Corey Haines
ec31133ad9
A new skill (`/plan {client-name}`) that produces an exhaustive 13-section
Notion-paste-ready marketing plan structured by AARRR (Acquisition,
Activation, Retention, Referral, Revenue), customized to the client's
current budget, team, stage, and tooling stack, mapped to future
funding-stage capability unlocks.
Three-phase workflow:
- INIT: research + structured 10-topic intake; pulls data from wired
MCPs (Ahrefs, GA4, Stripe, Customer.io, etc.); offers to run
/audit-marketing first
- REVIEW: section-by-section interactive draft with user confirmation
on each of the 13 sections; resumable across sessions
- FINALIZE: compile, verification pass (cross-references, machine paths,
brand voice), and optional publish to a shared GitHub repo
The 13 sections:
1. Executive summary
2. Strategic frame
3. Current state (scored against the 17-section audit-marketing rubric)
4. Acquisition
5. Activation
6. Retention
7. Referral
8. Revenue
9. 90-day roadmap (AARRR-tagged, owner-assigned)
10. 12-month outlook (with funding-stage milestones)
11. Marketing operations stack (skills + MCPs per AARRR stage)
12. Tactical idea bank (all 139 ideas from `marketing-ideas` mapped to
AARRR + client-specific status: Now / Q2 / Q3+ / Q4+ / Skip)
13. Measurement, RACI, open decisions, appendix
References:
- methodology.md — full three-phase workflow
- plan-template.md — 13-section template with per-section guidance
- aarrr-framework.md — AARRR primer + diagnostic rules for which stage
is the binding constraint
- current-state-rubric.md — 17-section audit-marketing rubric mapped
to AARRR
- ops-stack-mapping.md — all 26+ marketing skills + MCP/API integrations
mapped to AARRR stages
- idea-cross-reference.md — all 139 marketing-ideas mapped to AARRR
with timing defaults
- funding-stage-unlocks.md — 5 standard funding tiers (pre-seed through
Series B+) with budget profiles and capability unlocks
- measurement-framework.md — north-star patterns by business model,
leading indicators by AARRR stage, review cadence
- client-types.md — variations by client archetype (B2B SaaS, D2C
consumer app, hybrid hardware+software, marketplace, dev tool,
deep-tech/clinical, commerce)
- example-olo.md — canonical reference plan from a real fCMO engagement
Updates:
- plugin.json + marketplace.json bumped to 2.3.0
- marketplace description updated to 43 skills
- VERSIONS.md entry added
Total skills: 43.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>
257 lines
12 KiB
Markdown
257 lines
12 KiB
Markdown
# Current State Rubric — 17-Section Scoring Lens
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The `audit-marketing` skill (in the `cf-skills` repo, `conversionfactory/cf-skills`) scores a company against 17 sections. This rubric is the scoring lens for Section 3 of every marketing plan — whether or not a formal audit has been run.
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## The two paths
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**Path A — Formal audit run.** If `/audit-marketing {client-domain}` has been run, paste the scored output directly. Each of the 17 sections has a score (0–5) and findings. Section 3 of the plan uses this verbatim, with one addition: an interpretive "shape" paragraph after the table.
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**Path B — Lens used, not formal audit.** If no audit has been run (common when fCMO has rich context from kickoff but a formal audit hasn't happened), use the rubric as a *lens* — score each of the 17 sections from available materials, mark "lens used, not formal audit" in the heading. Less rigorous but faster.
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When to choose Path A: client engagement is starting from scratch, materials are sparse, founder wants a scored deliverable.
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When to choose Path B: rich materials exist, fCMO already has 30+ pages of context, time is short.
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## The 17 sections (scored 0–5 each)
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### 1. Positioning
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**What's scored:** Clarity of category claim, differentiation, alignment across surfaces (homepage, app store, pitch deck, founder messaging).
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**Score guide:**
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- 0 = No positioning anywhere
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- 2 = Inconsistent across surfaces; team can't articulate it on demand
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- 4 = Clear, original, mostly consistent; minor surface gaps
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- 5 = Distinctive, category-defining, every surface aligned
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**Maps to AARRR:** Cross-cutting — feeds every stage.
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### 2. Customer research
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**What's scored:** Depth and recency of customer research, ICP clarity, voice-of-customer capture.
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**Score guide:**
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- 0 = No formal research, only founder intuition
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- 2 = Some research but stale or one-off
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- 4 = Active research practice, customer language captured
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- 5 = Continuous research, customer language flows into copy / product / messaging
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**Maps to AARRR:** Cross-cutting — feeds especially Acquisition (channel choice) and Activation (onboarding voice).
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### 3. Homepage
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**What's scored:** Headline clarity, voice alignment, conversion architecture, mobile experience.
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**Score guide:**
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- 0 = Generic / broken / off-brand
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- 2 = Functional but underperforming; voice mostly absent
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- 4 = Clear, voice-aligned, converting; minor optimization opportunities
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- 5 = Distinctive, converts strongly, fully voice-aligned
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**Maps to AARRR:** Acquisition + Activation.
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### 4. Sales / product pages
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**What's scored:** Existence and quality of dedicated product / pricing / feature pages. Are SKUs documented? Is pricing scannable? Are upsells visible?
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**Score guide:**
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- 0 = No dedicated pages
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- 2 = Pages exist but are stale or off-voice
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- 4 = Quality pages for primary products; gaps on secondary
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- 5 = Every product, tier, and upsell has a high-converting page
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**Maps to AARRR:** Acquisition + Revenue.
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### 5. Conversion pages
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**What's scored:** Landing pages for specific campaigns, channels, or use cases. `/partner`, `/science`, `/ambassadors`, `/eye-mask` types of pages.
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**Score guide:**
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- 0 = No conversion pages
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- 2 = One or two exist; rest of needed pages missing
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- 4 = Most needed conversion pages exist; quality is good
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- 5 = Full conversion page library, each high-converting
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**Maps to AARRR:** Acquisition + Activation.
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### 6. Competitor comparison
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**What's scored:** Existence of "vs. {competitor}" pages, comparison content. Does the brand acknowledge alternatives, or pretend they don't exist?
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**Score guide:**
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- 0 = Nothing — actively avoiding competitor mentions
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- 2 = Some content exists but is weak or hidden
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- 4 = Solid comparison pages for top 2–3 competitors
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- 5 = Comprehensive comparison library; SEO-targeted; high-converting
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**Maps to AARRR:** Acquisition (consideration-stage SEO + sales enablement).
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### 7. Resources / content
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**What's scored:** Blog, knowledge base, science page, whitepapers, research, founder essays, podcast.
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**Score guide:**
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- 0 = No content surface
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- 2 = Blog exists but is stale or thin
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- 4 = Active content production; multiple formats
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- 5 = Content is a moat — proprietary research, named pillars, daily volume
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**Maps to AARRR:** Acquisition.
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### 8. Onboarding
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**What's scored:** New user onboarding (in-app + email). Time-to-value, completion rate, brand-voice alignment.
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**Score guide:**
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- 0 = No onboarding flow
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- 2 = Onboarding exists but is broken, off-voice, or underperforming
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- 4 = Solid onboarding; clear bottlenecks identified
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- 5 = Tested, optimized, on-brand; activation rate at category top quartile
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**Maps to AARRR:** Activation.
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### 9. Email lifecycle
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**What's scored:** Existence and quality of lifecycle email programs. Welcome / onboarding / post-purchase / lapsed / win-back.
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**Score guide:**
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- 0 = No lifecycle email
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- 2 = Some flows exist but drafted not live, or live but stale
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- 4 = Core flows live and performing; gaps on secondary flows
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- 5 = Full lifecycle live, segmented, performing above category benchmarks
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**Maps to AARRR:** Retention (+ Activation for onboarding emails).
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### 10. Sales material
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**What's scored:** Sales decks, one-pagers, demos, case studies, pricing sheets. (For B2B / hybrid companies — for pure D2C, this can be marked N/A or scored low without implication.)
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**Score guide:**
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- 0 = No sales material
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- 2 = Founder uses a deck but other material is thin
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- 4 = Solid sales kit; reps can self-serve content
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- 5 = Comprehensive material; updated quarterly; objection-handling library exists
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**Maps to AARRR:** Acquisition + Revenue (B2B).
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### 11. Messaging
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**What's scored:** Voice, tone, vocabulary, message hierarchy across surfaces. Is the brand voice documented, consistent, distinctive?
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**Score guide:**
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- 0 = No voice documented; surfaces inconsistent
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- 2 = Voice exists in founder's head but isn't operationalized
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- 4 = Documented voice; mostly consistent across surfaces
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- 5 = Distinctive voice; documented; every surface respects it; voice is a moat
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**Maps to AARRR:** Cross-cutting.
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### 12. Pricing
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**What's scored:** Pricing structure clarity, packaging logic, recent pressure-testing, listed vs. effective price reconciliation.
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**Score guide:**
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- 0 = Pricing not pressure-tested in over a year; unclear structure
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- 2 = Listed pricing exists but plan mix / discounting muddles the read
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- 4 = Clear pricing; recent tests; LTV math known
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- 5 = Pricing tested quarterly; packaging optimized; expansion levers known
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**Maps to AARRR:** Revenue.
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### 13. CRO (conversion rate optimization)
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**What's scored:** Test cadence, instrumentation, A/B history, statistical rigor.
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**Score guide:**
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- 0 = No tests run; no instrumentation
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- 2 = Some ad-hoc tests; no statistical rigor
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- 4 = Regular test cadence; some wins
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- 5 = Continuous testing program; experimentation culture; documented wins
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**Maps to AARRR:** Cross-cutting (most impactful at Activation + Revenue).
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### 14. GTM launches
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**What's scored:** Quality of past launch executions. Product launches, feature launches, campaign launches.
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**Score guide:**
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- 0 = No structured launches; "soft launches" only
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- 2 = Some launches but uneven execution
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- 4 = Solid recent launches; playbook exists
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- 5 = Repeatable launch motion; Product Hunt #1s; press coverage on demand
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**Maps to AARRR:** Acquisition + Activation.
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### 15. Ads (paid)
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**What's scored:** Paid acquisition state. Active campaigns, channels, CAC tracking, creative quality.
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**Score guide:**
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- 0 = No paid acquisition
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- 2 = Some paid but unstructured / wasteful
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- 4 = Paid is firing across 2–3 channels with positive unit economics
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- 5 = Sophisticated paid stack; CAC/LTV understood; creative iterated weekly
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**Maps to AARRR:** Acquisition.
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**Note:** For pre-seed clients with no paid budget, score this 0 *without* treating it as a weakness — it reflects the funding stage, not a marketing failure.
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### 16. SEO
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**What's scored:** Organic search performance. Domain rating, ranking keywords, organic traffic, content cluster strategy.
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**Score guide:**
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- 0 = No SEO; new domain or zero-authority
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- 2 = Some content but no strategy; ranks for brand only
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- 4 = Established content clusters; growing organic traffic; DR 25+
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- 5 = SEO is a moat; DR 40+; thousand+ ranking keywords; consistent content production
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**Maps to AARRR:** Acquisition.
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### 17. Internationalization
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**What's scored:** Geographic expansion, language localization, region-specific pricing.
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**Score guide:**
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- 0 = US/EN only; no international consideration
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- 2 = International users exist but aren't served (one language, one currency)
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- 4 = Multi-language, region-specific pricing, GTM playbook for new markets
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- 5 = International is a strength; multi-region revenue; localized GTM
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**Maps to AARRR:** Acquisition.
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**Note:** For most early-stage companies, internationalization scores 0–1 and that's appropriate. Don't penalize early-stage companies for not having international playbooks yet.
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## How to compute the total + read the shape
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**Total = sum of all 17 scores. Out of 85.**
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The total matters less than the *shape*. After the scoring table, write a 2–4 sentence "shape interpretation":
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> *"High in {strong sections}, low in {weak sections}. That shape is the gap the rest of the plan closes — Sections X (AARRR stage) is the longest because that's where the gap is widest."*
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## Common shapes
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### "Strong voice / messaging, weak distribution"
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- High: Positioning (#1), Customer research (#2), Messaging (#11)
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- Low: SEO (#16), Ads (#15), GTM launches (#14)
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- Translation: The founder is a strong storyteller but distribution hasn't caught up. Plan emphasizes Acquisition + paid layer prep.
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### "Strong acquisition, weak conversion"
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- High: SEO (#16), Resources (#7), Ads (#15)
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- Low: Homepage (#3), Onboarding (#8), Conversion pages (#5), Pricing (#12)
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- Translation: Traffic comes in but doesn't convert. Plan emphasizes Activation + Revenue.
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### "Strong conversion, weak retention"
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- High: Onboarding (#8), Homepage (#3), Pricing (#12)
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- Low: Email lifecycle (#9), CRO (#13)
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- Translation: Users sign up and pay but churn. Plan emphasizes Retention.
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### "Strong product, weak everything-else"
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- High: only Positioning (#1) and Customer research (#2) — the founder knows the customer
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- Low: everything operational
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- Translation: Pre-marketing stage. Plan is foundation-heavy. First quarter is bedrock fixes.
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### "Strong recent revenue, weak compounding"
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- High: Ads (#15), Sales material (#10), Pricing (#12)
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- Low: SEO (#16), Resources (#7), Referral mechanics
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- Translation: Performance marketing carries the business. Plan emphasizes building compounding channels before paid scales further.
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## When scores are subjective
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Some sections are easier to score from outside than others. Subjectivity tier:
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- **Objective (data-driven):** SEO (#16), Ads (#15), Email lifecycle (#9), Onboarding (#8) — backed by analytics
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- **Semi-objective:** Pricing (#12), CRO (#13), Conversion pages (#5), Sales material (#10) — visible artifacts to evaluate
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- **Subjective (judgment call):** Positioning (#1), Messaging (#11), Customer research (#2), Resources (#7) — interpretive
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For subjective sections, write the rationale into the "Note" column so the team can push back if they disagree.
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## When the audit-marketing skill version is run
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If the user runs `/audit-marketing {client-domain}` before or during the plan, use that output verbatim — don't redo the scoring. The Plan skill respects audit-marketing's outputs as the ground truth.
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If the audit was run weeks ago and material has changed since (new shipped flows, new content live, etc.), note "rubric scored on YYYY-MM-DD; material has shifted since" and update any specific scores you have evidence for.
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