Write Headlines

---
name: write-headlines
description: Write the headline unit — the hero headline, a standalone headline, its subhead, and its CTA line — matched to the reader's awareness stage. TRIGGER when the headline unit of a page, ad, section, or email is needed as a unit, or when a gate found a headline failure. DO NOT TRIGGER for the line right after the headline (write-hooks), the opening passage that earns the read (write-leads), a page's section-title chain (the page skills own their titles), or finding the idea underneath (big-idea).
---

# Write Headlines

One Process: the headline earns the next line and nothing else — 80% of readers never pass it, so it carries more weight than the rest of the page combined.

Write under the deliverable's Reader.md and the parent piece, and the product's Voice.md, which names the WHO speaking (founder, company, or champion); the headline speaks in that voice to Reader.md's Audience — the named buyer whose words and buying questions it uses, never a generic reader. Never state an offer mechanism (trial, guarantee, price, urgency) the owner has not approved.

## 1. Match the formula to the awareness stage

The formula category follows where the reader stands (Reader.md names the stage):
- **Unaware** → no product claim; open on their world or a startling fact.
- **Problem-aware** → problem-focused: name the pain in their words. "Stop chasing invoices. Start getting paid on time."
- **Solution-aware** → outcome- and differentiation-focused: the result plus the path. "The no-spreadsheet way to forecast cash flow."
- **Product-aware** → differentiation- and proof-focused: the edge plus the evidence. "The CRM that updates itself."
- **Most-aware** → the offer is the headline; state the terms.

Formula shapes (starting points, not finished lines — fill with the reader's words and one specific outcome, then cut to the claim):
- {Outcome} without {pain} · {Outcome} in {timeframe} · Turn {input} into {outcome}
- Never {unpleasant event} again · {Question naming the pain}
- {Product type} for {audience} · You don't have to {skill} to {outcome}
- The {opposite of the usual way} to {outcome} · The {category} that {differentiator}
- {N} {people} use {product} to {outcome} · Finally, {category} that {benefit}

## 2. Make the claim survive alone

### Write a claim that dies when a competitor's name is swapped in
The platitude test: a headline any competitor could paste under their own logo is wallpaper. Say what THIS product does beyond what the whole category does, never what the category does.

### Resolve every referent inside the headline
No "it", "this", "that", "these numbers" leaning on anything above or below. The headline is true and complete read cold, out of context.

### Be specific
Every claim, example, and figure is the specific one; a headline that gestures at a category instead of naming the thing fails.
Evidence (owner, verbatim): "be specific. good copy IS specific."

### Hold the language bar
Fifth-grade words a ten-year-old parses on one read. No metaphors, no metaphorical verbs, no cuteness, no coined nouns. Never narrate the reader — no "you"-assertion of what they do, have, feel, or pay.

## 3. Write the subhead as the first reason to believe

The subhead adds the specificity the headline had to drop — the mechanism, the audience, or the proof. One or two sentences. If the headline is the promise, the subhead is the first reason it is real.

## 4. Write the CTA as a one-line headline for the action

Name what the reader gets, not what they do. {action verb} + {what they get}. "Start Free Trial", "Get My Report", never "Submit" or "Learn More". First person can lift it ("Start My Free Trial") only if the approved offer backs it.

## 5. Deliver the options

Give 2-3 distinct headline options, each labeled with the awareness stage and the idea it plays to, one line of rationale each. Options diverge on angle, not wording; three phrasings of one claim count as one option. This is the writer's own production set of headline options — ideate is the strategy-stage option process the strategist runs on a whole component; this returns the headline's 2-3 options at the moment of writing and never invokes ideate.

Verification: each option passes the platitude test and resolves alone; the awareness stage is named per option; no unapproved offer mechanism appears.