What is it, what’s the point and how do you create one that sells?
When you’re creating the brand blocks of your small business, your brand voice, or tone of voice as it’s also known, can be confusing. How important is it really? And why isn’t the way you would naturally write good enough? Well, let’s start with the basics…
Your brand voice.
I prefer to talk about ‘brand voice’ because we’re talking about the voice of your brand. As part of your voice, you have different tones that you would tap into, according to the situation. …
What happened and where I am now.
When I made the decision to leave, four months after getting married, I felt so lost. You can read the full story about why I left here. It wasn’t easy and it definitely wasn’t a dramatic exit. Instead it was a soft dribble away back to my parents’ house. My heart was set on leaving, but my mind always tried to pull it back. In my head, this was my only shot at being with someone and I would constantly remind myself that I needed to really make sure I was making the right choice. Even if I felt like…
There’s no doubt that, coupled with a top product and/or service, great copywriting can equip a new business with the muscular legs it needs to hit the ground running. For SMEs and larger organisations it can allow them to keep running and leap joyfully over their competitors before landing into the welcoming arms of repeat customers.
These days customers are in control and, in a crowded marketplace, if young businesses want to be seen, let alone heard, they have to be prepared to elbow their way to the front like a dedicated bargain-hunter on Black Friday. …
She judged me from the beginning.
I’ve visited a therapist for counselling twice; first for relationship counselling when the relationship with my husband was at its rockiest and the second, to re-tell the story and let it all out once my relationship had ended.
The marriage counsellor.
The first therapist I saw, jointly with my husband, made me question things from the perspective of myself. I realised that I had tied myself up so tightly with ‘us’ that I wasn’t looking after myself. …
This is it.
This is emotional abuse.
When he insists you need to change and you do your best, but he keeps bringing up the past.
This is emotional abuse.
When he behaves differently in front of your family and worse in front of you.
This is emotional abuse.
When he talks about how everyone is out to get him when he’s only doing his best. …
Because re-organising your client brief will give you better ideas.
So, you’ve won your first major client (yess!). You’ve accepted the project, can meet the deadline, you understand the deliverables and you’re happy with the fee. Ten minutes later and your email chirpily pings with the sound of the client copywriting brief (CB). You eagerly click it open — it’s 15 pages.
Let’s be brief
Not all CBs are equivalent to the length of a novella. Some will only be a few pages and others perhaps a few paragraphs, over email. In general, it depends on the size of the business.
SMEs will likely have shorter briefs that are focused on their specific…
Because a new decade deserves a new approach.
‘Start as you mean to go on’ — nowadays it’s a phrase which wanders around with Cynicism on its back to humiliate the lives of those with good intentions everywhere.
Three weeks into the New Year and the resolutions are usually hanging by a thread. That oath to dry January is teetering on the edge of the wine rack that supports the contents of a fresh supply of red, which you honestly wouldn’t have bought were it not for the discounted price.
And then one evening, after a particularly grisly day of fierce discussion with your boss, you, and the…
Want to make a lasting change? Then work from the basis of ‘you’ and not your ideals.
With fewer than two weeks to go until the end of 2019, social media is bursting to excess with sponsored ads and boosted posts positively screaming the promise of your best next year ever. Scroll once and see cross-legged zen seekers basking in the elusive rays of enlightenment. Scroll again, usually while eating chocolate, and the beaming smiles of Gym Shark-clad athletes strut past the screen, forgoing the dense leftovers of Christmas cheer for protein shakes and muscular bodies with all the right kinds of trimmings.
Eurgh.
They’re the ones who are really ruining the festivities.
But, of course, there’s…
And start living them.
Last week, I bumped into an old colleague on London’s Oxford Street — already rammed from kerb to shop-front with eager elbow-punching Christmas beavers, it was a bizarre feat of chance that we even managed to spot each other in the throng. Given that the last time we’d spoken was the summer, however, the conversation was a little idle.
“So, what are your plans over Christmas?” I asked.
“We’re off to Switzerland with the kids,” she answered. “I’ve just been doing a bit of shopping here for our trip actually. …
Is it worth the subscription?
Since it first rolled its way onto the health and wellness scene in 2010, Headspace has led the way in making the world a more mindful place, one deep breath at a time. In June 2018 it surpassed 1 million subscribers, a figure that continues to climb as the negative mental impact of our society drives our need for calm to the surface — something that I can empathise with myself.
Beginning at the bottom.
Last year, I had arrows shooting at me from all sides and I was dodging them about as well as a bear trapped in an elevator — I was…
Gurpreet Bharya
Wellness copywriter at G.B. Copywriting, Poet. Here to inspire small business owners with words that open customer hearts | Insta: @gb_copywriting_
