A few months ago, a colleague sent me a frustrated message: “I asked ChatGPT to help with my marketing strategy and it gave me the same generic garbage I can find on any blog. This thing is useless.”

I asked him to send me exactly what he’d written. His prompt said: “Give me digital marketing ideas.”

There was the problem.

For decades, we trained ourselves to search on Google. We’d type two or three keywords and expect the algorithm to do the rest. That era is over. With artificial intelligence, the dynamic has completely changed: now you’re not searching, you’re conversing. And like in any conversation, the clarity with which you express yourself determines the quality of what you receive.

The difference between getting a mediocre response and a brilliant one isn’t in the AI. It’s in how you talk to it.

Greg Brockman, President of OpenAI, distilled this logic into what we now know as “The Anatomy of the Perfect Prompt.” It’s not magic, it’s method. And once you understand the structure, your relationship with AI changes radically.

The Four Pillars of a Prompt That Works

The structure rests on four elements that work together like ingredients in a recipe: if one is missing, the result crumbles. If you combine them well, you get something extraordinary.

These are: Goal, Return Format, Warnings, and Context Dump. Let’s break them down one by one, with real examples you can use today.

1. Goal – The Objective: Clarity is Power

This is where most people fail. Not because they’re vague, but because they assume the AI “understands” what they need. It doesn’t. AI doesn’t read your mind, it reads your words.

When you write “tell me about digital marketing,” the AI literally has thousands of possible paths. Do you want theory? Examples? A strategy? Trends? Tools? For which sector? With what budget? Without specifications, it will choose the most generic path possible.

Compare that to: “I want a digital marketing strategy to launch a sportswear brand on Instagram in Spain over the next 30 days.”

See the difference? Now there’s clear action, specific channel, defined geography, and a time frame. The AI no longer has to guess anything.

The golden rule is simple: the more precise you are with your objective, the more precise the response will be. It’s not about writing more, it’s about writing better.

2. Return Format – How You Want to Receive the Answer

This is the step most people forget, and it’s a shame, because this is where you save hours of work.

AI can deliver information to you in a thousand different ways: in dense paragraphs, in lists, in tables, as a script, as a calendar, as a presentation, as a checklist. But if you don’t tell it which you prefer, it will give you what seems most logical to it, which isn’t always what you need.

Imagine asking for social media ideas and receiving a long text explaining general concepts. Now imagine instead receiving a clean table with columns for: post type, objective, hook, and call to action. Which is more useful? Which can you implement immediately?

Examples of formats you can request: comparison table, numbered list, step-by-step script, hierarchical outline, weekly calendar, actionable checklist, even a simulated spreadsheet with organized data.

Define the format and the AI will structure everything thinking about your practical use, not its internal logic.

3. Warnings – The Rules of the Game: Quality Control and Tone

This is where you go from good results to exceptional results.

Warnings allow you to establish the limits, tone, depth, and restrictions. It’s like giving the AI a moral and stylistic compass before it starts working.

You can specify the tone: formal, creative, technical, youthful, corporate, irreverent. You can define the level of complexity: basic, intermediate, or advanced. You can prohibit things: “don’t use technical jargon,” “don’t invent figures,” “don’t repeat ideas.” You can demand precision: “if you’re not sure about a data point, indicate it clearly.”

For example: “Don’t use overly technical language. Write in a professional but accessible tone. Don’t make up statistics. If you’re uncertain about something, say so.”

This prevents what’s known in the AI world as “hallucinations”: those moments when artificial intelligence, with all the confidence in the world, gives you completely invented data. Warnings are your safety net.

4. Context Dump – The Context: Feed the Artificial Brain

This is the fuel. Without context, AI works in a vacuum. With context, it works with you.

Here you tell it who you are, what you need this for, who it’s aimed at, what you’ve tried before, what has and hasn’t worked for you, what your real situation is. It’s not about writing your complete biography, but giving it the key elements that will make the response relevant to you, not to “some generic person.”

An entrepreneur in Ecuador with an online supplement store and a tight budget will receive completely different recommendations than a creative director with ten years of experience working for corporate brands in Spain.

The more specific you are with your context, the less generic the response will be. It’s that simple.

The Formula in Action: Real Examples

Now that you know the four pillars, let’s see what they look like when you combine them. I’m going to show you four different scenarios, the kind you probably face every week.

Scenario 1: Content marketing for social media

Goal: I want a content strategy for Instagram that will allow me to grow organically over the next two months.

Return Format: Deliver it in a table with these columns: content type, objective of each post, concrete idea, suggested copy, and call to action.

Warnings: Don’t use corporate marketing language. Keep a close and authentic tone. Don’t repeat the same ideas with different words.

Context Dump: I have an artisanal coffee brand in Spain. My audience is young professionals aged 25 to 35 interested in conscious lifestyle. I work from home and my advertising budget is practically zero, so I need organic content strategies.

The result will no longer be “post pretty photos and use hashtags.” It will be a specific, realistic editorial plan ready to execute.

Scenario 2: Copywriting for advertising campaign

Goal: I need five advertising copy proposals for a mortgage loan campaign aimed at families who want to buy their first home.

Return Format: Numbered list. Each proposal should include: main headline, explanatory subheadline, and call to action.

Warnings: Avoid unrealistic promises. Don’t mention rates or percentages. The tone should be emotional and aspirational, but credible. No clichés like “make your dreams come true.”

Context Dump: The campaign is for a bank in Ecuador. The target audience is middle class, mainly young couples or families who are saving but feel they’ll never gather enough. We want to convey that it’s possible, without sounding condescending.

Scenario 3: Creative concept for internal campaign

Goal: I want to develop a complete creative concept for an internal motivation campaign at my company.

Return Format: Creative brief structure that includes: central concept, audience insight, creative rationale, and three practical applications.

Warnings: Forbidden to use generic motivational phrases like “yes we can” or “together we are stronger.” I’m looking for something fresh, memorable, and genuine.

Context Dump: Industrial company with more than 500 employees, most in operational areas. The environment is practical and direct. We want to reinforce three pillars: workplace safety, productivity, and sense of belonging. People here don’t respond well to sugar-coated corporate campaigns.

Scenario 4: Personal productivity

Goal: I want to build a realistic plan to improve my daily productivity without burning out in the attempt.

Return Format: Checklist divided into three blocks: morning, afternoon, and evening routine. Each block with a maximum of three actions.

Warnings: Nothing extreme like “wake up at 5 AM.” It should be sustainable long-term. I don’t want miracle hacks, I want real habits.

Context Dump: I work from home as a freelancer. I spend many hours in front of the computer. I get distracted easily and tend to procrastinate on important tasks. I need structure, but also flexibility.

The Mistakes That Are Sabotaging You

After seeing hundreds of prompts, there are clear patterns of what doesn’t work. The most common is ambiguity: asking the AI to “be creative” or “give ideas” without any kind of direction. It’s like asking someone to surprise you without telling them anything about your tastes. The odds of getting it right are minimal.

Another frequent mistake is not defining the format. You end up receiving long paragraphs when you needed an actionable list, or a list when you needed deep explanations. There’s also the issue of not setting limits: if you don’t tell the AI what to avoid, it can give you technically correct but completely unusable answers for your context.

And of course, the cardinal sin: giving zero context. The AI doesn’t know who you are, where you work, what budget you have, what you’ve tried before, or what restrictions you face. Without that information, it can only give you generic answers.

Beyond Marketing: Where to Apply This Structure

The beauty of this method is that it works for practically anything. Business strategy, branding, copywriting, SEO, education, personal finance, data analysis, decision-making, presentation development, script creation, content plans, even for solving personal problems or planning trips.

The structure doesn’t change. What changes is the content you put in each pillar.

Your Template Ready to Use

If you want to start right now, here’s a universal template you can copy and adapt:

GOAL:
I want you to [describe the final result you need].

RETURN FORMAT:
Deliver it in [table / list / script / calendar / checklist / other] format.

WARNINGS:
The tone should be [formal / close / technical / creative].
Don’t [specify what you want to avoid].
Avoid [clichés, technical terms, invented data, etc.].
If you’re uncertain about something, indicate it clearly.

CONTEXT DUMP:
My context is as follows: [describe your situation].
The target audience is [who will receive or use this].
The budget is [high / medium / low / none].
The final objective is [what you want to achieve with this].

Copy this template, fill in the blanks, and watch how the quality of responses changes.

A Strategic Skill for This Century

Talking to artificial intelligence is no longer about writing anything in a chat and hoping for the best. It’s a skill. And like any skill, it improves with practice and method.

People who master this structure get better results in less time. They multiply their productivity. They elevate the quality of their decisions. They stop using AI as a curious toy and start using it as a high-level professional assistant.

AI won’t replace your job. But someone who knows how to use it well probably will.

The question isn’t whether you’re going to learn to create effective prompts. The question is how much time you’re going to waste before doing it.

Now you know how. What you do with that is entirely up to you.