$Compounding Marketing

Configuration

How to write an effective .cm-context file for your business

Configuration

The .cm-context file is the brain of Compounding Marketing. It's a simple text file that describes your business, customers, and positioning. Every skill loads this file to tailor its output to your specific situation.

Why It Matters

Without .cm-context:

  • Skills run generic — "for a SaaS company"
  • Examples don't match your product
  • Output needs heavy editing

With .cm-context:

  • Skills reference your actual product, ICP, differentiators
  • Examples use your positioning language
  • Output is 80% ready to ship

The difference between "AI wrote generic marketing copy" and "AI wrote MY marketing copy."

File Location

Create .cm-context in your project root — the directory where you run Claude or start your work session.

# Your project structure
my-project/
  .cm-context          ← Here
  deliverables/
  README.md

When you run /cm:position, Claude looks for .cm-context in the current directory.

Full Example: AuthorityMax

Here's the real .cm-context for AuthorityMax, a personal branding SaaS:

# Company
Company: AuthorityMax
Product: AI-native personal branding workspace for founders and executives
Stage: Pre-launch
Website: authoritymax.com
Founded: 2024

# ICP
ICP: Technical founders and executives (CTOs, VPs Eng, product leaders) at growth-stage B2B SaaS companies who need to build personal brand for hiring, fundraising, and category authority
Pain: They know personal brand matters but writing LinkedIn posts and newsletters feels like a chore. Generic AI tools produce bland content. Outsourcing loses their voice. They need something that writes *like them* at scale.
Job to Be Done: I need to publish 5-10 high-quality pieces per week (LinkedIn, newsletter, Twitter) that sound like me, position me as a category expert, and drive inbound opportunities — without spending 10 hours a week writing.

# Positioning
Category: AI-native personal branding workspace (not "content tool" or "social media scheduler")
Differentiator: Built for how founders actually think — voice training from past writing, context-aware outputs, research + writing + publishing in one workspace
Alternatives: Generic AI (ChatGPT, Claude), ghostwriters, social media tools (Buffer, Hootsuite)
Why Us: We're the only tool that learns YOUR voice and thinking from your past work, then helps you research → write → publish — all in one place. Ghostwriters are expensive and slow. Generic AI sounds generic. Social tools can't write. We do all three.

# Traction
Launched: Not yet (building in public)
Users: 0 (waiting list: 47)
MRR: $0
Pricing: $29/mo (solo), $99/mo (team), launching Q2 2024

# GTM Strategy
Launch channel: LinkedIn + newsletter to design/eng Twitter
Content strategy: Transparent build log, founder-led content marketing, SEO play on "personal branding for CTOs"
First 100 customers: Direct outreach to CTOs at portfolio companies + warm intros from investors

Field Reference

Company Section

| Field | Required | Description | Example | |-------|----------|-------------|---------| | Company | Yes | Your company name | AuthorityMax | | Product | Yes | What you do in one line | AI personal branding workspace | | Stage | Yes | Pre-launch / Seed / Series A / Growth / Scale | Pre-launch | | Website | No | Your domain | authoritymax.com | | Founded | No | Year | 2024 |

ICP Section

| Field | Required | Description | Example | |-------|----------|-------------|---------| | ICP | Yes | Who your ideal customer is — be specific | Technical founders at B2B SaaS | | Pain | Yes | The core problem they face | Writing feels like a chore | | Job to Be Done | Recommended | What they're hiring your product to do | Publish 5-10 posts/week in my voice |

Tips for ICP:

  • Be specific. "Marketing leaders" is too broad. "CMOs at Series A–B SaaS companies selling to enterprise" is better.
  • Include context: company stage, industry, role, team size.
  • Bad: "Busy professionals" → Good: "VPs of Sales at 50–200 person B2B companies with 6+ month sales cycles"

Tips for Pain:

  • Describe the felt pain, not the symptom. "Low conversion rates" is a symptom. "They're burning budget on ads that don't convert" is the pain.
  • Use their language. If they say "we're bleeding cash on CAC," use that phrasing.

Positioning Section

| Field | Required | Description | Example | |-------|----------|-------------|---------| | Category | Yes | What category you compete in | AI personal branding workspace | | Differentiator | Yes | What makes you different | Voice training + research + publishing in one tool | | Alternatives | Recommended | What customers use today | Generic AI, ghostwriters, Buffer | | Why Us | Recommended | Why you win vs alternatives | Only tool that learns your voice AND publishes |

Tips for Category:

  • Don't pick an existing category if you're doing something new. AuthorityMax isn't a "content tool" — that's saturated. "AI personal branding workspace" is a new category.
  • April Dunford: If you're in a crowded category, you're a feature. Create a new category where you're the leader.

Tips for Differentiator:

  • This should be defensible. "We use AI" is not defensible (everyone does). "We train on your past writing to match your voice" is harder to copy.
  • Tie it to the pain. If the pain is "generic AI sounds generic," your differentiator should solve that.

Traction Section (Optional)

Include if you have users/revenue. Helps skills calibrate messaging (early-stage hype vs growth-stage proof).

| Field | Description | Example | |-------|-------------|---------| | Launched | Launch date or status | Q2 2024 (not yet) | | Users | Current user count | 0 (waiting list: 47) | | MRR | Monthly recurring revenue | $0 | | Pricing | Your pricing tiers | $29 solo, $99 team |

GTM Strategy Section (Optional)

Helps skills align with your go-to-market approach.

| Field | Description | |-------|-------------| | Launch channel | Where you're launching | | Content strategy | Your content approach | | First 100 customers | How you'll get initial users |

How Context Compounds

Skills save their output to deliverables/. Each skill reads previous outputs.

Example flow:

  1. /cm:position → writes deliverables/positioning.md
  2. /cm:icp-research → reads positioning.md, writes icp-research.md
  3. /cm:headlines → reads positioning.md + icp-research.md, writes headlines.md
  4. /cm:landing-page → reads all three, writes landing-page-copy.md

Each skill builds on the last. Your positioning informs your copy. Your copy informs your ads. Your ads inform your landing pages.

This is why it's called Compounding Marketing.

What If I Skip It?

Skills still run, but they'll be generic. You'll see placeholders like:

  • "For a company like yours..."
  • "Your ideal customer is..."
  • "Depending on your positioning..."

You'll spend more time editing. The .cm-context file takes 10 minutes to write and saves hours of editing later.

Updating Your Context

As you learn more about your ICP, refine positioning, or hit traction milestones — update .cm-context.

Skills will automatically use the new context on the next run.

Pro tip: Keep old versions in context-archive/ so you can see how your positioning evolved.

Next Steps