Since the explosion of AI, the word 'prompt' has taken on a whole new level of importance. But not all prompts are created equal — and depending on how you use them, you might be practicing prompt engineering or prompt marketing.
These two approaches are both valuable, they work together in many cases, but they serve very different purposes. Here’s a breakdown of what each one means, when to use them, and how they work in real-life situations.
What is Prompt Engineering?
Prompt engineering is the process of designing prompts that get accurate, useful, and consistent responses from an AI. This technique is especially important in software development, automation, and AI-powered apps like the AI Marketing Platform.
The Goal: To get the AI to perform a specific task correctly and reliably.
Use Cases:
- AI-powered customer support tools
- AI assistants for marketing content
- Automation in email or code generation
- AI-based tutoring or medical symptom checkers
Example:
Say you’re building a travel planning app using ChatGPT. Here’s a well-engineered prompt:
"You are an expert travel advisor. Generate a 7-day travel itinerary for a solo female traveller in Bali. Focus on wellness, safety, and local culture. Include daily activities, recommended areas to stay, and estimated costs."
This is prompt engineering because it sets the role, scope, and expectations for the AI, leading to high-quality, consistent results every time. Our AI platform has been engineered to use your own content to help with prompt engineering. It will use what you provide and turn it into content you can use in prompt marketing.
What is Prompt Marketing?
Prompt marketing is the use of prompts as content — designed to spark reflection, storytelling, or interaction from your audience. It’s a creative and emotional tool, often used by content creators, influencers, and marketers.
The Goal: To get your audience to think, write, or engage.
Use Cases:
- Instagram captions for self-help or journaling pages
- X (aka Twitter) engagement prompts
- Email newsletter inspiration
Example: Imagine you're a life coach on Instagram. You might post:
“Journal Prompt: What’s one belief you’ve outgrown in the past year, and how did it change your life?”
(Add a beautiful graphic, hashtags, and a call to comment or save)
This isn’t for the AI — it’s for your audience. The goal is emotional connection, reflection, and engagement. That’s prompt marketing.
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Prompt Engineering | Prompt Marketing |
| Gets AI to do what you want | Gets your audience to reflect or respond |
| Precise, instructional, role-based | Emotional, open-ended, relatable |
| Used in AI tools, apps, coding projects | Used on social media, newsletters, journals |
| Requires clarity, structure, testing | Requires empathy, creativity, timing |
| Example: “Write SEO meta descriptions…” | Example: “What does success look like to you?” |
Real-Life Contexts
Prompt Engineering in Action:
You need content for your blog. You write prompts like:
"Write an SEO-optimized blog post outline for the keyword: 'benefits of cold showers'. Include an introduction, 5 main points, and a conclusion."
Here, you're relying on the AI to create the content for you.
Prompt Marketing in Action:
You run a Facebook page for wellness. You tweet:
"Write about a time when you chose peace over being right. What happened?" #writingprompt #selfreflection
This gets people writing, commenting, and thinking. It’s content for people, not the AI.
One Source, Multiple Outcomes
Let’s say you upload or write a blog post in the platform about "Building Self-Trust After Burnout".
With Prompt Engineering, you could ask the AI:
“Summarise this blog post into a Twitter thread with a reflective tone, using the voice of a mindset coach.”
With Prompt Marketing, you could generate audience-facing prompts like:
“Journal Prompt: When was the last time you trusted your instincts without second-guessing yourself?”
“Instagram Caption Idea: Learning to trust yourself again isn’t a one-time decision — it’s a daily conversation. Save this for the next time self-doubt creeps in.”
With the AI Marketing Platform not only can you get it to write the SEO optimized blog for you but you can also prompt it to use that content to create your tweets, your Instagram post or an introduction you can put on LinkedIn when you link to your blog post.
Our platform was built to take advantage of both prompt engineering and prompt marketing.
Want to turn a blog post into a tweet thread? That’s prompt engineering.
Want your audience to reflect, comment, or journal? That’s prompt marketing.
Want to do both in one workflow? That’s where being a member of our platform helps.
With the AI Marketing Platform, you don’t have to choose — you can:
Generate content with AI (engineering)
Create content for your audience (marketing)
Repurpose everything into multiple formats, fast
Try it for free at aimarketingplatform.app
Remember...
Prompt engineering and prompt marketing are both powerful — they just serve different purposes.
Use prompt engineering when you want to use AI effectively.
Use prompt marketing when you want to connect with your audience.
If you're a creator, coach, or entrepreneur, you might actually use both — engineering great prompts behind the scenes, and marketing with great prompts in front of your audience.
