Prompt Engineering for Marketers: Copy That Does Not Sound Like AI

1. A specific audience. Not "small businesses" — "solo bookkeepers with 10-30 clients who still reconcile in spreadsheets".
2. The objection. The real reason they hesitate: switching cost, trust, price, scepticism about accuracy.
3. The proof. Real numbers, real integrations, real guarantees. Whatever you do not supply, the model will either omit or fabricate.
4. The voice. Two or three sentences of your existing copy pasted in, which beats any adjective list.

One sentence removes most of the recognisable AI register:

"Do not use: unlock, elevate, seamless, game-changer, revolutionize, delve, in today's fast-paced world, whether you are a X or a Y, it is not just A, it is B. No rhetorical questions as openings. No em-dash-heavy triplets. No sentence that could describe any company in any industry."

That last clause is the strongest one. It forces specificity by making genericness itself a violation.

Marketing is where hallucination becomes a legal and reputational problem. Two constraints handle nearly all of it:

"Use only the facts I provide. Do not invent statistics, customer names, awards, timeframes, or comparisons to competitors. Where a claim would strengthen the copy but you have no supporting fact, insert [PROOF NEEDED: what would go here] instead of writing it."

The bracketed placeholder is what makes this practical — you get a copy draft plus a checklist of exactly what evidence to gather.

"You are a direct-response copywriter. Product: [one sentence]. Audience: [specific segment]. Their main objection: [objection]. Proof we can use: [facts]. Voice sample: [paste 2 sentences of our copy].

Write three ad variants of under 90 characters for the headline and under 120 for the body. Each variant must use a genuinely different angle: one on the objection, one on the outcome, one on the cost of doing nothing. [banned-phrase line] Return a table with columns: angle, headline, body, why it should work."

Specifying different angles per variant is what prevents three near-identical outputs.

Email:

"Write a 120-word email to [segment] who signed up 14 days ago and have not completed setup. One job: get them to finish step 3. Reference the specific friction: [friction]. One link, one call to action, no PS. Subject line under 45 characters, no emoji. [banned-phrase line]"

Landing page section:

"Write the hero and the three-benefit block for a landing page targeting [segment]. Each benefit must name the concrete before-state and after-state, and cite one of these proof points: [list]. Hero headline under 60 characters. Keep total under 180 words. [banned-phrase line]"

Ask for the brief before the draft — it is faster to fix a plan than a finished article:

"Target keyword: [keyword]. Search intent: [informational/commercial]. Audience: [segment]. Build a content brief: the single question the page must answer in its first 100 words, an H2 outline where each section answers a distinct sub-question, the format each section should take (table, list, walkthrough), the specific claims that will need sources, and three internal links from this list: [paste your URLs]. Do not write the article yet."

When a draft is 80% there, do not regenerate — it discards the good parts. Constrain the edit:

"Here is my draft. Cut it to 90 words while keeping the second paragraph verbatim. Replace every abstract claim with a concrete one using only these facts: [facts]. List every change you made and why. Do not change the call to action."

Requiring a change log makes review a thirty-second job instead of a re-read.

Write this once, keep it in a note, and paste it at the top of every marketing prompt:

"Brand: [name]. We sell [product] to [audience]. Voice: [three concrete adjectives]. We always: [two habits, e.g. lead with the specific outcome, use plain words]. We never: [two habits, e.g. hype adjectives, fake urgency]. Reading level: [grade]. Sample of our voice: [2-3 sentences of real copy]."

This single block improves output more than any other change, because it converts brand voice from an adjective into a demonstrated pattern.