Writing Better Blogs: A Practical Guide for Wealth Advisors to Prompt Engineering

First, let me set the stage for how advisors should think when they interact with chatbots:

Think of interacting with your AI chatbot as a really smart junior employee who just joined your firm and needs to get detailed or specific tasks to get the job done.

When prompting large language models, you're trying to retrieve the best output from an AI that is "trained on over a trillion parameters" - the non-technical explanation for this is to equate parameters with neurons. The human brain has about 86 billion neurons, and each neuron helps us process and understand the world. GPT-4 is wildly rumored to be trained on more than a trillion parameters. This doesn't mean it's "more intelligent" than us because simulating human cognition is complex. It just means that it can ingest a lot of data, synthesize that data, and make word predictions about it.

Each parameter in a language model contributes to its ability to understand and generate human-like text based on the data it has been trained on. This immense scale allows the model to handle various topics and complexities in communication.

These LLMs may not always be ideal for domain-specific tasks like medical research or financial advice. If it's usually asked a question it doesn't know the answer to, it can make up stuff or "hallucinate." A proven way to reduce hallucinations is to fine-tune your AI model or use retrieval augmented generation. At AdvisorX AI we use advanced RAG to help advisors with various writing workflows.

So, the more specifics you enter in your prompt, the more likely you will get a better response.

For ex. "Write me a blog about retirement planning" might fetch a rather average response.

Lazy prompt engineering might fetch lazy results, as you've probably experienced already.

The key is to feed your AI data or new information that it did not have access to - unique data about your ideal clientele, their pain points, brand tone, etc. If you're concerned about data security, almost all AI chatbots today allow you to turn off "improving their models." Below is an example of a screenshot from my ChatGPT Plus subscription.

Here is a practical, prompt template you can use to get better output. I'll admit, that it's going to take you some effort at first, but GPT-4 now has a memory feature that automatically remembers your prompts and template guides. Once you use the following prompt template for your blogs you should expect to see at least a 5x increase in better output.

Prompt: You are an expert blog writer for "XYZ Wealth." with 20+ years of experience in the wealth management industry writing across various complex financial planning topics. Your specific task is to write on "topic name." Follow the following example template to write an SEO-optimized blog for me:

Introduction:

Opening Hook: [Craft an engaging first sentence to capture readers’ attention.]

Overview of the Topic: [Briefly introduce the topic you will discuss, providing a general outline of the critical points.]

Body:

Ideal Clientele: [Spend time here]

[Describe the characteristics of the ideal clientele who would benefit most from this information. Include demographic, psychographic, and financial details to tailor the content better.]

Client Pain Points: [Spend time here]

[Identify specific challenges or concerns that your ideal clientele faces in relation to the topic. Explain how these pain points affect their financial and personal well-being.]

Detailed Discussion: [Spend time here]

[Elaborate on the topic, providing in-depth insights and actionable advice. Use subheadings to break down complex information into digestible sections. Include data, statistics, and case studies where applicable.]

Firm's Unique Service Differentiation: [Spend time here]

[Highlight what sets your firm apart when addressing the pain points and needs discussed. Mention specific services, approaches, or expertise your firm offers that competitors do not.]

Conclusion:

Summary of Key Points: [Recap the main insights from your post and reinforce how they can help the reader manage or improve their situation.]

Call to Action: [Encourage readers to contact your firm for a personalized consultation or to learn more about the services you offer that can address their needs.]

Brand Tone: [Spend time here]

[Specify the tone of the article here, whether it's professional, conversational, educational, etc., to align with your firm's branding and communication style.]

Keywords: [Spend time here]

[List relevant keywords that should be incorporated to improve SEO and ensure the content reaches your target audience.]

Note: If you're using ChatGPT Plus once you enter this information for your blog post template you should be good-to-go.

Jonathan Michael is the founder of AdvisorX AI, a long-form AI writing agent for wealth advisors with cited web search, FINRA/SEC marketing compliance, a humanizer feature that adapts to your original writing style, market research feature and more.