Spot the Copy Killers: A Landing Page Teardown
Objective: Given two synthetic-realistic draft copy blocks, find every real defect that would tank conversions, rate its severity, and name the exact lesson concept it violates, without flagging the deliberate, effective choices sitting right next to the real mistakes.
You're three weeks into an internship on Dollar Shave Club's growth marketing team. DSC built its name on famously sharp, punchy copy, so the bar for anything that ships is high. Your manager hands you two draft blocks written by teammates outside the copy team, a SaaS landing page hero and a marketing email, and asks you to red-line them before anything goes further, exactly the review DSC's own copy would have to survive.
Two specimens, one prompt each: read the copy, list every real defect using the lesson's own vocabulary (which mistake, which AIDA step it breaks), rate severity, and explain why it matters. Then do the harder part: name one or two things in each specimen that look like mistakes but are actually deliberate, effective techniques the lesson itself endorses. Getting the real defects right without also flagging the good stuff is the actual skill being tested here.
Before you start
What you'll need
Free path (everything below is enough to finish)
Free tier is enough to sanity-check your own answer key once you've already done the analysis yourself. Using it before you've written your own list defeats the point of the exercise.
Free tier handles a one-page teardown write-up with room to spare.
No access? Any notes app or plain text file works exactly as well, there's nothing Notion-specific about this task.
Paid upgrades (optional, faster/deeper)
This entire project is completable for free with a notes app and your own judgment. Nothing paid adds anything a solo learner needs here.
Useful if a whole team is standardizing copy QA against a shared style guide, not needed for this single exercise.
The process
Specimens to review
This is the hero section of TaskFlow's homepage, written by a teammate covering for the copywriter this week. List every real defect, rate its severity, and name the lesson concept it breaks. Then flag anything you almost marked as a defect but shouldn't have.
HEADLINE: Welcome to TaskFlow We are excited to announce our new project management platform. TaskFlow was founded in 2019 by a team of ex-Google engineers. Our mission is to build the best project management software on the market. We are trusted by thousands of teams around the world, and our platform is used across dozens of industries every single day. FEATURES - 256GB of cloud storage per workspace - 50+ third-party integrations - Real-time sync across every device - Unlimited boards and custom fields No fluff. No 40-tab setup wizard. Just tasks. Ready to get organized? Learn more about how TaskFlow can help your team below. [Learn more]
Specimen: synthetic, realistic
This marketing email went out to GreenCart's waitlist last week and open rates were fine but clicks were nearly zero. List every real defect, rate severity, name the concept it breaks, and flag anything that looks wrong but isn't.
SUBJECT: GreenCart Update Hi there, GreenCart is an eco-friendly grocery delivery app that many customers love. We offer same-day delivery, a rewards program, a huge selection of organic products, and a carbon-offset option at checkout. Our app makes your life better and helps you shop more sustainably without the hassle of a regular grocery run. Many customers love us for our selection and our service, and we think you will too. We're always working to improve GreenCart, and we have some exciting updates coming soon that we think you'll love. Only 200 new-member spots open in your city this week. Check out the app, browse our catalog, read customer reviews, or reply to this email with any questions. – The GreenCart team
Specimen: synthetic, realistic
Final deliverable
A written teardown of both specimens: every real defect found, its severity, the lesson concept it violates, plus the one or two deliberate/effective choices you correctly did NOT flag.
See a reference example
TASKFLOW HERO — 5 defects found: (1) vague headline, critical, Step 1; (2) company-focused opening, critical, Mistake 1; (3) 'trusted by thousands' unverifiable claim, moderate, Mistake 4; (4) feature bullets never translated to benefits, critical, Step 3; (5) buried text-link CTA, critical, Step 4/Mistake 3. Correctly NOT flagged: the short fragment closer ('No fluff...') and the rhetorical question before the CTA, both are deliberate skimmer-friendly, reader-voiced techniques the lesson endorses, not mistakes. For comparison, Mailchimp's own early marketing leaned on this same short, plain-spoken register (its bootstrapped, un-corporate brand voice was a large part of what took it to a $12B acquisition) rather than polished corporate phrasing, which is why a short fragment isn't automatically a red flag.Success criteria
You're done when you can:
- Finds all 5 real defects in both specimens (10 total), not a partial list
- Assigns a severity to every defect that roughly matches the answer key (critical items are not downgraded to cosmetic)
- Names the specific lesson concept (step or mistake) each defect violates, not just 'this is bad'
- Correctly identifies at least one distractor per specimen as a deliberate, effective choice rather than a defect