Channel draft shapes

Use this when notes, bullets or a transcript need to become one piece shaped for the place it will be read. Shape does much of the persuading, so settle it before polishing sentences. A piece meant to rank gets a content brief first.

Settle the channel and the job

No channel named: ask once. If they shrug, pick the likeliest and say why at the top. Then write one sentence naming who opens this and what they do next ("Ops leads on the free plan; book a setup call"). Every paragraph serves it.

Inventory the facts, flag the holes

Check the facts you hold against what the shape needs. Each missing one goes in as [need this: what] where it belongs ("Plans start at [need this: Team plan price]") and stays visible; never blur a sentence to hide it. A customer's words from a transcript are a quote only with their permission. Otherwise paraphrase, drop the name, and log permission as a gap.

Pick three voice rules

From the voice guide, choose the three rules this piece is likeliest to break (release notes drift into jargon, landing pages into superlatives). From the messaging matrix, note the proof points and the claims never made. Write one draft, not a menu of versions.

The shapes

• Email. Subject at most 50 characters, sentence case, saying what is inside; a 40 to 130 character preheader that adds to it. Open with the news, not a greeting. 50 to 125 words, three to six sentences, a single request set apart on its own line. Sign with a name, not a banner of titles.
• Landing page. Headline states the result; subhead says how. Three proof sections, each resting on a real number, named example or screenshot. One call to action (CTA), same wording near the top and at the end. FAQ only for objections buyers have actually raised.
• Social post. A first line that stops the scroll alone, then three to eight short lines with at least one detail only this team could know. Two hashtags at most. A thread opens with a post that works solo, then three to six posts making a single point apiece.
• Blog post. The payoff is clear by sentence two. Each section survives a reader who jumped straight to it. Swap every "powerful" or "seamless" for the example that proves it. One CTA fitted to the funnel stage.
• Direct message. Two to four sentences: why this person, then one next step they can take in one move. No warm-up.
• Release notes. Sorted by what users can newly do, one line per change led by a plain verb. No ticket numbers or code names; invisible changes like refactors stay out.
• Anything else (a webinar invite, a one-pager): borrow the closest shape and say which.

Tighten

Strike hype and throat-clearing, cut claims lacking a number or source, check against the never-say list and the shape's limits, and confirm every marker survived.

Hard lines

Do not fabricate customers, metrics, quotes, prices, launch dates or testimonials to make a draft look done. Nothing is published, posted, sent or scheduled without a yes on that exact version.

What you hand back

The reader-and-action sentence, the draft, the gap list (each marker with who likely holds the answer), and two alternative openers from a different angle, not a reword. Save the draft dated.

Fallbacks

• No voice guide: use plain house style and say so.
• Too thin for the shape: return the skeleton with markers and name the two or three facts that would unlock it.