Three Brand Essentials Now Included in Every Copywriting Package
My copywriting package now includes a separate document outlining three foundational brand components that will transform how you communicate:
Your non-negotiables
Your ideal audience (clients, collaborators, and referral sources)
Your brand voice characteristics (complete with dos and don'ts for each one)
Why These Three Elements Matter for Service-Based Businesses
Consistency builds trust—especially in service-based industries like architecture, interior design, event planning, and creative consulting. But you can't be consistent without clarity.
These three elements create the throughline between your brand and your audience. They make crafting cohesive messaging easier because you have a clear outline of what you stand for, who you're talking to, and what your voice sounds like. They save you time (no more reinventing the wheel) and make it simple to delegate—whether that's to a team member, VA, social media manager, or even an AI tool like Claude or ChatGPT.
What Are Non-Negotiables and Why Do They Matter?
Non-negotiables are the boundaries and beliefs you won't compromise on—think of them as a firmer, more actionable take on traditional core values. These are your soapbox topics, the hills you'd be willing to die on. They serve as important guardrails when you find yourself in a scarcity mindset, overexcited about something that might not be the right fit, or navigating an in-between state.
I've always uncovered my clients' non-negotiables during our discovery process to ensure they come through in the copy. Now I'm documenting them and sharing them with you so you can get the most mileage out of our work together. Your non-negotiables summarize what you stand for—and what you won't tolerate. They're invaluable when you're stuck on content ideas, preparing for a podcast appearance or networking event, or meeting with potential clients and collaborators.
Understanding Your Ideal Audience: Beyond the Client Avatar
Having an ideal client avatar is fairly standard branding advice—and for good reason. It helps you focus your marketing efforts, content, and offerings on the specific person who's the right fit for your services.
But after working with architects, interior designers, photographers, event planners, and other service-based professionals for nearly a decade, I understand that your audience is broader than just potential clients. Referrals matter—a lot. They're not just about getting more business; they're about attracting the right clients from sources you trust, many of whom will hype you up and deliver warm leads.
We often communicate with collaborators and referral sources on different channels than we do with ideal clients, and many of my clients adjust their tone when speaking with industry peers. This distinction is crucial when crafting your brand voice, so I now address it explicitly in your deliverable. While it may not directly impact your website copy, considering this holistic view of how your brand is perceived benefits you in the long run. I want you to emerge from our engagement with a strategic approach to your brand presence and a deeper understanding of how to leverage your brand voice across all touchpoints.
Defining Your Brand Voice Characteristics (With Practical Guardrails)
Lots of copywriters will tell you what your brand voice characteristics are. I want you to co-create them with me.
We'll select and define a handful of characteristics—usually three, but no more than five—and then create a simple but comprehensive list of dos and don'ts for each one. This gives you concrete examples of how to apply your brand voice in any scenario.
This format also makes your brand voice user-friendly (and less open to interpretation) when you're working with your team, outsourcing to third parties, or using AI writing tools like Claude, ChatGPT, or Grammarly to expedite your process.
A Quick Reminder
These are tools meant to help you—guardrails to keep you on track. They're not written in stone. Reference them when creating content and revisit them annually as part of your planning process to make sure they still align with where you are and where you're going.
How This Fits Into My Copywriting Process
My approach isn't one-size-fits-all, so the discovery experience I offer isn't either.
Here's how it works: You'll receive a written questionnaire featuring questions I've refined over nearly a decade of working with creative professionals and service-based businesses. You complete the questionnaire (bullets and sentence fragments are welcome—no pressure to be polished), I review your answers, and then we discuss them in a live session.
I come to that session with your non-negotiables, ideal audience, and brand voice characteristics already outlined as a draft. We go over it together live because it allows us to go deeper. I can gauge your response—seeing when you get excited or shut down, listening for pauses, watching your expressions and body language for clues about how it's landing. You can push back. I can play devil's advocate or adjust the language when I spot an opportunity for better understanding.
During the session, we also create the outline for your website copy so I can hit the ground running on your first draft while maintaining the momentum we've just created.
It's an intensive session and it's wildly productive. You leave excited about your brand and I leave supercharged to write your copy—a win-win.
By doing it live, we both have to show up. Mutual commitment—to the process, to understanding, to the success of your brand—is one of my own non-negotiables, and this format was designed to support it.
By inviting informal responses and offering the opportunity to dig deeper live, we alleviate the stress that comes with traditional written questionnaires. You love what you do and you like talking about it. The idea of braindumping to someone who can help position you and your business should be exciting, not a chore—that's what I'm going for.
This isn't about your writing skills. It's about providing me with the information I need so I can summarize, synthesize, and produce tools you can use and copy you'll be excited to put on your website.
Ready to Get Started?
Complete the inquiry form below and I'll email you back within 48 hours to set up a call.
