Uploading research is the single most effective way to improve the copy Atlas writes. By the end of this you will have at least one research document attached to your project, and every page you build in that project afterwards will be written from it. You need at least one document about your customer.

In this article:

Customer research shapes who the page speaks to and what it argues. Good material: survey responses, customer interviews, support ticket themes, reviews of your product or competitors, and forum threads where your customers complain.

Research helps Atlas understand your customer persona, what they want, their objections, and what motivates them to buy. Once processed in a build wizard's research step, your files show the caption Helping shape customer segments and ad angles · up to 10 files.

There is no separate Style reference upload in Project settings any more. Customer research is the only upload.

In Project settings, or in a build wizard with an existing project, files upload as soon as you pick them. If a pick goes over a limit, none of the files in it are uploaded, and a message says why:

In a build wizard for a new project, the files wait until the build starts, and the step checks them as you add them:

In the last two cases the files that fit are kept and the rest are left out, so check the list before you build.

Atlas reads the document and extracts the audience, objections and motivations it can find. This takes a few moments for a short file and longer for a large one.

The whole document reaches the writing step, not just a summary of it, and every file you have uploaded is read, not only the newest. Where your research and your product description disagree, the research wins. It decides who the page speaks to, what it promises and the words it uses, and the product title and description fill in around it.

To add more research later, select Add files. New files join the ones already there rather than replacing them. A file with the same name as one already uploaded replaces that earlier copy. Add files is unavailable once the project holds 10 files. Uploads save as soon as they finish, without selecting Save.

You can also upload research inside any build wizard, at the Upload research (Optional) step. Files uploaded there are saved to the project, so they apply to future builds too.

Under the research, How should we use these documents? lets you choose how closely Atlas follows your uploaded research. In Project settings, Stick closely to my angles and personas is selected until you change it, and your choice is saved when you select Save.

Choose Stick closely to my angles and personas when your research is the output of real work you trust, such as tested ad angles or a validated customer profile. Choose Use as inspiration when your research is raw material, such as a pile of reviews, and you want Atlas to find the pattern.

In Project settings your files are listed one per row. Below the list are Add files, which adds more up to the Up to 10 files shown beside it, and Remove all, which deletes the whole set. Each file also has its own remove button, the X at the end of its row. There is no replace button: to swap a file, remove it and add the new one, or add a file with the same name.

Removing one file asks Remove this file? on that file's row, with Cancel and Remove. The remaining files are then re-analyzed. That re-analysis matters: the persona is derived from all your files together, so removing one changes it.

Remove all asks Remove this research?, with Cancel and Remove all. Removing all research can't be undone.

In a build wizard's research step, the same actions confirm in a dialog instead: customer-survey.pdf will be removed from your customer research. The remaining files will be re-analyzed., with the file's name, for one file, and This customer research will be removed. This can't be undone. for the whole set.

If removal fails you will see Failed to remove research context after Remove all, or a message such as Failed to remove file after removing one file.

Two different failures, with different fixes.

Failed to upload file. Please try again. (or Failed to upload file). The upload itself failed. Check your connection and the file size, then try again. A pick over one of the limits shows its own message instead, listed under File types and limits above.

Couldn't process this file, with the suggestion Try re-saving it from Word, Pages, or Google Docs and uploading again. Atlas received the file but could not read its text. This usually means a PDF made from scanned images, an unusual export, or a file that is corrupt. Open the document, use Save As or Export to produce a fresh PDF or DOCX, and upload that. When Atlas knows more, a Details: line under the advice says what went wrong, and Remove clears the file so you can upload a fresh copy.

The same failure is worded differently depending on where you are: Couldn't process this document. Try another. inside a persona configuration modal, and Couldn't process the research file — remove it or try again. inside a build wizard. All of them mean Atlas received the file but could not read its text, and all have the same fix.

In the landing page wizard the equivalent message names the file, for example Couldn't read customer-survey.pdf — it won't be used. Try re-exporting it as PDF or DOCX. Note the consequence in that wording: the build continues without that file rather than stopping.

If a document still will not process after re-exporting, paste its text into a plain TXT file and upload that instead. If that also fails, contact support from the chat bubble in Atlas, or at support@helloatlas.io.