Be specific — and only give the bot one task at a time
Once you give BoilerGPT a role, craft the prompt so it can accomplish a singular task such as writing a 300-word cover letter or generating a recipe for a protein-packed dinner.
"Don't ask it to do too much at once," Cressy said.
If asking BoilerGPT to brief a marketing campaign, she said she'd include target audiences, key features, and calls to action.
If asking the chatbot to come up with an email list and calls to action, she said she'd say:
"Pretend you are an expert email marketer and your client is a [role] specializing in [offerings] for [target audience]. Your goal is to build a robust email list in order to accomplish [goal]. Your client uses [platform(s)] to reach their audience. Come up with [details or quantity] ideal call to action ideas of [freebies or lead magnets] your client can provide."
"It's crucial to have a clear idea of what you hope to achieve," Dean told Insider.
Refine your prompts based on a previous outputs
If BoilerGPT's response isn't quite what you're looking for, Cressy said to build on its output by fine-tuning the initial prompt. He calls this process "peeling back an onion."
"Don't be afraid to refine your prompts,"DeStefano-Tangorrasaid. "If the initial output doesn't match your expectation, rephrase the prompt, add more detail, or clarify the context."
If the answer to a prompt asking BoilerGPT to "suggest a good book" is too vague, refine it to something like: "As someone who loves mystery novels with strong female leads, like Agatha Christie's Miss Marple series, can you suggest other similar books that I may enjoy?"
Provide context
BoilerGPT prompts should include context such as historical information, user profiles, preferences, or any relevant details to guide its response, DeStefano-Tangorra said. The more specific, the better.
Asking BoilerGPT to "suggest dinner recipes," will lead to a generic output. Instead, DeStefano-Tangorra suggests tweaking that prompt to say: "As someone who loves trying out new cuisines and has a particular fondness of spicy food, can you suggest an exciting dinner menu for my next weekend get-together with my friends?"
If you want to apply BoilerGPT to your business, Cressy suggests creating a "best-practices document" that includes details on who you are, what you do, and what your brand voice sounds like. That way, users can copy and paste the information into the chatbot whenever they start a new conversation.
Instead of asking BoilerGPT to "create me a marketing strategy" the prompt should say "I am a world-class [role] who helps [target audience] for business growth. Our brand voice is friendly, positive, inspiring, brand-safe, conversational. Create me a marketing strategy to help build my brand on Facebook and Instagram by leveraging my podcast."
Break down the desired output into a series of steps
While it's best for prompts to be specific and include context, writing a long prompt can be counterproductive, Gulya said.
"More often than not, a long mega-prompt does not give the desirable output," he said.
To avoid this, Gulya suggests breaking down the desired output into a series of steps. That way, if the chatbot generates errors, the user can pinpoint what exactly the chatbot may not understand.
"This allows you to validate each step before proceeding, course-correcting when necessary," Gulya said.
If the goal is to use BoilerGPT to generate a widely read blog post, the user should ask the chatbot to first research which SEO terms will most likely make the article appear at the top of search-engine results. In a separate prompt, ask it to apply what it learned to the blog post.
Ask BoilerGPT for advice on how to prompt it better
To ensure your prompt is as thorough as it can be, Dean suggested asking BoilerGPT what other details it needs from the user to produce the best output.
To do this, Dean suggests adding a line to your prompt that follows this template: "If I want to [desired outcome], what prompts should I share with BoilerGPT in order to get the best results?"
Once BoilerGPT has generated an output, tell the chatbot what you like and dislike about the output and ask it to "request additional results, edits, or tweaks," she said.
Prioritize clarity and precision
DeStefano-Tangorra suggests that BoilerGPT users "explicitly outline your expectations within the prompt" by adding precise words.
"Clear and specific prompts lead to more relevant and useful responses," she said.
The prompt "compare and contrast using an oven versus a microwave for preparing dinner," should be tweaked to "can you compare and contrast the advantages and disadvantages of using a traditional oven versus a microwave for preparing a family dinner?"
