Illustration for Strategy & research marketing skills
Strategy & research skill · v0.1.0

Positioning & messaging skill

Sharpen positioning, value proposition and messaging hierarchy, and keep brand guidelines consistent across channels.

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

Category
Strategy & research
Works with
Claude, Codex, Cursor, any agent
Format
SKILL.md · 1,452 words
Version
v0.1.0
Price
Free · MIT

The Positioning & messaging skill file

cmo-positioning/SKILL.md1,452 words · MIT
---
name: cmo-positioning
description: Sharpen positioning, value proposition and messaging hierarchy, and keep brand guidelines consistent across channels.
---

Decides what the business should be known for, for whom, against which alternatives, and then turns that into a messaging hierarchy and voice guide every channel can reuse. Because Maggie writes blog posts and LinkedIn drafts from the CMO.so business profile, the last step writes the agreed positioning back into that profile so all future content carries it.

When to use

  • Positioning is undocumented, or each channel tells a different story.
  • Launching, entering a new segment, repricing, or after a competitor repositions.
  • Copy feels generic ("all-in-one platform for teams") and needs a sharp claim.
  • A team, agency or freelancer needs a voice guide to write on-brand.
  • Not for: the research behind it (use cmo-customer-research and cmo-competitor-research), writing a specific page (use cmo-copywriting), naming a product (use cmo-brand-naming) or filling the rest of the business profile (use cmo-brand-profile).
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 zubair-trabzada/ai-marketing-claude (MIT), alirezarezvani/claude-skills (MIT).

Everyday usage

How people use Positioning & messaging 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 Strategy & research page

Sharpen what you say

A clear value proposition and messaging hierarchy you can reuse on every page and post.

Ask your agentRewrite my positioning so a first-time visitor gets it in five seconds.
  • A positioning canvas and one-line positioning statement
  • A messaging hierarchy from tagline to boilerplate, with proof for each claim
  • A short voice guide (is / is not, do / don't, tone by context, sample lines)
  • Proposed updates to the CMO.so business profile so Maggie writes from the new positioning

More things to ask

  • Help me position our product
  • Our messaging is all over the place
  • Write our value proposition
  • What makes us different?
  • Create a messaging framework
  • Write brand voice guidelines
How it works

From input to output

  1. 1You give it
    • The business profile from `brand_get`, or a description of product, customers and price point
    • Named competitors and what buyers use today instead (spreadsheet, agency, nothing)
    • Customer evidence: quotes, reviews, win/loss reasons (from `cmo-customer-research` if run)
    • Current homepage, about page and a few posts, for the consistency check
  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
    • A positioning canvas and one-line positioning statement
    • A messaging hierarchy from tagline to boilerplate, with proof for each claim
    • A short voice guide (is / is not, do / don't, tone by context, sample lines)
    • Proposed updates to the CMO.so business profile so Maggie writes from the new positioning
Why a skill

The skill against the alternatives

Do it yourselfHire helpPositioning & messaging 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 Positioning & messaging 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 Positioning & messaging skill?

Sharpen positioning, value proposition and messaging hierarchy, and keep brand guidelines consistent across channels.

It's one of cmo.so's open Strategy & research 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 “Help me position our product”, “Our messaging is all over the place”, “Write our value proposition”. 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 the business profile from `brand_get`, or a description of product, customers and price point; named competitors and what buyers use today instead (spreadsheet, agency, nothing); customer evidence: quotes, reviews, win/loss reasons (from `cmo-customer-research` if run); and current homepage, about page and a few posts, for the consistency check.

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 a positioning canvas and one-line positioning statement; a messaging hierarchy from tagline to boilerplate, with proof for each claim; a short voice guide (is / is not, do / don't, tone by context, sample lines); and proposed updates to the CMO.so business profile so Maggie writes from the new positioning.

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-strategy@cmo-so. That installs this skill together with the rest of the Strategy & research 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.

With cmo.so connected it can go further, using tools such as brand_get, brand_update, competitor_upsert, brand_voice_update_style through the MCP server. Every change is previewed and confirmed before it happens.

Which skills work well with it?

It pairs well with Competitor research; and Conversion copywriting. 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: zubair-trabzada/ai-marketing-claude (MIT); and 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!

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  • You decide what goes out
  • Cancel any time

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