As a small pet business owner, you’re constantly juggling tasks—from creating blog posts and emails to staying up to date with Google and all the social algorithms to managing lead magnets and engaging with your audience. You are the one doing most of the work, and with only one you around, that can feel overwhelming.
Maybe you’ve considered using AI to help, but who wants to let a bot create your valued content? You know what you want to say as the human with the ideas, and certainly Artificial Intelligence (AI) can’t do it better than you. Right?
Well, we do actually agree that AI can’t do it better alone, but AI can support your efforts and help save you time. When you save time, you allow yourself more freedom to focus on what you love about running your business.
This post dives into what AI, like ChatGPT or Gemini, is, how it functions, and the 3 Cs of AI Prompting to help your pet business get the results that will help you save time.
What Is AI?
First, it’s important to understand that AI, or artificial intelligence, refers to machines that mimic human cognitive functions like learning, problem-solving, and decision-making. While this might sound futuristic, you’re already encountering AI in your daily life, and you have been for quite some time. For instance:
- When Netflix recommends shows based on your viewing history, that’s AI.
- If you have a smart feeder that dispenses food for your pet on a schedule, that’s AI.
- Ever asked Siri or Alexa a question? They are both AI.
What we are talking about in this post, specifically, are Large Language Models (LLMs) that are able to complete Natural Language Processing (NLP) tasks. These AI models have been trained with an enormous amount of data in order to have a foundation of information – more information than our brains can comprehend. It uses that foundation of information to turn around results with the goal that the results sound natural.
Is this always the case? No. But it continues to improve, and your goal should not be just to copy/paste whatever information you get.
How LLMs Actually Work
That brings us to how LLMs actually function. LLMs are basically like a giant dictionary of words, phrases, and content. When you prompt it with a query – or “ask” it a question – it uses that massive dictionary to give you a result that is probable based on all the information it has to review. It does not deliver “right” answers, per se. It delivers probable results.
Think of how Netflix creates a list of shows and movies for you. That is done based on your viewing history. You gave it a dictionary of content, and based on the similarities in that dictionary, it auto-replies to the prompt, “What other shows would I like?” with a “Today’s Top Picks For You” list.
Does it always get it right? Nope. But it’s pretty accurate, assuming you are the only one who uses your account. I see you parents whose lists are full of Paw Patrol and CoComelon.
LLM platforms like Jasper, Pi, and probably any other custom one you’ve used have been given additional focused training to help them be more specific in their results and to give fewer hallucinations for the prompts they are given.
What is a hallucination?!
In AI terms, a hallucination refers to the results you get that are just completely wrong or reference things that don’t exist in real life. The ones that people share memes about, like this one:
Google fixed this pretty quickly, so we can only laugh at the screenshots now.
Here’s the Thing: AI Use Is Only Going to Grow
Rather than focus on the errors you get or the results you don’t like, a more productive approach is learning how to use it to support your business. AI is only going to continue to grow and become more and more infused into our lives. The sooner you embrace it, the sooner your business can thrive with its support.
These are just a few of the stats gathered by Exploding Topics on AI:
- As of August 2024, the Global AI market was valued at $196 billion, and the updated stats released in December 2024 put it at $279 billion. The U.S. market alone is expected to reach $300 billion by 2026.
- 83% of companies claim AI is a top priority.
- In late 2022, ChatGPT broke records by reaching 1 million users in less than a week and exceeded 100 million monthly users by early 2023.
This isn’t to paint the picture that everything AI is shiny and perfect. It’s a growing industry that can help you as long as you understand it.
Definitely make sure you consider the information you give AI and the data security standards each tool uses. Always use reputable tools and ensure you know the privacy policies for any information you give.
The 3 C’s of AI Prompting
How you ask any AI tool for information matters. This is called a prompt. We’ve been using AI a lot over this last year to help with copy for landing pages, emails, blog posts, outlines for workshops, and more. During that time, we’ve honed in our prompt process to get results we can work with.
What we have never done is ask AI to create 100% of any of those tasks, nor use even 75% of what it gave us.
Everything we create starts and ends with us, with some AI inspiration in the mix. AI helps us move faster to get more content created by using these AI-prompting tips.
1. Context
Be specific about what you’re asking for in your prompt. Include details like:
- What type of content are you creating? Blog outline, Instagram caption, video script, etc.
- Why are you creating the content? To educate your audience on a topic, teach your audience how to do something, entertain them, etc.
- What you want the content to look like. What kind of tone? What kind of structure? How long?
- Any additional and public information that would be helpful for the AI to help you create what you ask for.
Context should help paint the picture of what you are creating, why, and how you expect it to look and sound.
2. Customer
This piece is simple but important. Be sure to define your customer (or your audience) in your prompt. Are they new pet parents? Dog trainers? Cat behaviorists? Pet enthusiasts? Veterinarians?
Does it go even deeper than that? Dog trainers who clicker train or cat parents who have catios. Be specific to help the AI tailor its output to meet their needs and preferences.
3. CTA (Call to Action)
Now that you’ve given it information about what kind of content, its purpose, audience, and what you want the content to look like, along with who the content is for, help the AI understand where in the funnel your Customer is. What do you hope this content inspires them to do? What action does this piece of content lead your audience/customer to do?
Here is an example of a prompt with a CTA:
Help me create an email to share my blog post with my cat parent audience who care about providing enrichment for their indoor cats. My tone is casual, funny, and educational. I do not use puns or animal speak. The email should have an intro, a short recap of the blog post with 3 things they will learn when they read it, and a link to invite them to read the full post. Here are the excerpts of the post to summarize {paste in part or whole blog post}.
That prompt has all the Cs to help get a result you can actually work with.
Bonus C: Chat
If you think of your first prompt as starting a conversation, it’s easier to continue the chat and clarify what you want in your results. Tell the AI what you like, what you don’t like, what it got wrong, and where it can improve. By continuing to chat with the AI, you will help refine your results.
Remember, anything you put out on the web for public consumption (meaning it’s not behind a paywall) is fair game for AI tools. Most free tools will use your prompts to continue to train the AI. So, we wouldn’t share private information with them. Paid tools usually do not use the info or store the info for retraining, but always check before assuming that.
Learn to Use AI to Boost Your Business in 2025
AI can be a game-changer for small pet businesses looking to create engaging online content. By understanding its capabilities and limitations and crafting effective prompts with the 3 Cs of AI Prompting, you can harness AI to save time and enhance your creativity. AI is a tool to complement your expertise, not replace it. Now, it’s your turn to experiment with AI and see how it can elevate your content creation and productivity!
About the Author: Chloe DiVita, BlogPaws CEO, has 15+ years of experience in digital marketing, the pet industry, and as a greyhound mom. She’s earned accolades like, Pet Age’s 40 Under 40 and Muse Medallions from the Cat Writers’ Association. Formerly Executive Producer for TEDxCambridge, she brings storytelling and public speaking to her work with creators, leaders, and brands. Read more…
