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Copywriting

Be outstanding…

By Copywriting, Tone of voice, TOVNo Comments

Brands. Businesses. Organisations. Institutions. Individuals…

Just because you are something, just saying so doesn’t cut it.

If you really are something, or even claim to be – you need to sound like it.

This is the trick that so many miss.

You can shout all you like about how dynamic, impactful, agile, committed, partnership-focused, equitable, solutions-driven, transparent, curious, innovative… etc… you are, all you like.

I can, too. Anyone can. Nearly everyone is, to some degree or other, so these adjectives have all but lost their meaning and clout when it comes to marketing.

The first thing your reader thinks when you say such things, is ‘prove it’, or ‘who says?’ or ‘whatever’, or ‘next!’. You’ve already painted yourself into a bit of a corner, with tired and unsubstantiated puffery! And because the vast majority of brands, businesses, organisations, institutions and individuals also do it, you sound just like them.

So what’s the answer?

Think about what a relatable human being would sound like, if they were some or all of those things. Maybe pick your top three, and then consider how you can weave the characteristics of those attributes into your marketing blurb, instead of just saying you are those things (like everyone else does).

Start by asking yourself what an innovative, equitable and solutions-driven brand, business, organisation, institution would sound like if it was one person, speaking naturally, freely and confidently on your behalf.

You are unique, right? You might offer the same products, services, experiences, results, etc… but you are different. So you should sound different, too.

A well-thought-out brand tone of voice is immensely powerful in achieving that differentiation. It’s also a great exercise in understanding, agreeing on, and communicating how you’re unique – not just that you are. Everyone is different, but few stand out for it.

I’m a tone of voice expert. Well, at least I think I am…

I’ve created several, rolled out plenty, and supported many clients in applying their unique and true tone, consistently, over time. They sound cohesive, and comfortable and confident with who they are – not thrashing about with platitudes and buzzwords. They sound like themselves – or how they define themselves – and it puts their readers at ease. This is what helps them to stand out in the ever-expanding ocean of ‘sounds like everyone else’, and connect with greater and lasting impact.

Which, right now, is priceless.

22/01/2026
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Whatever next?

By AI, Copywriting, Editing, Tone of voice, TOVNo Comments

Yeah, so 2025 was tough.

No denying it.

No pretending I was fine and weathered the storm – or denying there was even a storm in the first place. There definitely was. My figurative windows were rattling. It woke me up.

I might have been poorly prepared, or in denial for a little while, but in retrospect 2025 really was shit. The good news is, I know why. It was AI. It was all AI’s fault.

Okay. It was also me.

I spent most of 2024 raging against the mere concept, and 2025 trying to reconcile the reality: I might not like it, but it’s happening, and I’d better get my head around it quick.

So I did. I tried it. I gamed it. I use it.

I get it.

I’m still no expert, and I’m still deeply (and healthily) suspicious of it in wider context, for reasons I won’t go into here. But I fully appreciate that it’s a game changer for planning and generating basic content, and that I need to be familiar enough with it to stay relevant and useful in the industry I chose 19 years ago, and have thrived on since.

I love what I do, and think it matters now more than ever, but there’s no point in me being a luddite. It’s far harder to fix stuff that you’ve thrown on the floor and stamped on, than to understand its flaws and limitations and put it to use for the things it does better and faster than you – and the things you didn’t really like doing in the first place. The industrial revolution taught us that. The AI revolution is perhaps reminding us.

So, 2026…

For me, it’s about expertise and specialism.

I think it’s fair to say that ‘traditional’ copywriting is a generalist art, in that it pays to be good at lots of interconnected things, be objective, and be agile and objective enough to grasp the wider context of whatever you’re writing about, alongside who you’re ultimately writing it for. Those tenets – the skills of connecting, conveying and persuading in ways inspired by unique insight, interpretation and experience – will not change. And in the pure sense, they can’t be imitated.

With the proliferation of AI as a tool that can do so much of the donkey work, I think a decent copywriter’s true value will thrive in identifying and conveying genuinely human tone of voice, along with consistency of style and convention. I’ve been a TOV expert for many years, and also put brand-specific style and convention guides together to support those unique voices with clarity and relatable consistency. The stuff that differentiates, in other words. The stuff that ensures a brand stands out for genuine character, and for insightful, relatable communication that connects.

All of which is great, because, like I said: it matters now more than ever.

Sure, in very basic terms, it’s now almost impossible to tell a standalone piece of AI-generated copy from a human-generated one. Not at first glance or face value, at least. And in many cases, it doesn’t matter one bit. But humans always seek further connection, and relatability. They’d like to at least think that they’re not just being palmed off with the lightning-quick responses to a series of prompts. There’s endless slop out there that could be generated by anyone or any generative AI, but it’s not what any self-respecting or remotely ambitious brand wants to be known for – or overlooked because of. They’ve all got better ways to spend their marketing budgets than on throwaway socials, magnolia articles, and meh websites for websites’ sake.

The sweet spot for me lies in a combination. A hybrid approach, if you like, that sees the value in a great copywriter helping to develop a true, nuanced tone of voice and oversees the important stuff – but also helping you to use artificial intelligence alongside human creativity, insight and experience. That seems to me the clever way, in terms of ‘saving time and money’ without losing sight of who you are and what makes you unique. For obvious reasons (speed and efficiency, research, ideation, drafting, structuring), you’re more than likely going to use it anyway. So why not use it to your best advantage and get an expert writer* to help you game it to perfection – to scrutinise and re-write it to within inches of its life… so it actually sounds like you, and no one else?

*Here I am. Let’s go.

21/01/2026
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An update on AI

By AI, Copywriting, WritingNo Comments

 

Two years ago, I was firmly in the NO camp. Fully dismissive. ‘It’ll be horseshit’, ‘I’ll spot it a mile off’, and ‘it’s all going to hell’, and suchlike.

 

If I’m honest, I was a teeny-weeny bit scared, so I lashed out like a luddite. Normal, flawed human behaviour in the face of what we might call progress of some sort.

And at the time, it was still in its relative infancy and most copywriters I spoke to hadn’t really looked into it either, and were as secretly scared as me.*

I was kind of right, however, in that AI has no EI (emotional intelligence), cannot write to a nuanced tone of voice, and has no concept of its audience. It cannot make judgements or take creative risks to achieve breakthroughs. It has no appreciation, or expression thereof. Fundamentally, it has no unique insight or judgement – the crucial bits – but copywriters and their clients do. For the most part….

Meanwhile, copywriters don’t really enjoy the donkey work – they only like moaning about it. Good news – AI loves the donkey work, does it well, and does it blisteringly fast. It’s great at the things most writers struggle with and moan about to some degree (a lot).

Things have changed, it seems.

And when things change, the wise adapt

So, having looked into some of the current options available (Surfy, ChatGPT, Quillbot, etc.) there’s plenty to be said for the ‘research’ side of things, for the bare-bones drafts that AI writing tools can gather in milliseconds and lay out in no time, and for the direction they can begin to take on your behalf if you give them the right ‘brief’.

In that respect, count me in. All I need to do now is find time to really get the hang of it and make myself redundant in those regards. And that’s absolutely fine with me.

If I’m honest, researching and familiarising myself with the wide range of things I write about (beyond what the client can tell me in a decent brief) was never my favourite part of the profession I’ve grown to love. It’s essential, but it’s a hump. AI helps massively with clambering over that hump and getting into the fun stuff. And clients will naturally expect decent writers to use the best tools available in the best way possible, save everyone time, and yet create unique and compelling work that’s on brand and gets results.

First draft is so often a struggle to start, and to feel any real ownership of. The part I really like is having something to work with, and crafting it into a compelling, unique, relatable, rhythmic and persuasive chunk of lean writing. That’s where the magic is, for me.

I think many copywriters will agree, that’s why they do what they do. And let’s be honest – the clients just want the end result and will expect a modern copywriter to be familiar with the new tools.

It took me a while, but as things stand I’m actually a tiny bit excited to explore the possibilities AI brings…

But – and it’s a big BUT – I’m aware of its downsides. Not just across the creative industries, but everywhere. It’s still making mistakes for which it will never be accountable. It’s still watering down and putrefying everything, at an exponential rate that means we can’t keep up with the potential damage that will cause.

It will never come with accountability for truth or quality. It’s putting people out of work in just about every sector, and de-humanising everything under the sun. And for me, there remains a profound existential aspect to ‘all of this’ that we probably won’t fully grasp until it’s too late, because AI is a squillion times faster at doing things than we are at realising what on earth is actually going on. Efficiency isn’t everything.

Excited, yes.

Ever wary and a little bit scared**, though.

*I still am.

**Very, in fact. Shitting myself but rolling with the times, I guess.

11/02/2025
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Bombastico ni Fantastico!

By Copywriting, Tone of voice, WritingNo Comments

You know that friend of yours, for whom everything was wicked, skill or lush… for whom even a slight upturn in immediate circumstances or atmospheric conditions was epic, awesome or occasionally mental? The one who would have an out-of-body experience at the smallest gift that everyday life can bring?

 

People that positive are great. But they don’t usually succeed in marketing because they’re exhausting, and you quickly learn to water them down or tune them out entirely. Also, there’s a very human response to such behaviour: to not take them too seriously on matters of merit or taste.

Yes, that’s my long-winded way of saying ‘gushing doesn’t persuade’. Superlatives don’t land well. The best thing ever, usually isn’t. I’ve missed out on so many great books, films, records, gigs, holiday destinations, restaurants and other valuable experiences simply because someone wouldn’t relent in telling me how unequivocally brilliant they were, and that my life would not be complete until I investigate. It’s human nature to resist such incursions.

The same applies to selling, whether it’s objects or concepts, lifestyles or reassurances. 

Besides outright cynicism and telling fibs, gushing is pretty high up in terms of what I really don’t understand (and really don’t like) about pushy, presumptuous marketing. To suggest that there’s a hole in my soul – or a fundamental existential flaw to my cosmic journey – because I haven’t yet parted with cash to secure a transformative, transcendental experience – is never going to persuade me. I resist it, to the very core of what little soul I have. And as far as I can tell, I’m not alone.

‘Ah, George, you FOOL!’, I hear you scream. ‘You’re in denial! The seed is sown, and you will invest!’ Well, if that’s marketing, I don’t want to be complicit, and I’ve avoided or flatly turned down most opportunities to become so. I can’t lie. I can’t gush as part of my persuasive prose, even if I really believe in what I’m hawking at any given time; mostly because I judge my writing on how I’d react to it, being the cynical git that I am.

And I think that’s healthy, if I’m honest.

So, what am I actually saying here?

Well, this:

Don’t fall over yourself to persuade with your words. Simply inform, in a calm, human, relatable and faintly enthusiastic fashion. People react far more positively to a non-pushy, informative and insightful conveyance of genuinely good reasons to find out more. Not necessarily to buy, just yet, but to be given the space to consider your modest pitch.

The more you leave people to make their own minds up, in their own time, the more likely you are to win them over.

That’s what I meant by bombastico ni fantastico.

And yes, I know it’s linguistically inaccurate.

25/04/2024
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AI copy – what do I think?

By Copywriting, Tone of voice, WritingNo Comments

I’ve dedicated 16 years of my adult life to becoming a better writer – of course I give a monkey’s about what AI might mean to my livelihood. A very large monkey’s, in fact.

 

With one eye closed, my mouse hovering over the ‘close window’ button, and knowing I’ve enough fuel in the van to reach the coast, I’ve explored a few articles on the matter. So far, I’m still sitting here. So far, I’m not overly frightened. But equally, I’m not daft or dismissive enough to ignore AI’s potential to transform how, collectively, we go about our business of persuasive written communication.

Read More

25/01/2023
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Let me be clear…

By Copywriting, Editing, WritingNo Comments

I’ve been reading ‘Do I Make Myself Clear’- Why Writing Well Matters’ by (Sir) Harold Evans (28 June 1928 – 23 September 2020). In some ways I wish I’d read it earlier in my career as a copywriter, but I think it might have been too much to take in while relatively green. Now, it’s more of an acerbic, witty reassurance that my internal dialogue when reading or editing godawful guff isn’t just grumpiness – and that my instinct is dependable.

He also reminds me that there’s a time and a place to be right about this: always and everywhere. But not necessarily out loud. Read More

01/08/2022
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Write for one person

By Copywriting, TOV, WritingNo Comments

Of course, to write effectively on a business’ behalf, you need to know your audience. You need at least an overview of what matters to them, the problems you can solve for them, what makes them happy, and so on. And you need to be able to distinguish your brand from all the others vying for the same audience’s attention.

 

But here’s the thing… Read More
28/01/2021
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