Prompt Playbook: Marketing Foundations PART 2

Hey Prompt Entrepreneur,

Nobody cares what you say about your product.

Think about it. If your landing page says "our tool is the best solution for productivity," why the hell should anyone believe you? Of course you'd say that - you built it!

People are completely inured to marketing claims now. "Revolutionary!" "Game-changing!" "Industry-leading!" - it all sounds like white noise because every company says the same things.

We've trained people not to trust what companies say about themselves.

But they do trust what other people say.

When Sarah from accounting mentions "this saved me 3 hours last week," people listen. When James says "I finally stopped missing deadlines," that hits different.

Thankfully, we have a secret weapon from last week - our beta testers and champions. Real people who've used our product and seen real results.

People don't trust companies. They trust people. Quite right too.

So along with our user-language copywriting from yesterday, we need social proof. That's the focus of today.

Let’s get started:

Continuing Our Asset Collection

Yesterday you gathered the language your users actually use to describe your product. Perfect descriptions in their own words. And we used that as the basis of our copywriting - ie. how we talk about our product.

Today we're collecting the proof that those descriptions are true. We're working towards a landing page that converts visitors into waitlist signups. Yesterday gave us the words. Today gives us the credibility.

Tomorrow we’ll pull all this together into a landing page. But let’s continue to collect up our material.

Why Social Proof Beats Marketing Claims

Your potential customers have heard every superlative in the book. "Revolutionary," "game-changing," "industry-leading" - it all sounds the same. Especially in the overhyped world of AI. It’s frankly exhausting.

But they haven't heard from Sarah who saved 3 hours last week. They haven't heard from Joe who stopped missing deadlines. They haven't heard the specific, real outcomes that real people experienced. This is called “social proof” and it’s what we use to make our marketing claims credible.

I’ll give you 3 ways (from easy, low hanging fruit to more systematic) to get your first social proof locked in.

Step 1: Mining Your Beta Testing for Gold

OK easiest first as always. First step: go back through all your Week 5 conversations and feedback. You're looking for testimonial gold that might already be sitting there.

Look for phrases like:

• "This saved me..."

• "I used to struggle with... now I..."

• "The difference is..."

• "I can finally..."

• "Before this, I was... now I'm..."

These are natural before/after stories that make perfect testimonials. Extract them exactly as written or said. Let’s use this prompt to do the heavy lifting for us:

I need to extract testimonial content from my beta testing feedback. Here's all my feedback and conversations: [PASTE ALL WEEK 5 FEEDBACK]

Help me identify testimonials that are READY TO USE as-is by finding:

1. Before/After Statements: Clear "I used to... now I..." language
2. Specific Results: Concrete outcomes, time saved, problems solved
3. Complete Thoughts: Full testimonials that need no editing
4. Natural Language: Statements that sound authentic and conversational

For each ready-to-use testimonial, extract:
- The exact quote (keep their exact words)
- Who said it (name if provided)
- Context of when they said it
- Type of result/outcome mentioned

Only include testimonials that are complete and landing-page ready without any editing.

This AI prompt will help you spot testimonial content you might have missed in your conversations. Sometimes they’ll be perfectly formatted already - these are good to go.

Step 2: Refining What You Found

Sometimes you'll find great testimonial content, but it's not quite landing page ready. Maybe it's too casual, or buried in a longer message, or needs slight rewording for clarity. Basically it’s 80% of the way there but will be a little confusing on the page if publish as-is.

For these we want to rewrite.

First, use AI to help identify and rewrite these almost-perfect testimonials:

Now go back through the same feedback and find testimonials that are CLOSE BUT NEED REWRITING. Here's all my feedback and conversations: [PASTE ALL WEEK 5 FEEDBACK]

Look for feedback that contains great testimonial content but needs refinement because it's:
- Too casual or conversational for a landing page
- Buried within longer messages
- Needs slight rewording for clarity
- Has the right sentiment but unclear language
- Contains great results but rambling delivery

For each piece that needs rewriting:
1. Extract the original quote
2. Identify the core value/outcome mentioned  
3. Rewrite it as a clean, natural testimonial while keeping their authentic voice
4. Make it specific and results-focused
5. Ensure it sounds like something they'd actually say

Provide:
- Original quote
- Proposed rewrite
- Who said it
- Brief explanation of what you changed

These will need the person's permission before using, but give me polished versions to show them.

This prompt will do another pass of the feedback and extract language that is close to usable but not quite there. It’ll then propose a more polished version.

Then take the AI's rewrite (with your edits!!) back to the person and ask something like this:

'“You mentioned that [original quote], which was amazing feedback. I'd love to feature this on my landing page and wanted to rephrase it for readability to: [AI rewrite]. Does that work, or would you mind helping me with a rewrite in your words?"

Most people are happy to help refine their testimonial, especially when you're being transparent about how you want to use it and you've done most of the work for them.

We’re not putting words in their mouth here - we’re instead doing the heavy lifting for them so they can say “yup that looks good to me”. We’re reducing the pressure on them which is something people are always thankful for!

Step 3: Going Fresh

The first two steps will give us a nice basis. But we can do better. We can get purpose-built testimonials. For your most enthusiastic beta testers, go back and ask for fresh testimonials using specific guided questions.

Don't just ask "can you give me a testimonial?" That puts all the work on them. Again, make this as easy as possible. Instead, ask specific questions that make it easy for them to give you great content. Here are some examples but the exact questions you use will depend on what your product is and what you want to prove.

For Time/Efficiency Gains:

• "Before using this, how long did [specific task] typically take you?"

• "How much time do you estimate you're saving now?"

• "What was the most noticeable difference in your workflow?"

For Problem Resolution:

• "What was the biggest frustration you had with [problem area] before?"

• "How has that changed since using this?"

• "What would happen if you had to go back to your old way?"

For Emotional Impact:

• "How did you feel when [specific outcome] happened?"

• "What was your reaction the first time it worked properly?"

• "Would you recommend this to someone facing the same problem?"

These guided questions help them give you specific, useful testimonials rather than generic praise. Whilst making their lives easier.

Text vs Video: Volume and Proof

OK I’ve avoided this until now but we need to address it. Do we want text or video testimonials. You already know the answer: both!

Both formats have their place, and you'll want to collect both:

Text Testimonials:

• Go for volume here - easier for customers to provide

• Faster to collect and organize

• Perfect for landing pages and social media

• Can be extracted from existing conversations

Video Testimonials:

• Use sparingly but strategically

• Higher emotional impact and authenticity

• Great for landing page headers

• Here's the key: most videos won't get watched, but that doesn't matter - they still act as proof!

Start with text since it's easier to collect in volume. Once you have several good text testimonials, ask 1-2 of your most enthusiastic beta testers if they'd be willing to record a quick video saying similar things. The presence of video testimonials on your page signals authenticity, even if visitors don't watch them all. So we want to sprinkle a handful across our landing page.

Recommended Tool: Senja

For collecting testimonials systematically, I recommend Senja. It's designed specifically for this job and makes the whole process much easier. Doing this manually is frankly a pain - not just for you but also for your users. Remember we need to make it as easily as humanly possible for them - Senja helps here with a nice easy to use interface, especially if we are asking them for video.

Use my affiliate link (if you want): Senja. Alternatively Google it. Or if you don’t want to use Senja then Google Forms is fine for text testimonials. Video is trickier - basically get them to record on their phone and email you the video. If it’s too large they’ll need to use WeTransfer or similar. Again, all of this adds friction! Which is why I use Senja.

Adding Collection to Your Product

As a bonus once you have Senja set up, you can add a testimonial collection link directly into your product for ongoing feedback. This helps you collect testimonials automatically as people use your tool.

Fair warning…people won’t do it unless there is an incentive for them. Senja has features like their "spin the wheel" tool that can incentivise testimonials with small freebies or bonuses. Worth exploring once as a way to get a drip feed of testimonials coming in automatically over time. But don't worry about that yet! Focus on collecting from your existing beta testers first.

Your Deliverable Today:

1. Use the AI prompt to extract existing testimonial content from Week 5 feedback

2. Identify testimonials that need refining and collaborate with users on rewrites

3. Set up a Senja account and create a testimonial collection form

4. Identify 3-5 beta testers to approach for fresh testimonials using guided questions

5. Collect and organise your best testimonials ready for tomorrow's landing page build

Aim for at least 5-7 strong text testimonials plus 1-2 videos if possible.

Build in Public Content

Share your testimonial collection process:

"Day 27 of AI Summer Camp: Turning beta feedback into social proof that actually converts.

Went back through all my user conversations looking for testimonials. Found loads of great stuff I'd missed the first time.

And then I set up proper collection with @Senja to make it easy for people to leave testimonials.”

I’d recommend tagging in Senja here to get a reshare from them.

What's Next?

Tomorrow we assemble everything into a landing page. Your user-language descriptions from yesterday plus your social proof from today will create a page that actually converts visitors into waitlist signups.

Keep Prompting,

Kyle

If you feel this — learning how to use AI in entrepreneurship and work — is not for you → Unsubscribe here.