ChatGPT prompt engineering is both an art and a science.
While in the past, I’ve put together massive AI prompt packs for you to copy and paste with, this guide is NOT a plug-and-play.
If you’re just looking for the prompts themselves and not the philosophy behind why they work, you can just take a shortcut with:
But if you want become a prompt engineering expert for yourself and start using AI to generate viral content..
This guide will give you a method for doing this on your own.
Think about what we’ve covered so far:
Viral content is
• Meaningful
• Problem-Solving
• Specific to Your Audience
It’s of the utmost importance to keep these factors in mind when engineering ChatGPT prompts.
The reality is, ChatGPT won’t pump out viral content ideas automatically. Only an authentic creator can make that happen. What AI can do is half the amount of time you spend thinking up ideas, as well as generate a high volume of content for you to pull from.
Follow these principles to start generating viral content with ChatGPT:
Give AI Valuable Context
The more information you give ChatGPT to pull from, the more specific your generated content will be. And that’s exactly what we want.
Get ultra-specific by including these qualifiers in all your ChatGPT prompts:
• Target Audience
• Ideal Customer Profile
• Pain Points of the Problem You Solve
• Desired Outcomes from Your Content
Providing extensive data is absolutely crucial for generating personalized responses. But remember that you’ll never be able to just copy and paste ChatGPT content and expect it to explode online.
The real art comes from editing the generated content to deeply connect with your readers. More on this later…
Keep in mind ChatGPT performs best when you provide writing samples for it to edit, re-write, or re-organize.
It can also translate your writing into a more compelling or creative voice.
Grab Attention First
Your hook is the most important aspect of all your content.
It’s what determines whether your audience will stick around for the next 30 seconds - 2 minutes, or keep on scrolling to the next piece of content on their infinite feed.
The best creators on the internet recommend spending the majority of your time crafting effective hooks. This goes for both written and video content.
But you get 80% of the way there by deeply understanding your audience and what they
• Desire
• Struggle With
• Want to Hear
If you don’t know this information yet, go back to the last section of this guide.
Knowing your audience better than they know themselves is a pre-requisite to all of this.
But once you have that knowledge: you can give it to ChatGPT and ask it to generate a list of powerful, attention-grabbing headlines for you to choose from, edit, and post.
I want you to notice a few things here.
• Target Audience is specified
• Pain Points are articulated
• Prompt Goal is included
• Customer Profile is clear
From here, you’d be able to cater each headline to your particular viewpoint in your niche and snatch your audience’s attention right away.
Use a Proven Outline
The next questions you should ask yourself after creating a powerful headline are:
“How do I take my audience all the way to the end of my content?”
“How do I hold their attention without them scrolling away?”
“What strategies would keep them engaged?”
Luckily for you, the greatest copywriters of the world have already answered these questions for you.
No matter what niche you’re in, what problem you solve, or what type of content you create — the proven copywriting outlines of the last 50 years are all you need to follow to ensure your readers (or viewers) tumble from your hook to your call-to-action at the end of your content.
I’ll include the prompts here for you to pull from, but I want to give you a few key mindset adjustments to make sure your content doesn’t sound overly sales-y or inauthentic.
Because the last thing your audience wants is to be sold to without any value given.
Take a look at these prompts, then come back and learn to apply them correctly.
How to Utilize These No Matter What Content You Create:
DO NOT JUST COPY AND PASTE.
Hopefully you’re noticing a common thread here: that viral content doesn’t just formulate out of a single ChatGPT prompt. It requires a hands-on process and your own creative strategy after generating.
Use the copywriting prompts, but fill in the blanks with your own solutions.
Even if you don’t sell a product or service, these outlines are effective “skeletons” to ensure your readers emotionally connect with each individual aspect of your content.
Remove anything and everything that doesn’t sound like you, it’s crucial for your own voice to shine through loud and clear.
Remember that an outline is just an outline. While these are proven frameworks, there’s always room for experimentation and innovation — especially with viral content.
Your audience is looking for something NEW.
Re-Prompt, Re-Prompt, Re-Prompt
The magic of Viral Prompt Engineering doesn’t come from a single prompt.
It comes from the ongoing refinement process of cutting out what doesn’t work and tripling down on what does. You need to pay attention to what ideas immediately stand out to you when ChatGPT pumps something out. That’s a good sign that they’ll also resonate with your audience.
Here’s a good example of what effective re-prompting looks like:
Prompt 1:
VS.
Prompt 2:
Big difference right?
This is where it’s up to you to be as creative as possible.
By knowing your target audience on a personal level, you’ll be able to re-prompt ChatGPT to customize your content so it goes viral within your niche. You’ll speak the same language as your readers and connect with them by using a voice they’re attracted to.
The more refinements you put your content through, the better it gets.
And as always, add your own personal flair after it’s done generating to really take things home.
By now you know how to
• Build a content strategy for a personal niche
• Use ChatGPT prompts to generate viral content
• Refine your process to increase chances of success
The last step in the process is building out a repeatable workflow that will allow you to do this week after week, month after month, year after year.
Because the people who absolutely win the viral content game are the ones showing up consistently.
With ChatGPT on your side, there’s no reason your content shouldn’t be at the top of your audience’s mind (and feed) on a daily basis.
Let’s bring this thing home.
Building an Infinite Content Flywheel