samples of work that reflect your expected output.

For example, if you’re having trouble crafting a prompt that describes the style of the images you want ChatGPT to generate, just send it samples of similar images and ask it to describe them. Your prompt might be:
I am sending you 5 images created based on the same style. Analyze them for me and describe the style.
Once you have the description, you can then ask ChatGPT to create a prompt that will produce images in a similar style:
Based on your description, craft a prompt that I can use repeatedly to get ChatGPT to generate images in the same style.
ChatGPT will then provide the prompt it thinks works best. Instead of figuring out the right prompt yourself, you’ve effectively asked ChatGPT to do it for you.
6. Comparative Prompting
Comparative prompting involves asking ChatGPT to compare different things, such as ideas, concepts, approaches, or even product descriptions. (Isn’t this something content creators do all the time?) The results of comparisons that ChatGPT provides can be incredibly useful for decision-making or presenting balanced arguments in your content.

For instance, if you’re writing a piece comparing two AI content creation tools, you might paste the descriptions you copied from their website into ChatGPT and prompt:
Based on these product descriptions, compare Tool X and Tool Y. Highlight their strengths and weaknesses compared to each other.
This technique is great for content creators who frequently produce reviews, comparison articles, or any content that benefits from a balanced perspective. It allows you to present your audience with a comprehensive view and help them make informed decisions.
Do note that, as with any other outputs from ChatGPT, you need to verify the results of comparisons with the original sources or validate the information through a quick Google search. Be aware that ChatGPT may fill in gaps by making assumptions when the information is incomplete.
7. Constructive Critique Prompting
It’s always helpful for content creators to have another set of eyes review our work and provide critical feedback for refinement. When we are deeply involved in our creations, we can lose objectivity and may overlook what’s lacking (and what’s great) in our work.
Meet ChatGPT, your go-to creative assistant who can critique your work without bias, and provide constructive feedback by drawing on the vast amount of content it has been trained on. It can provide constructive feedback on structure, tone, and content, much like having a peer editor on hand.
Use a “constructive critique prompt” to ask for ChatGPT’s review and feedback. For example:
Imagine you are a travel vlogger who averages 500k views for every of your YouTube video. Critique this video script for clarity and engagement. Provide feedback on how I can refine it.
Notice how we have also applied the “I Want You to Act As” technique to assign ChatGPT the role of someone who is qualified to perform the critique.

Conclusion
We’ve discussed 7 top prompt engineering techniques for content creators. These techniques could not only revolutionize the way you interact with ChatGPT, but also significantly boost your productivity—potentially doubling, tripling, or even more!
The bad news? You might find yourself becoming increasingly reliant on ChatGPT as your creative assistant. Since this will happen eventually, why not master these prompt engineering techniques for content creators? The better you understand how to ‘speak’ to your assistant, the more effective and rewarding your creative process will be.
You will have fun working with it!
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