Marketing Against the Grain
Master Claude Code for Marketing: 4 Workflows + 12 Prompts to Ship Campaigns Fast
The technical barrier to building marketing assets just collapsed. Use these 4 workflows and 12 prompts to build landing pages, lead gen tools, and full campaigns — no coding experience required.
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Expert Insights from James
James recommends building a landing page as your first project. It teaches the complete workflow—build locally, push to GitHub, deploy live—before tackling complex campaigns. Once you can ship one landing page, everything else becomes accessible.
James said, "The biggest blocker is people don't know what questions to ask and don't know what good looks like." Skills are instruction files (SKILL.md) encoding expert methodology. Install once, Claude executes using those frameworks automatically without you explaining every time.
James's method: Work manually with Claude Code until output is excellent (judge with your taste), then say "Review everything we did. Turn that into a skill." Claude encodes the workflow as reusable file. Build through doing, systematize what works.
James doesn't look at code Claude writes. Focus on outcome quality (does the landing page convert?), not implementation. Outcome-focused, not process-focused. Your job is creative judgment, Claude handles technical execution.
Advanced users run Claude Code + Codex (ChatGPT 5.3) in separate windows simultaneously. When stuck, copy error to Codex for fresh perspective. Faster debugging without context overload.
The technical barrier is gone. What separates great Claude Code marketers now is judgment — knowing what good looks like, being able to prompt toward it, and having the taste to recognize when you've arrived. That's your competitive
Getting Started With These Workflows
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Install Claude Code. Open your terminal. Search "Claude Code install command," copy it, paste it in, hit enter. Then type
claudeand hit enter. That's it. -
Authenticate. If you're on Claude.ai (Max plan recommended), select that option. It'll open a browser window — log in, and you're connected.
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Create your claude.md file. This is the memory of every project. Tell it you're a non-technical marketer and ask it to guide you accordingly. Update it after every session.
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Install two tools to start: FireCrawl (competitor website crawling) and Perplexity (research). Both free to start. Add GitHub + Vercel or Netlify when you're ready to deploy.
4 Workflows + 12 Prompts
The Claude Code Marketing Stack
Four complete workflows marketers can run from the terminal — no prior coding experience required. Each workflow builds on the last. Run them in order for a full go-to-market system in a single session.
Workflow 1: Competitor Research & Positioning
Complexity level: 🤖🤖 Moderate
What it does: Find the white space your competitors aren't owning. Lock in a positioning angle that's yours.
I want to find a differentiated positioning angle for [YOUR PRODUCT/CONCEPT].
Use FireCrawl or Perplexity to research the top competitors in this market: [YOUR MARKET/KEYWORD].
For each competitor, pull:
- Their primary headline and core value proposition
- Main messaging themes and pain points they address
- The audience they appear to target
Compile findings into a competitive landscape summary. Identify the dominant messaging patterns and what's already saturated.
Based on everything you found, what is the gap in this market? What are competitors NOT saying, NOT addressing, or NOT owning?
Give me 3 positioning angles ranked by strength. For each, include:
- The core statement
- Why it's differentiated
- A sample headline
- Who it speaks to
I'm going with positioning angle [NUMBER].
Create a brand context file and save it to /brand/positioning.md. Include:
- Positioning statement (one sentence)
- Core message and angle
- Target audience profile
- Top 3 pain points we address
- What we are NOT (how we differ from competitors)
- Sample H1 headline
- Tone of voice direction
This file will be referenced by all future workflows.
Workflow 2: Lead Magnet Builder
Complexity level: Moderate 🤖🤖
What it does: Turn your positioning into a lead magnet that converts. Not a PDF — an interactive tool, built and ready to deploy.
Load /brand/positioning.md.
Research what lead magnets competitors are already offering in the [YOUR MARKET] space. Look for:
- Common types (checklists, templates, quizzes, calculators)
- What's oversaturated
- What formats are underused or missing entirely
Recommend 3 lead magnet concepts that:
1. Match our positioning angle
2. Are NOT what competitors are already doing
3. Deliver immediate, tangible value
4. Could be built as an interactive tool
For each: format, title, core value delivered, and why it works.
I'm going with concept [NUMBER].
Build this as a fully interactive HTML tool I can deploy. Include:
- Clean, professional design (no purple gradients, no generic fonts)
- 5–7 interactive questions or inputs with personalized results
- A results screen that creates urgency to learn more
- A clear CTA at the end (email capture or product link)
- Mobile responsive layout
Use tone and positioning from /brand/positioning.md.
Save as lead-magnet.html.
Write the landing page copy to promote this lead magnet. Reference /brand/positioning.md for tone.
Include:
- H1 headline — bold, specific, tied to the transformation
- Subheadline — one sentence expanding on the promise
- 3 bullet points — what they'll get
- Social proof placeholder
- CTA button copy (not "Submit")
- 2–3 sentence block for skeptics below the fold
Direct and punchy. No fluff. Every sentence earns its place.
Workflow 3: One-Shot Landing Page Builder
Complexity level: Simple 🤖
What it does: From positioning to a fully deployed landing page — in a single session.
I need a landing page for [PRODUCT/OFFER NAME].
Load /brand/positioning.md if it exists. Otherwise use:
- Product: [one sentence]
- Target audience: [who it's for]
- Core benefit: [the #1 transformation or outcome]
- Tone: [direct / conversational / bold]
- CTA: [what you want them to do]
Before building, ask me 3 clarifying questions that will meaningfully improve the output. Then confirm the plan before writing any code.
Build the landing page now. Design requirements:
- No purple gradients, no generic fonts (Inter, Roboto, Arial), no default AI layouts
- Distinctive font pairing from Google Fonts
- 2–3 color palette that fits the brand tone
- Real visual hierarchy — the headline should be impossible to miss
- Sections: hero, 3 benefits, social proof placeholder, CTA
- Mobile responsive, fast-loading, no external dependencies except Google Fonts
Save as index.html. Tell me what design choices you made and why.
Walk me through the fastest way to get this landing page live from my terminal right now.
Assume I have (or can set up) a GitHub account and Vercel or Netlify (free tier).
Give me the exact commands to:
1. Initialize a GitHub repo
2. Push the index.html file
3. Connect to Vercel/Netlify and deploy
4. Get a live URL I can share
Explain each command in plain language before I run it.
Assume I have (or can set up) a GitHub account and Vercel or Netlify (free tier).
Give me the exact commands to:
1. Initialize a GitHub repo
2. Push the index.html file
3. Connect to Vercel/Netlify and deploy
4. Get a live URL I can share
Explain each command in plain language before I run it.
Workflow 4: Email Welcome Sequence
Complexity level: Simple 🤖
What it does: Convert your new leads immediately. A 3-email sequence that's on-brand, non-generic, and built to drive toward your core offer.
I need a 3-email welcome sequence for people who signed up for: [LEAD MAGNET NAME].
Load /brand/positioning.md for context.
Before writing, map the sequence logic:
- Email 1 (Day 0): What's the immediate "aha"?
- Email 2 (Day 2): What objection or question is most common at this stage?
- Email 3 (Day 4): What's the bridge to our core offer?
Show me the map first. I'll approve before you write.
Load /brand/positioning.md for context.
Before writing, map the sequence logic:
- Email 1 (Day 0): What's the immediate "aha"?
- Email 2 (Day 2): What objection or question is most common at this stage?
- Email 3 (Day 4): What's the bridge to our core offer?
Show me the map first. I'll approve before you write.
Write all 3 emails. For each include:
- Subject line + one A/B variant
- Preview text (90 characters max)
- Email body (plain conversational copy — no headers, minimal formatting)
- One clear CTA
Tone: direct and punchy, short sentences, sound like a real person, lead with value not "thanks for signing up." Each email should be readable in under 90 seconds.
Reference the lead magnet and our positioning angle throughout — these shouldn't read like generic nurture emails.
- Subject line + one A/B variant
- Preview text (90 characters max)
- Email body (plain conversational copy — no headers, minimal formatting)
- One clear CTA
Tone: direct and punchy, short sentences, sound like a real person, lead with value not "thanks for signing up." Each email should be readable in under 90 seconds.
Reference the lead magnet and our positioning angle throughout — these shouldn't read like generic nurture emails.
Update the claude.md file with:
1. What we built today (list of outputs with file names)
2. What worked well
3. What to improve next session
4. Suggested next steps
5. Any brand context learnings to remember
Format as a clean update to the existing claude.md.
1. What we built today (list of outputs with file names)
2. What worked well
3. What to improve next session
4. Suggested next steps
5. Any brand context learnings to remember
Format as a clean update to the existing claude.md.
Final Notes
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Run Prompt 12 at the end of every session. This is the habit that turns a one-time win into a compounding system.
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Start with one workflow, prove it, then expand. Don't try to run all four at once on day one. Start with Workflow 1. That win will make everything else feel possible — and fast.
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Your brand context is everything. The quality of every output depends on the quality of your /brand/positioning.md file. Spend 10 minutes getting that right and every subsequent prompt gets dramatically better.
Take Your Skills Further with The Vibe Marketing Playbook
James's playbook includes 17 marketing skills, the 5-stage build sequence, skill stacking strategies by business type, and frameworks for research and decision-making—plus a Direct Response Copy skill encoding 100 years of copywriting methodology from Ogilvy, Schwartz, and Hopkins.
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