Before AI Writes a Word: The Seven Inputs Your Marketing System Needs

Start with inputs, not a longer prompt

AI writing usually sounds generic for a simple reason: the system was asked to invent around facts it never received. Before adding tone adjectives or another page of prompt instructions, fill in seven inputs. If one is unknown, write ‘unknown.’ An honest blank is safer than a fluent guess.

Google does not give AI-written pages a special advantage or an automatic penalty. Its official guidance on AI-generated content says the standard is original, high-quality, people-first work; using automation primarily to manipulate rankings violates its spam policies. The editorial job is therefore not to hide AI. It is to give the system enough truth, expertise, and purpose to make something useful.

1. Reader and commercial job

Name one reader and one decision. ‘Small-business owners’ is too broad. ‘A restaurant owner deciding whether the reservation page is ready for holiday traffic’ gives the article a job.

Use this sentence: ‘After reading, [reader] should understand [decision] and feel ready to [next action].’ If the sentence contains several audiences or actions, split the assignment.

• Reader: a specific role in a specific situation.
• Decision: the question the page must settle.
• Next action: one useful step that follows from the answer.

2. Approved business facts

List the facts the draft may state: offer, price, service area, eligibility, process, integrations, policies, proof, and limitations. Put an owner-approved page or record beside each one. If two public pages disagree, resolve the conflict before drafting.

Do not convert an aspiration into a fact. ‘We want same-day response’ is not permission to publish ‘We respond the same day.’

3. Customer language and voice evidence

Save real sentences from sales calls, support answers, founder explanations, product pages, and approved articles. Three representative lines are more useful than ‘confident, friendly, and professional.’ Record phrases the business avoids as well.

Customer language matters too. Use the question a buyer actually asks, then explain any necessary technical term in ordinary language.

4. Main question and follow-ups

Write the main question in the reader’s words. Then add the questions that must be answered for the first answer to be useful: prerequisites, cost, timing, tradeoffs, limits, examples, and next steps.

Google’s people-first content questions ask whether a reader leaves feeling they learned enough to achieve their goal. Use that test instead of padding the article around a keyword.

5. Evidence and claim boundaries

Mark every claim as first-party fact, independently sourced claim, observation, example, or unknown. Statistics, medical or legal statements, platform behavior, market comparisons, and claims about another company normally need an adjacent primary source.

Write the forbidden leap beside the evidence. A crawler can observe a missing title; it cannot prove that the title caused a revenue decline.

6. Publishing destination and approval

Name the website and page address, who will approve the article or which saved publishing mode applies, and how the live page will be checked afterward. ‘The blog’ is not specific enough. A WordPress site and planned page address are.

A prepared draft is not a published page. Success requires a live URL and a check that the public page matches the approved version.

7. Measurement question

Choose the first signal and the business outcome before drafting. A new guide may first need to be indexed and earn relevant impressions. A service comparison may be judged by qualified consultation starts. Do not promise a measurement the team cannot collect.

Set a review date that respects the signal. A live-page check is immediate. Search and conversion evidence needs a useful observation window.

A complete fictional brief

This example is fictional. Harbor & Hearth is a neighborhood restaurant preparing a guide for families planning a graduation dinner. Every value is labeled so the writer knows what is approved and what remains unknown.

Before and after the brief

Before: ‘Make your graduation unforgettable with the perfect private dining experience. Our flexible packages accommodate every need.’ The sentence sounds finished, but the brief supports none of its promises.

After: ‘Planning a graduation dinner for 8 to 20 guests in the Old Port? Harbor & Hearth accepts group-reservation requests and will confirm available times, menu options, and the dietary requests the kitchen can accommodate before you book.’ The revision names the reader, uses approved facts, respects the unknowns, and leads to the real next step.

Momentum Engine carries the same approved facts from the brief into the article, publishing, and later measurement. Sources and unknowns stay beside the draft, the website keeps its chosen review or automatic-publishing mode, and the live page is checked before its results shape the next plan.

Related AI Promo Services guides

Use these related guides to turn supported findings into website improvements and marketing drafts you can review.