Content & copywriting

Good copy is mostly good thinking written down in plain words. Before I write a sentence, I want to know what the reader is deciding, what is making them hesitate, and what you can honestly say that a competitor cannot. This page explains how I work on messaging, website copy, campaigns and articles.

Messaging comes before any page

If two people on your team describe the business differently, no amount of polishing will fix the website. So I begin with a short messaging document: who you serve, the problem they come with, what you offer, why someone should believe you, and what you want them to do next.

I build it from conversations with you, your sales or support team, existing proposals, reviews and the questions customers ask before buying. It usually takes a page or two and becomes the reference for every piece of copy afterwards.

You review it before anything is drafted. Most disagreements surface here, which is cheaper than finding them in a finished homepage.

What I write

The work falls into a few kinds: website pages, campaign and advertising copy, articles, and presentation or proposal messaging. Each has a different job, so each gets a different structure even though they should sound like the same business.

A service page answers a buyer's questions in a sensible order. An ad earns a click with one idea. An article helps a reader and shows how you think. A proposal helps a decision-maker justify choosing you to someone else. I write with that purpose stated at the top of each brief.

• Website copy: homepage, service, industry, about and contact pages.
• Landing pages built around a single offer and action.
• Articles and guides planned from customer questions and search demand.
• Advertising copy for search, social and display.
• Sales decks and proposal wording.

How I learn your business

I ask for your existing materials, then ask questions the materials do not answer. What do customers misunderstand? Why do people say no? What do your best clients have in common? What would you never promise?

For regulated or technical subjects I work from sources you provide and flag every factual claim for you to confirm. I do not invent statistics, awards or customer stories, and I will tell you if a claim you want to make would be hard to support.

This research phase is the part clients tend to underestimate. It is also why my copy rarely reads like it could belong to anyone.

Drafting, review and revision

I draft in the structure agreed in the brief, then send it with notes on the choices I made. You mark what is wrong factually, what sounds unlike you, and what feels risky. I separate those three kinds of feedback because they are fixed differently.

Factual corrections are quick. Tone feedback usually means one or two adjustments to the messaging document that then apply everywhere. Risk concerns, such as a claim that legal or compliance needs to see, go to the right person before publication.

The number of revision rounds is agreed in the scope. More rounds are not always better; three rounds of vague feedback often produce worse copy than one round of specific notes.

One habit helps a great deal: send feedback as marked-up reasons, not just replacements. If you rewrite a line, tell me why it felt wrong. Often the reason applies to ten other lines, and I can fix them all at once. Without the reason, I can only fix the one line, and the same issue returns on the next page.

Writing for search and for AI answers

Copy has to work for people first, but it also has to be findable. I plan articles and pages around the questions people actually ask, use headings that say what the section answers, and keep the main point of each page easy to extract.

That structure helps search engines and also the AI tools that summarise web content. The related work is covered under SEO, answer engine optimisation (AEO) and generative engine optimisation (GEO); I coordinate with those so the copy is not written twice.

I do not stuff keywords or publish thin pages at volume. A smaller number of pages that fully answer a question usually serves a business better.

Mistakes that weaken copy

The most common is writing about yourself when the reader wants to know about themselves. 'We are a leading provider' says nothing. A sentence that names the problem the customer has and what changes after working with you says a lot.

Another is hiding the next step. A page can be well written and still lose the reader because the action is unclear or buried. A third is inconsistency, where the homepage, the ads and the sales deck promise slightly different things.

Another quiet problem is copy written to impress colleagues rather than inform customers. Long sentences, internal terminology and vague claims often come from a worry about sounding too simple. Plain writing is not simplistic. It is a sign that someone has thought carefully enough about the subject to explain it without hiding behind words, and readers trust that.

• Vague claims that no competitor would disagree with.
• Jargon the buyer would not use themselves.
• Pages that try to speak to every audience at once.
• No proof: no specifics, process, credentials or customer evidence you are allowed to share.
• Calls to action that ask for too much too early.

What you receive

Final copy in an editable format, structured so your designer or developer can place it without guessing, with headings, buttons and meta descriptions marked. For larger projects you also get the messaging document and a short style note covering tone and words to use or avoid.

If I am writing articles, you get a content plan first, listing topics, the question each answers and the reader it is meant for, so that you can approve direction before the writing starts.

Articles that serve a purpose

An article should exist because a real person has a real question, and because you can answer it better than the pages already available. I plan articles from customer questions, sales objections and search demand, then choose a format: a short answer, a guide, a comparison or a worked example.

Each article has a purpose beyond traffic. It might help a buyer decide, support your sales team, or show how you think. I note where it links to your service pages and what a reader should do next. Publishing less often but with real substance usually serves a business better than a weekly post of filler.

Voice is the difference between copy that sounds like your business and copy that could belong to anyone. I describe it in practical terms: sentence length, formality, the words you use and the ones you avoid, and how you handle humour or technical detail.

That short style note helps your team too. When someone else writes a caption or a quick update, they have something to check against. I also review a sample of existing pages to find where the voice already drifts, since the fix is usually a small number of repeated habits, not a rewrite of everything.

When you do not need a copywriter

If your offer is still unclear, new copy will not rescue it. If you have a strong writer in-house who is short of direction, a messaging session and a copy review may be a better use of money than full writing.

And if the real issue is that the page converts poorly because of layout, speed or form friction, start with conversion optimisation and come back to the words after.

Say what you do, for whom, and what happens next, in the words your customer would use.