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:

1. Use the synopsis as outline. The synopsis defines the email's one idea and purpose.
2. Pull content from the referenced resource. If a URL is provided, fetch it to grab relevant content.
3. Grab catchy phrases from available copywriting material (founding story, customer quotes, homepage copy).
4. Edit for email format. Make it shorter, clearer, and catchier than the source material. Email is not documentation.
5. Shape the CTAs following the hierarchy in references/cta-hierarchy.md.
6. Write the subject line and preheader. Subject line: clear, specific, benefit-oriented. Preheader: complement (don't repeat) the subject.
7. 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.