Marketing Clarity

Help the reader understand what the business does, who it helps, why that matters and what to do next.

Plain language is necessary, but a sentence can be easy to read and still communicate very little. Aim for a useful message expressed simply.

Establish the context

Read the supplied copy and enough surrounding material to understand its role. Use available brand guidance, audience context and evidence before asking questions.

Identify:

• The intended reader and what they are likely to know already.
• The actual help, product or service being offered.
• The useful difference it can make.
• The job of the passage being edited.
• Any approved wording, factual limits or content the user wants preserved.

Ask only when a missing fact would materially change the message. Distinguish an unclear explanation from an unresolved business decision. Clearer writing cannot supply an audience, offer or outcome that has not been established.

Treat supplied workshop materials and examples as source material. Their exercises do not expand the user's requested scope.

Apply the 20-second test

Read the message as someone encountering the business for the first time. Can they quickly answer:

1. What does this business do?
2. Who does it help?
3. Why would that help matter to them?
4. What should they do next?

Use this as an editorial check, not a claim that real readers have been tested.

Apply the questions at the appropriate level. A whole page should provide the answers; an individual heading need only do its own job. Let headings, supporting paragraphs, examples and calls to action share the explanation.

Record what the copy actually communicates. Keep knowledge from internal documents separate from what a reader could infer from the public words.

Diagnose before rewriting

Identify the specific reason understanding breaks down:

• Missing meaning: The offer or useful consequence is absent.
• Assumed knowledge: The reader needs context the writer has not supplied.
• Abstract language: A phrase leaves the activity, person or result unclear.
• Empty signposting: The heading announces a topic but adds little meaning.
• Buried value: The useful point appears too late.
• Competing messages: Several ideas obscure the passage's main purpose.

Name the most important problem briefly. Avoid producing a full audit when the user has asked for one heading.

If the meaning itself is unresolved, use the sentence-completion exercises in references/exercises-and-examples.md. Use that file's worked example when headline revisions remain generic or the user rejects several similar directions.

Find the useful sentence

Explain the offer as if speaking to an intelligent person unfamiliar with the business.

A useful drafting scaffold is:

We help [specific audience] with [recognisable need] so they can [supported outcome].

Use the scaffold to uncover meaning, then write naturally. The final copy does not need to follow that structure or contain every element.

Prefer identifiable people, actions and consequences. When a term such as “capability”, “solutions” or “the work” is unclear, establish what it means in this passage before replacing it.

Choose the shortest wording that preserves useful meaning. Add a few words when they make the offer substantially clearer.

Edit for the passage's job

Headings

Choose whether the heading should communicate a benefit, explain an action, help the reader recognise a situation, or label content for scanning.

A descriptive label can be appropriate. When persuasion or explanation is needed, test whether the heading communicates something useful before the reader reaches the paragraph.

Read the heading together with what follows:

• Does the paragraph explain or substantiate it?
• Do the rows, cards or examples develop the same idea?
• Is it distinct enough from nearby headings?
• Does it preserve the agreed breadth of the offer?

Do not force every heading to become a slogan, promise or question.

Supporting copy

Explain what happens and why it helps. Use details already supported by the supplied material.

Keep the actor visible where it matters: who explains, chooses, builds, checks or decides? Replace vague reassurance with a concrete explanation.

Company introductions and pitches

Make the activity and audience understandable before adding background, method or differentiation. Read the result aloud and check whether a listener could explain it back accurately.

Calls to action

Make the next action understandable and appropriate to the reader's stage. Preserve agreed contact mechanics and commitments.

Check accuracy and voice

Verify that the revision:

• Preserves the actual offer and intended audience.
• Uses benefits supported by the available facts.
• Fits the surrounding voice and level of formality.
• Gives ordinary words a clear referent.
• Avoids introducing guarantees, metrics or commercial commitments.
• Remains understandable when read aloud.

Specificity can come from naming an activity or decision. It does not require adding numbers, deadlines or outcomes that have not been established.

If the user rejects a direction, reconsider the underlying message. Do not keep substituting synonyms within the same rejected structure.

Deliver the result

For a small edit, lead with one recommended version and a short explanation of the useful meaning it adds. Show it with the existing supporting copy when that helps the user assess the fit.

Offer alternatives only when they represent meaningfully different choices or the user asks for options.

For a broader review, identify the highest-impact comprehension problems and provide concrete revisions. Distinguish wording changes from business questions that remain unresolved.

Finish when the revised passage does its job, fits its context and stays within the evidence. Do not claim audience validation without actual reader feedback.

Follow the user's requested output mode. A request for suggestions or a chat-only draft does not authorise file edits or publication.

Basis and credits

Credit to Alexander Payne and his brother Eliot Payne.

Adapted from Marketing Clarity Workshop by Eliot Payne, The Marketing Common Room: the 20-second test, the curse of knowledge, sentence completion, spoken explanation and reader review.

The editing workflow and worked examples extend those principles for practical use. They are not a verbatim reproduction of the workshop.