25 ChatGPT prompts for small business marketing
Most people use ChatGPT like a search box and then wonder why the answers are bland. The trick isn't a magic prompt. It's giving it enough context to work with and telling it exactly what shape the answer should take.
Below are 25 prompts for small business work: strategy, content, social, sales and the boring admin. Square brackets are placeholders. Replace them with your details before you hit send.
The four lines that do most of the work
Every good prompt answers four questions.
Who I am: one line about your business and who buys from it.
What I want: the exact deliverable and the format. Say "five options" or "under 200 words".
What to avoid: the tone, the banned words, what it must not invent.
What shape: a table, a numbered list, subject lines, a script with timings.
Two habits worth building. First, tell it not to invent numbers, and check every figure yourself anyway. Second, when a task needs your input, ask it to interview you one question at a time. That single trick beats any prompt on this page.
Strategy and positioning
1. I run [business]. My buyer is [buyer]. Give me five positioning angles that each take a different side of the market, and for each one write the sentence I would put on my homepage.
2. Here's my competitor's homepage: [paste]. List ten things they claim, then tell me which three nobody else in this category is defending.
3. I sell [product] at [price]. Give me three customer groups where that price is an easy yes and three where it's a hard sell. Explain each one.
4. Interview me as a customer who thinks my product is overpriced. Ask five questions, one at a time, and wait for my answer each time.
5. Turn this messy description of my business into a one-line offer, a short supporting paragraph and a five-word tagline: [paste].
Content and SEO
6. Target keyword: [keyword]. Give me an outline with one H2 per search intent, the question each section answers, and the kind of proof I should include: a table, a price, an example.
7. Here's my draft: [paste]. Cut 20% of the words without losing a single claim, then tell me what you cut and why.
8. List 20 questions people ask before buying [product]. Group them by intent: research, comparison, pricing, risk.
9. Rewrite this paragraph so it starts with the answer, uses numbers instead of adjectives, and keeps every fact: [paste].
10. Be a skeptical reader. Find the three weakest claims on this page and tell me what evidence would fix each one: [paste].
Social and email
11. Turn this article into five LinkedIn posts, each with a different hook: a question, a number, a mistake, a contrarian take, a short story. Keep each under 150 words: [paste].
12. Write ten subject lines for this email, split between curiosity and benefit. Flag any that might trip a spam filter: [paste email].
13. Write a five-email welcome sequence for new subscribers to [business]. Email 1 delivers what they asked for. Emails 2 to 5 each carry one idea. No hard selling before email 4.
14. Here's my best performing post: [paste]. Write five variations that keep the structure but change the angle, and don't reuse the same opening line.
15. Turn this customer question into a short video script with timings, a spoken hook in the first five seconds, and one call to action: [paste].
Sales and follow-up
16. Write a follow-up email for someone who went quiet 10 days after I sent a quote. No guilt, no fake deadlines, one clear question.
17. Objection: [objection]. Give me three answers: one that reframes the problem, one that removes the risk, and one that politely disqualifies them.
18. Turn this call transcript into a one-page recap with decisions, open questions and next steps with owners: [paste].
19. Write a one-page proposal for [service] at [price] for a buyer who mainly cares about [priority]. Mention the price once and explain it honestly.
20. Here's a lead's website: [paste]. Tell me what they probably need, what they'll push back on, and the three questions I should ask first.
Admin and analysis
21. Here are my last month's expenses: [paste]. Group them, flag anything that looks like a duplicate or an unused subscription, and estimate what I could cut.
22. Write a one-page procedure for [task] so someone new can follow it without asking me questions.
23. I want to automate [task] that takes [time] a week. List the steps, mark which ones can be automated, and say whether Zapier, Make or n8n fits best, with a reason.
24. Turn these rough notes into an update I can send a client. Warm but professional, and leave out the internal details: [paste].
25. Be my operations reviewer. Ask me five questions that expose where my workflow breaks when volume triples. One at a time.
What never goes into a prompt
Customer names, emails, phone numbers, card details. Strip those first. Same for anything covered by an NDA, and anything medical or financial that belongs to someone else.
One more thing worth remembering: if it doesn't know a fact, it will make one up without warning. Treat every number as a draft until you've found the source.
Once the prompts are working, the next win is removing the copy and paste. The automation guide covers which platform to wire it into, and the stack pricing guide shows what this should cost.
One note: AI pricing moves fast. We read these numbers off the vendors' own pricing pages in October 2026, so check the current price before you buy.
Where to check the current price
These are the official pages we read while writing this guide. Plain links, no tracking, no middlemen. If a number here ever disagrees with what you see, trust their page and tell us so we can fix it.
Frequently asked questions
Do these work on the free version of ChatGPT?
Yes. Every prompt here works on the free tiers of ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini. Paid plans handle very long pasted context better, but the structure is what produces the result.
How long should a prompt be?
Long enough to include context, the deliverable, the constraints and the format. Usually four to eight lines. Very short prompts get generic answers, and very long ones bury the instruction.
Why does it keep making up statistics?
Because it writes fluent answers rather than checking facts. Add a rule like never invent numbers and verify every figure yourself before you publish it.
Can I paste client data in?
Only if your agreement and the tool's terms allow it. Removing names, contact details and anything sensitive is the safe default.
What should I automate first?
The task that happens most often and needs the least judgement: moving data between two apps, meeting recaps, or turning published content into social drafts.