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Bad vs. Good vs. Great Claude Prompts

All 10 comparisons + the context template that changes everything.

You commented PROMPTS. Here's the full guide.

The carousel showed you 4 comparisons and the 5-part pattern. This guide gives you all 10 comparisons across different business tasks, plus the business context template that makes every prompt work 10x better.

Every "great" prompt below follows the same structure: role, inputs, constraints, anti-patterns, output format. Copy the pattern. Adapt it to anything.

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Business Context Template

```

Paste this before any prompt. Fill in your details. The more specific your data, the more specific Claude's output.

# My Business
Company: [name]
Industry: [sector]
Stage: [pre-revenue / early / growth / scale]
Core offer: [what you sell, to whom, at what price]

# Financials
Monthly revenue: [amount]
CAC: [amount] | LTV: [amount]
Monthly churn: [%]

# Audience
Target customer: [who, what they need]
How they find you: [channels]
Biggest complaint: [what]

# Competitors
Top 3: [names]
Your edge: [differentiation]
Their strength you lack: [honest assessment]

# Current Strategy
What's working: [channel/tactic]
What's stuck: [biggest challenge]
12-month goal: [target]
```

The Pattern

Every "great" prompt below uses this structure:

1. Role — Tell Claude who it is with context
2. Inputs — Specific details, brackets for variables
3. Constraints — Limits, timelines, priorities
4. Anti-patterns — What NOT to do
5. Output format — Structure, "think step by step"

All 10 Comparisons

1. Content Strategy

BAD "Write me a content strategy."

GOOD "Write a content strategy for my SaaS targeting small teams."

GREAT

You are a content strategist for a B2B SaaS company. Audience: small teams (5-20). Goal: drive trial signups. Channels: LinkedIn, blog, email. Create a 30-day content plan with specific topics, formats, and distribution. Prioritise high-intent topics. Include one lead magnet idea. Think step by step.

2. Competitor Analysis

BAD "Analyse my competitors."

GOOD "Analyse these competitors and explain strengths and weaknesses."

GREAT

You are analysing competitors in my market. My company: [NAME]. Competitors: [1] [2] [3]. Analyse positioning, pricing, and marketing. For each: biggest advantage and biggest weakness. Where is the market gap I can exploit? No surface-level observations. Think step by step.

3. Business Diagnosis

BAD "What's wrong with my business?"

GOOD "Diagnose the problems hurting growth in my business."

GREAT

Analyse my business and find the real problems hurting growth or profitability. Ignore surface symptoms. Identify root causes I might be blind to. Structure as: 1. The real problem 2. Why I'm blind to it 3. What to fix first. [Paste business context]. Think step by step.

4. Cold Outreach

BAD "Write me a cold email."

GOOD "Write a cold LinkedIn message for SaaS founders about SEO."

GREAT

You run a marketing agency generating leads on LinkedIn. Target: SaaS founders who need organic traffic. Service: SEO + AI search optimisation. Write a short message that starts a conversation. No hard sell. One insight about how AI search is changing organic traffic. Natural tone, not agency-sounding. Think step by step.

5. Pricing Strategy

BAD "How should I price my product?"

GOOD "Help me price my SaaS product for small businesses."

GREAT

You are a pricing strategist for a B2B SaaS. Product: [PRODUCT]. Current price: [PRICE]. Competitors charge: [RANGE]. My CAC is [X] and LTV is [Y]. Analyse whether my pricing supports growth. Suggest 2-3 pricing models with pros/cons. Prioritise models that improve LTV without increasing churn. No generic "value-based pricing" advice. Think step by step.

6. Email Sequence

BAD "Write me an email sequence."

GOOD "Write a 5-email welcome sequence for new subscribers."

GREAT

You are writing a 5-email welcome sequence. Audience: [WHO] who signed up for [LEAD MAGNET]. Goal: move them from subscriber to [CONVERSION ACTION] within 14 days. Tone: helpful, direct, not salesy. Email 1: deliver the lead magnet + set expectations. Emails 2-4: value + one soft CTA each. Email 5: direct pitch. Each email under 200 words. Subject lines that get opened. Think step by step.

7. SaaS Idea Generation

BAD "Give me SaaS ideas."

GOOD "Give me SaaS ideas for the marketing industry."

GREAT

You are exploring profitable SaaS opportunities. Industry: marketing. Customer: agencies and creators. Generate ideas that solve real problems for this audience. Prioritise strong demand and high margins. I care about commercially viable ideas, not clever novelty tools. For each idea: problem it solves, target buyer, pricing model, and one reason it could fail. Think step by step.

8. AI Automation

BAD "How can I use AI in my business?"

GOOD "Suggest ways AI could automate my marketing tasks."

GREAT

You are a founder automating parts of your business. Type: [BUSINESS TYPE]. Team: [SIZE]. Identify tasks that could be automated with AI. Focus on repetitive tasks that consume team time. Suggest automations implementable within 30 days. No futuristic ideas or enterprise-grade projects. Practical automations that save time quickly for a small team. Think step by step.

9. Offer Positioning

BAD "Help me position my offer."

GOOD "Help me position my coaching offer against cheaper alternatives."

GREAT

You are positioning a premium offer in a crowded market. Offer: [WHAT] at [PRICE]. Audience: [WHO]. Cheaper alternatives exist at [PRICE RANGE]. Write positioning that justifies the premium. Focus on: outcome specificity, risk reversal, and proof elements. Give me a one-sentence positioning statement, 3 key differentiators, and the one objection I need to overcome first. Think step by step.

10. Weekly Business Review

BAD "Review my week."

GOOD "Help me review my business progress this week."

GREAT

You are my weekly business advisor. Here's what happened this week: [WINS]. [LOSSES]. [METRICS: revenue, leads, churn, new customers]. Compare to last week: [LAST WEEK NUMBERS]. Identify: the one thing that moved the needle most, the one thing I should stop doing, and my single highest-leverage action for next week. Be direct. No encouragement fluff. Think step by step.

Pro tip

Run 3-4 of these prompts in one session, then ask Claude: "Based on everything you've analysed, what are the 3 highest-leverage changes I can make in the next 30 days?" The synthesis across multiple analyses is where the real insight lives.

Coming next

How to build a reusable prompt library in Claude

Save prompts as skills. Load them automatically.
Never write the same prompt twice.

Follow @mikemeansbusiness_ai

If you use these, reply with which prompt gave you the best output. I read every response.

— Mike

✦ Mike Means Business · @mikemeansbusiness_ai