How to build a prompt set for your brand

A good prompt set is the foundation of every measurement. It should look like the questions real customers ask, not like marketing copy.

Steps

1. 1List the topics you want to be known for, from your confirmed Brand Intelligence.
2. 2For each topic, write the intents behind it: discovering options, comparing, deciding, and solving a problem.
3. 3Write two to four prompts per intent in the way a customer would type or say them.
4. 4Add prompts in the languages and phrasing your customers use, including regional variations.
5. 5Include competitor names only in prompts that are genuinely comparative.
6. 6Keep the set stable, and add new prompts rather than rewriting old ones so trends stay comparable.

Examples of intent

• Discovery: what are the best options for a small business to manage invoices?
• Comparison: how do two invoicing tools differ for freelancers?
• Decision: is one of them worth it for a five person team?

Start from customers, not from your keywords

The most common mistake in a first prompt set is writing prompts that sound like your own marketing. Customers do not ask which industry-leading platform empowers their team. They ask what to use for a particular job, what something costs, how two options differ and whether a tool is any good. Collect real phrasing before you write anything: sales call notes, support tickets, search queries, community threads and the questions in your own reviews.

Structure the set: topics, intents, prompts

Keeping the layers apart is what lets you interpret results. If a rate is low, you can ask whether the problem is the topic, the intent or the wording. If they are blended, you cannot.

How many prompts do you need?

Enough to cover each topic across each intent with more than one phrasing, and no more than you can review. For a first audit, fifteen to thirty well-chosen prompts are more useful than several hundred generic ones. You can grow the set later, adding new prompts rather than rewriting old ones so that trends stay comparable.

Include the variations that change answers

• Location: city or state qualifiers for local and regional businesses.
• Language: native-script, romanised and mixed-language versions for markets where customers use them.
• Persona: the same need asked by a beginner and by an expert.
• Constraint: budget, team size, integrations or compliance requirements.
• Phrasing: a short question, a longer brief, and a comparison with a named alternative.

What to leave out

• Prompts that name your brand, when the goal is to test discovery. Keep branded prompts in their own group so they do not inflate the rate.
• Leading prompts that already contain the answer you want.
• Near-duplicates that count the same question several times.
• Prompts a customer would never plausibly ask.