
Why I don’t believe in ideal client avatars (or what problem are you solving?)
A few months ago I put an episode of The Apprentice on as I was cooking supper. I haven’t watched it in years, not since my flatmates and I became oddly obsessed with it during university, and after watching three seasons very intently the tasks started to feel a...

How and why you need to create your own lane
While I was interviewing Lucy Lucraft for an episode of her own podcast, What She Said, she asked me if I felt competitive with other copywriters. It wasn't something I'd really given much thought to, so slightly off-the-cuff I said that I actually don't, because I've...

Why the Greggs’ “Who is Gregory and Gregory?” video is such a brilliant piece of brand storytelling
I decided to write this blog post after reading Sam Missingham’s fantastic piece Sell the sizzle not the sausage on the Lounge Marketing blog. I’m sure most of you will have seen Gregg's latest video by now, as it is pretty much going viral, but if you haven't then...

Connection and Expertise: Why People Buy.
Caveat: This post is about why people buy from small creative businesses. You obviously don't need to connect to your loo paper brand (although the Andrex puppy is very cute!). Credit where credit is due: This idea came out of a coaching call with Jen Carrington,...

How to survive your first few months running a small creative business
In my most recent newsletter (you can subscribe to receive them every Monday morning via the form below) I shared that I had a really good week last week, and I am finally beginning to feel like I am getting somewhere with my business. As I said in this blog post, it...

The ethics of copywriting, and why I only work with small independent businesses
Ok, so the ethics of copywriting is a pretty weighty title to call a blog post, and it's obviously not something I'm an expert on. At all. I don't for one moment think that my Philosophy IB (equivalent to A-Level) gives me any sort of basis on which to present a real...

Three months in: Lessons Learnt from Launching a small creative business
On the 22nd of January this year, so a little over three months ago, I shared my rebranded and rewritten website on social media (this makes it sound like it was a big launch - it really wasn’t. My mum liked it though). At the time I don’t think I really saw it as a...

What makes good website copy? My five copywriting values.
I think most of us recognise good website copy when we read it. It’s very easy to distinguish a website that’s been written with real thought, craft and integrity, from one with words that have been carelessly thrown up. However it's fair to say that good website...

Brand Storytelling: what it is and why I believe in it.
“So what actually is brand storytelling?” This is a question that I get asked a lot. I spent a long (and by long I mean looooong) time thinking about how I wanted to describe myself when I relaunched as a business. The obvious description for what I do is “copywriter...

Why I believe in writing for connection not conversion
There is a lot of talk in the creative online world about conversion copywriting. Lots of copywriters promise high-converting copy, or even specifically call themselves conversion copywriters. Converting basically means getting the person reading your copy or content...