Writing effective prompts in Affinity

Affinity works best when you express your intent clearly. If you know what kind of journey you want to create, provide relevant details. If you're exploring ideas or unsure about specifics, keep your prompt brief—Affinity will ask clarifying questions as needed.

How to write high-performing prompts

Follow these principles when describing journeys to Affinity:

Be specific and goal-oriented

Vague prompts make it harder to generate a meaningful journey brief.

• Vague: "Create an email journey."
• Specific: "Create an abandoned cart journey recommending two similar items."

Include the objective, key message, and timing when you know your goal.

Include key parameters upfront

Add specifics that must be part of your journey. Otherwise, describe your goal and let Affinity decide timing, tone, and structure.

Be explicit with non-standard data, attribute, and event names, or conditions. This prevents Affinity from misinterpreting your inputs.

Examples:

• Targeting customers who purchased only from a certain brand: "Create a monthly newsletter for all customers who purchased Reebok products in the last 90 days."
• Excluding a specific group with a non-intuitive attribute name: "Exclude customers with bronze loyalty_tier."
• Using a less common targeting rule: "Target customers who used express shipping at least twice in the past 6 months."

Provide context when needed

Add context if your journey depends on knowledge that isn't obvious from your data, so Affinity can make better decisions. Examples include regional habits, industry-specific behavior, or brand-specific nuances that affect timing, tone, or targeting.

Examples:

• "In France, avoid sending marketing emails on Sundays."
• "This journey is for B2B software customers—keep the tone professional and concise."
• "Promote winter collections only to customers in regions where the average temperature is below 10°C."

You don't need to overexplain standard concepts like "welcome flow" or "abandoned cart"—Affinity already understands those. Add context only when it changes how the journey should behave or be interpreted.

Structure your journey request

Include details when you know them. If you only know the use case, state it—Affinity will propose the structure.

Essential elements:

• Objective: Business outcome you want.
• Audience and trigger: Who enters and when.
• Key message: What you want to communicate.

Optional elements:

• Timing or sequence.
• Tone (friendly, premium, urgent).
• Constraints (exclusions, entry limits).
• Personalization (product recommendations, dynamic content).

Examples:

• Full structure: "Create a 3-step welcome flow for new subscribers. Send the first email immediately with brand introduction, the second after 3 days featuring best sellers, and the third after 7 days with a first-purchase discount. Use a friendly tone."
• Minimal input: "Create a welcome flow for new subscribers."

Examples of vague and specific prompts

Affinity interprets most standard use cases from short prompts. "Set up welcome emails" works fine—Affinity knows what a welcome flow is.

Vague prompts leave too much open to interpretation, such as "Create an email journey" or "Engage customers," where Affinity has no clear goal or audience.

The difference between vague and specific isn't about length—it's about clarity of intent. If Affinity can understand the journey's purpose (flow type, target audience, trigger), the prompt works. Add detail when you want control over tone, timing, or message content.