Conversion Copywriting

Write copy that earns the next scroll, the next click, the sale. Clarity over cleverness; desire first, proof second; every word earns its place.

Principles

1. Clarity is the conversion lever. A reader who has to decode a sentence leaves. Simple words, short sentences, one idea per line.
2. Lead with desire/benefit, justify with proof. Open on the outcome the reader wants; bring features, specs, and credentials in as the rational backup.
3. Specific beats vague. Numbers, names, concrete detail. "Recovered $340K in 90 days" beats "drives results."
4. One job per asset. A page, an email, an ad each has a single primary action. Cut anything that competes with it.
5. Voice: confident, warm, non-hype. No corporate-speak, no exclamation-point inflation. (Chykalophia voice rules, including no em dashes, in references/voice-and-headlines.md.)

What the evidence says about AI and copy

• AI-written copy and creative can match or beat human work in live tests: fully AI-generated display ads lifted CTR up to 19% over expert ads, while AI edits to human ads did not help (Lee, Ghose, Todri & Adamopoulos, NYU Stern 2025).
• Telling people an ad is AI-generated cut CTR by 31.5% (same NYU study). Don't add "AI-written" framing to the copy itself; follow any platform or legal disclosure rules that apply.
• No one, human or model, reliably predicts the winner: GPT-4 picked the winning Upworthy headline 38–40% of the time vs 33% by chance (Ye et al., Marketing Science 2025). Frameworks and the 4 U's are a quality floor, not a predictor.
• So the default output is a variant set for testing, written from customers' own words.

Pick the framework to the format (references/copy-frameworks.md)

• PDP / product page: PAS or FAB for the body, 4 U's headline, proof + risk-reversal blocks.
• Landing page (one offer): BAB or 4 Ps, or AIDA for the full-page arc.
• Email: PAS hook, one job per email, 4 Ps for offer emails.
• Ads: PAS or AIDA, ruthless brevity.
• Homepage / brand: StoryBrand SB7 (customer is the hero, brand is the guide).
• Long-form sales / consulting narrative: PASTOR.

Default headline test: the 4 U's

Every headline is checked against Useful, Urgent, Unique, Ultra-specific. Hit at least three; "useful + ultra-specific" is non-negotiable. Details and templated families in references/voice-and-headlines.md.

Workflow

1. Identify the reader's awareness stage, the one job, and the single most compelling outcome.
2. Pull customer language first. Use the voc-research language bank (or mine reviews/survey answers) for the exact phrases customers use for the problem, the outcome and their objections. Copy built from these phrases is the default; invented phrasing is the fallback.
3. Choose the framework for the format; draft to it.
4. Write 3–5 variants per key element (headline, subhead, CTA, key benefit block). Make each variant differ on one lever (e.g. outcome vs objection-handling vs proof-led), and label the hypothesis it tests and the customer evidence it draws on. Run the 4 U's as a floor on each. Hand the set to experiment-design for sizing; if traffic can't support a test, recommend the variant with the strongest customer evidence and say that is the reason.
5. Apply the voice rules (cut hedging, buzzwords, em dashes, exclamation points; make verbs strong and nouns specific).
6. Add proof (social proof, specifics) and risk-reversal near the CTA; end with one clear action.

Reference map

• references/copy-frameworks.md — AIDA, PAS, BAB, FAB, 4 Ps, PASTOR, StoryBrand SB7, each with a worked example and a "use when" table.
• references/voice-and-headlines.md — the 4 U's, headline families + CTA formula, microcopy, and the Chykalophia voice/banned-phrase rules.

Engagement context

At the start of a task, check for the engagement brief (default ./cro-engagement.md, created by the getting-started skill / /kickoff). If it exists, read it first and write to the client, ICP, price tier, and especially the brand voice/banned-words it records. If it's missing and the work is more than a one-off, offer to capture one via getting-started.

Related skills

Pair with voc-research (the language bank), experiment-design (testing variants), ecommerce-cro-audit (where copy is a lever and persuasion models live), report-information-design (for on-page structure), and outbound-and-positioning (for cold email + the positioning that copy expresses).

Guardrails

Don't invent proof, testimonials, or stats. Don't claim one variant "will win"; say which evidence each draws on. Don't manufacture false urgency. Keep claims substantiated; if you don't have the number, ask for it rather than fabricating.