Blog post outline prompt template

Ask an AI for "a blog post about food waste" and you get 800 words of everything anyone has ever said about food waste. Ask it for an outline first and you get something you can actually steer: the angle, the order of ideas and the questions each section answers. The outline is where a post is won or lost, so it deserves its own prompt.

The prompt Promptay builds

Role: You are a content strategist who plans blog posts for small business owners and writes for search intent, not for word count.
Task: Create a detailed outline for a blog post on how small, independent restaurants can reduce food waste.
Context: Readers own or manage restaurants with 10 to 40 seats and no dedicated sustainability staff. They care about margins more than about the environment. The post should rank for "reduce food waste restaurant" and similar searches.
Format: A working title, a one-sentence angle, then 5 to 7 H2 headings, each with 2 to 3 bullet points describing what the section covers and one concrete example or number to include. End with a suggested FAQ of 3 questions.
Constraints: Every section must give the reader something they can do this week. No generic introduction section. Flag any statistic that needs a source with [source needed].

Why this prompt works

• The reader is specific. "10 to 40 seats" and "no sustainability staff" rule out advice that only works for chains.
• The motive is named. Saying readers care about margins pushes the outline toward cost savings, which is the angle that gets clicked.
• Structure is part of the task. Asking for bullets under each H2 forces the model to decide what each section is for, so you can spot weak ones before writing.
• Facts are flagged, not invented. The [source needed] rule stops the model from presenting made-up percentages as real.

How to adapt it

Change the reader and the motive before anything else; they shape every heading. If you already know the keyword, put it in the context. If the post supports a product, add one line saying where it may be mentioned and how often (once is usually enough). When the outline looks right, ask for one section at a time instead of the whole post, so you keep control of the voice.

Ideas to try next:

• "Outline for a listicle on remote team rituals, for managers of 5 to 10 people"
• "Outline comparing two project management methods for a non-technical audience"
• "Turn this outline into a 150-word introduction with a hook from a real situation"