Writing the Playbook: Codifying Your Marketing Standards

This is Part 4 of a 16-part series on building your AI VP of Marketing with Claude Cowork. Previous: You're Still the Boss: Human Accountability for AI Outputs | Next: Skill: Content Brief Generator

What are Rules?

CLAUDE.md answers the question "what do you need to know about us?" Rules answer a different question: "how must you behave?"

Rules live in a .claude/rules/ directory inside your project. Each rule is a markdown file containing instructions that fire on every single interaction. Not most interactions. Every one. When your VP drafts a blog post, the rules are active. When it writes an email subject line, the rules are active. When it outlines a social media calendar, the rules are active. They are constraints, not suggestions.

Think of the difference this way. CLAUDE.md is the employee handbook your VP reads on day one. Rules are the policies posted on the wall that govern every decision. Your VP can reference the handbook when relevant. The policies apply whether they are relevant or not -- they shape behavior at a structural level, before creative work begins.

Your Rules Directory

Before writing any rules, set up the directory structure. In your Cowork project, create the following:

.claude/
  rules/
    brand-voice.md
    content-standards.md
    process-rules.md
    approval-criteria.md

Four files. Each one governs a different dimension of your VP's output. You can ask Cowork to create this structure for you:

Create a .claude/rules/ directory with four empty files:
brand-voice.md, content-standards.md, process-rules.md, and approval-criteria.md

Now fill them in.

Brand Voice Rules

Every piece of marketing your VP produces passes through this filter. Get it wrong and your content sounds generic. Get it right and people cannot tell your VP wrote it.

Here is the structure for a brand voice rule file. The example uses a B2B SaaS company called RouteLine that sells logistics optimization software.

# Brand Voice

## Tone
Direct, confident, grounded, warm, specific.

We sound like a smart colleague explaining something clearly over coffee --
not a salesperson reading a script, and not an academic writing a paper.

## Personality Traits
- We are practical before clever. Utility beats wit.
- We respect our audience's time. Short beats long. Clear beats impressive.
- We show, then tell. Data and examples come before claims.
- We are honest about limitations. "This works best for X" beats "this works for everyone."

## Vocabulary

### Words We Use
- ship, build, fix, track, measure
- customers (not "users" or "end users")
- plain numbers ("40% faster") over vague scale ("significantly faster")

### Words We Never Use
- synergy, leverage (as a verb), disrupt, revolutionary
- game-changing, best-in-class, world-class, cutting-edge
- empower, unlock, unleash, supercharge
- "we are excited to announce" or any variation

## Voice in Action

**Wrong:** "We are excited to announce our revolutionary new feature that empowers logistics teams to unlock unprecedented efficiency gains."

**Right:** "Route optimization now runs in 3 seconds instead of 45. Your dispatch team gets their morning routes before coffee is ready."

**Wrong:** "RouteLine leverages cutting-edge AI to deliver best-in-class logistics solutions."

**Right:** "RouteLine uses route history and traffic patterns to cut delivery times. Most customers see a 20-30% improvement in the first month."

## Sentence Structure
- Lead with the benefit or the fact. Never lead with "we."
- Vary sentence length. Follow a long sentence with a short one.
- Active voice always. "You save 3 hours per week" not "3 hours per week are saved."

You probably do not sell logistics software. The structure matters more than the specifics. Use this prompt to generate a brand voice rule file tailored to your business:

Review my CLAUDE.md briefing document and write a brand-voice.md rule file
for .claude/rules/. Follow this structure:

1. Tone: 5 adjectives that describe how we sound, plus a one-sentence
   analogy ("we sound like X, not Y")
2. Personality Traits: 4-5 bullet points about our communication style
3. Vocabulary: words we use, words we never use (be specific)
4. Voice in Action: 3 pairs of wrong/right examples using our actual
   products and audience
5. Sentence Structure: 3-4 rules about how we build sentences

Base everything on the business context in CLAUDE.md. Do not use generic
marketing language. Every example should reference our specific products,
customers, or industry.

Content Standards

Brand voice governs how your VP writes. Content standards govern what the writing looks like structurally. Different content types have different requirements, and your VP needs those boundaries stated explicitly.

Create .claude/rules/content-standards.md:

# Content Standards

## General Formatting
- Use sentence case for all headings ("How to reduce delivery times" not "How To Reduce Delivery Times")
- One idea per paragraph. Maximum 4 sentences per paragraph.
- Use subheadings (H2, H3) every 200-300 words in long-form content.
- Bulleted lists for 3+ parallel items. Never a bulleted list with only 2 items.
- Bold key phrases sparingly -- no more than 2 bold phrases per section.

## Length Guidelines by Content Type

### Blog Posts
- Target: 800-1200 words
- Structure: Hook (2-3 sentences) → Problem → Solution → Evidence → CTA
- Must include at least one specific data point, example, or case reference
- Minimum 3 subheadings

### Email Campaigns
- Subject line: 6-10 words, no punctuation tricks (no ALL CAPS, no excessive exclamation marks)
- Body: 150-300 words
- One CTA per email. One. Not two, not three.
- Preview text must be written intentionally, not left to auto-generate from body

### Social Media
- LinkedIn: 150-300 words for thought leadership, 50-100 words for announcements
- Twitter/X: under 250 characters for single posts, up to 4 tweets for threads
- Include 2-4 relevant hashtags on LinkedIn, 1-2 on Twitter/X
- No hashtags in the first sentence. Ever.

### Landing Pages
- Headline: under 10 words
- Subheadline: one sentence that expands the headline
- Body sections: 3-5, each with its own heading
- Every landing page ends with a clear, single-action CTA

## Content Requirements (All Types)
- Every piece of content must include a call to action
- Lead with the value to the reader, not a description of us
- No unverified statistics. If a number is used, it must be sourced or clearly labeled as internal data.
- No filler introductions. First sentence must earn the reader's attention.

Adjust the length guidelines based on what works for your audience. If your blog readers prefer long-form posts, push the target to 1500-2000 words. If your emails convert better at 100 words, set that as the ceiling. Standards codify what you already know works -- they do not impose someone else's playbook.

Process Rules

In Article 3, you built an accountability framework with review checklists and approval workflows. Process rules encode that framework so your VP follows it automatically, without you restating it each session.

Create .claude/rules/process-rules.md:

# Process Rules

## Workflow Sequence
All content follows this sequence. Do not skip steps.

1. **Research**: Identify the target audience segment, key message, and supporting evidence before writing anything.
2. **Outline**: Present a structured outline for approval before drafting. The outline must include the headline, subheadings, key points per section, and the CTA.
3. **Draft**: Write the full draft following brand voice and content standards.
4. **Self-Review**: Run the Quality Checklist (below) against the draft. Fix any failures before presenting the draft.
5. **Present for Review**: Show the draft with the completed checklist. Flag any items that are borderline or need my input.

## Quality Checklist
Before presenting any draft, verify:

- [ ] Brand voice matches tone descriptors (direct, confident, grounded, warm, specific)
- [ ] No banned vocabulary used
- [ ] Length falls within guidelines for this content type
- [ ] CTA is present and specific (not "learn more" or "get in touch" without context)
- [ ] First sentence earns attention -- no throat-clearing
- [ ] Active voice throughout -- no passive constructions
- [ ] All statistics sourced or labeled as internal data
- [ ] Heading structure follows content standards
- [ ] Paragraph length within limits (4 sentences max)

## Channel-Specific Requirements

### Email
- Subject line must be presented separately, before the body
- Preview text must be written explicitly
- Unsubscribe compliance note: remind me if I have not specified one

### Social Media
- Hashtags listed separately from post body for easy editing
- Tag suggestions (company accounts, people) listed as a note, not embedded in copy
- Platform specified in the draft header

### Blog
- SEO title and meta description must be provided with the draft
- Suggested internal links to existing content (if any)
- Featured image direction or description included

## When Stuck
If a task is ambiguous, missing information, or conflicts with existing rules:
- Ask for clarification before proceeding
- Do not guess at target audience, statistics, or claims
- State what information you need and why

Approval Criteria

The final rule file defines what "done" looks like. This is the gate between draft and finished work. Without it, your VP has no way to judge whether something is ready for your review or still needs iteration.

Create .claude/rules/approval-criteria.md:

# Approval Criteria

## Definition of Done
A piece of content is ready for my review when ALL of the following are true:

### Quality Gates
1. **Checklist Complete**: Every item in the Quality Checklist (process-rules.md) passes. No exceptions, no "close enough."
2. **Voice Match**: The draft reads like our brand, not like generic marketing copy. Test: could a competitor publish this without changing anything? If yes, it is not specific enough.
3. **Claims Verified**: Every statistic, data point, or factual claim is either sourced or explicitly marked as "internal estimate" or "to be verified."
4. **CTA Clarity**: The call to action tells the reader exactly what to do next and what they get from doing it. "Schedule a demo to see route optimization on your data" passes. "Learn more" does not.
5. **Audience Fit**: The content speaks to the specific audience segment identified in the research phase. A post targeting operations managers should not read like a post targeting C-suite executives.

### Presentation Requirements
When presenting a draft for review, include:
- The completed Quality Checklist with pass/fail for each item
- The target audience segment and channel
- The specific CTA
- Any items flagged as borderline or needing my input
- Suggested revisions if any checklist items required compromise

### Rejection Triggers
If any of the following are present, the draft is not ready. Revise before presenting:
- Passive voice in more than one sentence
- Any word from the banned vocabulary list
- Missing CTA
- Opening sentence that describes the company instead of addressing the reader
- Unverified statistic without a source label
- Content length outside the specified range for its type

## Escalation
If a requirement conflicts with another requirement (e.g., length limit versus thoroughness), flag the conflict and present two options with a recommendation. Do not silently choose one over the other.

This file works hand-in-hand with the process rules. Your VP runs the workflow, self-reviews against the checklist, and then checks the approval criteria before presenting work to you. Three layers of quality control, all automated, all running before you see a single draft.

Putting It All Together

With all four rule files in place, your .claude/rules/ directory looks like this:

.claude/
  rules/
    brand-voice.md        # How we sound
    content-standards.md   # What our content looks like
    process-rules.md       # How we work
    approval-criteria.md   # When work is done

These four files, combined with the CLAUDE.md briefing document from Article 1, give your VP everything it needs to produce consistent, on-brand marketing work. CLAUDE.md provides the business knowledge. Rules provide the behavioral constraints. Together, they turn a general-purpose AI into your VP.

Test the setup now. Give your VP a task and watch the rules in action:

Write a LinkedIn post announcing that we just reduced average route
optimization time from 45 seconds to 3 seconds. Target audience:
operations managers at mid-market logistics companies.

Your VP should follow the workflow sequence from process rules (research, outline, draft, self-review), write in the brand voice, meet the LinkedIn length guidelines from content standards, and present the draft with a completed quality checklist. If any of those steps are missing, check the corresponding rule file.

Off-Ramp 1: What You Have Built

What you have built: A working AI VP of Marketing with full business context, a marketing strategy, an accountability framework, and codified brand standards. Your VP knows your voice, your audience, and your quality bar.

What is ahead: Articles 5-10 build reusable Skills and Agents that turn this foundation into an automated content pipeline. Worth doing when you are ready -- but what you have now is already a powerful marketing partner.

This is a real stopping point. Plenty of small businesses run effective marketing with exactly this setup: a well-briefed VP with clear standards. You hand it tasks, it produces drafts that sound like you, and you review and publish. No automation, no pipelines, no complexity beyond what you need.

If you stop here, you have something most businesses do not -- a marketing partner that remembers your voice, follows your process, and holds itself to your standards on every single task.

What is Next

Your VP has context, strategy, and standards. Now it is time to give them their first reusable tool.

In Article 5, you build a Content Brief Generator as a Cowork Skill -- a saved, repeatable workflow your VP can run on demand. Instead of writing a new prompt every time you need a content brief, you trigger the skill and get a consistent, standards-compliant brief in seconds. It is the first piece of real automation in your marketing operation.

This is Part 4 of 16 in the Your AI VP of Marketing series. Previous: You're Still the Boss | Next: Skill: Content Brief Generator