github coreyhaines31/marketingskills v2.5.0
v2.5.0 — offers skill (offer design)

latest release: v2.5.1
7 days ago

Marketing Skills v2.5.0

A minor release adding one new skill (offers) for offer design — the thing you actually sell, not the page that sells it.

Total skills: 45

New skill: offers

Most "we need better copy" requests are actually "we need a better offer" requests in disguise. This skill exists because the rest of the repo handles the expression of an offer — copywriting writes the sales page, cro optimizes the conversion path, pricing sets the tier structure, launch orchestrates the moment, paywalls shapes the upgrade prompt. None ask the deeper question: is the offer underneath any of that actually good?

Self-scoped explicitly: best for services, agencies, courses, coaching, info products, high-ticket B2B, and direct response. Less load-bearing for pure self-serve SaaS where pricing does more work.

The two frameworks

The Value Equation

              Dream Outcome  ×  Perceived Likelihood of Achievement
  Value  =  ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
              Time Delay     ×   Effort & Sacrifice

Originally from Alex Hormozi's $100M Offers, now standard across direct response and creator-economy training. Most "lower the price" requests are actually "raise the numerator or lower the denominator" requests.

The six-component anatomy of a complete offer

# Component Question it answers
1 Core deliverable What do they get?
2 Bonus stack What else do they get that makes the core feel undervalued?
3 Guarantee What happens if it doesn't work?
4 Scarcity / urgency Why now, not later?
5 Name What is this thing called?
6 Price + payment structure What do they pay and how?

Skip any one and conversion suffers — usually noticeably.

Reference library (7 docs)

  • value-equation.md — Four levers deep dive with scoring prompts and a worked example of a stuck $3K copywriting course
  • offer-anatomy.md — Six components with worked examples, including a fractional-CMO before/after that converts ~3x without changing the price
  • guarantee-design.md — Eight guarantee types (unconditional money-back, conditional, better-than-money-back, SLA, performance-based, anti-guarantee, outcome-or-extension, comparison) with a decision tree by business type, refund tolerance, and buyer sophistication. Includes the honest case for anti-guarantees on premium offers.
  • bonus-stacking.md — Bonuses-as-objection-handlers, the math of stated value (under 2x the price, defensible comparables), the 4-bonus pattern that works (speed / trust / stuck / decision / bigger-than-asked), failure modes including inflated values and bonus-stack-as-substitute-for-core
  • scarcity-urgency.md — Honest scarcity formats (capacity, cohort, founding-member, inventory, seasonal, bonus-expiry, price-increase). Explicit rejection of fake countdown timers and manufactured FOMO, with the case for why fake scarcity is uniquely costly long-term.
  • offer-formats.md — Default offer format by business type: service, course, coaching, info product, high-ticket B2B, agency retainer, self-serve SaaS, direct response. What to watch for each.
  • examples.md — Six anonymized before/after worked examples spanning fractional CMO, $1,997 copywriting course, $97 Notion templates, $50K B2B SaaS annual contract, $4K group coaching mastermind, and content agency retainer.

Anti-patterns (the "skip if" list)

The skill is explicit about what NOT to do:

  • Manipulative scarcity — fake countdown timers, "only 3 spots left" lies. Short-term lift, long-term trust collapse.
  • Over-promising guarantees — "double your revenue or refund + $1,000." Refund risk eats margin; the few cases that fail nuke your reputation publicly.
  • Bonus inflation — stacking $50K of "bonuses" on a $497 product. Sophisticated buyers see this. Treat bonuses as additive, not exaggerated.
  • Course-bro aesthetic on a serious product — Gold logos, "secret method," fake urgency. Pattern-matches to scam. Wrong room.

Plus a banned-vocabulary list: game-changing, revolutionary, 10x, secret, "limited time" with no actual limit, "worth $X" with no comparable, "100% guaranteed" without conditions.

Cross-references

The new skill is cross-referenced from four sibling skills' descriptions:

  • pricing → "For offer construction (bonuses, guarantees, value framing) on services/courses/coaching/high-ticket B2B, see offers"
  • copywriting → "For the offer underneath the copy, see offers"
  • launch → "For the offer being launched, see offers"
  • sales-enablement → "For the offer being sold, see offers"

Verification

  • validate-skills.sh passes 45/45 skills
  • SKILL.md 153 lines (under 500 soft cap)
  • Description length 969 chars (under 1024 Agent Skills limit)

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