Who

are you?

I help businesses define their organisational personality and develop the language that reflects it.

When people are sizing up your brand they’re not only assessing what you’re selling, but also what you’re like.

And it turns out their minds aren’t made up by how your company describes itself on your About page. Their minds are made up by how you talk to them everywhere else.

So you need to be clear on who you are, sure about how that should make you sound, and certain that everyone in the business is confident about both.

Editorials

My husband thinks my job is bollocks.

Here's why he's wrong. And why you might be making the same mistake...

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Why it’s important that I call my kid a knob.

Only behind his back of course...

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Why inclusive language is bullshit.

Sure, it's a good idea in theory. But here’s where it all goes tits up...

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Why jargon might actually be your brand’s best friend.

The next person who says this is getting their nipple pinched by my one-year-old.

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The number one way to get your people on board with a new tone.

A voice without the buy-in of those expected to speak in it is as much use as Liz Truss in Downing Street.

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Oatly have a great voice, right? Wrong.

Ok, I admit it. I’ve recently become one of those wankers who asks for oat milk in cafes.

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Why your audience should have nothing to do with your tone of voice.

Communication’s a two-way thing, right? There’s always people at both ends – someone...

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Why writing tips are the worst enemy of your brand’s voice.

Goddamn writing tips. They’re everywhere. "Write more like you speak" “Avoid the passive...

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The three things no one will tell you about working on your brand’s voice.

When it comes to being a parent, most people are pretty clear on the downsides.

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Why it doesn’t matter that no one gives a shit about your brand’s voice.

Last month in a podcast interview I got asked if customers really care about a brand’s...

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The three words that will guarantee your brand voice dies on its arse.

It happened again. I got a brief from a potential client keen to develop their voice and what were the...

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Why your office toilet could derail your whole brand voice.

Re-writing the whole of your website was a bitch of a project, right? Thank god it’s finally...

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A short story about a really-quite-terrible-but-also-bloody-brilliant brand voice.

It was a quiet Sunday morning in early 2016 and I was languishing in a softly-sunny spot in...

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MOTIVES

Concrete manufacturer or law firm. Interior design house or pharmaceutical giant. Five employees or 500. Start-up or established brand. It’s always one of the same three things that brings people to my door.*

* Digitally speaking. It would be creepy if potential clients showed up at my house. Don’t do that.

01_

How we sound doesn’t match what we’re like

“We’ve got a great culture and a brilliant team and once you start working with us then you get that. But it’s not coming across on things like our website or social media. So potential clients are writing us off before we can get them to the things – and the people – that would convince them.”

02_

Everyone who writes for us writes differently, there’s no consistency

“Lots of our content comes from people who aren’t trained writers, so they’re not great at putting aside their personal writing style and the ‘rules’ and habits they learned at school. And even the ones who can, like our marketing team, often don’t agree about how we should sound. We’ve got no gold standard.”

03_

We sound pretty much the same as our competitors

“There’s a lot of jargon in our industry, so it feels difficult to stand out with our language while still maintaining authority and gaining trust. Plus a lot of our people are just nervous about change, especially if it seems like we’re being different for the sake of it with no proper thought or strategy behind things.”

SALUTES

Beth helped us define a distinctive, yet still authoritative and trustworthy, brand voice in a sector where very few dare to be different. And most significantly she managed to embed our voice right across the business. The clue is in the name – she was a joy to work with.

Fiona Weller.
Parmenion Capital Partners LLP.

01/07

“Beth very quickly understood our needs, offering distinctive insights that were both creative and strategic. She managed to perfectly capture the voice and style of our organisation while simultaneously sharpening our communications.”

Anthony Billington.
LICC.

02/07

“Beth is a unique talent and by far the best wordsmith I’ve worked with. She helped us make our tone tangible and relevant, and was great at engaging the whole team in that process. She is imaginative, extremely good at her craft, and her attention to detail is second to none.”

Helen Henshaw.
Qnetex.

03/07

The ease with which our copywriter now (to great effect) uses the comprehensive voice toolkit Beth produced for us, is just astonishing. It pains me to think how many hundreds of hours of management time had been spent coming up with the previous version, which was mediocre at best.

Richard Thomson.
Kinherit.

04/07

“The investment we made in Bethany’s work was, without a shadow of a doubt, the best investment in our business so far. She listened so thoughtfully, asking smart, relevant questions, then took all our passion and ideas and transformed them into a clear, unique voice and identity.”

Fernando Pinho.
City of Dogs.

05/07

“Bethany did an excellent job helping us identify and articulate our unique personality. She provided great insight and supported us to work together to clearly define a voice reflective of our values. I would definitely work with her again.”

Johanna Cronin.
MedCity.

06/07

“One of the best business decisions we have made was to work with Bethany, both to understand what our brand voice was already saying about us and decide what we wanted it to be saying. A great investment in time and money, it continues to pay dividends every day in so many ways.”

Lynda Oliver.
The Outside Clinic.

07/07

FACTS

Been where, done what?

I’ve worked in marketing and comms at Director level and been part of the management team – so I get the bigger business context in which your voice work needs to sit.

I’ve been a copywriter both in-house and for a digital agency – so I don’t just talk the talk, I’ve got 10,752 hours experience of actually writing it.

I’ve partnered with brands in every sector from finance to fashion and construction to health – so I’ll bring an objective and open perspective to your niche.

I’ve lived and worked in the US, the UK, and Australia, as well as travelled to more than 40 countries – so I’m no stranger to the challenges of communicating in and between different cultures.

I’ve got two small children – so I’m used to working with stubborn, distracted, uncooperative humans who always think they know best.

PAPERS