Headlines and ctas

Headlines & CTAs

Generate headline options, hero lines, and button copy in English or German. The one rule that separates this skill from a generic translator: a German CTA is written native, never a word-for-word rendering of "Get started" or "Learn more." German buttons say "Jetzt starten" and „Mehr erfahren“ because that is what German products actually use — not "Bekomme gestartet" and not a stiff "Lernen Sie mehr."

You produce options, not a single answer. Headlines and CTAs are cheap to draft and expensive to get wrong, so give the user 3–5 to choose from, each with a one-line reason, and a recommended pick.

Before you start: read the brand brief

If .claude/brand-brief.md exists (then check brand-brief.md in the project root, or take a brief the user pastes), read it first and let it win over any default here. If it carries voice samples (Stimmproben), match their rhythm and word choice in every option — samples beat the adjectives. Pull four things:

• du or Sie (German only) — this fixes every pronoun and verb form in your CTAs. The worst error in German copy is mixing the two inside one journey, which reads as careless on a trust-sensitive brand. Never guess: if the brief is silent and the user hasn't said, ask once, then stay consistent.
• Voice / register — punchy and informal, or measured B2B? This sets how bold a headline can be.
• Glossary — product and feature names to use verbatim (and their gender/article in German, e.g. das Dashboard).
• Banned words — honor them in every option.

The skill must still work with no brief: fall back to the craft below, and for German default to Sie when the audience is formal B2B (a wrong Sie costs less than a wrong du; Strzelecki/CleverReach: „Ein 'Sie' tut niemandem weh“).

What good headlines and CTAs share

These principles are language-neutral; the execution differs by language, so always finish in the language-specific reference.

• Benefit first, but earn it with the feature. Lead with the outcome the reader gets, then name the mechanism that makes it true. "Automated monitoring" is a feature; "You hear about a fake shop the moment it goes live" is the benefit.
• One promise per headline. Two ideas fight; the reader remembers neither. Split a double headline into a headline + subhead.
• Specific beats clever. A number, a name, or a concrete mechanism beats an adjective. "Trusted by many" → "Used by 1,200 security teams." Clarity wins; a headline that needs a second read has already lost the scanning reader.
• CTA = action verb + benefit, matched to the reader. Lead with the verb, attach the payoff, and match the page's pronoun and formality. "Get started" is weaker than "Start protecting your brand." One primary action per view.
• Reduce risk at the button. A friction-reducer next to the CTA ("No credit card," „Keine Kreditkarte nötig,“ „Jederzeit kündbar“) lowers the cost of saying yes.
• Competitor copy-paste test. Could a competitor paste this exact headline onto their site without it becoming false? If yes, it says nothing specific — rewrite it.

Optional enrichment if present: shared/references/conversion-principles.md (the seven core principles). This skill does not depend on it.

Route by language

After you know the language and (for German) du/Sie, read the matching reference for formulas, the full CTA map, and worked patterns:

You are writing…	Read
English headlines, hero lines, or CTAs	references/headlines-en.md
German headlines, hero lines, or CTAs (any du/Sie)	references/headlines-ctas-de.md

For a bilingual request, produce each language from its own reference. Do not write the English version and translate it — write the German fresh from the meaning.

The native-CTA rule (the heart of this skill)

English CTAs do not translate; they map to the phrase a native German product would use. A few from the full table in references/headlines-ctas-de.md:

English origin	Native German
Get started / now	Jetzt starten · Jetzt loslegen · Los geht's
Learn more	Mehr erfahren · Mehr dazu
Start free trial	Kostenlos testen · 30 Tage kostenlos testen
Book a demo	Demo vereinbaren · Demo anfragen · Live-Demo ansehen
Contact sales	Vertrieb kontaktieren · Kontakt aufnehmen

Then apply the craft: action verb first (Hol dir, Starte, Teste, Sichere dir, Buche); attach the benefit ("Jetzt starten & 20 % sparen" beats a bare "Jetzt starten"); no weak passive ("Hier können Informationen erhalten werden" → "Hol dir jetzt alle Infos"); and never a vague „Klicken Sie hier“ or „Weiter,“ which say nothing about what happens next. Match the CTA's pronoun to the page's du/Sie (verb pairs are in the German reference).

The same instinct applies in reverse for English: a German-thought CTA translated to English ("Make a request," "Inform yourself") reads foreign. Use native English — "Get a quote," "See it in action."

Length limits — where copy gets cut off

Headlines and CTAs live inside components with real space budgets. An option that overflows its surface is not an option, so check lengths before presenting:

• Buttons: aim for ≤ ~25 characters including spaces. German compounds burn the budget fast — prefer a short verb-first phrase („Kostenlos testen“, 16 chars) over a verb weighed down by a long compound object („Markenschutz-Analyse anfordern“, 30). If a benefit clause doesn't fit the button, move it to the friction-reducer line beside it.
• Hero headlines: ≤ ~8–10 words / ~60 characters. Check the mobile wrap: a headline that breaks into four lines on a phone loses the scanner before the promise lands.
• Subheads: one scannable line on desktop, ~2 lines mobile (~140 characters).
• Meta titles and descriptions have their own ceilings — that's seo-copy's table, not this skill.

When localizing from an English mockup, budget for growth: German runs roughly 20–30% longer than English, so a button that fits in the Figma frame in English may not survive the translation. Say so when it happens; don't silently produce an overflowing option.

Hard rules vs. contested style

Hard rules (genuine errors — fix silently, every time):

• German quotation marks are „…“ or »…«, never straight "…" or English "…" (Duden / DIN 5008).
• No „in“ before a bare year: "in 2024" ✗ → "2024" / "im Jahr 2024" ✓.
• No Deppenleerzeichen in compounds: "Social Media Plattform" ✗ → "Social-Media-Plattform" ✓; "Marketing Strategie" ✗ → "Marketing-Strategie" ✓.
• Currency symbol after the amount with a space: "1.999,00 €" ✓, not "€1,999.00" or "1,99€." Percent with a space: "20 %," not "20%."

Contested style (smells to downgrade, never forbid — the user may want them, and authorities disagree):

• "Sinn machen" — Duden marks it colloquial; Eisenberg defends it as well-formed German. In polished copy prefer "ergibt Sinn," but do not treat it as an error.
• "am Ende des Tages," "nicht wirklich," "einmal mehr" — calqued idioms that read translated; offer a crisper native phrase, but they are style, not mistakes.
• Floskeln (innovativ, ganzheitlich, maßgeschneidert, „führender Partner“) — flag and replace with a concrete fact, but this is a quality nudge, not a hard rule.

When you change something contestable, say why in one clause; do not lecture.

Worked examples

Example 1 — English hero + CTA

Input: "Hero headline for our brand-protection product. Audience: security teams. Core feature: we get fake sites taken down automatically. We need a button too."

Output:

Headline options (benefit-first, one promise each):

1. "Fake sites impersonating your brand, taken down — usually within hours." (lead benefit + a concrete speed claim as proof)
2. "Stop brand impersonation before your customers get burned." (stakes-led; agitates the real fear)
3. "Find the phishing sites abusing your brand. Get them offline." (plain, two verbs, no adjectives)

Recommended: #1 — it pairs the outcome with a specific, checkable time-to-value.

CTA: "Scan my brand now" (primary) · friction-reducer: "No credit card." Avoid "Learn more" / "Submit" — they hide what the reader gets.

Example 2 — German button copy from an English mockup (Sie)

Input: "Brand brief says Sie, formal B2B security buyer. The Figma mockup has two buttons: 'Get started' and 'Learn more'. Localize them."

Output:

• "Get started" → „Kostenlos starten“ or „Jetzt loslegen“ (action verb first; native, not a translation of get).
• "Learn more" → „Mehr erfahren“ (the standard native phrase; „Mehr dazu“ as a shorter variant).

Pronoun check: both are imperative and register-neutral, so they read clean in a Sie context. If you add a benefit clause, keep Sie: „Mehr erfahren – in 2 Minuten.“ Do not mix in a du form like „Hol dir mehr Infos“ on a Sie page.

Example 3 — German hero, du register

Input: "Hero line for a self-serve accounting tool, du, founders. Feature: bookkeeping runs mostly on its own."

Output:

1. „Mit [Produkt] läuft deine Buchhaltung fast von allein.“ (Mit + Produkt + Verb; concrete outcome, no Hype)
2. „Buchhaltung für Gründer, die keine Buchhaltung machen wollen.“ (segment + plain noun + the real job)
3. „Weniger Buchhaltung. Mehr [Kerngeschäft].“ (contrast pattern, punchy)

CTA: „Kostenlos testen“ · friction-reducer: „Keine Kreditkarte nötig.“

Output format

For each request return: 3–5 labelled options, a one-line reason per option, and a recommended pick. For CTAs, give a primary action plus a friction-reducer, and flag the matched du/Sie. If you fixed a hard-rule error (quotes, spacing, currency) in supplied text, note it briefly. Keep the options native to the target language — never present a German option that reads like a rendered English string.

Quality checklist

• Benefit-first; one promise per headline.
• CTA = action verb + benefit; one primary action; friction-reducer offered.
• Options fit their surface: button ≤ ~25 chars, headline survives the mobile wrap.
• German CTA is native (mapped via references/headlines-ctas-de.md), not translated.
• du/Sie matches the brief and is consistent across every option.
• Passes the competitor copy-paste test (no line a rival could reuse verbatim).
• German typography correct: „…“, "20 %", "1.999,00 €", no „in 2024“, no Deppenleerzeichen.
• Contested smells downgraded with a reason, not forbidden.

Reference files (read on demand)

• references/headlines-en.md — English headline formulas (benefit-first, PAS/AIDA as scaffolding, specificity, one promise), hero-line patterns, native English CTA examples, do/don't pairs. Read when writing English.
• references/headlines-ctas-de.md — Auf Deutsch: native CTA-Map, du/Sie-Verbpaare, and idiomatic German hero/headline patterns. Read when writing German.