Illustration for Growth & go-to-market marketing skills
Growth & go-to-market skill · v0.1.0

Free tools as marketing skill

Plan a free tool (calculator, checker, generator) that earns links, rankings and leads.

Free · MIT licence · Copy needs a free sign-in

Category
Growth & go-to-market
Works with
Claude, Codex, Cursor, any agent
Format
SKILL.md · 1,412 words
Version
v0.1.0
Price
Free · MIT

The Free tools as marketing skill file

cmo-free-tools/SKILL.md1,412 words · MIT
---
name: cmo-free-tools
description: Plan a free tool (calculator, checker, generator) that earns links, rankings and leads.
---

Plans a small, genuinely useful free tool (a calculator, checker, grader, generator, template or converter) that people search for, link to and come back to, and that leads naturally to the paid product. The winners are usually tiny and focused; the losers are over-built, unrelated to what the company sells, or gated so hard they become a disguised form. The result is a scored idea list, a buildable spec, the landing page plan, and a launch and measurement plan.

When to use

  • "Should we build a free tool?", "calculator ideas", "which tool first?", "our tool gets traffic but no leads".
  • Looking for a link-earning asset for SEO, or a lead source that is not another PDF.
  • Not for: downloadable lead magnets such as guides and templates only (cmo-lead-magnets), many template-driven SEO pages (cmo-programmatic-seo), or the tool's page conversion (cmo-page-cro).
Sign in to see, copy and download the whole skillIt's free. Copying also upvotes and saves it, so you'll find it again under Saved.
Preview: the workflow, output, example, quality bar and guardrails unlock when you sign in.

Adapts open work by alirezarezvani/claude-skills (MIT).

Everyday usage

How people use Free tools as marketing day to day

Ask in plain words. The agent picks this skill, asks for anything it needs and hands back the result. Words in a highlight are yours to change.

Most common · also on the Growth & go-to-market page

Free tools as marketing

Scored list of tool ideas with a recommended first build

Ask your agentShould we build a free tool
  • Scored list of tool ideas with a recommended first build
  • Tool spec: inputs, outputs, result page, gating, shareable result
  • Landing page outline with target keywords and structured data
  • Launch and link-building plan, measurement plan and break-even check

More things to ask

  • Ideas for a free calculator for our site
  • Engineering as marketing
  • Which free tool should we build first
  • Our free tool gets traffic but no leads
  • How do we promote a free tool
How it works

From input to output

  1. 1You give it
    • Core product, buyer and the problems they search for
    • Goal: leads, search traffic, links, brand, or product education
    • Build capacity (developer time or no-code), maintenance owner, timeline
    • Search data if available (keywords, volumes, existing tools ranking)
  2. 2It works through the method
    • Asks what's missing, one question at a time
    • Follows the workflow step by step
    • Checks the result against its quality bar and guardrails
  3. 3You get
    • Scored list of tool ideas with a recommended first build
    • Tool spec: inputs, outputs, result page, gating, shareable result
    • Landing page outline with target keywords and structured data
    • Launch and link-building plan, measurement plan and break-even check
Why a skill

The skill against the alternatives

Do it yourselfHire helpFree tools as marketing skill
CostYour own timeAgency or freelancer feesFree, MIT licence
Time to a first resultHours, every timeDays to weeks, plus revisionsMinutes, in your agent
ConsistencyDepends on remembering every stepAs long as the retainer lastsSame steps and checks every run
The methodIn your headTheir process, often hiddenWritten down: read it, change it
Who does the workYou, from scratchSomeone learning your businessYour agent, following the skill
FAQ

Questions about the Free tools as marketing skill

What it does, what it needs and how to use it with your agent.

Still not sure?Try it free on your own website and see the first posts before you decide.
Start free
What is the Free tools as marketing skill?

Plan a free tool (calculator, checker, generator) that earns links, rankings and leads.

It's one of cmo.so's open Growth & go-to-market skills: a SKILL.md file that tells an AI agent when to use it, what to ask you first, the steps to follow, the checks to pass and what to hand back, so the job is done the same careful way every time.

When should I use it?

Reach for it when you'd otherwise say something like “Should we build a free tool”, “Ideas for a free calculator for our site”, “Engineering as marketing”. Your agent reads the skill's description and picks it for requests like these, so you don't need to name it.

If a request is close but not quite right, the skill says so and points to the related skill that fits better, instead of forcing a poor answer.

What do I need to give it?

It works best with core product, buyer and the problems they search for; goal: leads, search traffic, links, brand, or product education; build capacity (developer time or no-code), maintenance owner, timeline; and search data if available (keywords, volumes, existing tools ranking).

You don't have to prepare everything up front. The skill asks for missing pieces one at a time and says plainly when it's working from an assumption instead of your data.

What do I get back?

You get scored list of tool ideas with a recommended first build; tool spec: inputs, outputs, result page, gating, shareable result; landing page outline with target keywords and structured data; and launch and link-building plan, measurement plan and break-even check.

Every result comes from a written method with a quality bar, so numbers name their source, claims are checked and the output is ready to use or share rather than a rough draft.

Is it free?

Yes. The skill is open source under the MIT licence, so you can use it, change it and share it, including for client work.

Seeing, copying and downloading the whole file on cmo.so needs a free sign-in. Copying also upvotes and saves it, so you can find it again under Saved on the skills page.

Which AI agents can use it?

Claude Code installs it from the cmo.so marketplace. Any agent that reads SKILL.md folders, such as Codex or Cursor, can use it once the folder is in its skills directory.

You can also paste the copied skill into ChatGPT, Claude or any assistant at the start of a conversation and ask it to follow the skill.

How do I install it?

In Claude Code, run /plugin marketplace add AI-Marketing-OS-LTD/cmo-so-skills, then /plugin install cmo-so-growth@cmo-so. That installs this skill together with the rest of the Growth & go-to-market group.

For other agents, sign in, press Copy or Download above and put the file in your agent's skills folder as SKILL.md inside a folder named after the skill.

Do I need a cmo.so account to use it?

No. The skill works on its own with whatever your agent can already see and do: your files, the pages you share and the data you paste in.

A free cmo.so account only matters if you also want Maggie to plan, write and publish your marketing every day.

Which skills work well with it?

It pairs well with Lead magnets; and Programmatic SEO. The agent can hand over from one to the next in the same conversation, for example research first, then the plan, then the writing.

Each of them has its own page with what it needs and what it returns, linked below.

Can I change it to fit my business?

Yes. It's a plain Markdown file, so you can edit the steps, add your own checks and examples, and keep your version in your own repo. The MIT licence allows it.

If your change would help others too, suggest it on the skills page or open a pull request on GitHub, and it may be folded into the library for everyone.

Where does the method come from?

It's written by cmo.so and adapts open work by others, credited on this page: alirezarezvani/claude-skills (MIT).

Only permissively licensed work is adapted; copyleft repos are used for ideas only and repos without a licence aren't used at all.

Is my data sent to cmo.so when the agent uses it?

No. The skill only guides your own agent; your files, documents and data stay wherever your agent and its tools keep them.

cmo.so only sees what you connect to cmo.so. Your votes and saves on this page are stored against your cmo.so sign-in.

Ready when you are!

Rather have Maggie do it for you?

Enter your website. Maggie uses the same playbooks to plan, write and publish your marketing every day.

  • Free plan, no card needed
  • You decide what goes out
  • Cancel any time

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