The Integrated Marketing Engine Prompt Toolkit
2026 Edition
This toolkit is a practical companion to The Work That Holds You.
If the book helped you recognize patterns in how you’ve been carrying the work, these prompts help you look more closely at where those patterns show up in your marketing system.
They are designed to extend your ability to see, not replace your judgment.
What this toolkit is for
When you’ve been close to the work for a long time, certain things become hard to see.
You’ve read the same messaging so many times it all sounds fine. You know your customer in your own mind, but you’re not sure if the way you describe them makes sense to anyone else.You’ve made the same decisions for so long that their consequences feel normal.
These prompts are meant to create distance.
Not distance from responsibility, but distance from familiarity.
They help surface patterns, contradictions, and gaps that are easy to miss when you are inside the work every day.
A note on AI and judgment
AI is a tool, not a strategist.
It can surface patterns in language, behavior, and structure faster than manual review. It can compare touchpoints, highlight inconsistencies, and map journeys efficiently.
What it cannot do is decide what matters most.
That work still belongs to you.
The best way to use these prompts is iteratively. Provide context. Push back when responses feel generic. Ask follow-up questions. Use what surfaces as input into thinking, not answers to act on blindly.
When these tools are working well, the insights tend to feel familiar rather than surprising. The truth was already there. The tool simply helped you see it sooner.
Toolkit status
This page reflects the most current version of the Integrated Marketing Engine prompt toolkit.
If you’re here from the book, you’re in the right place. The prompts below are maintained and updated as tools evolve.
Foundational Prompt Exploration
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Purpose
This prompt helps you see whether your customer definition is guiding decisions or silently introducing drift. It surfaces vague language, overlapping assumptions, and contradictions that are easy to miss when you’ve been close to the work for a long time.What to prepare
How you currently describe your ideal customer
Your product or service description
Examples of customers who succeeded and those who churned
Any existing customer description documents (ideal customer profiles or personas)
The prompt
“Based on this description of my product and customers, identify the emotional and practical patterns of the people who benefit most. Quote back any vague language I used. Highlight contradictions or overlapping audience assumptions in how I have described them.” -
Purpose
This prompt helps you understand where you truly differ from competitors and where you may be sounding more similar than intended. It is designed to surface real whitespace based on both language and customer choice.What to prepare
A list of your top competitors
Competitor website links
How you currently describe your differentiation
Common reasons customers give for choosing you
The prompt
“I am providing: (1) competitor websites, (2) how I describe our differentiation. Analyze these and show me: what claims or language competitors use that sound similar, where my positioning overlaps versus where it is distinct, and what whitespace exists that none of us clearly own. Based on customer reasons for choosing us, what should our competitive positioning emphasize?” -
Purpose
This prompt helps you see whether your value proposition reflects how customers experience your work or how you talk about it internally. It highlights unsupported claims, internal language, and gaps a skeptical buyer would question.What to prepare
Your current value proposition or positioning statement
Homepage headline and subhead
How you answer “What does your company do?”
The prompt
“Analyze my value proposition for the following: does it describe outcomes or features, use customer language or internal language, make claims without support, and leave room for skepticism? Rewrite it from the customer’s perspective using their words.” -
Purpose
This prompt helps you see whether your story stays intact as prospects move through different channels, or whether it changes depending on who or what is speaking.What to prepare
Homepage and key landing page copy
Three recent marketing emails
Sales pitch or demo script
Ad copy, if applicable
Key sales deck slides
The prompt
“Compare these touchpoints and show how each describes the target customer, the problem being solved, the outcome promised, and the tone used. Identify where these elements are inconsistent across touchpoints.” -
Purpose
This prompt helps you understand whether demand is supported by steady presence or depends on bursts of effort. It reveals whether your pipeline holds on its own or drops without activity.What to prepare
Six months of pipeline data showing new opportunities
Content publishing or campaign schedule for the same period
Notes on outreach or activity spikes
The prompt
“I am providing: (1) six months of pipeline data, (2) my content publishing schedule, and (3) campaign or outreach activity. Analyze where pipeline spikes align with effort bursts, where gaps exist, and whether there is a baseline that holds steady without campaigns.” -
Purpose
This prompt helps you identify where friction, confusion, or gaps in the buying journey cause prospects to hesitate or drop off, often in places that feel normal internally.What to prepare
Website pages
Request or intake forms
Follow-up email sequences
Sales conversation outlines or recordings
Common objections
The prompt
“I am providing website pages, request forms, follow-up emails, and a sales conversation outline. Map the journey from first visit to decision. Identify where prospects must figure out the next step, where the story changes between touchpoints, and where unnecessary friction exists.” -
Purpose
This prompt helps you see whether customers experience ongoing value reinforcement after purchase or whether the relationship goes quiet over time.What to prepare
Onboarding email sequence
Customer communications from the first 90 days
Renewal or expansion messaging
The prompt
“I am providing onboarding sequences, early customer communications, and renewal messaging. Analyze how often value is reinforced, where long gaps occur, and whether the original decision is referenced at renewal.”
When something surfaces
If one of these prompts surfaced something important, pause before trying to fix it.
Sometimes the right next step is to sit with what you saw. Sometimes it helps to talk it through with someone who knows this work.
If you want to have that conversation, you can reach out here.