Claude Prompts: Copy-Paste Library for Small Business

Claude is very good at doing exactly what you ask. That's a gift when your prompt is clear and a frustration when it isn't. Most of the weak answers I see from Claude come from prompts that leave out who the work is for, what good looks like or what material to use.

This is my library of Claude prompts for small business owners, built on Anthropic's own prompting guidance. Every prompt is copy-paste: fill in the brackets and go. I've grouped them by job, and before the library there's a short section on the habits that make any Claude prompt work better.

What makes a good Claude prompt?

Anthropic's best-practice guide boils down to a handful of habits:

• Be clear and direct. Anthropic suggests treating Claude like a brilliant but new employee who lacks context on your norms and workflows.
• Explain why. Giving the reason behind an instruction helps Claude apply it sensibly.
• Show examples. Anthropic recommends a few examples, wrapped in example tags, for the best results.
• Use tags to separate parts. Labels such as instructions, context and input help Claude tell your brief from your material.
• Put long documents first. Place long material near the top and your question at the end.
• Say what to do, not what to avoid. "Write in short paragraphs" works better than "don't write long paragraphs".

Anthropic also offers a simple test: show your prompt to a colleague with no context. If they'd be confused, Claude will be too.

Why do my Claude answers feel generic?

Usually because Claude is filling gaps you left. If you don't say who the reader is, it writes for everyone. If you don't give an example, it uses a safe, average tone. If you don't say what to leave out, it includes everything. Anthropic's guide also notes that if you want Claude to go above and beyond, you need to ask for that explicitly rather than hoping it guesses. The template below closes those gaps.

A Claude prompt template you can reuse

Copy this prompt

I run [business], a [type of business] for [customers]. [One line on what matters to them.]
[What you want, in one or two sentences.] This is for [reader] and will be used for [purpose].
[Paste a short example of the result you like.]
[Paste your notes, document or data.]
Format: [length, headings, bullets or table]. Tone: [plain, warm, direct].

Claude prompts for marketing

Copy this prompt

Here are three posts that did well for my business: [post] [post] [post]
Write five new posts for [platform] on [topic] in the same voice.
Each one should open with a specific detail, not a question, and end with one clear action.

Copy and paste this prompt

Read my service page below and list the three questions a cautious customer would still have after reading it.
Then rewrite the page to answer them, keeping my tone. Page: [paste].

Claude prompts for emails and customer replies

Copy this prompt

A customer has sent this: [paste message].
Draft a reply that thanks them, answers the question in the first two sentences and offers one next step.
Keep it under [number] words, friendly and in British English. If something can't be answered from the message, ask one clear question.

Copy and paste this prompt

Write a follow-up email to [name], who asked for a quote [time] ago and hasn't replied.
Make it short and helpful, add one useful point about [service], and make it easy to say no.

Claude prompts for planning and operations

Copy this prompt

[paste your notes from this week]
Turn these notes into: three priorities for next week, anything I've promised someone, and one thing I can stop doing.
Use short bullet points.

Copy and paste this prompt

Write a step-by-step process for [task] that a new team member could follow on their first day.
Include what tools they'll need, where things go wrong, and a short checklist at the end.

Claude prompts for documents and analysis

For long documents, follow Anthropic's advice and put the document first, then ask Claude to pull out the relevant quotes before it answers. It keeps the answer anchored to what the document says.

Copy this prompt

[paste the contract, report or proposal]
First, quote the parts of this document that relate to [question].
Then answer [question] in plain English, and flag anything that's unclear or that I should check with a professional.

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Copy and paste this prompt

Here's my sales data for the last [period]: [paste or attach].
Tell me the three most useful things it shows, one thing that looks odd, and one question I should ask next.
Explain it as if I'm not a numbers person.

Claude prompts for getting a better second draft

Anthropic's guide says the most common way to chain prompts is self-correction: draft, review, then refine. After any first draft, try this.

Copy this prompt

Review your draft against my original brief.
List the three weakest points, then rewrite the draft to fix them.
Keep anything that already works and tell me what you changed.

Claude prompts for learning and decisions

Copy this prompt

I need to decide between [option A] and [option B] for my business.
Ask me up to five questions first, one at a time, to understand my situation.
Then give me your recommendation, the main risk of each option, and what would change your mind.

Copy and paste this prompt

Explain [topic] to me as if I run a [type of business] and have ten minutes.
Use one example from a business like mine, and finish with three questions I should ask a specialist.

Asking Claude to question you first is one of the most useful habits you can build. It turns a generic answer into one that fits your business, and it often surfaces the detail you'd forgotten to mention.

How do I stop repeating myself in Claude?

Three features save you pasting the same context every time:

• Instructions for Claude in Settings apply to every conversation, so put your role, tone and spelling preferences there.
• Projects keep instructions and reference files together for one body of work. See how to use Claude Projects.
• Memory saves useful context as you chat. Anthropic says it's on by default for Free, Pro and Max, and each project has its own memory.

If you're choosing a model for these prompts, Sonnet handles most of them well. I've explained when to switch in the best Claude model for writing.

Do Claude prompts work in ChatGPT and Gemini?

Mostly, yes. The habits that help Claude, such as clear context, examples and a defined format, help every assistant. Tags are especially natural for Claude, but other assistants follow them too. For more cross-tool examples, my AI prompt examples cover the same jobs in plain prompts.

Tools that work with Claude prompts

Keep your best prompts somewhere you can find them. Notion, Google Docs or Apple Notes work as a simple library, and TextExpander or Raycast can paste a prompt with a short keyword. Claude connects to Google Drive, Gmail and Slack for material, and Grammarly or Hemingway Editor help with a final read of anything you publish.

If you'd like a prompt library built around your own business, this is how I work with business owners.

Frequently asked questions

How do I write a good prompt for Claude?

Be clear and direct, give context and the reason behind instructions, include a few examples, separate parts with tags, and say what to do rather than what to avoid.

Should I use XML tags in Claude prompts?

Anthropic says tags such as instructions, context and input help Claude parse complex prompts clearly. They're optional for short prompts but useful for long ones.

Where should a long document go in a Claude prompt?

Anthropic recommends putting long documents near the top of the prompt and your question at the end.

Does Anthropic have a Claude prompt library?

Anthropic's main reference is its prompting best-practices guide. Its older prompt library link now leads to that guide.

Do Claude prompts work in ChatGPT?

Mostly. Clear context, examples and a defined format help any assistant, so most Claude prompts work in ChatGPT and Gemini too.