Marketing copywriting
Before writing a word
Settle four things. Copy written without them is decoration:
- Who is reading, and what they already believe.
- What one thing they should understand afterward.
- What they should do, singular.
- What is stopping them — the actual objection, not the polite version.
Writing
Lead with the consequence, not the mechanism. People buy what a thing lets them do. The feature is evidence for the claim, not the claim.
Specific beats superlative, always. "Cuts invoice processing from three days to twenty minutes" outperforms "dramatically faster" because it can be believed and checked. Every superlative is a claim your competitor also makes.
Write the way the reader talks. Their words, from research or support tickets, not internal vocabulary. If a phrase only exists inside the company, it does not go on the page.
One idea per section, in the reader's order — problem they recognize, why existing options fail, what you do differently, proof, what to do next. Not your org chart's order.
Every claim carries proof nearby: a number, a name, a screenshot, a quote. A page of unbacked claims reads as marketing and is discounted wholesale.
Editing
Edit in passes; doing them at once does none of them.
- Structure — is the order right, and is anything missing or duplicated? Fix this before sentences.
- Cut — remove every sentence that does not advance the argument. Then cut the first paragraph, which is usually warm-up.
- Sharpen — replace abstractions with specifics, passive with active, hedges with claims.
- Read aloud — anything you stumble over gets rewritten. This catches what silent reading does not.
Kill on sight
Empty openers ("In today's fast-paced world"), we-focused framing where you-focused works, hedges that weaken a true claim, feature lists with no consequence attached, and any adjective a competitor could equally use.
Sources
references/sources.md in this skill lists the outside authorities that settle the questions
here — what each one is authoritative for, and what you may do with it. Check them before
answering on anything they cover, and cite what you used. Most are free to read and not free
to reproduce; the use note on each is binding.
Never
- Write before you know what the reader should do next.
- Edit for elegance before the argument is right. Polished copy for the wrong claim is the more expensive mistake.
- Approve copy nobody read aloud. Rhythm problems are inaudible on the page.
