Founder Marketing Skills

Skill by ara.so — Marketing Skills collection.

Open-source marketing skills for founders who do their own marketing. Provides 4 AI-powered skills for keyword research, growth strategy, social search audit, and competitor intelligence. Works with Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, and any agent that reads SKILL.md files.

What This Project Does

ScaleBrick's Founder Marketing Skills is a collection of structured marketing methodologies packaged as SKILL.md files that AI agents can execute. Each skill follows a specific framework to analyze your business and produce actionable marketing insights:

• Social Search Audit: Evaluates if TikTok/Instagram search is viable for your business
• Growth Strategy: Generates comprehensive marketing strategy with keywords and content pillars
• Keyword Research: Finds high-intent keywords people search on social platforms
• Competitor Audit: Analyzes competitors' SEO, content, and social media presence

Core insight: 40% of Gen Z uses TikTok and Instagram as search engines. These skills help you capture that high-intent traffic.

Installation

Install all 4 skills into your agent's skills directory:

npx skills add ScaleBrick/founder-marketing-skills

This installs the skills into your agent's skills directory (typically ~/.skills/ or your agent's configured path). No API keys or account required.

Manual Installation

If you prefer manual installation:

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/ScaleBrick/founder-marketing-skills.git

# Copy skills to your agent's skills directory
cp founder-marketing-skills/*.md ~/.skills/

Key Commands

Each skill is invoked with a specific command:

Usage Patterns

Running a Social Search Audit

/audit

Business: Cal AI
Description: AI-powered calorie tracking app
Website: https://cal.ai
Target Audience: Health-conscious Gen Z users who want effortless calorie tracking

Expected output:

• Niche competition analysis
• Search demand evaluation
• Content type fit assessment
• 10 starter keywords with intent categories
• Conversion potential ratings
• Direct TikTok/Instagram search URLs for verification

Generating a Growth Strategy

/strategy

Business: AIFlyer
Description: AI-powered flyer design tool
Target Audience: Small business owners, event organizers, and marketers who need quick professional designs
Website: https://aiflyer.com

Expected output:

• Core marketing themes (3-5)
• Content pillars mapped to business value
• Brand voice guidelines
• 20+ categorized keywords with intent types
• Posting plan and frequency recommendations
• Channel-specific tactics

Keyword Research

/keywords

Business: AI healthcare app for diabetes management
Niche: Healthcare tech, diabetes monitoring
Target Audience: Type 2 diabetics aged 30-55 seeking easier tracking

Expected output:

• Educational keywords (how-to, explainer content)
• Problem-aware keywords (pain point searches)
• Tool comparison keywords (competitor alternatives)
• Intent ratings (high/medium/low conversion potential)
• Search volume indicators
• Content format recommendations

Competitor Audit

/competitors

Business: Project management tool for remote teams
Competitors: Asana, Monday.com, ClickUp, Notion, Trello
Website: https://yourapp.com

Expected output:

• SEO analysis (keyword gaps, ranking opportunities)
• Content strategy breakdown
• Social media presence audit
• Positioning gaps no one is claiming
• 5 specific actionable moves for this week
• Quick wins vs. long-term plays

Information Required

For best results, provide:

Minimum:

• Business name
• Brief description (1-2 sentences)
• Target audience

Recommended:

• Website URL
• Specific competitors (for competitor audit)
• Current marketing efforts (if any)
• Known pain points or challenges

Example complete request:

/audit

Business: Calmly
Description: AI-powered meditation app that personalizes sessions based on stress levels and biometric data
Website: https://calmly.app
Target Audience: Busy professionals aged 28-45 experiencing burnout who want science-backed stress relief
Current situation: Just launched, 500 beta users, no marketing team
Competitors: Headspace, Calm, Insight Timer

Understanding the Output

Intent Categories

Skills categorize keywords by search intent:

• Educational: "how to track calories", "what is macro counting" (Top of funnel)
• Problem-aware: "can't lose weight tracking calories", "calorie tracking not working" (Middle funnel)
• Tool comparison: "MyFitnessPal vs Lose It", "best calorie tracker app" (Bottom funnel)
• Direct: "Cal AI review", "Cal AI app download" (Bottom funnel)

Conversion Potential Ratings

• High: Strong purchase/signup intent, ready to convert
• Medium: Interested but researching, needs nurturing
• Low: Early awareness stage, educational content

Content Type Recommendations

Based on niche analysis:

• Problem-first: Lead with pain points (converts 54% better in health/productivity niches)
• Educational: How-to content (works for technical/learning niches)
• Aspirational: Lifestyle/transformation content (fitness, personal finance)

Integration with Your Workflow

With Claude Code

Skills are automatically available after installation:

User: Help me audit if social search works for my SaaS tool
Claude: I'll run the Social Search Audit skill for you. Please provide...

With Cursor

Skills appear in the skills menu or can be invoked via chat:

@skills run social-search-audit for [business description]

With Codex/Custom Agents

Skills are read from the skills directory. Agents parse the SKILL.md format:

---
name: social-search-audit
triggers:
  - audit my social search potential
  - check if TikTok search works for me
---

Real Results Framework

The skills are based on proven results:

YC-backed AI healthcare app:
  - 353K views in 47 days
  - 5,300 page visits
  - $0 ad spend

AIFlyer:
  - 0 to 15,000 signups in 3 months
  - Ranks alongside Canva in TikTok LLM responses
  - All organic traffic

The method:

1. Find demand (what people actually search)
2. Categorize intent (educational vs. problem-aware vs. comparison)
3. Match content type (different formats convert differently)
4. Focus ruthlessly (80/20 rule - kill what doesn't work)
5. Close the loop (track signups, not just views)

Common Patterns

Pattern 1: Full Funnel Setup

1. Run /audit to validate the channel
2. Run /strategy to get core themes and keywords
3. Run /competitors to find gaps
4. Run /keywords for specific content ideas

Pattern 2: Quick Validation

Run /audit with your business idea to see if social search is viable before building

Pattern 3: Competitive Intelligence

Run /competitors quarterly to track positioning shifts and new opportunities

Pattern 4: Content Planning

/keywords → filter by high conversion potential → map to content calendar

Troubleshooting

Skills Not Found

Issue: Agent can't find the skills after installation

Solution:

# Check skills directory location
echo $SKILLS_DIR

# Verify installation
ls ~/.skills/

# Reinstall if needed
npx skills add ScaleBrick/founder-marketing-skills --force

Generic Output

Issue: Skills produce generic advice instead of specific insights

Solution: Provide more context:

• Add website URL for the agent to analyze
• List specific competitors
• Describe your unique value proposition
• Mention current metrics or situation

No Search URLs

Issue: Audit doesn't include verification URLs

Solution: The agent may need explicit instruction:

Run the social search audit and include direct TikTok search URLs for each keyword

Skills Not Triggering

Issue: Natural language doesn't trigger skills

Solution: Use explicit commands:

• /audit instead of "help me audit"
• /strategy instead of "I need a strategy"

Advanced Usage

Combining Skills

Chain skills for comprehensive analysis:

1. /audit [validates channel]
2. If viable → /strategy [gets full plan]
3. /competitors [finds gaps]
4. /keywords [gets specific content ideas]

Iterative Refinement

First pass:
/keywords for "AI productivity tools"

Refine:
/keywords for "AI productivity tools for remote teams" with focus on Slack/Notion integration pain points

Niche Drilling

Broad: /audit for "fitness app"
Specific: /audit for "kettlebell workout app for women over 40"

The specific version produces 10x more actionable insights.

Project Structure

founder-marketing-skills/
├── social-search-audit.md    # /audit skill
├── growth-strategy.md         # /strategy skill
├── keyword-research.md        # /keywords skill
├── competitor-audit.md        # /competitors skill
├── README.md                  # Documentation
└── docs/
    └── images/                # Example outputs

Each skill is a standalone SKILL.md file with:

• YAML frontmatter (name, description, triggers)
• Structured methodology
• Analysis framework
• Output format specifications

Configuration

No configuration files needed. Skills work out of the box.

Optional environment variables for enhanced functionality:

# If you want to customize skills directory
export SKILLS_DIR=~/my-custom-skills

# For agents that support skill namespacing
export SKILL_NAMESPACE=marketing

Contributing New Skills

Skills are just structured markdown files. To add a new skill:

1. Create your-skill-name.md with YAML frontmatter:

---
name: your-skill-name
description: One-line description
triggers:
  - trigger phrase 1
  - trigger phrase 2
---

2. Add methodology in markdown
3. Include output format specification
4. Test with Claude Code or your agent
5. Submit PR to the repository

License

MIT License - free forever, modify as needed.

Resources

• Repository: https://github.com/ScaleBrick/founder-marketing-skills
• Homepage: https://scalebrick.com
• Issues: https://github.com/ScaleBrick/founder-marketing-skills/issues

Full-Service Alternative

For execution beyond strategy, ScaleBrick offers Morgan - an AI VP of Marketing that runs the complete growth loop: keyword research, content production, publishing, attribution tracking, and weekly optimization.

Not required to use these skills - they work standalone.