ChatGPT and large language models like it are genuinely useful for business — but only when you prompt them well. A vague prompt produces a vague answer. A specific, role-framed prompt with clear context produces something you can actually use.
Below are 40+ prompts across strategy, marketing, content, operations, design, and HR — each with variations and brief guidance on who should use them. Copy, customise the bracketed fields, and iterate from there.
Strategy & Research
1) Business model audit
Act as a business consultant and conduct a comprehensive audit of my current business model, including strengths and areas for improvement.
Variations: “Analyse my business model and provide insights into its strengths and weaknesses.” / “Evaluate my current business strategy and point out improvements.”
Best for: founders and operators doing annual reviews, or anyone preparing for a fundraising conversation.
2) Competitor analysis
Act like a market research consultant. Provide a detailed analysis of my top five competitors in [specific industry], covering pricing, positioning, and differentiation.
Variations: “Research the strengths and weaknesses of my main competitors in [industry].” / “Map the competitive landscape in [specific industry] and identify any gaps.”
Best for: marketing teams building positioning strategy, product teams prioritising features.
3) Innovative product features
Imagine you’re a product design consultant. Based on current market trends in [industry], suggest five innovative features I could add to [product].
Best for: product development teams seeking fresh ideas, entrepreneurs refining their offering before launch.
4) Brand taglines
Think like a brand expert. Brainstorm ten catchy taglines that encapsulate the essence of [business name] — a [brief description of what you do].
Best for: marketing teams on rebrand projects, founders refining their pitch.
5) Customer persona
Assume the role of a market researcher. Create a detailed customer persona for [product or service], including demographics, psychographics, goals, pain points, and preferred communication channels.
Best for: marketing and sales teams, product managers building features for a specific audience.
6) Market expansion
Act as a market expansion expert. Suggest potential new markets or demographics for [product or service] to target next, and explain the rationale for each.
Best for: businesses planning geographic or demographic expansion, product managers thinking about adjacent markets.
7) Market size estimate
Act as a data analyst. Help me estimate the addressable market size for [specific product or service] in [location or market]. Walk me through your assumptions.
Best for: anyone building a business case, investor deck, or go-to-market plan.
8) Revenue stream diversification
Think like a financial strategist. Suggest five additional revenue streams that could work alongside my current model as a [business type].
Best for: founders looking to reduce revenue concentration risk, businesses planning a new fiscal year.
9) SWOT analysis
Operate as a business analyst. Conduct a SWOT analysis for a [business type] serving [target market]. Be specific — avoid generic observations.
Best for: strategic planning, board prep, or investor due diligence.
10) Value proposition refinement
Imagine you’re a branding consultant. Review this value proposition: “[current value prop].” Refine it to be clearer, more differentiated, and more compelling for [target audience].
Best for: any business that feels its positioning isn’t landing, pre-rebrands.
Marketing & Content
11) Trending content topics
Act as a content expert for a [business type] targeting [audience]. List 15 trending topics I should create content about this quarter. Explain why each is timely.
Best for: social media managers, content marketers, editorial teams.
12) Customer outreach topics
Generate a list of 10 customer outreach topics that could open a conversation without feeling salesy — for a [business type] targeting [buyer persona].
Best for: sales teams building email sequences, SDRs cold prospecting.
13) Podcast series ideas
Generate five creative ideas for a podcast series focused on [industry or niche]. Include episode themes, a target audience, and a one-paragraph pitch for each.
Best for: brands building thought leadership content, agencies pitching content strategies to clients.
14) Customer loyalty programme
Design an effective customer loyalty programme for a [business type] with [average transaction value] and [purchase frequency]. Include structure, rewards mechanics, and how to communicate it.
Best for: e-commerce businesses, restaurants, service businesses with repeat customers.
15) Instagram caption
Write three Instagram captions for a post promoting [product/service]. One professional, one conversational, one humorous. Keep each under 150 characters and include a CTA.
Best for: social media managers, community managers, anyone running Instagram for a brand.
16) One-month Instagram content plan
Create a one-month Instagram content plan for [business + product/service]. Include post type, topic, and a one-line brief for each. The primary goal is to increase comments.
Best for: anyone planning a content calendar. Pair with the free templates post for a complete setup.
17) Email campaign subject lines
Generate 15 email subject lines for a campaign promoting [offer or product] to [audience]. Include a mix of curiosity, urgency, personalisation, and direct benefit angles.
Best for: email marketers, growth teams, anyone A/B testing subject lines.
18) Ad script (60 seconds)
Write a 60-second advertisement script for [product or service] targeting [audience]. Open with a hook, address a pain point, present the solution, and close with a CTA.
Best for: video ad teams, social media managers producing short-form video content.
19) AIDA model
Generate an AIDA model (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) for [product or service] targeting [audience]. Make it specific — not a generic template.
Best for: copywriters, marketing leads building campaign structures.
20) Audience demographics
Generate a list of 20 audience demographics that would be most likely to purchase [product or service]. Include age, income, lifestyle, and digital behaviour for each.
Best for: media buyers building ad targeting, growth marketers sizing audiences.
Operations & Project Management
21) Employee onboarding programme
Design an employee onboarding programme for a [business type] hiring [role]. Include a 90-day plan with week-by-week milestones and success metrics.
Best for: HR teams, operations managers, founders scaling their first hires.
22) Project tracking system
Write three steps for setting up a project tracking system for a team of [size] working on [type of projects]. Include tool recommendations and workflow structure.
Best for: ops leads, project managers, agency teams.
23) Survey questions for customer research
Write a series of 10 survey questions to understand why customers do or don’t repurchase from a [business type]. Include a mix of rating scales and open-ended questions.
Best for: customer success teams, product teams doing retention research.
24) Supply chain optimisation
Imagine you’re a logistics expert. Identify three inefficiencies that commonly affect supply chains in [industry] and suggest specific optimisations for each.
Best for: operations leads in product-based businesses, e-commerce brands scaling fulfilment.
25) Technology adoption roadmap
Assume the role of a technology adoption advisor. Recommend five tools that a [business type] with [team size] should consider adopting in the next 12 months, with implementation priorities.
Best for: founders and ops leads doing annual tech stack reviews.
26) Negotiation strategies
Think like a negotiation expert. Provide strategies for negotiating a better rate with [supplier type] for [product or service]. Include opening positions and walk-away criteria.
Best for: procurement leads, founders managing vendor relationships.
27) Daily productivity routine
Imagine you’re a productivity coach. Design a daily routine for a founder of a [business type] who needs to balance [challenge 1] and [challenge 2]. Be specific about time blocks.
Best for: founders and senior leaders managing complex workloads.
28) Remote work guidelines
Act as a remote work consultant. Provide guidelines for managing a fully remote team of [size] across [number of time zones]. Include communication norms, async-first practices, and meeting cadence.
Best for: team leads managing distributed teams, HR managers building remote policies.
Design & Product
29) Gamification techniques
As a designer, suggest five gamification techniques I could incorporate into a [product or app] to improve user retention. Include how each technique works and what behaviour it reinforces.
Best for: product designers, growth teams, app developers.
30) Micro-interactions for UX
What are five micro-interactions I should consider when designing a [type of app or website]? Describe the trigger, animation, and user benefit for each.
Best for: UX/UI designers, product managers.
31) Chatbot conversation flow
Design a conversational flow for a customer service chatbot for a [business type]. The bot should handle [top 3 query types]. Include the opening message, branching logic, and escalation path.
Best for: businesses building their first automated inbox, growth teams adding conversational channels. If you want this built rather than designed yourself, our DFY service handles the full build.
Brand & Communications
32) Personal branding archetypes
List five personal branding archetypes I could use for my social media presence as a [role/industry professional]. For each, describe the content style, tone, and audience it attracts.
Best for: founders building a personal brand alongside their business, content creators positioning themselves.
33) Thought leadership content strategy
Think like a thought leadership coach. Devise a content strategy for a [role] at a [company type] to build authority in [topic area]. Include content formats, distribution channels, and a 90-day plan.
Best for: B2B founders, consultants, senior leaders building professional visibility.
34) Crisis communication plan
Act as a crisis management consultant. Create a step-by-step crisis communication plan for a [business type] facing [hypothetical crisis]. Include internal and external communication steps.
Best for: comms leads, PR teams, senior operators who want a response playbook before they need it.
35) Business story for marketing
Imagine you’re a business storytelling coach. Craft a compelling brand narrative for [business name], a [brief description]. Structure it as: before, turning point, after — with a clear protagonist.
Best for: founders writing their About page, brand teams refreshing their story.
HR & Team Development
36) Crisis simulation exercise
Design a 90-minute crisis simulation exercise for my team in a [business type]. Include the scenario, the roles each participant plays, the decision points, and the debrief questions.
Best for: leadership teams building operational resilience, HR managers running team development programmes.
37) Virtual event plan
Design a comprehensive plan for hosting a successful virtual event for [audience size] attendees in [industry]. Include platform selection, agenda structure, engagement mechanics, and promotion plan.
Best for: event teams, community managers, marketing leads running webinars.
38) Customer retention strategies
Suggest strategies to enhance customer retention and reduce churn for a [business type] with [average customer lifetime value]. Prioritise by impact and ease of implementation.
Best for: customer success teams, product leads, subscription businesses.
39) Employee engagement programme
Imagine you’re an employee engagement expert. Develop a quarterly engagement programme for a team of [size]. Include recognition, development, and team connection elements.
Best for: HR teams, people leads, founders managing their first sizeable team.
40) New market launch plan
Develop a step-by-step plan for launching [product or service] into [new market or country]. Include market entry strategy, localisation requirements, go-to-market priorities, and 90-day milestones.
Best for: growth teams, founders entering new markets, product leads managing international expansion.
41) Mobile app monetisation
Think like a mobile app monetisation strategist. Propose five revenue models for a [type of app] targeting [audience]. Include pros, cons, and implementation complexity for each.
Best for: app founders, product managers choosing a monetisation model.
42) Anti-spam email checklist
Create a checklist to help ensure my marketing emails avoid being marked as spam. Cover subject lines, content structure, technical setup, list hygiene, and engagement signals.
Best for: email marketers, growth teams, anyone managing a cold outbound programme.
Bonus: Prompts Are Just the Starting Point
AI tools are getting faster, smarter, and more capable every quarter. The prompts above will remain useful, but the bigger opportunity is building AI into workflows — not just using it to answer one-off questions.
Businesses that use AI as a prompt-based assistant get incremental value. Businesses that embed AI into their customer communication — automated DMs, conversational onboarding, AI-assisted inbox management — get structural advantage.
If you’re thinking about how AI fits into your customer communication layer specifically, our DFY service handles the design and operation of those systems. The prompts in this post are a useful starting point. The automation is where the compounding starts.