Case study draft prompt: free ChatGPT template
Updated · By Robert Breen
Use this when a customer has agreed to be featured and you have the real material: your notes, the results they've approved for publishing and quotes in their own words. Ask an AI for "a case study about how we helped a client" and it will happily invent the client, the numbers and a glowing quote. This prompt builds the story only from what you paste, keeps quotes word for word and marks gaps instead of filling them.
The prompt
Copy it into ChatGPT (or Claude, Gemini or Copilot) and replace every [BLANK] with your own details. It uses the four parts from Prompt Writing 101: Role, Context, Task and Format.
Role: You are a marketing writer at [BUSINESS], drafting a customer case study for our website. Context: The customer is [CUSTOMER], and they have agreed to be named. Our notes on the problem, what we did and what happened: [NOTES]. Results the customer has approved for publishing: [APPROVED RESULTS]. Use only these facts. Don't invent numbers, timelines, quotes or details, and don't round up or improve the results. Task: Draft a case study in three parts: the problem, what we did, and what changed. Use quotes only from the customer quotes below, word for word. Where the story needs a fact we didn't give, write "MISSING:" and what's needed instead of guessing. Format: A headline that states an approved result in plain words, then the three parts with short headings, under 350 words. Plain, specific and modest: "we helped" or "the customer saw," never "guaranteed." No emoji. Customer quotes, approved word for word: [CUSTOMER QUOTES]
Fill in the blanks
[BUSINESS]- Your business name and what you do.
[CUSTOMER]- The customer's name and type of business, exactly as they agreed to be named.
[NOTES]- Your own notes on the situation, the work and the timeline. Plain bullet points are fine.
[APPROVED RESULTS]- Only the results the customer has agreed you can publish, with how they were measured. Keep these separate from your notes.
[CUSTOMER QUOTES]- Their words, from an email, a call they agreed to or a form, pasted exactly. Leave this empty rather than writing quotes for them.
Example, filled in
A made-up example from the free lesson n8n AI Agent Tutorial: Save Social Media Ideas to Google Sheets. BrightPath Marketing is the made-up agency in the n8n AI agent lesson. A made-up client, Kessler Family Landscaping, agreed to a case study about its website rebuild.
Role: You are a marketing writer at BrightPath Marketing, a digital marketing agency for small and midsize businesses, drafting a customer case study for our website. Context: The customer is Kessler Family Landscaping, a landscaping company, and they have agreed to be named. Our notes on the problem, what we did and what happened: their old site had no phone number on most pages and loaded slowly on phones; callers often asked whether they did patios; we rebuilt the site with a page per service, the phone number on every page and call tracking. Results the customer has approved for publishing: calls from the website went from about 20 a month in February to about 35 a month in August, counted with call tracking. Use only these facts. Don't invent numbers, timelines, quotes or details, and don't round up or improve the results. Task: Draft a case study in three parts: the problem, what we did, and what changed. Use quotes only from the customer quotes below, word for word. Where the story needs a fact we didn't give, write "MISSING:" and what's needed instead of guessing. Format: A headline that states an approved result in plain words, then the three parts with short headings, under 350 words. Plain, specific and modest: "we helped" or "the customer saw," never "guaranteed." No emoji. Customer quotes, approved word for word: "People used to call asking if we did patios. Now they call already knowing what they want." (Mark Kessler, owner)
What a good answer looks like
- A headline built on the approved result as stated ("about 20 to about 35 calls a month"), not "Explosive growth."
- The one quote, word for word, credited to the person who said it, and no other quotes.
- MISSING markers where the notes have gaps, such as when the new site launched.
- A modest tone that credits the work without promising readers the same outcome.
How to check it before you use it
An AI draft can sound right and still say something you never told it. Use the habit from the Reply Faster lesson: check every promise, name, date and number against what you gave it before anything goes out.
- Check every number and quote against what you pasted. A result rounded up ("nearly doubled") is a new claim; change it back.
- Search the draft for quotation marks and confirm each quote is in your pasted quotes, word for word.
- Send the finished draft, headline and numbers included, to the customer for approval before it goes live.
- Remove anything that reads as a promise to future customers, like "you'll see the same results."
Why this prompt works
Case studies persuade because they're true, so this prompt is built to keep the AI from writing a better story than the real one. Separating approved results from your notes matters: your notes may hold numbers the customer never agreed to share. The MISSING markers turn hallucination into a to-do list.
Practice it in the free lesson
Reply Faster: Turn a Messy Customer Email Thread into a Clear, Friendly Reply: Turn a messy customer email thread into a clear, friendly reply: give ChatGPT the thread and your facts, check every promise, fix the tone, and send it from Gmail. You do every step yourself in a practice copy of ChatGPT, and nothing touches your real accounts.
Also useful: Prompt Writing 101: Role, Context, Task, Format
Terms used here
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Frequently asked questions
- Can I write a case study without the customer's permission?
- Don't name a customer, publish their numbers or quote them without their agreement. Ask first; the testimonial request prompt helps you ask in a way that's easy to answer yes or no.