Your secret AI prompt library
What if your brand strategy contains better prompts than any engineering guide?
You've asked ChatGPT to "make this sound more engaging" fifteen times today, and it keeps spitting out the same vanilla corporate speak that could belong to literally anyone.
Here's the problem: You're treating AI like it's supposed to read your mind. But when you feed it boring, unclear, emotionally flat inputs, you get boring, unclear, emotionally flat outputs.
While you're stuck in this loop, some companies are getting AI to write in their exact voice, hit their audience's specific emotional triggers, and sound nothing like their competitors.
But the companies actually winning with AI? They understand exactly who they are and what they stand for.
Your Story Is Your Competitive Advantage
While everyone else is feeding AI generic instructions, you can feed it something nobody else has: your actual brand strategy.
You spent months figuring out who you are, what you sound like, and who you're talking to. You mapped your audience's deepest frustrations. You defined your unique point of view. You crafted a voice that's unmistakably yours.
All of that work becomes your secret prompt library.
Show, Don't Tell
Here's what this looks like in practice:
Everyone else: "Write a homepage headline for our fintech app"
You: "Write a homepage headline for someone who's burned out on traditional banks and wants to feel taken seriously for once"
Everyone else: "Make this sound more professional"
You: "Write our onboarding flow like a deadpan but caring operator who always knows what's next"
Everyone else: "Write a social media post about our product"
You: "Write a thread that challenges the idea that 'more features' equals better product"
Everyone else: "Draft an email to our customers"
You: "Write an email for someone who just left their job to go all-in on their startup and needs to feel like they're not alone"
Notice what's happening? Each prompt includes audience insight, emotional context, voice direction, and strategic POV. That's your brand strategy doing the heavy lifting.
The Real Unlock: Emotional Precision
The difference between generic AI content and content that actually converts comes down to emotional precision. Most people tell AI what to write. You can tell it what someone needs to hear.
When you understand your audience's emotional need states (not just their pain points, but their actual feelings in the moment they encounter your brand), prompting becomes almost unfairly easy.
Your audience research becomes emotional context. Your positioning becomes strategic direction. Your voice guide becomes writing instructions.
The Thing Hiding in Plain Sight
Every brand deck ends with voice and tone guidelines that few actually use. Turns out, those ignored pages are worth more than any prompt engineering course.
Your audience research becomes emotional context. Your positioning becomes strategic direction. Your voice guide becomes writing instructions. The work is already done.
When you understand your audience's emotional need states (not just their pain points, but their actual feelings in the moment they encounter your brand), prompting becomes almost unfairly easy.
Your audience research becomes emotional context. Your positioning becomes strategic direction. Your voice guide becomes writing instructions.
Try This Right Now
Open your brand strategy document. Find your audience description. Now look at the last AI prompt you wrote.
Rewrite it using this formula: "Write [content type] for someone who [emotional state] and needs to [desired outcome]."
For example:
"Write a product demo script for someone who's skeptical about another 'game-changing' tool and needs to see proof, not promises"
"Write an abandoned cart email for someone who's overwhelmed by choice and needs gentle guidance, not pressure"
"Write a LinkedIn post for founders who feel like they're failing in silence and need to know they're not alone"
Run both versions through AI. Compare the outputs.
The difference will be obvious.
While everyone is winging it, you have a system.
This is your unfair advantage. While everyone else is starting from scratch every time, you're building on years of strategic thinking. While they're hoping AI magically captures their voice, you're giving it precise instructions.
Your brand strategy becomes your AI strategy.
The companies that figure this out first will sound like themselves while everyone else sounds like everyone else.
Elan is the founder of Off-Menu, a design studio that turns brand strategy into AI prompts that actually work.