The principle behind prompt engineering is actually quite simple. We, humans, are the “puppet masters”. The more skilfully we control the “puppets”, the more beautifully they dance for us.
But why should you concern yourself with this? The short answer is that you don’t have to. The generative AI tools that have been becoming increasingly sophisticated since at least spring 2023 often deliver astounding fluke answers, which already enable you to achieve a great deal. But as long as you aren’t refining your prompts in a targeted way, they will most likely remain a fluke.
Why prompt engineering is like playing with Lego
Playing without instructions is always allowed!
You can see the difference. Prompt engineering is a bit like playing with a new Lego set. Imagine you have a brand new Lego set in front of you. You could simply start building and see what happens. Perhaps an interesting piece of art will be created; perhaps not. That is a bit like using artificial intelligence (AI) without specific instructions. You could be lucky and get something useful out of it, but it’s just as likely that you’ll get something that doesn’t really meet your needs.
It can be fun to simply enter prompts on a whim, and the results can be unexpected, surprising and (unintentionally) funny. It’s even a good method of brainstorming, generating new ideas, and exploring without any limitations. The crucial point is that two important factors are lacking: control and predictability. As you never know what will come out when you use imprecise prompts, it’s not a bad way to get started for surprise effects, creativity and brainstorming.
With instructions, it works just like the picture on the box – even if you’re not a programmer
But if there’s one thing that is important for efficiency, fast working and productivity, it’s: control. Predictability. To get good results out of the tools quickly and reliably, you have to be sure that you’ll get what you want as precisely as possible.
If you want to use Midjourney, ChatGPT or other AI tools for more than just a bit of fun, then you’re going to need a system in place at some point. Let’s return to the Lego comparison: prompt engineering begins when you take the instructions out of the box.
So, imagine that you’re now following the instructions supplied with the Lego set. You know exactly which parts you need, where they go and in what order you need to assemble them. The result is a specific model, just like the one shown on the box.
Sometimes, you might need several attempts to get it just the way you want. But, as we’ve said, you still notice the difference immediately!
Using AI with a well-constructed prompt is the same. You give the tool precise instructions on what you expect from it, and the result is much more likely to be what you imagined. This is also the idea behind prompt engineering in a nutshell. You can get much more out of the same building blocks with a systematic approach and “instructions”. Sometimes much more than you could actually imagine!
The beauty of this, by the way, is that you don’t have to be a programmer. Just like you don’t have to be a product designer to build Lego models. You “only” have to be able to follow the instructions. And, in the case of prompt engineering, this often means copying good prompts from other sources and adapting a few parts so that they correspond to your goals. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel every time – it’s available to you if you know where to look for it.
In the world of a prompt engineer, technical knowledge and programming languages are no longer so important. Instead, it’s increasingly “meta-knowledge” that matters. You need to know that “instructions” exist, how to use them, how to find and adapt them and, above all, what – very precisely and in maximum detail – you want to achieve with them.
But that’s not all: you can create your own “building plans”
Prompt engineers may use existing instructions or building plans, but their main task is to create their own “building plans” (prompts). Which are perfectly adapted to very specific goals. Let’s return to the Lego set: prompt engineers are the ones who create the instructions in the first place. Depending on what the prompt has to be able to do and for which AI tool it is created, it can be very simple or highly technical and time-consuming.
If you see the powerful robot on the Lego box but prefer to have an almost human Lego butler, you can take your time to create a building plan for that. The result may be a butler that can work for you immediately, and knows & understands your company precisely. You can even ask him questions about your own brand voice, your CI and your personas if you’ve “programmed” him that way. Like a new assistant who you need to train first.
It’s in your hands. You consider what you want to build, plan it carefully and choose the right building blocks. That is what advanced prompt engineering is like. What do you expect from AI? Formulate your prompt so that it meets these expectations. The result is a tailored model (or a tailored response) that precisely meets your needs and expectations.
Creating your own instructions and building according to them is what creating tailored prompts is like. Although this requires more effort and expert knowledge from the start, it enables specific, individually coordinated results to be created and thus ultimately saves a great deal of time. By the way, you don’t need to be an engineer to do this. We’ll show you here how easy it is to get started!
Let’s now take a look at a few practical examples. Bear in mind: the best way to become an expert at this is to get hands-on and experiment with it! Anything is possible!
Target orientation, clarity and context (practical examples)
Examples of prompts relating to marketing that you can enter directly into ChatGPT – with adaptations, of course – can be found below. What they have in common is that they formulate clearly what the end result should look like and give the chatbot a great deal of context so that the answer can also be specific and not general.
ChatGPT examples
Competition analysis (possible with ChatGPT Plus)
“Visit our main competitor’s website at www.competitor-website.com. Analyse the main features of their products and services and create a list of five points in which we could improve to become more competitive.”
Content ideas
“I am the content manager for a company that manufactures fitness equipment. We would like to fill our blog with useful and appealing content for fitness enthusiasts. Optimised for SEO. Suggest four blog topics that focus on the benefits of our products and general fitness tips.”
Email marketing campaign
“Here is the current text for our email marketing campaign: (enter your email here) Adapt the text so that it is more personal and more appealing. Our goal is to increase the click rate and encourage customers to buy our new products. Our target group is (describe your target group)”
SEO-optimised blog post
“Here is the beginning of our new blog post: (Insert text) Could you please continue this blog post and include the keywords ‘sustainable design’, ‘innovative technology’ and ‘high quality’? Our goal is to create an informative and SEO-optimised blog post, which would encourage our website visitors to find out more about our new product.”
Midjourney examples
Very detailed goal:
“Highly realistic portrait of an older woman in a forest setting, kind, weathered face full of wisdom and character, with deep laugh lines and sparkling eyes full of life,her hair is a mix of silver and white, loosely tied back, with a few strands escaping around her face, she's wearing a warm, earth-toned sweater and a pendant necklace. She's standing amidst tall, ancient trees, their leaves a mix of vibrant and fading colors, indicating the onset of autumn. The dappled sunlight filters through the canopy, casting a soft, warm glow on her face. In her hand, she holds a walking stick, her expression is one of peace and contentment, as if she's in her favorite place in the world“
What is an advantage for ChatGPT – context with breadth and depth – is too much for Midjourney. Although the result above is of higher quality, many details have not made it from the text into the image. (For example, the sweater, necklace and walking stick described in the prompt.)
What’s more, although the image is “highly realistic”, it is not a photograph. It is thus also an example that shows you often get quite literally what you ask for. A photograph was not requested, so a highly realistic painting is just as likely a result as a photograph. The tool simply has to guess what you want.
So, it is not a matter of providing as many details as possible, but – especially with Midjourney – really only providing the really important, crucial points. Let’s say that we really need a photograph and a sweater, walking stick and necklace absolutely have to be included. Then we naturally include the word “photography”, which is important for our goal, and remove the parts of the prompt that are unnecessary:
Detailed, clear goal:
“Realistic portrait of an older woman in a forest setting holding a walking stick, kind, weathered face full of wisdom and character, with deep laugh lines and sparkling eyes, hair, silver and white, warm earth-toned sweater, pendant necklace, sunlight, warm glow, autumn, photography“
We are now not only asking for a picture of an older woman in a forest, but have placed “holding a walking stick” much more prominently. We were thus able to adapt the result to our priorities.
