Ai Marketing

How to Write a Great AI Prompt: Structure, Tone & the AI Sandwich

July 24, 2025
5:06 pm

When AI Gets It Wrong: Bias, Hallucinations & Mistakes Explained

You wouldn’t hire a new employee without training them.
You wouldn’t hand a blank brief to your copywriter and say, “Just go for it.”
So why are we doing that to AI?

The truth is, most people using ChatGPT, Claude, or other AI tools aren’t getting great results—because they’re not giving great instructions.

In this post, we’ll show you how to write high-performing prompts using:

The AI Sandwich technique
Proven tone and structure strategies
Real-world examples you can use right now

The Problem With Most Prompts

Let’s start with this: AI isn’t dumb—it’s just directionless.

Most people type something like:

“Write me a marketing email.”

And the AI responds with:

“Dear Valued Customer, we are thrilled to announce…”

Yawn.

That’s not because AI can’t write.
It’s because it was given nothing to go on.

AI works by pattern-matching and probability prediction. If your input is vague, it will pull the safest, most generic output from its dataset.

What Makes a Prompt Great?

A high-quality prompt does three things:

✅ Sets clear expectations
✅ Defines tone, audience, and format
✅ Provides context and relevant examples

A good prompt is like briefing your best employee. You trust them—but only because you gave them what they need to succeed.

Meet the AI Sandwich Method

One of the most reliable frameworks we use at Sandbox Media is the AI Sandwich.

Here’s how it works:

🥪 Top Slice – Set the Stage:
Tell the AI who it’s acting as and what task it’s doing.

“You are a persuasive brand copywriter writing for busy small business owners.”

🥬 Middle – Feed the Context:
Add tone, content, keywords, goals, and any background it should use.

“This is a 2-paragraph email introducing our time-saving invoicing software. Audience is solo entrepreneurs who hate bookkeeping. Make it sound punchy, casual, and benefits-first.”

🍞 Bottom Slice – Shape the Output:
Define format, length, or specific rules.

“Write it in 2 paragraphs, end with a call to action to book a 15-minute call.”

This 3-part structure gives AI what it needs to generate content that’s specific, brand-aligned, and ready to use.

Real-World Prompt Examples

❌ Weak Prompt:

“Write a welcome email.”

✅ AI Sandwich Prompt:

You’re a warm and conversational marketer writing for creative professionals.

This is a welcome email to new users of our social media planning tool. They signed up for a free trial but haven’t logged in yet. Emphasize how we’ll save them time, and make them feel supported.

Write 2 paragraphs and include a friendly CTA at the end.

❌ Weak Prompt:

“Make this more exciting.”

✅ AI Sandwich Prompt:

You’re editing content for a bold, high-energy ad campaign for a fitness brand targeting Gen Z women.

Take this 3-line ad and punch it up—use active verbs, trendy slang, and drop the formal tone.

Rewrite with 3 headline variations.

Tone and Voice Matter (A Lot)

Tone is often the most overlooked aspect of prompting—and the most important for brand alignment.

The AI doesn’t know your brand voice unless you tell it.

Use tone cues like:

“Professional but playful”
“Cheeky but credible”
“Warm, helpful, and direct”
“High-energy and motivational”
“Luxury, premium, minimal”

You can also feed it a past email, social post, or caption and say:

“Match this tone exactly.”

Format Is Just as Important

Want a bullet list?
A paragraph with a CTA?
An email subject line and preview text?

Ask for it.

The more structure you give your AI, the more it can mirror what your team needs without rewrites.

Advanced Prompt Layering

As your comfort level grows, you can stack prompts for compound tasks:

Draft it.

“Write a blog intro for a post about AI in real estate.”

Edit it.

“Now rewrite it in a witty, energetic voice that speaks to skeptical realtors.”

Shorten it.

“Give me a 30-word teaser version for LinkedIn.”

You’re not just prompting—you’re collaborating.

Train Once, Use Often (Sandbots in Action)

At Sandbox Media, we’ve taken all of these principles and built them into Sandbots—custom-trained AI assistants that know your brand, voice, and content strategy out of the box.

Instead of typing the same instructions over and over, your Sandbot already knows:

How to write like you
What your audience responds to
Which formats work for your business

And because it’s trained on real input (not generic internet data), it’s consistent, fast, and on-brand every time.

5 Quick Prompt Upgrades You Can Use Today

✅ Give a role: “You’re a [writer/marketer/strategist] for [industry/audience].”
✅ Add emotion: “Make it sound urgent, excited, or relieved.”
✅ Limit output: “2 lines max” or “3 sentence hook.”
✅ Reference examples: “Use the tone/style of this past email.”
✅ Use templates: Create reusable prompt libraries by task.