---
name: marketing-copywriting
description: Writes and edits marketing copy for any surface — homepage, product and pricing pages, ads, emails, and collateral — and sharpens existing copy that is not working. Use this to write or rewrite page copy, tighten a draft, fix copy that is vague or feature-led, adapt one message across formats, or review copy before it ships.
---

# 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.

1. **Structure** — is the order right, and is anything missing or duplicated? Fix this before
   sentences.
2. **Cut** — remove every sentence that does not advance the argument. Then cut the first
   paragraph, which is usually warm-up.
3. **Sharpen** — replace abstractions with specifics, passive with active, hedges with claims.
4. **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.