How to Use ChatGPT for Small Business Marketing (With Prompts)

ChatGPT is useful on a marketing week for one job: turning a brief you wrote into a draft you still edit. It is a bad source for your prices, your license, or last spring’s sales. If you did not type the fact, it does not get published.

The prompts below are for a one-person business in the US, UK, Australia, or Canada. Replace the brackets. Leave a bracket empty instead of letting the draft fill it. The plan prices come from OpenAI’s help center and its own announcements — confirm regional checkout if you are outside the US. ChatGPT is the product. The picker inside your account is the model list, and OpenAI says those names change. Pair drafts with a clean booking link and a CRM record so follow-up does not live only in chat history.

Which ChatGPT plan should a small business use for marketing?

Plan	Published price (check date in Sources)	When it fits marketing drafts
Free	$0	Trying prompts once; limits move with demand
Go	Announced at $8/month in the US — confirm live checkout	Cheaper paid step than Plus for everyday writing
Plus	$20/month billed monthly	Higher limits and features listed on OpenAI’s Plus help article
Business	Standard from $25/user/month or $20 annually	Shared workspace; needs at least two seats per OpenAI

Free is enough to try every prompt once. Limits move with demand, so I will not quote a message cap that expires next week.

Plus is $20 a month, billed monthly. The help article says there is no annual plan. You get higher limits than Free, the reasoning options on your account, a better chance of a reply when traffic is heavy, voice, image generation, file uploads, and Deep Research where it is offered. API calls are billed separately and are not included.

Go is the cheaper paid step. OpenAI’s January 16, 2026 announcement priced it at $8 a month in the US, with more everyday writing, uploads, and images than Free. The Go help article says the live price is on the pricing page and may change. Look at the checkout number before you subscribe. A January post is not an October receipt.

Pro is the wrong buy for a Thursday email. The Pro article lists Pro 100 at $100, Pro 200 at $200, and Pro 500 at $500, all monthly.

Business, formerly Team, is a shared workspace. Standard seats are $25 a user each month, or $20 on an annual plan. Premium seats are $125, or $100 annually. You need at least two seats. OpenAI says that, by default, it does not train on ChatGPT Business, Enterprise, or API content. A solo owner usually wants Go or Plus. Business matters when a second person needs a login and you want that default.

How do you keep client data safer when using ChatGPT?

On personal Free, Plus, and Pro, OpenAI says training use is on until you turn it off: Settings, Data controls, “Improve the model for everyone.” History can stay on. Voice has its own switch. Temporary Chat stays out of history, does not build memories, and is not used for training. Read the data controls article if the work is sensitive. This is the short version.

The switch is not permission to paste a card number, a password, a Social Security number, or a client file. Write “a dentist in Columbus,” not the patient’s name.

Go’s help page includes projects and custom GPTs, depending on what your account shows. Put this brief in a project if you see one. Otherwise paste it at the top of the chat.

• What you sell, the city, and who it is for, in words a customer would use
• Prices you charge, or the line “do not name a price”
• Words you refuse. Mine include “unlock,” “elevate,” and “game-changer”
• Proof you can stand behind, plus an order not to add any other number
• The next step: call, book, or reply

Then ask for three angles, pick one, and request a draft under a word cap. You replace every fact. You read it aloud. If it sounds like a brochure from nowhere, it does not go out.

What ChatGPT prompts work for small-business marketing?

The brief is already in the chat. Delete any line you do not mean.

Weekly note to people who have already bought:

Using only the brief, write an email under 150 words.
One subject line. Talk about [a job we finished or a question customers asked].
Do not invent a result, a discount, a testimonial, or a number.
End with one next step: [call / reply / book].
If it sounds like an ad, add a plainer version under it.

Google Business Profile:

Write one short Google Business Profile post for [city] about [service].
No hashtags. No “best,” “first,” or “only.”
Do not invent a rating, a review count, or years in business.
Mention [neighborhood] only if the brief does.
Close with [the real offer, or “call for a time”]. No price unless the brief has one.

Opening of a service page:

Write two short paragraphs and three bullets for [service] in [city], for [customer].
Describe the work in our order: [step, step, step].
Use these phrases from real calls: [phrases].
Do not add a license, an insurance amount, a guarantee, a price, or a competitor.

A slow week, without a fake sale:

We have open time on [days]. Write three emails under 80 words.
A: the open days, no discount.
B: this offer we already decided: [describe it, or delete B].
C: a question about who has a project waiting.
Do not invent a percent off, a countdown, or “only 2 spots left.”

A real customer question, ready for the site:

A customer asked, with names removed: “[question]”.
Answer in under 120 words, then give a heading.
If the honest answer needs a look at the job, say so, and say how to ask.
Do not invent code rules, medical claims, or legal conclusions.
Flag any line I should check with [insurer / accountant / inspector] first.

A reply to a review that was actually posted:

Here is the review, unchanged: “[paste it]”.
Reply in under 70 words. Thank them for the specific thing they named.
If there is a problem, the next step is only [what I already decided].
Do not offer money, a free job, or an excuse I did not write.
Do not ask them to edit or remove the review.

Run this before you publish:

List every price, place, year, result, and superlative in the draft.
Mark each “in the brief” or “not in the brief.”
Delete the second kind. Do not replace them with new facts.

What should you never ask ChatGPT to invent?

Do not ask for fake reviews or a comment that pretends to be a customer. The FTC’s Endorsement Guides are the rule: a review has to be a real person’s honest experience. Replying to one you received is fine. Reviewing yourself is not.

Do not ask for “statistics about small businesses in my city” and paste the answer. A confident number with no page you can open does not go on your site. Do not let it call a competitor worse than you, or promise a ranking or a faster payment you have not earned.

A workable week is small. Monday, one email about something that happened. Wednesday, one profile post about a service you have room for. Friday, one customer question turned into a short block on a page you already have. Three pieces, each checked against the brief.

A photo you took still beats a generated shop that is not yours. If the drafts start to sound alike, the brief is thin or you skipped the edit. Add one detail only you would know: the hour you answer, the part of the job people ask about twice. Then run the last prompt and send it.

Which OpenAI pages were checked for ChatGPT prices?

See also our methodology / how we check prices page.

Checked against OpenAI on October 26, 2026: Plus, Go, the Go announcement, Pro tiers, Business, business pricing, and data controls.

How we score

Desk scores are editorial. They summarize how useful the vendor’s own pricing and help pages were for a solo small business (US, UK, AU, or CA) on the date in this guide. They are not customer star ratings, lab benchmarks, or paid placements. Read the full process on our methodology / how we check prices page.

See a price or feature that has changed? Send a correction. Guides are updated from the vendor’s page, not from memory. How we check prices.

FAQ

Can I use the free ChatGPT plan for small business marketing?

Yes for drafting. Free is enough to try prompts. Limits move with demand, so check what your account allows that day. Paid plans add higher limits and features described on OpenAI’s help pages.

Should ChatGPT invent customer reviews or local statistics?

No. Do not ask for fake reviews or unsourced city statistics. The FTC Endorsement Guides require real, honest experiences for reviews.

How do I keep business writing out of model training on a personal account?

On personal Free, Plus, and Pro accounts, OpenAI says training use is on until you turn it off under Settings → Data controls → Improve the model for everyone. Temporary Chat stays out of history and is not used for training, according to OpenAI’s data controls article.