Give it clear, concise context about your business before you ask for anything: who you serve, what you sell and for how much, why clients choose you, what you want the business to pay you, and how you sound. Keep it to one page in plain words, and paste it in at the start of every conversation. The output is only as specific as what you put in.
Why the output sounds generic
An AI tool only knows what you tell it. Ask for a marketing plan for a bookkeeping firm with nothing else, and it fills in the blanks with what most bookkeeping firms say. Same tips, same tone, same promises.
A good test: cover your logo. Could someone still tell it's you? If not, the tool was working from your industry, because that's all it had.
The context to give it
Write these down once, before you open the tool:
- Who you serve. One sentence, specific enough that someone could picture one person.
- What you sell. Each offer, with its price.
- Why clients choose you. In their words if you have them. Your reviews are a good place to look.
- What you want the business to pay you this year. This tells the tool how hard the marketing has to work.
- How you sound. A few words that describe your voice, plus two or three things you wrote that sound like you.
- What you already have. Website, email list, social accounts, reviews.
Keep it clear and concise
More isn't better. A long brain dump gives the tool as much to get wrong as to get right. Aim for one page. Plain words, short sentences, no history of the business unless it matters to a client.
Here is an example for a made-up business:
Who I serve: owners of small trades businesses, five to fifteen employees, who do their own books at night and hate it.
What I sell: monthly bookkeeping, $450 a month. A one-time cleanup of past books, $1,200.
Why clients choose me: "She explains it like a person." "I finally know what I made last month."
This year: I want the business to pay me $80,000.
How I sound: direct, warm, no jargon. I never say "financial wellness."
What I have: a website, 200 people on my email list, Instagram I rarely use, 40 Google reviews.
That is enough for any tool to write something that sounds like one specific business. Save it, and update it when something changes.
How to ask
- Paste the context first, then ask. Every time, in every new conversation.
- Ask for one thing at a time. "Write the welcome email for new cleanup clients" beats "write my email marketing."
- Say who it's for and what it should do. "For a trades owner who just found me on Google. The goal is a booked call."
- Read it out loud. If you wouldn't say it, change it, then tell the tool what you changed so the next draft is closer.
What context alone won't fix
Good context fixes most of the generic output. It doesn't decide what to build first, and it doesn't keep your website, emails and posts saying the same thing over months. Each new chat starts from zero unless you bring the context back in.
That is the part Marketing Mapped Out was built for. It asks you these questions in order, writes your answers down, and carries them into every piece you build after that, so the context is always there. It does the thinking with you, not for you.
Common questions
Do I have to paste my context in every time?
Yes, unless you save it. ChatGPT and Claude both let you store instructions or files in a project so every conversation starts with them. Either way, keep one master version and update it when something changes.
Will it sound like me?
Closer, if you give it two or three things you wrote yourself and a few words about your voice. Then edit what comes back out loud. If you wouldn't say it, change it.
Will AI-written marketing hurt my Google ranking?
Google has said it rewards helpful content whoever or whatever wrote it. What hurts is generic content that says what every other page says. Specific details about your business, your clients and your results are what make a page worth ranking.