A prompt that works does four things: it names a role, gives the situation, states the exact deliverable, and fixes the format. Below are nine that follow that pattern across marketing, sales and productivity, with the reason each one works and the fix when the answer comes back flat. One common prompt pattern is also called out, because it makes Claude invent statistics.
What separates a prompt that works from one that does not
Short prompts are not the problem. Vague ones are. "Write a campaign brief" fails because Claude has no idea whether you mean a two-line Slack message or a twelve-page document, who reads it, or what a good one looks like at your company. It answers the average version of the question and the average is always bland.
Four things fix that, and every prompt below uses all four:
- A role, because it sets the standard. "A senior strategist" produces different output from no role at all, not because Claude becomes one, but because it selects for the kind of writing senior strategists produce.
- The situation: product, audience, budget, deadline, whatever constrains the answer. Constraints are what make an answer specific.
- The deliverable, named exactly. "Three creative directions" beats "some ideas" every time.
- The format, including length. Without it you will get prose when you wanted a table, and 900 words when you wanted 200.
One more thing worth adding to almost any prompt: tell it what not to do. A banned-phrase list does more for tone than any adjective. "Do not open with a rhetorical question" is instantly actionable; "be engaging" is not.
Marketing prompts
If you would rather have this running permanently than paste it each time, see AI Marketing Agents and AI SEO Agents.
1. Campaign brief generator
"Act as a senior marketing strategist. I am launching [product] to [audience] with a budget of [amount] and a deadline of [date]. Write a full campaign brief: objective, target persona, key message, channel mix, and three creative directions. Be specific and opinionated. No generic frameworks, and do not hedge with 'it depends'."
Why it works: the budget and the deadline do the heavy lifting. A brief written for $5,000 and three weeks is a different document from one written for $200,000 and six months, and without those numbers Claude writes for neither.
If the output is flat: add the constraint that makes your situation awkward. "We have no creative team" or "legal has to approve every claim" will change the brief more than any amount of tone instruction.
2. Subject line generator
"Write 10 subject lines for an email promoting [offer] to [audience]. For each, name the psychological trigger it uses (curiosity, urgency, social proof, specificity, self-interest) and flag any that risk spam filters. Keep all of them under 45 characters."
Why it works: asking for the trigger alongside the line forces variety. Without it you get ten versions of the same idea with the words shuffled.
Worth knowing: a version of this prompt going around asks Claude to "predict the open rate based on current benchmarks." Do not use it. Claude has no access to your list, your sender reputation or your send history, so it will produce a confident, invented percentage. Judge the lines on the trigger and test the real number yourself.
The subject line prompt is a one-off. Nadia carries the rest of the job: send-time strategy, segmentation, A and B test structures, and your brand voice, without you restating it every session.
View Nadia →3. Competitor teardown
"I am going to paste three competitor homepages. For each: their primary value proposition in one sentence, who they are speaking to, their pricing signal (premium, mid-market, budget) and the evidence for it, and one weakness I could take a position against. Be direct. If two of them are saying the same thing, say so."
Why it works: the last sentence is the useful one. Competitors converging on identical language is the clearest positioning gap you will ever be handed, and it is invisible when you read the sites one at a time.
Sales prompts
The full set lives in the Sales Prompts collection.
4. Cold outreach personaliser
"Here is a prospect's LinkedIn profile: [paste]. Write a cold message under 80 words that references something specific from their experience, connects it to a problem we solve, and ends with a low-friction ask. Do not use 'I hope this finds you well' or any variant. Do not compliment their company."
Why it works: the word limit is the whole prompt. Under 80 words there is no room for a warm-up, so the specific detail has to carry the opening.
If the output is flat: the profile you pasted was thin. Paste a recent post of theirs instead of the profile summary. What someone chose to write about last month is far better outreach material than their job title.
5. Objection handler
"A prospect said: '[objection]'. I sell [product] at [price] to [ICP]. Write three responses: one that empathises and redirects, one that reframes the value, one built around a short case study. Under 100 words each. Do not concede the point in the first sentence."
Why it works: three angles instead of one best answer. You are not looking for a script, you are looking for the framing that fits how this particular deal has been going.
Cold sequences, objection responses and follow-ups written to one voice and one method, so the fourth email in a sequence still sounds like the first.
View Bex →6. Discovery call prep sheet
"I have a discovery call with [company] in [industry] on [date]. Recent context: [news, funding, hiring, product launch]. Give me a one-page prep sheet: five discovery questions that are not answerable with yes or no, two hypotheses about their pain, and three objections I should expect. Mark which hypothesis you are least confident about."
Why it works: the last line. An answer that flags its own weakest part is far more useful than one delivered at uniform confidence, and it tells you which question to lead with on the call.
Productivity prompts
7. Meeting notes to action items
"Here are my raw meeting notes: [paste]. Extract three lists: decisions made, action items with owner and deadline where stated, open questions needing follow-up. If an action item has no owner, say so rather than guessing. Plain bullets, no preamble."
Why it works: ownerless action items are the ones that get dropped. Telling Claude to flag them instead of assigning them turns a summary into something you can act on.
8. Weekly plan builder
"Here is my task list for this week: [paste]. I have [X] hours across [days]. Sort these by the Eisenhower matrix, say which to delegate or drop and why, and build a daily schedule that protects two hours of uninterrupted work each day. If the list does not fit the hours, tell me that first."
Why it works: that final clause. Without it you get a schedule that quietly assumes a 60-hour week, which is exactly the plan you already had.
9. Document review with a point of view
"Read this document and give me: a three-sentence summary, the single most important claim it makes, the biggest assumption it rests on, and one thing you would push back on if you were advising the author. Do not just summarise."
Why it works: "the biggest assumption it rests on" is the line that earns its keep. Summaries are easy to get anywhere. Naming the load-bearing assumption is the part a person would charge you for.
The last three prompts, plus the parts around them: drafting in your voice, prepping materials before a meeting, and chasing the action items nobody owned.
View Diane →When a prompt is the wrong tool
Prompts are perfect for work you do occasionally. They stop making sense for work you do every week, for one reason: context does not survive a new chat. You re-paste the setup, re-explain the audience, re-describe the tone, and then edit out the same three habits you edit out every time.
A skill file moves that into a document Claude keeps. It is a ZIP with a SKILL.md inside, uploaded once in the Claude desktop app under Customize → Skills, and Claude loads it whenever the task matches. On a free plan, or in ChatGPT and Gemini, you paste the same file into custom instructions instead. Details: how to install a Claude skill.
A rough rule: if you have pasted the same setup three times, write it down once.
Where the rest are
The nine above are a sample. The prompt packs run 40 to 80 prompts per role, grouped by workflow stage, with notes on chaining them for multi-step work. Prompt packs are $9; the role skills that replace them are $14.99.
Related reading
- AI sales prompts - 15 prompts for booking meetings and closing.
- AI marketing skills for Claude - strategy, content and ads.
- Best AI agents for marketing teams - when to move past prompts entirely.
- The Claude skills marketplace - what you are actually buying.
In summary:
Role, situation, deliverable, format, plus one thing not to do. If you are lifting open rates, start with Nadia (Email Marketing); if the same three objections keep killing deals, Bex; if you are drowning in notes and planning, Diane. All $14.99, all work in Claude, ChatGPT and any AI chat, no coding, 30-day money-back guarantee.
Ready to put this into practice? Browse Work and Business skills for Claude and ChatGPT, or explore all Claude skills and the prompt library.