# Copywriting

> Write persuasive marketing copy including landing pages, product descriptions, email campaigns, CTAs, taglines, and brand messaging. Use when writing to persuade, convert, or sell rather than inform. Also trigger for 'landing page copy', 'product description', 'marketing copy', 'email campaign', 'CTA', 'tagline', 'ad copy', 'sales page', or 'conversion copy'.

- Skill: `michaelschecht/copywriting-3` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add michaelschecht/copywriting-3`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/michaelschecht/copywriting-3/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Marketing & Growth
- Author: michaelschecht (https://skillmd.com/u/michaelschecht)
- Updated: 2026-09-22
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/michaelschecht/copywriting-3

---


# Copywriting — Persuasion, Conversion & Brand Voice

Write copy that moves people to action — from landing page headlines to email sequences to product descriptions that sell.

## When to Use This Skill

**USE when:**
- Writing landing pages, sales pages, or product pages
- Crafting email campaigns (launch, nurture, re-engagement)
- Creating product descriptions for stores or marketplaces
- Writing CTAs, taglines, headlines, and ad copy
- Defining or applying brand voice and messaging

**DON'T USE when:**
- Writing documentation or guides → use `/technical-writing` or `/user-guides`
- Writing long-form reports → use `/report-writing`
- Defining editorial standards → use `/style-guide`

## Principle 1: The Copy Framework Stack

### Choose Your Framework

| Framework | Structure | Best For |
|-----------|----------|---------|
| **AIDA** | Attention → Interest → Desire → Action | Landing pages, sales pages |
| **PAS** | Problem → Agitate → Solution | Email, blog intros, ads |
| **BAB** | Before → After → Bridge | Case studies, testimonials |
| **4 Ps** | Promise → Picture → Proof → Push | Long-form sales letters |
| **FAB** | Features → Advantages → Benefits | Product descriptions |

### AIDA Applied

```markdown
## ATTENTION (Headline — stop the scroll)
"Ship your SaaS in a weekend, not a quarter."

## INTEREST (Subhead + opening — hook them deeper)
"The average developer spends 6 weeks on auth, payments, and deployment
before writing a single line of product code."

## DESIRE (Body — make them want it)
"[Product] gives you auth, billing, deployment, and analytics out of
the box. Our customers launch 4x faster — and the last three
ProductHunt #1 Products were built on our stack."

## ACTION (CTA — tell them exactly what to do)
"Start building free → no credit card required"
```

### PAS Applied

```markdown
## PROBLEM (Name their pain — show you understand)
"You spend more time formatting reports than analyzing data."

## AGITATE (Twist the knife — make the pain vivid)
"Every Monday morning, it's the same: 2 hours copying numbers into
slides, fixing broken charts, chasing people for updates. By the
time the report is ready, the data is already stale."

## SOLUTION (Relief — your product is the answer)
"[Product] generates your weekly report automatically from live data.
One click. Always current. Reclaim your Mondays."
```

## Principle 2: Headlines

### Headline Formulas

```
THE "HOW TO" HEADLINE:
  "How to [desirable outcome] without [undesirable requirement]"
  → "How to grow your email list without writing a single blog post"

THE SPECIFIC NUMBER:
  "[Number] ways to [achieve goal] in [timeframe]"
  → "7 ways to cut your AWS bill in half this month"

THE QUESTION:
  "[Question that implies value]?"
  → "What if your CI pipeline took 30 seconds instead of 30 minutes?"

THE CONTRAST:
  "Stop [bad thing]. Start [good thing]."
  → "Stop guessing what users want. Start knowing."

THE TESTIMONIAL LEAD:
  "'[Quote from customer about specific result]'"
  → "'We shipped 3x faster after switching' — CTO, Acme Corp"

THE NEGATIVE:
  "Don't [common mistake] until you [read/try/see this]"
  → "Don't choose a database until you've read this comparison"
```

### Headline Rules

```
✓ Specific > vague ("Save 4 hours/week" > "Save time")
✓ Benefit > feature ("Write code faster" > "AI-powered autocomplete")
✓ Concrete > abstract ("10,000 developers" > "Trusted by many")
✓ Short > long (under 12 words for most headlines)
✓ Test 5+ headlines before choosing — your first idea is rarely best

POWER WORDS (use sparingly):
  Free, New, Proven, Instant, Easy, Secret, Guaranteed,
  Discover, Exclusive, Limited, Simple, Fast, Save, Now
```

## Principle 3: Body Copy

### Writing Persuasive Body Copy

```
RULE 1: LEAD WITH BENEFITS, NOT FEATURES
  Feature: "256-bit AES encryption"
  Benefit: "Your data is protected by bank-grade security"
  Best: "Sleep easy knowing your data has bank-grade encryption (AES-256)"

RULE 2: ONE IDEA PER PARAGRAPH
  Short paragraphs (1-3 sentences). White space is your friend.

  Online readers scan. They don't read walls of text.

  Like this.

RULE 3: USE "YOU" MORE THAN "WE"
  ✗ "We built an amazing platform that uses AI to..."
  ✓ "You get instant answers powered by AI that..."

RULE 4: SHOW, DON'T TELL
  ✗ "Our tool is incredibly fast"
  ✓ "Average query response: 47ms. That's faster than a blink."

RULE 5: ADDRESS OBJECTIONS
  "But what if it doesn't work for my use case?"
  → Handle this before the reader thinks it
```

### Social Proof Patterns

```
CUSTOMER QUOTE:
  "We reduced deployment time from 4 hours to 12 minutes."
  — Sarah Chen, VP Engineering at Acme Corp

METRIC PROOF:
  "50,000+ developers. 99.99% uptime. 4.8★ on G2."

LOGO BAR:
  [Company logos of recognizable customers]

CASE STUDY SNIPPET:
  "Acme Corp cut their infrastructure costs by 62% in the first
  quarter after migrating to [Product]. Read the full story →"

AUTHORITY:
  "Featured in TechCrunch, Wired, and The Verge"
  "Winner of the 2025 DevTools Award"
```

## Principle 4: Calls to Action (CTAs)

### CTA Hierarchy

```
PRIMARY CTA (one per page — the main conversion):
  Style: Large button, high contrast, above the fold AND at the bottom
  Copy: Specific action + value
  ✓ "Start building free"
  ✓ "Get your report in 60 seconds"
  ✓ "Try it free — no credit card"
  ✗ "Submit"
  ✗ "Click here"
  ✗ "Learn more" (for primary CTA)

SECONDARY CTA (lower commitment alternative):
  Style: Text link or ghost button
  Copy: "See a demo", "View pricing", "Read the docs"
  → For visitors not ready to commit to the primary action

MICRO CTA (within content):
  Inline text links: "See how Acme Corp saved $2M →"
  → Keeps engagement without interrupting flow
```

### CTA Button Copy Formula

```
[Action Verb] + [What They Get] + [Urgency/Qualifier]

GOOD:
  "Start your free trial"
  "Download the 2026 report"
  "Book a 15-minute demo"
  "Get instant access"
  "Create your first project"

GREAT (adds specificity or value):
  "Start building in 2 minutes — free"
  "See your savings estimate"
  "Join 10,000+ developers"
  "Generate your report now"
```

## Principle 5: Email Copy

### Email Campaign Templates

```
LAUNCH EMAIL:
  Subject: [Product news] + [specific benefit/number]
  Body structure:
    Line 1: The news (what's new)
    Line 2-3: Why it matters to THEM
    Line 4-5: Key features (bullet points)
    CTA: Try it / Learn more
    P.S.: Urgency or bonus

NURTURE EMAIL:
  Subject: [Question] or [Helpful tip]
  Body structure:
    Line 1: Acknowledge their situation
    Line 2-4: Teach something valuable (no selling)
    Line 5: Soft bridge to product
    CTA: Optional, low-pressure

RE-ENGAGEMENT EMAIL:
  Subject: "We miss you" or "Things have changed"
  Body structure:
    Line 1: Acknowledge absence without guilt
    Line 2-3: What's new since they left (specific features)
    CTA: "Come back and see what's new"
    Unsubscribe: Prominent and respectful
```

### Email Subject Line Rules

```
✓ Under 50 characters (mobile preview)
✓ Specific > clever ("Your report is ready" > "You won't believe this")
✓ Personalization if genuine ("[Name], your usage report")
✓ Create curiosity gap WITHOUT clickbait
✓ Test 2-3 subject lines per send (A/B test)

✗ ALL CAPS
✗ Excessive punctuation!!!
✗ Misleading content (kills trust permanently)
✗ "Newsletter" or "Update" (boring, gets archived)
✗ Spam trigger words overuse (free, act now, limited time)
```

## Principle 6: Product Descriptions

### E-commerce Product Copy Template

```markdown
## [Product Name]
**[One-line value proposition]**

[2-3 sentence description covering: what it is, who it's for,
and the key benefit]

### Key Features
- **[Feature]** — [Benefit to the buyer]
- **[Feature]** — [Benefit to the buyer]
- **[Feature]** — [Benefit to the buyer]

### Specifications
| Spec | Detail |
|------|--------|
| [Dimension] | [Value] |
| [Material] | [Value] |
| [Compatibility] | [Value] |

### What's Included
- [Item 1]
- [Item 2]
- [Item 3]
```

### SaaS Product Copy

```markdown
## [Feature/Plan Name]

**[Headline benefit — what they can DO, not what it IS]**

[1-2 sentences expanding on the benefit with specifics]

✓ [Included capability 1]
✓ [Included capability 2]
✓ [Included capability 3]
✓ [Included capability 4]

[Primary CTA button]

"[Customer quote about this specific feature]"
— [Name], [Role] at [Company]
```

## Output

Save copy to the appropriate deliverable format:
- Landing pages: `copy/landing-[page-name].md`
- Emails: `copy/email-[campaign]-[sequence-number].md`
- Product descriptions: `copy/product-[name].md`

## Guidelines

- **Benefits over features, always** — the customer doesn't care how it works, they care what it does for them
- **Write like you talk** — then edit for clarity. Robotic copy doesn't convert.
- Specificity is persuasion — "4.8 stars from 2,300 reviews" beats "highly rated"
- Every piece of copy needs ONE primary CTA — don't give readers 5 choices
- Test everything — headlines, CTAs, subject lines. Your intuition is wrong 40% of the time.
- Use `/humanizer` to strip AI-generated patterns from drafted copy
- Use `/style-guide` to maintain brand voice consistency
- Use `/technical-writing` when copy needs to also educate (product docs that sell)