3 prompts reveal what readers think, feel and fear
Turns out, a robot can help you relate better to humans.
I’m preparing for a conference breakout on how to use AI to tap into your readers’ needs so you can write pieces that speak to their hearts, not just to their inboxes.
I started out with the obvious prompts: What keeps XX up at night? How does YY feel about this messaging? What objections do ZZ have to ABC? And I got predictably boring answers.
So I asked my favorite bot — this week, Gemini — for help. “What are ways that I might not know about that you can help professional communicators connect with their audiences?”
And here’s what I got …
1. Find the micro-triggers.
You’ve heard it a million times: Ask a boring question, get a boring answer.
- Obvious prompt: What are the main pain points for high school principals?
- Boring answer: Student test scores, budget cuts and teacher retention.
- Boring lead: School administrators: Manage staffing and resource allocation efficiently with our software.
To get specific, concrete, creative, provocative answers, ask a specific, concrete, creative, provocative question.
- Micro-trigger prompt: What is a specific, mundane operational nightmare a high-school principal faces at 7:15 a.m. on a rainy Tuesday that ruins their entire day?
- Specific answer: The automated sub-calling system glitched, three teachers called out sick, and I have to pull in the art teacher and guidance counselor to cover freshman algebra while standing in a wet hallway dealing with a bus that arrived 20 minutes late.
- Micro-trigger lead: For those mornings when the sub-calling system glitches and you’re personally re-routing the art teacher to cover freshman algebra at 7:15 a.m. …
OK, I thought. Now we’re getting somewhere.
2. Run an empathy simulator.
How will your readers respond to your message? Find out by asking your AI bot to roleplay your most burned-out skeptic reading in line-by-line to flag where it triggers defensiveness, cynicism or confusion.
- Original message: In our ongoing commitment to fostering an agile, collaborative culture, leadership has decided to optimize our hybrid work model to a three-day schedule.
- Feedback: Ongoing commitment … I’m already defensive because you’re hiding bad news behind a PR phrase. Optimize our model … You didn’t optimize anything for me. You added an hour to my commute. Just say you want us back in the building.
- Rewrite: We know you value the flexibility of working from home, and making a change to your schedule is tough. But starting next month, we’re moving to a mandatory three-day, in-office week. We’re doing this because our cross-team projects have increased. We know this affects your daily routines, and we want to be upfront about the shift.
Get this feedback before you press Send.
3. Reverse-engineer objections.
Your widget does all the things, right? So why don’t they just buy it? Find out when you reverse-engineer objections.
- Obvious prompt: What are the benefits of our project management tool for a mid-level manager?
- Clichéd answer: It increases efficiency, saves time, and organizes team tasks.
- Boring copy: Save 57 hours of administrative work every week when you migrate your team to our platform to unlock seamless tracking today.
Instead, prompt for hidden objections to your widget.
- Objections prompt: I am asking a middle manager to migrate their team to a new software tool. What are the silent, political and emotional risks that make them want to say no, even if they agree their current system is slow.
- Real objection: If they migrate, they have to personally handle the complaints from their team during the transition. If the implementation glitches, it makes them look bad to their VP. To them, saving 55 hours a week isn’t worth risking their reputation or dealing with an internal team mutiny.
- Better copy: The worst part of switching to a new tool isn’t the software — it’s dealing with a team that hates learning a new tool. Keep your team happy and protect your week from implementation headaches with our 59-minute rollout plan.
Don’t replace, but augment conversations
When I was a magazine editor, I used to get to know my readers by calling a different subscriber every day and finding out what was on their mind. I loved the regular, ongoing, human interaction.
But today, the best bet might be to use AI as your digital subscriber line — not to replace those conversations — but to give you the exact questions, blind spots, and counter-arguments to test against the next time you pick up the phone.
And, note to self: Ask your bot how to use your bot.
