Copywriting

Copywriting

Core Principle

Conversion copy is assembled from customer evidence and a decision path. Do not jump from prompt to polished words: determine what the reader must believe and prove it in language they recognize.

When to Use / NOT

• Use when: copy should drive a measurable action, explain an offer, improve positioning, or diagnose why existing copy does not persuade.
• NOT when: the task is neutral documentation, editorial content without a conversion goal, or a brand-voice-only polish. Use the relevant writing skill.

Workflow

1. Define the audience, arrival context, offer, conversion action, and success signal. If inputs are thin, state the smallest evidence gaps; draft only what the known facts support.
2. Load references/research-voc.md when research exists or message discovery is needed. Extract recurring pains, desired outcomes, triggers, objections, alternatives, proof, and exact phrases. Separate facts from hypotheses.
3. Load references/messaging-positioning.md for positioning, value propositions, awareness, differentiation, or message hierarchy. Select one reader, one dominant value, and the belief sequence.
4. Load only the channel capsule: references/pages.md for web, ads, onboarding, or UX copy; references/email.md for emails and sequences.
5. Load references/persuasion-frameworks.md only when choosing a structure, headline, proof pattern, objection treatment, or CTA. Frameworks generate candidates; evidence chooses among them.
6. Draft directly when enough is known. Mark unsupported specifics as [PLACEHOLDER: evidence needed]. Preserve supplied customer language without turning one comment into a universal claim.
7. Load references/editing-validation.md for audits, rewrites, or final review. Diagnose before rewriting; check clarity, specificity, relevance, proof, objection coverage, CTA value, friction, and message match.
8. Validate at the cheapest useful level: claim review, five-second or message test, customer feedback, usability test, then controlled experiment when traffic and stakes justify it. Stop when the copy is supported, usable, and ready for the requested channel.

Red Flags

• HARD-GATE: Never invent testimonials, quotes, statistics, capabilities, guarantees, urgency, scarcity, customer research, or experiment results.
• Do not hide missing strategy behind fluent copy or unsupported superlatives.
• Do not copy competitor or source wording. Mine patterns and customer language.
• Do not force AIDA, PAS, “power words,” pain, length, or CTA placement without a diagnosed reason.
• Do not report clicks, opens, or one test as proof of downstream revenue.

Verification

Confirm that each important claim maps to supplied evidence, every section has a reader-decision job, the CTA states a valuable next step, and assumptions are labeled. For audits, provide diagnosis before revision. For experiments, state the segment, hypothesis, primary metric, downstream guardrail, and limits.

References

• references/research-voc.md - intake, interviews, review mining, evidence organization
• references/messaging-positioning.md - positioning, awareness, value, hierarchy
• references/persuasion-frameworks.md - structure, headlines, proof, objections, CTAs
• references/pages.md - landing, home, product, pricing, sales, ads, onboarding, UX
• references/email.md - single emails, lifecycle sequences, segmentation, metrics
• references/editing-validation.md - diagnosis, editing passes, claims, testing
• references/sources.md - lightweight Copyhackers provenance ledger