CLEAR Framework · Guide B
Getting Started: Your First Audit
Here's the fastest path from a blank screen to your first score.
What a CLEAR audit actually does
You paste a draft, upload a file, or point the tool at a live URL. It checks the content against the five CLEAR hard gates first. If all five pass, it scores the content on the full 28-question scorecard across five pillars: Credibility, Leverage, Empathy & Resonance, Action & Continuity, and Reach & Relevance. You get a weighted score, a pillar-by-pillar breakdown, and a line-by-line remediation plan telling you exactly what to fix and why. About 60 seconds from paste to playbook.
It's built to be run on real content you're about to publish, or already have published, not a hypothetical. The fastest way to get value from your first audit is to run it on something real.
Three steps to your first score
Step 1: Give it content
Three ways in:
- -Paste a draft directly into the tool.
- -Upload a file.
- -Point it at a URL of something already live.
Pick whichever is fastest for what you have to hand right now. A LinkedIn post, a newsletter issue, a landing page, an email. Any trust-led or expertise-led content works. If you're not sure what to test first, the Quick Picker table below maps common content types straight to the right settings for Step 2.
Step 2: Set the publishing context
Three inputs here feed directly into the hard-gate check, so it's worth getting them right rather than skipping past them:
- -Publishing channel & byline: tells the auditor who's accountable for this content. If you name the author or publisher here, the body text doesn't have to repeat it to pass the accountable-source gate.
- -“AI assisted drafting this content” toggle: turn this on if AI helped draft the piece. The tool will then require an explicit AI-disclosure statement in the content to pass. This must match reality: the toggle doesn't change what your content says, it changes what's expected of it.
- -“Reviewed by a qualified SME” toggle: only relevant if the content contains health, financial, legal, safety, or compliance advice. Turn it on if a suitably qualified person has reviewed it.
Getting Step 2 right the first time is the single biggest thing that separates a smooth first audit from an unexpected hard-gate fail.
Step 3: Read the result
Every tier gets the Top Wins summary, free, no upgrade required: your score plus the top five highest-impact fixes, ranked by impact, viewable on screen or downloadable as a PDF. If you're on Silver or above, you also get the Full detailed report: all 28 questions, the complete pillar breakdown, audience-specific guidance, and the full priority-ranked remediation playbook.
A score of 40/56 or above is a pass; 45+ is a strong pass; 50+ is excellent. Below 34 means the content needs rework before it's ready to publish. If you hit a hard-gate failure instead of a score, that's a different guide: How to Pass the Five Hard Gates, which walks through each of the five gates and exactly what to fix.
Quick Picker: not sure what to test first?
If you're staring at a blank screen wondering what “content mode” and “audience” mean, this shortcut maps common content types straight to a starting combination.
| Content type | Mode | Audience |
|---|---|---|
| LinkedIn/X post sharing a framework, meant to be shared | Discovery Asset | B2B - Out-of-Market (95%) |
| Comparison or “X vs Y” post | Decision Asset | B2B - In-Market (5%) |
| Step-by-step how-to / tutorial | Teaching Asset | Creator / Practitioner |
| Company newsletter or founder update | Relationship Asset | Community Member |
| Landing page / lead-magnet promotion | Conversion Asset | Consumer |
| Case study / “why trust us” page | Trust Asset | Enterprise Decision Maker |
These are starting points, not fixed rules. Pick the closest match for whatever you're auditing and adjust in the tool if your specific piece is doing something different. For what each setting actually changes, see How scoring works.
Your free tier, in plain numbers
- -3 audits a month, no credit card required.
- -Every tier, including free, includes the full scoring engine: pillar weights, hard gates, and the remediation playbook.
- -Tiers differ only in audit volume and report depth. The Full detailed report requires Silver or above.
Do this today
- 1Pick one piece of content you're about to publish, or already have live: something real, not a test.
- 2Paste it, upload it, or point the tool at its URL.
- 3Fill in Step 2 honestly: byline, and the two toggles if they apply.
- 4Read your Top Wins summary and fix the highest-impact item first.
That's one audit done. The habit that actually moves content quality is running this on everything before it publishes, not just once.