How to tell if your writing actually sounds like you

Back in my Uni days I took a horrible course called Writing for Business. And today I would like to tell you that it was a waste of credit hours. Sorry Professor Jackson, but there is no such thing as “writing for business” anymore.

Gone are the days of all businesses having to sound the same: formal, dry, and corporate.

(Which is very lucky for me, because otherwise my job would be hella boring.)

The real key is not a formula. It’s what fits the tone of your business. When I work with a client to rewrite their website copy, my end goal is always for it to sound like the owner of the business wrote it themselves (ahem, if they were really good writers).

A good copywriter can switch seamlessly between styles, spending the morning writing the web copy for a top corporate law firm and the afternoon creating blog posts for a cool, sustainable activewear company. That was me on Monday.

I don’t have a ‘portfolio’ as such, because my style is the style of every client I have. It is your style. My job is finding that style and bringing your tone of voice to life in my words.

Have you ever been to a website or seen someone’s socials and immediately known that they hired someone external to write it for them? Not a great look.

Customers respond to brands and businesses with personality.

If you have a casual tone with your audience, sometimes it’s OK to start a sentence with the word “and.” And if you’re really feeling wild, you can even add punch with an incomplete sentence. (Sidenote. Proper punctuation is always a must in my book. Please don’t mess with my apostrophes and semi-colons.)

Ready to try it for yourself?

The trick is to write your words the way you would speak out loud to your customer.

Not sure if your copy is fitting your tone of voice? Read it out aloud. No, actually do it. All the way to the end. You’ll feel crazy, but it works.

And if you don’t love the way it sounds, then let’s grab a coffee.