You’ve read enough marketing copy to know bad copy when you see it. The problem is you can’t always see it in your own. You’re too close to what you’re selling. You know why it matters. So you write from the inside out — what you built, how it works, how long you’ve been at it. It feels thorough. It reads as ego.
Ego Check is a Claude skill I built to fix that. It reads your copy, scores how ego-centric it is across five criteria, surfaces the top three moments to rewrite, and hands you a customer-first version. It takes about 30 seconds to run. My clients use it on everything—landing pages, email subject lines, LinkedIn posts, pitch decks.
By the end of this article you’ll have the skill set up and ready to use.
The problem it solves
There’s a reflex most marketers have when writing about what they sell. They describe what it is. What it does. How it works. How long they’ve been building it. They write from the inside out.
The customer doesn’t care about any of that until they first understand what it does for them.
The tricky part is that ego-centric copy rarely feels wrong when you’re writing it. You’re close to the product. You know why it matters. The problem only becomes visible when you step back and count how many sentences start with “we” versus “you.”
That’s what Ego Check does. It counts. And it shows you exactly where to fix it.
How it works
Ego Check scores your copy out of 100 across five criteria:
- Me vs. You Language — who’s the hero in the copy, you or the customer?
- Feature Dumping — are you listing what it does, or showing what changes for them?
- Mission over Benefit — are you explaining your vision, or proving customer impact?
- Problem & Result Clarity — can a reader understand the problem and outcome in 10 seconds?
- Real & Resonant — is it specific and competitor-proof, or could any brand have written it?
The higher the score, the more the copy is about you, not them. A score of 70+ is a problem. A score under 30 means you’re doing something right.
After scoring, it flags the top three ego moments — specific lines that are pulling focus away from the customer — and suggests how to flip each one. Then it rewrites the full piece from a customer-first perspective.
What it looks like in practice
Here’s a realistic example. A SaaS company’s homepage hero copy, before running it through Ego Check:
BEFORE
“We’ve spent five years building the most advanced project management platform for marketing teams. Our award-winning software combines AI, automation, and real-time collaboration to deliver a best-in-class experience. We’re trusted by 2,000+ companies worldwide.”
Ego-Centric Score: 78/100
Ego Check flagged three moments:
- “We’ve spent five years building” — company history, not customer relevance
- “award-winning software” — internal achievement framing, not outcome for the reader
- “trusted by 2,000+ companies” — social proof without connecting to the reader’s problem
Then the rewrite:
AFTER
“Your campaigns are only as fast as your team’s coordination. Stop chasing updates across Slack, email, and spreadsheets — and start shipping work on time, every time. 2,000+ marketing teams already have.”
Ego-Centric Score: 18/100
Same product. Different reader experience. The second version leads with the problem the customer actually has, not the solution the company is proud of.
What is a Claude Skill — and why this one works better than a regular prompt
A Skill is a saved instruction file that lives in Claude’s settings. Instead of pasting a long prompt every time you want Claude to do something specific, you load it once and it’s available automatically in every conversation.
The difference matters here. If you paste the Ego Check prompt ad-hoc each time, the output varies. As a Skill, it runs consistently — same scoring criteria, same output structure, same rewrite approach every time. You can also combine it with other Skills, like a brand voice document, so the rewrite already sounds like you.
You don’t need to know anything about code or file formats to set it up. A Skill is a plain text file with a .md extension. You create it once, upload it, and you’re done.
How to set it up (takes under 5 minutes)
Step 1: Copy the prompt below
This is the full Ego Check system prompt. Select all and copy it.
You are a messaging coach trained to spot ego-centric marketing.
Task:
– Analyze the provided copy [insert URL, attach file, or attach screenshot]
– Score how ego-centric it is, using 5 criteria
– Identify the top 3 “ego moments” to rewrite
– Suggest how to flip them into customer-first language
– Rewrite the copy to speak to what the customer wants, gets, or becomes
5 Scoring Criteria (20 pts each):
– Me vs. You Language: Who’s the hero — you or the customer?
– Feature Dumping: Are you listing stuff or showing outcomes?
– Mission over Benefit: Are you bragging about your mission or proving customer impact?
– Problem & Result Clarity: Can a reader grasp the problem and result in 10 seconds?
– Real & Resonant: Is it specific, authentic, competitor-proof, and does it speak like the customer does?
Output:
Ego-Centric Score: X/100
(The higher the score, the more your copy is about you, not them.)
Top 3 Ego Moments:
…
…
…
User-Centric Rewrite:
[Rewritten version focused on what the customer gains, feels, or becomes]
Step 2: Create the Skill file
Open any text editor — Google Docs, Notepad, TextEdit, anything.
Paste the prompt. Save the file as ego-check.md. The .md extension is all that matters — it tells Claude to read it as a Skill.
If you’re using Google Docs: paste the text, then go to File → Download → Plain text (.txt), then rename the downloaded file from .txt to .md.
Step 3: Upload it to Claude
You have two options depending on how you want to use it.
If you want Ego Check available across all your Claude conversations:
- Go to Settings → Profile → Custom instructions
- Attach the ego-check.md file
If you want it contained to a specific project (e.g. a client account):
- Open the Project
- Click Set project instructions
- Upload the file there
How to use it
Start a new conversation in Claude. You can give it copy three ways:
- Paste the text directly into the chat
- Share a URL (Claude will read the page)
- Attach a screenshot or document
Then just say: “Run Ego Check on this.”
Claude will return the score, the breakdown by criteria, the three ego moments with suggested flips, and the full rewrite.
From there, you can iterate. Ask it to adjust the rewrite for a specific tone, make it shorter, or preserve a specific line you want to keep. The Skill handles the framework; you direct the output.
Where it’s most useful
Not all copy has equal stakes, but here’s where my clients find it most valuable:
- Homepage hero copy and taglines — highest traffic, lowest tolerance for ego
- Cold outreach emails — the reader has zero context and even less patience
- LinkedIn company posts — the feed is brutal, ego-first content scrolls past
- Pitch decks and investor updates — framing still matters even in B2B
- Product launch announcements — companies almost always lead with features, not outcomes
The bigger point
Ego Check isn’t magic. It’s a framework that someone experienced in messaging would apply anyway — just made consistent and instant through Claude.
That’s what Skills do. They capture a way of working that would otherwise depend on memory, mood, or having the right person in the room. You build it once. Then it’s always there.
The prompt is above. The setup takes five minutes. Try it on something you wrote this week and see what score comes back.
Want more like this? I’ve put together five Claude features that change how you work — skills, connectors, animated visuals, and more. Read the guide →
