ChatGPT has become an omnipresent tool for answering a wide range of questions, from work and leisure to relationships and travel. However, to receive relevant responses, you need to compose a good prompt. A prompt is a command or an action sentence used to communicate with ChatGPT and other AI language models.
In this document, we reveal our secrets to crafting perfect ChatGPT prompts and becoming a master of this art. These tips come from our internal AI experts, who have extensive experience training AI language models.
What is ChatGPT?
OpenAI's ChatGPT is a cutting-edge AI language model released in November 2022. With the ability to answer any question posed to it, ChatGPT quickly made a name for itself by attracting 1 million users within just five days of its release. Since then, the number of ChatGPT users has continued to grow steadily.
However, ChatGPT has a few limitations:
- It does not know anything that happened after 2021 as it is trained on a huge database with updated data until 2021.
- With great popularity comes another ChatGPT limitation. It is either down or at capacity most of the time due to huge traffic. To overcome this, OpenAI launched ChatGPT Plus - a premium subscription.
- ChatGPT is strictly a text-only language model and does not generate any AI images.
Here is Mercury AI - the ChatGPT with superpowers to help you deal with the limitations of the popular language model and make your life easy with AI. You can experiment to generate unique AI images to use with your content. We use a combination of Stable Diffusion and Dall-E to produce the best AI art. Additionally, you can speak out your prompts and get spoken responses.
With all the amazing features, Mercury AI can be used for finance, media companies, being active on Twitter, and business blog.
Why Create a Perfect ChatGPT Prompt?
Even though language models like ChatGPT are trained on human-generated data, they are still machines. Writing a perfect ChatGPT prompt can result in:
- Conversations that are meaningful and engaging, like learning more about a particular concept by asking follow-up questions and using these responses effectively.
- Accurate predictions and relevant analogies from ChatGPT can be used in your work.
- Faster responses boost your productivity and help you get things done on time.
- Improving the perspectives and notions of ChatGPT by maintaining clarity in your prompt.
How to Create a Perfect ChatGPT Prompt
To write perfect ChatGPT prompts, use these tips:
Start with an Action Word
Always start your ChatGPT prompt with action words like Create, Write, Make, and Generate instead of starting with "Can you."
For instance:
ChatGPT Prompt without action words: Can you tell me how to become a content marketer? ChatGPT Prompt with action words: Create a career plan to become a content marketer in 2023.
Provide Context
ChatGPT can generate a relevant answer with enough context for your question.
For instance:
Contextual ChatGPT Prompt: I have three years of experience as a software developer. Now I am bored with coding and want to transition to another career. My education qualifications are a B.Tech in computer science, and I am well-versed in understanding the business side of software as well. You are a Career Counsellor and please suggest a list of career options that are easy for me to transition.
Use Role Play
Role-play ChatGPT Prompt: You are a marketing veteran for software products with ten years of experience in the industry. You have built marketing strategies for successful software products like Vimeo, Freshworks, Hubspot, and Zoho. Using your marketing experience, advise me on how to build awareness for my newly launched CRM software product 'Zilio.'
Use References
If you want to mimic the writing style of any celebrity, then ChatGPT can do that, too, if you mention it in the prompt.
For instance:
Reference ChatGPT Prompt: Write a list of mistakes to avoid in the 20s in Shakespeare style.
Use Double Quotes
When speaking to someone or presenting, how do you emphasise the importance of a word? You either say it loudly, stretch the word's pronunciation so no one misses it, or use air quotes.
Be Specific
ChatGPT works best when given specific prompts like:
Specific ChatGPT Prompt: Write marketing copy to make my email marketing more engaging. The product I am promoting is called X (e.g., company, service, or organisation). What subject lines would you suggest for a sequence of Y emails?
Give Examples
Using examples in prompts can help you get the desired responses.
For instance, you want to write a book review based on an example:
Example-based ChatGPT Prompt:
Here is a book review of <example book>
“<example book review>”
Now write a similar book review for ‘<book name>.’
Including Response Length
When providing prompts to ChatGPT, it is important to specify the desired length of the response. This ensures that ChatGPT provides a response that meets your expectations and reduces the need for regenerations.
Handholding the AI
In some situations, it is important to provide clear instructions to ChatGPT on what to do, avoid, and prioritise. This is known as "handholding" the AI. For example, when creating a custom diet plan, you may need to specify the number of calories per meal and macronutrient data. By toggling the "enable memory" button, you can ask follow-up questions to refine your prompt and generate a more accurate response.
Refining Prompts
Refining prompts can help generate more accurate responses. For example, if you receive a custom diet plan but want to know the number of calories per meal and macronutrient data, you can refine your prompt to ask for this information.
Specifying Tone
When using ChatGPT to write content, it is important to specify the desired tone. This can make a significant difference in the final output. For example, if you want to write a post about a new launch of T-shirts for a young audience, it is important to specify a tone that is exciting and engaging.