Difficulty: Beginner Time to set up: 30 minutes Impact: Everything else you build depends on this

CLAUDE.md is the single file that makes Claude Code understand your business. Here is exactly what to put in it.

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Why This Is the Most Important Playbook

Every other playbook on this site assumes you have a working CLAUDE.md file. That is because CLAUDE.md is not optional. It is the foundation.

When you open Claude Code in any directory, it automatically reads the CLAUDE.md file in that folder. Every time. No extra commands, no special flags. It just reads it and uses that context for everything it does.

Think of it as the routing brain for your entire marketing system. Without it, Claude Code is a smart assistant with amnesia. With it, Claude Code knows your business, your voice, your strategy, and where to find every skill you have built.

The Stack and Scale article on CLAUDE.md for marketers put it well: this is where you encode your marketing intelligence so the AI can act on it consistently.

What You Will Build

A complete CLAUDE.md file with five essential sections that give Claude Code everything it needs to function as your marketing teammate.

Tools used: Claude Code (terminal), CLAUDE.md, text editor

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The 5 Sections Every Marketing CLAUDE.md Needs

Here is the structure. We will go through each section in detail.

1. Company Context
2. Brand Voice Rules
3. Content Strategy
4. Skill File Directory
5. Quality Checklist

Section 1: Company Context

This section answers: who are we, what do we do, and who do we serve?

Claude Code needs this to write accurately about your business. Without it, you get generic content that could be about any company. With it, every output is grounded in your reality.

## Company Context

**Company:** [Your company name]
**What we do:** [One sentence. Be specific. Not "we help businesses grow"
but "we build AI visibility tools for B2B SaaS companies"]
**Founded:** [Year]
**Stage:** [Startup/Growth/Enterprise]
**Team size:** [Number, even approximate]

**Our customers:**
- Primary: [Job title, company size, industry]
- Secondary: [Job title, company size, industry]
- They care about: [Their top 3 priorities or pain points]
- They do NOT care about: [Common assumptions that are wrong]

**Our product/service:**
- [Product name]: [What it does in one sentence]
- Key differentiator: [Why us over alternatives]
- Price range: [Ballpark, helps with positioning]

**Competitors:**
- [Competitor 1]: [Their positioning, where we differ]
- [Competitor 2]: [Their positioning, where we differ]
- [Competitor 3]: [Their positioning, where we differ]

**Key metrics we talk about publicly:**
- [Any stats, results, case study numbers you reference often]

Write this section as if you are briefing a new marketing hire on their first day. What do they need to know to start writing content that sounds informed?

Section 2: Brand Voice Rules

This section answers: how do we sound?

## Brand Voice

**We sound like:** [A specific person or archetype.
"A smart friend who happens to be an expert" or
"A practitioner sharing what actually worked"]

**Tone attributes:**
- [Attribute 1, e.g., "Direct, not aggressive"]
- [Attribute 2, e.g., "Confident, not arrogant"]
- [Attribute 3, e.g., "Practical, not theoretical"]
- [Attribute 4, e.g., "Conversational, not casual"]

**Writing rules:**
- Use "I" for personal posts, "we" for company content
- Short sentences. Break long thoughts into separate lines.
- Specific over vague. "37% increase" not "significant improvement."
- Active voice always. "We built" not "It was built by our team."
- No jargon unless our audience uses it daily.

**Words we use:** [List 5-10 terms that are part of your vocabulary,
e.g., "AI visibility," "content systems," "compound marketing"]

**Words we never use:** [List terms to avoid,
e.g., "synergy," "leverage," "thought leader," "game-changer,"
"excited to announce," "humbled"]

**Example of our voice at its best:**
[Paste 2-3 sentences from your best content that capture the voice perfectly]

The more specific your voice rules are, the less editing you do on the output. "Be professional" is useless. "Write like you are explaining something to a smart colleague over coffee" is useful.

Section 3: Content Strategy

This section answers: what do we publish and why?

## Content Strategy

**Content pillars (our 3-5 core topics):**
1. [Pillar 1, e.g., "AI visibility and AEO"]
2. [Pillar 2, e.g., "Content systems and automation"]
3. [Pillar 3, e.g., "Marketing without a big team"]
4. [Pillar 4, e.g., "Founder-led marketing"]

**Content goal:** [What is content doing for us?
e.g., "Drive inbound leads from LinkedIn" or
"Build authority so outbound converts better"]

**Channels and cadence:**
- LinkedIn: 4-5 posts per week
- Newsletter: Weekly, every Tuesday
- Blog: 2 posts per month
- Twitter/X: Daily engagement, 2-3 threads per week

**Content types we produce:**
- How-to guides and playbooks
- Framework posts (numbered lists, step-by-step)
- Contrarian takes on industry trends
- Case studies and results breakdowns
- Tool reviews and comparisons

**Audience awareness level:**
[Where is our audience on the awareness spectrum?
e.g., "Most know they need AI visibility but do not know how to get it.
They are problem-aware but not solution-aware."]

This section prevents Claude Code from writing content that is off-strategy. If you define your pillars, it will not suggest posts about topics you do not cover. If you define your audience's awareness level, it will pitch content at the right level of sophistication.

Section 4: Skill File Directory

This section answers: what tools have I built and where are they?

## Skill Files

All skill files are in the `skills/` folder.

- `skills/linkedin-post.md` — Generates LinkedIn posts in my voice
- `skills/linkedin-examples.md` — Example posts for voice matching
- `skills/repurpose.md` — Turns one piece of content into multi-channel outputs
- `skills/ai-visibility-audit.md` — Audits websites for AI search readiness
- `skills/carousel.md` — Creates LinkedIn carousel slide content
- `skills/prospect-research.md` — Researches prospects and generates outreach

When asked to do a task that matches a skill, read the skill file first
and follow its instructions exactly.

This is the routing layer. When you say "write me a LinkedIn post," Claude Code reads this directory, sees the LinkedIn skill, and follows those rules. Without this section, it would just wing it.

Update this section every time you add a new skill. It takes 10 seconds and makes your whole system work better.

Section 5: Quality Checklist

This section answers: how do we know if the output is good enough?

## Quality Checklist

Before presenting any content output, verify:

1. **Voice check:** Does this sound like us? Read it out loud mentally.
   If it sounds like a press release, rewrite it.
2. **Specificity check:** Is there at least one specific detail
   (number, name, date, result)? If not, add one or flag it.
3. **Platform check:** Does this follow the rules for the target platform?
   (Character limits, formatting, structure)
4. **Audience check:** Would our target reader find this useful or interesting?
   If the answer is "maybe," it is not good enough.
5. **Originality check:** Could any company have written this?
   If yes, it needs our specific perspective or data.

If the output fails any check, fix it before presenting.
Do not present work that needs the human to fix obvious problems.

This checklist acts as a built-in editor. Claude Code will actually run through these checks before showing you the output, which means fewer revision cycles for you.

The Complete Template

Here is the full CLAUDE.md you can copy and customize. Replace everything in brackets with your actual information:

# [Company Name] Marketing System

## Company Context
**Company:** [Company name]
**What we do:** [One specific sentence]
**Customers:** [Who they are, what they care about]
**Differentiator:** [Why us]
**Competitors:** [Top 3 with positioning notes]

## Brand Voice
**We sound like:** [Archetype or description]
**Tone:** [3-4 specific attributes]
**Writing rules:**
- [Rule 1]
- [Rule 2]
- [Rule 3]
- [Rule 4]
**Words we use:** [List]
**Words we avoid:** [List]

## Content Strategy
**Pillars:**
1. [Topic 1]
2. [Topic 2]
3. [Topic 3]

**Goal:** [What content does for us]
**Channels:** [Where we publish and how often]
**Audience:** [Their awareness level and what they need]

## Skill Files
All skills live in `skills/`. Read the relevant skill file before executing any task.
- `skills/[skill-name].md` — [Description]

## Quality Checklist
Before presenting output:
1. Does it sound like us?
2. Is there a specific detail?
3. Does it fit the platform?
4. Would our audience care?
5. Is it uniquely ours?

Step 5: Testing Your CLAUDE.md

Once your file is written, test it. Open Claude Code in your marketing folder:

cd ~/marketing-system
claude

Ask it questions about your business:

What do we do and who are our customers?

What topics do we write about?

What does our brand voice sound like? Give me an example sentence.

What skill files are available? List them.

If Claude Code answers these correctly, your CLAUDE.md is working. If it gets something wrong or vague, that section needs more detail.

Then test it with a real task:

Write a LinkedIn post about [one of your content pillars].

Check: Does it follow your voice rules? Does it stay within your content strategy? Does it use the right skill file? If yes, you are set. If not, refine the relevant section.

How Skill Files Connect to CLAUDE.md

The relationship is simple:

• CLAUDE.md is the brain. It knows who you are and what tools you have.
• Skill files are the hands. They know how to do specific tasks.

When you say "write a LinkedIn post," here is the chain:

1. Claude Code reads CLAUDE.md
2. CLAUDE.md says "for LinkedIn posts, use skills/linkedin-post.md"
3. Claude Code reads the skill file
4. The skill file says how to structure, format, and voice the post
5. Claude Code generates the post using company context from CLAUDE.md and task rules from the skill file

This separation matters because you can update your company context without touching your skills, and update your skills without touching your context. Each piece is independent but connected.

Common Mistakes

Too vague: "We are a tech company that helps businesses" tells Claude Code nothing. Be painfully specific.

Too long: Your CLAUDE.md does not need to be a novel. Aim for 200 to 500 lines. If it is longer, you are probably including things that belong in skill files.

No examples: Rules without examples are half as effective. Show what your voice sounds like, do not just describe it.

Never updating it: Your business evolves. Your CLAUDE.md should evolve with it. Review it monthly and update anything that has changed.

Missing the skill directory: If you build skills but do not list them in CLAUDE.md, Claude Code will not know they exist unless you explicitly tell it to read them.

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Tools used in this playbook: Claude Code CLI, CLAUDE.md, text editor, skill files