53: How to Use Deep Research Mode in ChatGPT for a Competitive Advantage

Many marketers use AI only for quick answers or surface-level tasks. In Episode 53 of Practical Rebels, Veronique and Logan explain why that approach leaves valuable opportunities on the table. They explore how deep research mode in ChatGPT can help teams gather insights, analyze competitors, and organize information that drives stronger strategy.

The episode begins with a breakdown of what deep research mode actually does. It helps teams work through complex questions, identify hidden patterns, and pull together structured analysis that normally takes hours of manual research. Because of this, marketers can speed up decision making and focus more energy on creativity and execution.

Veronique and Logan explain how to compare brand messaging, evaluate service offerings, and uncover positioning gaps that can shape marketing strategy. They walk through practical examples that show how to turn raw research into usable insights.

Additionally, the episode covers the importance of setting clear prompts. With the right guidance, ChatGPT can organize findings, summarize sources, and create strategic frameworks that teams can use during planning sessions. This is especially helpful for small teams that want to move quickly without sacrificing depth.

Finally, the team shares tips for integrating AI into everyday workflows. They show how deep research mode supports better brainstorming, faster campaign planning, and more informed creative thinking.

For marketers who want to elevate their work, this episode offers a clear path forward. Deep research mode is more than a tool. It is a way to work smarter, stay competitive, and build stronger strategies with confidence.

Transcript

Setting The Stage: AI In Marketing

SPEAKER_00 0:00

All right, everybody. Welcome back to the Practical Rebels Podcast. Veronique here, and I am joined by our content strategist Logan.

SPEAKER_01 0:09

Hey Veronique, thanks for having me back again.

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Dragging you away from the desk.

SPEAKER_01 0:16

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Yeah, Logan and I, it's funny, we uh we end up we sit next to each other in the office and then we go to our separate corners to record these podcasts. So it feels like very weird.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

Yeah, separate but together. It's weird. It works for us.

SPEAKER_00 0:32

It does. All right. So we are really excited to talk about our topic today. As if you follow any of our content on social media or our emails, you know that as a creative and marketing agency, along with you know, everybody else in this space, I know we've really been trying to figure out how to move forward in this world of AI. AI is making massive changes to the way that we do our work every day. And, you know, we're having conversations around what is kind of the acceptable use of it in our industry and the type of stuff that we're not going to lean into with it. And one of the things that we've found really helpful lately and we've landed on is we we kind of make these judgment calls when we're having conversations around it. We are, you know, the work that we do is very creative. People work with us because of the ideas that we have and how we bring them to life. And we don't want to lose that with this whole rush to kind of create more and do more and use these tools to output. So the line that we have been kind of walking is really how can we utilize tools and things like Cloud or Chat GBT and kind of the functionalities within tools like that to help support the tasks that might be very like time consuming and manual and honestly like are not the best use of our time as content strategies when we're really going in to kind of dig into a brand and do some of that upfront work. So yeah, I think it's it's one of the things that Logan and I I know are very interested in, and we're constantly having these conversations as as new products come out, as you know, our tools that we use evolve. And we wanted to share one of the ways that we've both found really, really helpful lately with in using Chat GPT and kind of the deep research mode specifically. Yeah, Logan, any thoughts on that before we kind of dig into the meat of it?

Why Deep Research Mode Matters

SPEAKER_01 2:28

Yeah, I think that the deep research mode is really cool. I know we're gonna probably dig into this deeper, obviously, but it's just whenever you're wanting to get beyond some of those superficial questions. I think most people have gotten pretty proficient at asking their AI model pretty like simple things, you know what I mean? But this is whenever you can take it a step further, especially whenever you're digging into something that's a little bit more nuanced, a little bit more complex, and using that deep research mode to really pull out some, I guess, like more, like I said, more nuanced and deeper insights into whatever it is you're looking into.

Kickoff Use Case: Brand And Competitors

Building A Rigid Master Prompt

SPEAKER_00 3:07

Yeah, exactly. And it is when you can really help guide your chat model to go out and scour the web, you know, read through articles, read through websites, through social posts, and gather a much larger amount of information in a fraction of the time. And we really like to use this as a kickoff point when we're doing kind of the upfront brand research for a client and really in kind of the competitive space as well. So we have found that what would take, you know, days and maybe like a week or longer in the past of, you know, say we have a new client that's coming on board and we want to get a good idea of what they do in the market, but also like this is very helpful in the competitive space. We're able to scrape a ton of sites, get a bunch of information, and then take that to go dig in on our own. So it's been really saving a lot of time. All right. So when we talk about how to use deep research mode, one of the examples that I'm getting, or the example that I'm going to be talking through during this AI chat is about kudos, the brand that we've been working with for about five years now. I want to caveat that this brand existed before ChatGPT existed. So this is not the process that we went back to through at the time, but this is the process that we would do now. So when if we were to be starting work with a brand like Kudos right now, and this is something that we actually kind of we dig into their competitors to see what they're doing regularly now through things like deep research mode. But if we were starting from scratch or kudos was a new client, we would want to really get a grasp on who they are, what they're about outside of conversations with them, and really figure out what the market is saying. At the same time, we would want to dig into their competitors. So some of those are Hello Bello, Coterie, Honest, Diaper, Pampers Pure, right? So they have this robust set of really established competitors, and we want to see where kudos fits within the market, stands out, what people are saying about them and why parents love them. So if the brand was starting from scratch, we would be having those conversations with the kudos, right? And with saying, hey, what are you bringing to market? What's that's different? What do you believe your differentiators are? And then running competitive reports so we can see where kudos can fit in naturally to the market or where they can stand out. And then a year later, we can run a report on kudos and saying, all right, are we tracking in the right direction beyond just like what we're seeing on social, what we're seeing on reviews? So it's a good way to do like a pulse check on where the brand stands out in the market and what people are saying. So one of the key things that we want to do up front is we don't just want to say, hey, Chat GPD, please go out and gather a report for me, customer sentiment, what the brand stands for, and reviews and awards, right, for this brand. We want to give it really clear direction. So when we do that, we would create one kind of master prompt for the six brands that I want it to give me reports on. And we're gonna guide it. So we're gonna say, I want you to call the URLs, the social media channels that we want it to call, trusted review sources. And you can give an example of that could be like like Amazon, like they're in Target, like any other online shopping or like Google reviews or reviews from their website, right? And we can start pulling information from trusted resources, from consumer articles. And it will start pulling from articles that are higher ranking with publications that are more prominent and things like that. And then we're gonna give it guidance around exactly what we want to get back from these. So I would develop something that is like conduct a high-level competitive research summary on the diaper brand blank, using credible public sources, scan the brings website, social channels, reviews, and press coverage to identify key themes, insights, focus on how the brand positions itself, what consumers say about it, and how it stands out or doesn't in the market. And then I would specifically say compare the following. And this is really important because we want to get back reports that are like comparing apples to apples across these different brands. So I would tell it, I want a snapshot of the brand, like what the brand is, who it's for, what it stands for. Three to five key differentiators that the brand claims set it apart. Customer sentiment, like what people love, their frustrations, and pain points. We want both. We just don't want the good stuff. The place in the position in the market, like what is their market positioning? What does it claim it owns specifically? So, like for kudos, it would be the only diaper that's a hundred percent cotton touching baby's butt. And that's that is what actually the report brought back, which is great. Like their tone and voice and personality, how they show up on social, like what type of content they're talking about and actively putting in front of consumers. Same with like blog content and then PR articles, awards, certifications, any other publications that have picked it up and what they're saying about it, good or bad. So we are able to create this one very clear prompt and run it six times. And I'm sure Logan, you've had the same experience. Like it might take 20, 30 minutes for one of them if it's doing it right.

SPEAKER_01 9:03

Yeah, it does. And that's something that I guess people need to be it's just like fair warning is that if you're used to using chat GPT, I won't say superficially, but just kind of the the standard stuff, you ask it a couple questions and it gives you an answer. That's not what deep research mode is at all. You might walk away and make some lunch or something like that as it does its thing while you come back before it's actually done doing what you need it to do.

SPEAKER_00 9:30

Yeah, exactly. So giving it that time to gather the information and pull it back is important. And also going in with making sure you have very clear intention and the details in that you want to gather, because you don't want to have to do this multiple times, ideally, um, because it is time consuming and you want to make sure you get back the most accurate information possible.

SPEAKER_01 9:56

Yeah. And if someone's doing this for the first time, I would say, you know, like rewind this if you're listening and listen to everything that Verenik said, because you'll notice that that prompt is not that's not a soft prompt, right? Like that's very structured, it's very rigid, and it's very detailed. And I think that doing that and then doing that six times over is super important because that's the only way you're gonna get exactly what you want out of it.

What To Compare Across Brands

SPEAKER_00 10:23

Yeah. And I think this is also, you know, we're talking about doing kind of this high-level brand positioning, right? But this is such a great tool. Say I own, I I run a law firm or I own an automotive shop. Any sort of business can do this and say, okay, what are people saying about my competitors? What are they saying about me? And it can really be a good gut check on room for improvements, on what people love about you, where you could potentially see an area that needs to be addressed. And also, like, this is how you're able to find out what people really love about you and lean into too, and what they're saying beyond what you know you're hearing directly from your customers, which is very important too. But it's a great way to set a foundation for like marketing campaigns based off of what your customers are telling you that resonates with them.

SPEAKER_01 11:25

Yeah, and I'm I'm even thinking it just as we're sitting here having this conversation, how this could really work for someone who hasn't even started their business yet, right? Like maybe this is someone just probing for ideas. You know, you talked about customer sentiment, the good and the bad. You know, I would say, you know, it'd be great to just like if you want to start a food truck, you know, just go through and figure out like what all the negative comments are about people eating at food trucks and what what can you exploit there, you know, like and say, like, I'm gonna do everything that people hate about, I'm just gonna try to fix that, you know what I mean? And try to be the first brand that does something different. So I have like a um for like innovators and entrepreneurs out there, there's definitely plenty of ideas that are just sitting out there for you.

Time Costs And Patience Required

SPEAKER_00 12:14

Mm-hmm. Yeah, exactly. It can be such a great like source of information for just digging a little deeper and seeing, seeing what's out there. So, one of the things I want to say is like you're gonna get back a report that's gonna be, you know, many pages, 10 plus pages per brand. Read them. I think people have a tendency to say, okay, I'm gonna get a report and then I'm gonna tell Jat GP to compare them. No, like this is literally like the one of the best sources of information that you can get to find out where your competitor's strengths are and where yours are. And it's like cliff notes for having that information on people like in front of you. So take the time to go through and read through those, and then you can kind of create a short list. What are my competitors' strengths? What are their weaknesses? What are my strengths and what are my weaknesses? And what are those things that stand out that I can create messaging around, or I can create social posts and campaigns around that say, you know, we are the number one for XYZ or people, you know, whatever, whatever service or product or experience people have with you, you can start to create customer-facing messaging around it because you know that's the stuff that's true. That's what people are interested in and they care about, and it's what you can lean into for your marketing, whether that's, you know, you're local first, you have great service, you have a product that's different, or something specifically that people love about the product. So for example, for kudos, like when we went and ran a report on them, we heard back that the top things were it was 100% cut online or touching baby's butt, which is their primary messaging. So they're doing that right. They have the MIT engineered double dry tech technology that keeps baby dry. And they have gotten their female founder. So people love that. It's very much industry underdog that's making a change through an MIT-led female founder. And then they have all these awards, like the hygienics innovation award, and they really have this kind of plastic-free future messaging that people resonate, especially in people that want to make better decisions for not only their family, but for the planet. So, you know, as they're redoing their packaging, we've made cotton even more prominent. We've started using imagery of actual like cotton on it. So people see it and it's like, aha, that's like a huge difference. Like we knew it was a big deal, but it wasn't until they had been in the market for a while that we noticed how much people lean into that because you know, they're the parents, they have the parents that want a cloth diaper, but it's not an easy thing to do. So this is a great alternative and the solution for that. So, you know, they really lean into that heavily.

SPEAKER_01 15:05

Yeah, and I think that, like you said, it's a great time for a gut check, whether that's twice annually or quarterly, to make sure that your messaging is on point. Because I think even the best brand managers, marketers, you know how it is. You get caught up in the day-to-day and you just kind of like you're in the you know, the get stuff done mode. And sometimes you can kind of like forget like what are the value props of the product I'm trying to sell? You know, are we even doing a good job? Is it resonating? Do people know, you know, because sometimes we think that we know our value props, but are those propositions actually making it to the end consumer? So that's like a perfect way to kind of get that, like you said, that pulse check to see if you know what you're setting out to do is actually being done.

SPEAKER_00 15:54

Yeah. And do people know that? And do people care about what we think they care about? You know, so does there need to be a shift in how we're positioning ourselves because people might care about what we think is number three on our list, but that might be the most important thing to them. So it's a good tool to back up those in-person conversations we have with our customers or that kind of direct connection that we have, just to get a larger scope of what's going on in the market, what people care about and how they perceive you.

SPEAKER_01 16:27

Yeah. And what another thing that you said that really resonated with me that I hope people take to heart is you know, that using this deep research, that probably just took six, maybe eight hours off your plate. Don't get lazy in the final hour and not read the stuff because that's one thing, I guess, like a pitfall, right? Of AI is that it can be very tempting to kind of let one shortcut turn into five other shortcuts. And as far as I can tell, there's no shortcut to truly understanding what it is that you're putting together. And at some point you do have to do the reading, right? So even if you are using it to help you with the research, you're still going to have to go do the part where you start to actually put some analysis together and understand everything.

Read The Reports, Do The Thinking

SPEAKER_00 17:20

Yeah, exactly. So then we're able to like, you know, I I really I appreciate that it most as that doing the calling. And then I'm able to spend the time like getting into the information, getting into the data that it's pulled back to us, and really saying, okay, how can we use this to do something different or cool or interesting or you know, lean into something that people really appreciate and care about our brand. So yeah, it saved a ton of time for us. It's part of our process when we we begin working with any client because whether you're on the agency side or whether you're working within a business, you know, this is a great tool to be able to check out what's going on in your space, whether it's locally or whether you're comparing what you're doing locally to other businesses out of town and really get a pulse on what's going on in the big picture very easily.

SPEAKER_01 18:15

Yeah, absolutely. I think it's great. And I think that um especially, you know, you talked about kudos, you know, that's using something that maybe we were already, you know, quite familiar with, at least not early on, but at this point. But it's it's even, I'm not gonna say more effective, but it's equally effective whenever you're getting into something brand new. If you've just, you know, kind of got a new client or you're getting into a new vertical that you've never really you're not super familiar with. This is a great first step to kind of get a lot of that research out of the way and really start digging into the to the details.

SPEAKER_00 18:51

Yeah, it's a great crash course. All right. Well, I hope that there are those out there that find this really useful. And, you know, whether you are on the marketing side or running a business, just do that gut check. Do it every six months or so, and you will probably learn some great things about not only your own business, but what is going on around you. So hope you found it this helpful. Please do like, share, spread the word about this podcast. And if there's ever a topic that you want us to cover, drop us a note. We're always interested in hearing what people are interested in learning about. So we'll be able to do some topics around that and have this conversation. So until next time, thank you, and we will see you at the next episode.