# Landing / marketing

Apply [`core.md`](./core.md) first. This file is the genre overlay for
landing pages, marketing sites, and other "we sell something" surfaces.

Page extras, the pronoun call, rhetorical budgets, substance gaps, and a
rewrite gate. Project overlays add the pronoun decision and any
brand-metaphor budget.

---

## Voice extras (on top of core)

Core already has the register: contractions, mixed sentence length,
concrete over abstract. On a page, also:

1. **Not a salesperson, not a professor.** Punchy hook, then substance.
2. **Practical over aspirational.** Hours saved and bottlenecks fixed,
   not "transforming the future of work."
3. **Anti-BS positioning, shown not chanted.** Define yourself by what
   you're not as much as what you are. A page of "No X. No Y. No Z." is
   a triad, not a position.

---

## Pronouns: decide, then hold

Neither I nor we is the package default. Write the choice in the overlay
before rewriting.

- **I** matches "you talk to the builder." AI copy defaults to "we"; I
  is a tell that a person is speaking.
- **We** is honest when there are collaborators, or when the brand is
  the speaker. Then soften singular-builder claims so the page does not
  contradict itself.

Personal outreach (email, text) can still use "I" when the site uses
"we." See [`outreach.md`](./outreach.md).

Everything else in this file works under either choice.

---

## Page tells (the ones that cluster here)

### Mechanical

- Unearned em dashes in `<title>` and meta description. Chrome is a bad
  place for the drama; a comma or colon almost always does it.
- Emoji as content (result badges, pain-list icons). Replace with type
  or cut.
- Title Case On Every Card. Sentence case reads more human.

### Rhetorical (strongest AI signals on a page)

- **"Not X, but Y" antithesis.** Core already budgets teaching
  antithesis. On a page the cap is hard: **max 2.** Keep only the
  strongest.
- **Triadic negation chants.** "No pitch. No pressure. Honest answers."
  This file's named exception: landing may keep **1** if it is the most
  concrete one on the page.
- **Symmetrical parallel constructions.** "We speak both languages:
  yours and the machine's."
- **The hedge-flourish.** "We'll also tell you when it isn't (yet)."

### Vocabulary (page hunts beyond core)

Core already bans unlock, unleash, leverage-as-verb, game-changer,
empower, journey. Extra on pages:

- Noise-cutting variants
- Friction as hype
- "Real" as an intensifier used more than twice. When everything is
  real, nothing is.

### Metaphor overextension

A brand metaphor (forge, bridge, compass, engine) is allowed. Riding it
through every heading is not. **Budget: 2 references on the whole
page.** The rest go to plain language. The inverse is also a tell: do
not strip a picture that landed just to stay under the budget.

### Substance gaps

- **Claims with no evidence.** "Proven results" with zero numbers,
  names, or outcomes. Add one concrete proof point or stop claiming
  proof.
- **Pain lists that pitch.** Every item must be a pain, stated from the
  reader's side. Do not name *your* product in the pain list. Naming a
  tool the reader already uses is allowed.
- **Vague promises with fake specificity.** "A clear plan by Friday,"
  "fluent by next week." Commit to a real offer or drop the fake dates.
- **Eyebrow word salad.** Keyword strings are not sentences a person
  would say.
- **Interchangeability.** Could a competitor swap the logo and ship
  this? If yes, it says nothing.
- **Hero names the category.** If you could swap the product name for a
  competitor's and the hero still works, it is a category ad.
- **FAQ that is the pitch in question form.**
- **"We get it" empathy openers** that perform solidarity and then sell.
- **Testimonials in the brand's own voice.** A quote should not sound
  like the rest of the page.

---

## Rewrite acceptance criteria

A revised page passes when:

1. Unearned em dashes in `<title>` and meta description; prefer a comma
   or colon unless the dash earns the drama.
2. Pronoun decision made and applied consistently; builder claims
   aligned to it.
3. Max 2 "not X, but Y" constructions, max 1 triadic negation chant, max
   2 brand-metaphor references.
4. Zero noise-cutting variants, friction-as-hype, and other
   overlay-banned empties (core empties still apply).
5. "Real" used at most twice on the page.
6. Every pain-list item is a reader-side pain with no *your*-product
   mention.
7. At least one concrete proof point, or all "proven results" claims
   removed.
8. No emoji doing content work.
9. Read-aloud test: every section can be spoken to a smart friend
   without either of you cringing. Any sentence you'd never say out
   loud gets rewritten.
10. Punchy-then-substantive rhythm present. Nothing aspirational-abstract
    ("imagine," "transform," "future of work").

---

## Suggested process

1. Decide I vs we (and write it in the overlay).
2. Mechanical pass first (metadata em dashes, emoji, page-vocab hunts).
   Cheap wins.
3. Rebuild the pain list and the how-it-works steps (biggest substance
   gaps).
4. Rewrite hero sub and section titles against the rhetorical budgets.
5. Add one proof point or strip proof claims.
6. Read the whole page aloud, top to bottom. Fix anything that sounds
   like a deck.