I’m Charlotte, a tone of voice consultant and writer.
I started my marketing career in agencies before working for a couple of early-stage startups. Since then, I’ve gravitated towards growing businesses that are challenging categories and industries.
I’ve been working for myself as a tone of voice consultant and writer for almost four years, having had 9-5s doing both beforehand. As a freelancer, I’ve worked with some amazing clients to find their voices and create stories that captivate their customers. I’ve also been published in City AM, The Times, The Wildest, and Refinery29.
Outside of work, I spend my time cooking, eating, playing with my slightly angry cat, and exploring the Somerset countryside. I’ve also written a novel (which I’m in the process of editing)
How did I end up working on tone of voice projects?
The first time I worked on a tone of voice project, I was a junior copywriter. The company I worked for had hired an expert at £1200+ a day to “do” our tone of voice. We had so many people contributing to our comms and we needed some guidelines to keep it all consistent.
Then budgets got cut and my boss’s boss said, “Hey Charlotte, why don’t you finish this up?”
Cue the panic. I had NO CLUE what I was doing. But I fumbled through and managed to create a doc I was proud of.
What worked in my favour here was time spent using other brands’ tone of voice guidelines as a writer. I accidentally learned an important lesson — I wrote the guidelines with the audience in mind because I WAS the audience and didn’t know any different.
Since that first project, I’ve become hooked. I’ve helped tons of brands find their voices since, but also (equally as important, if not more) have translated it into actionable guidelines. When I do, I’m always thinking of the writer looking at their screen, puzzling it out — what do they need to know to properly get acquainted with your voice?
Combine a kick-ass, unique voice with guidelines that are easy to follow and suddenly, you’ll find your comms ooze personality and are more consistent.
Gone will be the days of:
Looking at your website and emails (or any other written content), feeling as though the two don’t quite sound the same.
Giving feedback to writers along the lines of, “It doesn’t really sound like us.”
Feeling like your brand’s values and personality aren’t coming across in writing.
Having loads of exciting things to say but not knowing how to say them.
Fighting with the AI to get it to write like your brand (looking at you, ChatGPT).