By Josh Kilen, Founder & CEO, Cascade Digital Marketing
Here’s what no one tells you about market research: the gap between “we should understand our customers better” and actually doing it is usually $15,000 and six weeks.
ChatGPT changes that math. For $20/month (or free with the basic version), you can run exploratory market research that used to require agency budgets. Not perfect research—exploratory research. The kind that helps you ask better questions before you invest in real customer conversations.
In our experience working with professional service firms, most skip research entirely because the traditional options feel too expensive or too slow. ChatGPT isn’t a replacement for talking to actual customers. It’s training wheels that help you figure out what to ask them.
This guide walks you through 15 copy-paste ChatGPT market research prompts across three categories: persona development, competitive analysis, and survey design. Each prompt includes what it does, when to use it, and how to validate the output.
Table of Contents
What ChatGPT Actually Does for Market Research Tasks
ChatGPT runs on a large language model trained on internet-scale text data. For market research, this means it can:
- Synthesize patterns from your industry knowledge into structured personas
- Generate interview questions you might not think to ask
- Identify themes in small datasets (customer emails, review snippets, sales call notes)
- Create synthetic focus group discussions to explore hypothetical customer reactions
- Draft survey questions with proper structure and neutral phrasing
What it cannot do:
- Access real-time market data (its training data has a cutoff date)
- Replace actual customer conversations
- Validate its own outputs (it will confidently generate plausible-sounding nonsense)
- Understand your specific market nuances without proper prompting
Think of ChatGPT as a research assistant who’s read everything on the internet but has never met your customers. It’s exceptionally good at organizing what you already know and terrible at knowing what’s actually true in your market.
The FOUR Categories of Market Research Prompts
Category 1: Persona Development Prompts
These prompts help you structure what you know about your customers into testable hypotheses. Always validate persona outputs with real customer data—ChatGPT is making educated guesses based on your inputs.
Prompt 1: Basic Buyer Persona Builder
You are a market research analyst. I need to develop a buyer persona for [your service/product]. Here's what I know about this customer segment:
- Industry: [specific industry]
- Role/Title: [decision-maker role]
- Company Size: [employee count or revenue]
- Key Problems: [2-3 problems you solve]
Create a detailed buyer persona that includes:
1. Demographics and firmographics
2. Primary goals and success metrics
3. Day-to-day challenges
4. Decision-making process and criteria
5. Common objections to purchasing
6. Preferred information sources
Format this as a reference document I can share with my team.
When to use it: You have anecdotal customer knowledge but need structure. Best for professional service firms where personas cluster around specific industries or roles.
How to validate: Schedule three customer conversations. Ask open-ended questions about their goals and challenges. If ChatGPT’s persona doesn’t match what you hear, update your prompt inputs and regenerate.
Prompt 2: Jobs-to-Be-Done Framework
I'm researching why customers hire [your service/product] instead of alternatives. Help me apply the Jobs-to-Be-Done framework.
Context:
- Our service: [what you do]
- Customer segment: [who hires you]
- Alternatives they consider: [competitors or DIY options]
For this customer segment, identify:
1. The functional job (what needs to get done)
2. The emotional job (how they want to feel)
3. The social job (how they want to be perceived)
4. The constraints that limit their options
5. The "firing" criteria (what makes them leave current solutions)
Structure this as a table with columns for each job dimension.
When to use it: You’re trying to understand why customers choose you over competitors or doing nothing. Particularly useful for professional service firms where emotional and social factors drive decisions as much as functional outcomes.
How to validate: Ask existing customers: “What were you trying to accomplish when you hired us? What weren’t other options doing for you?” Compare their language to the framework output.
Prompt 3: Pain Point Hierarchy
I need to prioritize which customer pain points to address in my marketing. Here's what I know:
Customer Segment: [describe your target]
Pain Points We Address:
1. [pain point 1]
2. [pain point 2]
3. [pain point 3]
4. [pain point 4]
5. [pain point 5]
For each pain point:
1. Assess severity (how much it impacts their business/life)
2. Assess frequency (how often they experience it)
3. Assess urgency (how quickly they need it solved)
4. Identify the "moment of most pain" (when they feel it most acutely)
5. Suggest the primary emotion associated with this pain
Rank these pain points by marketing priority (severity × frequency × urgency).
When to use it: You solve multiple problems but need to focus your messaging. This prompt helps identify which pain points to lead with in your proven marketing tactics.
How to validate: Review your sales calls and closed deals. Which pain points come up first in customer conversations? Which ones close deals fastest?
Category 2: Competitive Analysis Prompts
These prompts help you map your competitive landscape and identify positioning opportunities. Remember: ChatGPT’s knowledge of specific competitors is limited and potentially outdated. Use these prompts to structure your own competitive intelligence.
Prompt 4: Competitive Positioning Map
Help me create a competitive positioning analysis for [your industry/service category].
My Company: [your company name and what you do]
Known Competitors:
1. [Competitor A - brief description]
2. [Competitor B - brief description]
3. [Competitor C - brief description]
4. [Competitor D - brief description]
Create a 2×2 positioning map using these axes:
- X-axis: [dimension 1, e.g., "Price: Budget to Premium"]
- Y-axis: [dimension 2, e.g., "Service Model: DIY to Full-Service"]
For each competitor (including us):
1. Plot their position on the map
2. Identify their primary differentiation claim
3. List their target customer segment
4. Note any obvious gaps in market coverage
Suggest which quadrants represent the best opportunities for differentiation.
When to use it: You’re defining or refining your market position. Most effective when you already know your main competitors but need clarity on how to differentiate.
How to validate: Show this map to 5-10 customers or prospects. Ask: “Does this match how you think about options in this space? What’s missing?”
Prompt 5: Feature-Benefit Gap Analysis
I want to identify which customer needs are underserved by my competitors. Here's the setup:
Our Service: [what you offer]
Target Customer Need: [the core problem/goal]
Competitor Analysis:
Competitor 1: [name] - Features: [list their main features/services]
Competitor 2: [name] - Features: [list their main features/services]
Competitor 3: [name] - Features: [list their main features/services]
For each competitor:
1. Translate their features into customer benefits
2. Identify which customer needs these benefits address
3. List customer needs that remain unaddressed
4. Suggest potential "good enough" alternatives customers might use instead
Create a table showing: Competitor | Features | Benefits | Gaps
When to use it: You’re planning service development or looking for positioning angles. Works best when you have specific competitor knowledge to input.
How to validate: Ask prospects who evaluated competitors: “What were you hoping they’d offer that they didn’t?” Track themes across conversations.
Prompt 6: Value Proposition Comparison
Help me analyze how competitors communicate value vs. how we do.
Our Value Proposition: [your current positioning statement]
Competitor Positioning:
1. [Competitor A - their tagline/value prop]
2. [Competitor B - their tagline/value prop]
3. [Competitor C - their tagline/value prop]
For each (including ours):
1. Identify the primary customer segment they're targeting
2. Identify the main problem they claim to solve
3. Identify the mechanism/approach they emphasize
4. Identify the proof element (if any)
5. Rate the clarity (1-10) and differentiation (1-10)
Suggest 3 alternative value propositions for us that:
- Directly address unmet needs in the market
- Use different positioning angles than competitors
- Remain true to our actual capabilities
When to use it: Your messaging feels generic or you’re not sure how you’re different. This prompt forces you to articulate what makes you distinct beyond “we’re better.”
How to validate: Test alternative value propositions in cold outreach or ad campaigns. Measure response rates. The market will tell you which resonates.
Category 3: Survey & Interview Design Prompts
These prompts help you design research instruments that avoid leading questions and bias. They’re particularly useful for firms new to customer research who need structure.
Prompt 7: Customer Interview Script
I'm conducting customer interviews to learn about [research objective]. Create an interview script.
Context:
- Interviewee Type: [current customer/past customer/prospect/competitor's customer]
- What We Want to Learn: [specific research questions]
- Interview Length: [target duration]
Structure the script with:
1. Opening (rapport-building, explaining the purpose)
2. Warm-up questions (easy, non-threatening)
3. Core questions (targeting our research objectives)
4. Probing questions (to dig deeper on interesting answers)
5. Closing questions (anything we missed, next steps)
For each question:
- Explain what we're trying to learn
- Flag any questions that might be leading or biased
- Suggest follow-up probes for common responses
When to use it: You’re running customer interviews but worried about asking leading questions. Good for understanding what a digital marketing agency actually does from a customer perspective.
How to validate: Run 2-3 test interviews with friendly customers. Note where you get one-word answers (question too closed) or confusion (question too vague). Refine and rerun.
Prompt 8: Survey Question Generator
I need to create a customer survey about [survey topic]. Help me design effective questions.
Survey Objective: [what you're trying to learn]
Target Respondents: [who will take this survey]
Target Completion Time: [how long survey should take]
For each objective, create:
1. One open-ended question (to capture unexpected insights)
2. One multiple-choice question (to quantify patterns)
3. One rating scale question (to measure intensity/agreement)
For each question:
- Explain what it measures
- Suggest response options (for multiple choice/scale questions)
- Flag any potential response bias issues
- Provide recommended skip logic (if applicable)
Keep total question count under [number] questions.
When to use it: You want quantitative data but aren’t sure how to structure questions neutrally. Particularly useful for measuring satisfaction or priorities.
How to validate: Send a draft survey to 5-10 people from your target audience. Ask them to take it and note any confusing questions. Aim for 80%+ completion rate.
Prompt 9: Net Promoter Score (NPS) Deep Dive
I want to understand the "why" behind our NPS scores. Help me design follow-up questions.
Our Current NPS Score: [X]
Breakdown:
- Promoters (9-10): [X%]
- Passives (7-8): [X%]
- Detractors (0-6): [X%]
For each segment (Promoters, Passives, Detractors), create:
1. Three open-ended follow-up questions to understand their rating
2. Three specific areas to probe based on common patterns in each segment
3. Suggested actions we could take based on feedback themes
Format this as a decision tree: "If customer rated us [score range], ask [these questions], look for [these themes], consider [these actions]."
When to use it: You have NPS data but don’t understand the story behind the numbers. Helps you move from “our score is 42” to “here’s why and here’s what we do about it.”
How to validate: Actually implement the follow-up questions with your next NPS survey. Compare the themes ChatGPT predicted to what customers actually say.
Prompt 10: Qualitative Theme Identifier
I have customer feedback from [source: reviews, support tickets, sales calls] and need to identify common themes. Here's a sample:
[Paste 10-20 examples of customer feedback, each on a new line]
Analyze this feedback and:
1. Identify 5-7 major themes that appear across multiple examples
2. For each theme, provide:
- Theme name and definition
- Example quotes that illustrate it
- Estimated percentage of feedback mentioning it
- Whether the theme is positive, negative, or neutral
3. Suggest which themes should inform product/service decisions
4. Suggest which themes should inform marketing messaging
Format as a table with columns: Theme | Definition | Examples | Frequency | Sentiment | Action Implications
When to use it: You have unstructured feedback and need to make sense of it. Particularly useful when you have 20-100 pieces of feedback—too much to read manually, too little for automated sentiment analysis tools.
How to validate: Read through your feedback independently and note themes you see. Compare to ChatGPT’s output. If major themes are missing, re-run with better examples.
Category 4: Synthetic Research Prompts
These prompts have ChatGPT role-play scenarios or customer types. They’re useful for exploring hypothetical situations, but always validate outputs with real customer data.
Prompt 11: Synthetic Focus Group
Simulate a focus group discussion about [your service/product/marketing message].
Focus Group Composition:
- 6 participants, each representing a different customer archetype:
1. [Archetype 1: description]
2. [Archetype 2: description]
3. [Archetype 3: description]
4. [Archetype 4: description]
5. [Archetype 5: description]
6. [Archetype 6: description]
Topic for Discussion: [what you're testing]
Simulate a 15-minute discussion where:
1. I (the moderator) present the topic
2. Each participant responds with their initial reaction
3. Participants react to each other's points
4. I ask probing questions based on their responses
5. We reach some consensus or identify clear disagreements
Format as a script with participant names and their statements. After the discussion, summarize key insights and surprising disagreements.
When to use it: You want to stress-test a positioning statement or marketing message before investing in creative. Good for identifying objections you hadn’t considered.
How to validate: Run the actual focus group or customer interviews. If real customers raise objections ChatGPT missed, update your archetype descriptions and re-run.
Prompt 12: Objection Handling Framework
I need to anticipate and address customer objections to [your offer/service].
Context:
- What we're selling: [description]
- Target customer: [description]
- Price point: [range]
- Sales cycle: [typical length]
For the following common objection categories, provide:
1. The specific objection (in the customer's words)
2. The underlying concern (what they're really worried about)
3. The evidence-based response (how to address it)
4. The pre-emptive strategy (how to address before they ask)
Objection categories:
- Price objections
- Trust/credibility objections
- Timing objections ("not now")
- Authority objections ("need to ask someone")
- Fit objections ("not sure this is right for us")
Format as a table with columns: Objection | Underlying Concern | Response Strategy | Pre-emptive Strategy
When to use it: You’re refining your sales process or website copy. Particularly useful for lead generation strategies where you need to address objections before the sales call.
How to validate: Record your next 10 sales conversations. Tally which objections actually come up and how often. Compare to ChatGPT’s predictions.
Prompt 13: Customer Journey Scenario
Walk me through a detailed customer journey scenario for [your target customer].
Starting Point: [where the customer is before they know about you]
Desired Outcome: [what success looks like after working with you]
For each stage of the journey, describe:
1. What the customer is thinking/feeling
2. What triggers them to move to the next stage
3. What questions they're asking
4. What information they're seeking
5. What obstacles might stop their progress
6. What marketing touchpoints could help them advance
Stages to cover:
- Problem recognition
- Information gathering
- Solution evaluation
- Decision-making
- Purchase/engagement
- Onboarding/implementation
- Ongoing use/renewal
Format as a narrative story, then create a summary table with stages, customer questions, and recommended marketing actions.
When to use it: You’re mapping content to the buyer’s journey or identifying gaps in your marketing funnel. Helps ensure you have content for every stage, not just “hire us” content.
How to validate: Interview 3-5 recent customers. Ask them to walk through their decision process chronologically. Compare their actual journey to the synthetic one.
Prompt 14: Message Testing Framework
I want to test different messaging angles for [your offer]. Create a framework to evaluate them.
Our Offer: [what you're selling]
Target Audience: [who we're selling to]
Messaging Angles to Test:
1. [Angle 1: e.g., "Save time"]
2. [Angle 2: e.g., "Reduce risk"]
3. [Angle 3: e.g., "Increase revenue"]
For each angle:
1. Write a 2-sentence value proposition
2. Predict which customer segment will respond best (and why)
3. Identify the primary emotion this angle triggers
4. List potential objections this angle might surface
5. Suggest the best channel to test this angle (email, ad, landing page)
6. Provide 3 headline variations to A/B test
Create a testing roadmap that prioritizes angles by likely impact and ease of testing.
When to use it: You’re running A/B tests but need structured hypotheses about what to test. Particularly useful when you’re unsure which benefits to emphasize in your website design.
How to validate: Actually run the tests. Track which angles drive the most engagement, leads, or conversions. Use that data to refine future prompts.
Prompt 15: Customer Language Extraction
I need to understand how customers naturally describe [problem/solution/category] so I can use their language in marketing.
Here are quotes from customers describing their experience:
[Paste 5-10 customer quotes, testimonials, or review excerpts]
For this sample:
1. Extract the specific words and phrases customers use (not industry jargon)
2. Identify the metaphors or analogies they naturally employ
3. Note the emotional descriptors (how they describe how they felt)
4. List the concrete outcomes they mention (not abstract benefits)
5. Identify any surprising word choices or unexpected framings
Create a "customer voice guide" that shows:
- Words customers use vs. words we typically use
- Phrases to incorporate in marketing copy
- Phrases to avoid (too formal, too jargony, misaligned with customer reality)
When to use it: Your marketing copy sounds like you wrote it, not like your customers talk. This prompt helps you adopt customer language in your messaging. Useful across all industries, including when discussing AI adoption in your industry.
How to validate: Show the customer voice guide to your sales team. Ask: “Is this how customers actually talk?” Refine based on their feedback—they hear customers all day.
How to Validate ChatGPT Research Outputs
Every prompt above generates hypotheses, not facts. Here’s how to turn ChatGPT outputs into validated insights:
Three-Step Validation Process:
- Generate (ChatGPT creates structured hypotheses)
- Test (You expose hypotheses to real customers)
- Refine (You update prompts with real-world feedback)
Specific validation methods by prompt category:
For personas: Schedule 3-5 customer interviews. Ask open-ended questions about their goals, challenges, and decision criteria. If their answers don’t match the persona, update your prompt inputs with actual customer language and regenerate.
For competitive analysis: Show the positioning map or gap analysis to customers who evaluated multiple options. Ask: “Does this match how you compared solutions? What’s missing?” Track which gaps they mention vs. what ChatGPT predicted.
For surveys: Send your survey to a small test group (10-15 people). Track completion rate, time to complete, and any questions people skip. If completion is below 80%, questions are too long or confusing.
For synthetic focus groups: Run the actual conversation with real customers. Compare the objections and concerns that come up to what ChatGPT predicted. Use the delta to improve your archetypes.
Red flags that output needs validation:
- ChatGPT uses generic business buzzwords your customers would never say
- Predicted pain points don’t show up in your actual sales conversations
- Survey questions get skipped or produce only neutral responses
- Competitive gaps ChatGPT identified aren’t mentioned by prospects
- Personas feel like archetypes from a textbook, not your actual customers
The goal isn’t perfect prediction—it’s faster iteration. ChatGPT helps you structure your thinking so you can test hypotheses with real customers more efficiently.
When to Graduate Beyond ChatGPT Market Research
ChatGPT is training wheels. It helps you learn research methodology and develop better questions. But it has limits:
Move beyond ChatGPT when:
- You need real-time market data (ChatGPT’s training data is static)
- You’re analyzing large datasets (100+ survey responses, thousands of reviews)
- You need statistical validation of findings
- You’re making major investment decisions (new service line, market entry)
- You need ongoing competitive intelligence monitoring
- You’re ready for specialized platforms (Gong for sales call analysis, Qualtrics for surveys, SEMrush for competitive intelligence)
For most professional service firms, ChatGPT handles 80% of exploratory research needs. The other 20%—the research that justifies major decisions—still requires specialized tools or agency partners.
The key is using ChatGPT to develop your research muscles. Learn to write good prompts, validate outputs, and ask better questions. Those skills transfer when you eventually need more sophisticated tools.
Start With One Prompt This Week
Pick one prompt from this guide and run it today. Not to get perfect answers—to practice the validation process.
If you’re not sure where to start:
- If you’re unclear on who you serve: Start with Prompt 1 (Basic Buyer Persona Builder)
- If you’re unsure how you’re different: Start with Prompt 4 (Competitive Positioning Map)
- If you want customer feedback: Start with Prompt 7 (Customer Interview Script)
The firms that win with AI research aren’t the ones with the fanciest tools. They’re the ones who consistently test, validate, and refine. ChatGPT gives you the structure. Your customers give you the truth.
Turn Research Into Revenue: Book Your Free Strategy Session
You’ve got the prompts. You’ve run the research. Now what?
Most professional service firms get stuck at this exact stage. They have customer insights sitting in Google Docs that never become marketing campaigns. They know what prospects care about but don’t know how to turn that into leads.
That’s where we come in.
Our free strategy session walks you through:
- The Research Audit: We review your existing customer insights (ChatGPT outputs, survey results, interview notes) and identify which findings should drive your marketing immediately.
- The Gap Analysis: We map what you know about your customers against what your current marketing actually says. Most firms discover they’re leading with features their customers don’t care about.
- The 90-Day Roadmap: We prioritize which research insights to act on first based on likely revenue impact and implementation speed. No “boil the ocean” strategies—just the next three moves that matter.
Who this is for:
- Professional service firms (law, accounting, landscaping, remodeling, consulting) with $500K+ annual revenue
- Firms that have run some market research but aren’t sure what to do with it
- Partners and ops leads who need a second opinion on their marketing direction
- Anyone tired of “random acts of marketing” who wants a system that compounds
Who this is NOT for:
- Firms looking for someone to “just run our ads” without strategy
- Anyone expecting guarantees of specific lead volume or rankings
- Businesses that want to outsource thinking rather than partner on it
What happens on the call:
No sales pitch. No multi-thousand dollar proposal at the end. We spend 45 minutes diagnosing your current situation and mapping potential paths forward. If we’re a fit, we’ll tell you. If you’re better off implementing this yourself or working with someone else, we’ll tell you that too.
The only requirement: bring your research. Whether it’s ChatGPT persona outputs, customer interview notes, or just “here’s what I think I know about our customers,” we need something to work with. The session is most valuable when you’ve already started the research process and need help turning insights into action.
Book your free strategy session here. We’ll send you a brief intake form before the call so we’re not starting from zero. Most firms leave with at least one concrete next step they can implement immediately, regardless of whether we work together.
