copywrite
Write full email copy from an Atomic Emails campaign storyboard. Takes storyboard synopses and produces complete, send-ready email copy with subject lines, preheaders, body content, and properly structured CTAs. Use when the user has a campaign storyboard (from atomic-emails-storyboard) and needs to write the actual emails. Triggers: "write the emails", "draft email copy", "atomic emails copywriter", "turn this storyboard into emails", "write email #3", "create the campaign copy", or when continuing from the atomic-emails-storyboard skill output. This is Step 3 of 3 in the Atomic Emails skill chain.
Atomic Emails Copywriter
Write full email copy from a campaign storyboard. Each email follows the atomic principle: one idea, focused and customer-centric.
Overview
This skill covers Step 5 of the Atomic Emails method: writing the actual emails from storyboard synopses.
Workflow
1. Accept input
Accept a campaign storyboard (from the storyboard skill) or individual email briefs. Minimum required per email: title, synopsis, email type, primary CTA, and key resource.
Also accept (if available): the discovery brief from the research phase, for tone and copywriting material.
2. Write each email
For each storyboard row, follow this process:
- Use the synopsis as outline. The synopsis defines the email's one idea and purpose.
- Pull content from the referenced resource. If a URL is provided, fetch it to grab relevant content.
- Grab catchy phrases from available copywriting material (founding story, customer quotes, homepage copy).
- Edit for email format. Make it shorter, clearer, and catchier than the source material. Email is not documentation.
- Shape the CTAs following the hierarchy in references/cta-hierarchy.md.
- Write the subject line and preheader. Subject line: clear, specific, benefit-oriented. Preheader: complement (don't repeat) the subject.
- Customer-hat check. Re-read from the customer's perspective. Is it clean, cohesive, and does it evoke the right emotion?
3. Email structure
Every email follows this structure:
Subject: [Subject line]
Preheader: [Inbox preview text]
[Greeting — e.g. "Hey {{first_name | default: 'there'}}," ]
[Opening — 1–2 sentences that hook the reader. Connect to their problem or goal.]
[Body — The core content. Keep it focused on the one idea. Include actual useful content, not just a teaser. 3–8 short paragraphs.]
[Primary CTA — Button or prominent link.]
[Optional: Secondary CTA — Inline link offering an alternative path.]
[Sign-off]
[Optional: P.S. — Reminder of a different important action.]
4. Output
Organize each campaign into a separate folder using the name of the campaign. Within each folder, save each email as a separate .md file named [01]-[Email Title].md, [02]-[Email Title].md, etc.
Quality Criteria
Review every email against these criteria from references/email-quality-checklist.md:
- Focused: One idea per email. If you're covering two topics, split them.
- Strategic: Serves at least one of the four strategic purposes (critical for adoption, increases satisfaction, increases perceived value, delights).
- Clear CTA: Primary CTA is obvious and actionable.
- Customer-centric: Passes at least 2–3 of the qualifying questions.
- Appropriate length: Focused doesn't mean short. Include enough content for the reader to get value from the email itself, not just the CTA.
- Human tone: Write as a person, not a brand. Use "I" not "we" where appropriate. No corporate jargon.
Guidelines
- Each email should take 20–40 minutes of equivalent human effort. Don't overthink — a single email won't solve everything.
- Be realistic: no user is waiting for your email to make their day. It's one touchpoint in a bigger system.
- Use merge tags for personalization:
{{user.first_name}},{{company.name}}, etc. Ask the user what merge tags their platform supports. - When the user asks to write "all emails," produce them sequentially and present for review after each batch of 3–5.