How to write personality-led website copy (with real brand voice examples)
Excuse me… where did YOU go?
On Instagram, your brand voice is instantly recognisable in two seconds flat, with your epic, completely-you energy doing exactly what it does best.
But the moment someone clicks over to your website, it’s like they’ve stumbled into the dodgy season seven of a TV show everyone collectively pretends never happened. The spark? Nada. The personality? Left the chat. The vibe? Witness protection.
And that disconnect between your socials and your website is like watching your favourite character suddenly get recast. Your dream client is left thinking: wait, what happened to the person I was just hanging out with?
So let’s talk about why your personality keeps vanishing the second you open a Google Doc, and how to bring it roaring back.
What is brand voice?
Brand voice is your unique brand personality in all your marketing and advertising to communicate with your audience. It is your favourite slang, your way of explaining your process, your humour and your “so me” energy.
When it’s done right, it ties your whole digital world together, from your Instagram bio and emails to your services page and enquiry form, so your dream clients get the exact same experience wherever they find you.
Think of it as having that unmistakable Ted Lasso presence: a vibe that belongs entirely to you.
Is tone of voice the same as brand voice?
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Is tone of voice the same as brand voice? 〰️
They hang out in your same cinematic universe, but they have two different starring roles:
Brand voice is your overarching personality or theme
Tone of voice is how that personality shows up depending on the moment
For example:
Instagram Story:
“STOP EVERYTHING because this project turned out so bloody good.”
Email Newsletter:
“My latest client project might just be my favourite of the year, and I'm about to tell you exactly why it turned out so damn good.”
Same person, different energy for the room.
Think of brand voice as the what and the tone of voice as the how.
The two big reasons your website words are ghosting your personality
When creatives book in my done-for-you website copywriting, they almost always say the exact same thing: “I know how I want to sound, Sarah… I just can’t get it onto the page.”
Because look, possessing a great personality is one thing. Voice-noting your business besties for hours is a breeze. But mapping that out into a round-the-clock sales tool? That requires a completely different approach.
Here is why your personality is doing a disappearing act the second you start typing:
1. Social media feels natural, website copy feels like a sales pitch
Social media lets you show up in bite-size, reactive bursts. The content is fast, conversational and low pressure, where you share behind-the-scenes chaos, spicy hot takes and relatable memes. No single caption has to carry the weight of your entire business.
Website copy puts you in a completely different headspace. The second you open a blank Google Doc, your brain enters panic this must sell mode. You convince yourself your copy needs to sound ultra-formal to justify your premium pricing.
For example:
Your social media vibe: "Oh my god, you guys, I just spent three hours fixing a formatting error because a client accidentally deleted a section, but we are back in business and it looks stunning!"
Your website copy translation: "We provide timely troubleshooting and comprehensive design maintenance to ensure optimal client satisfaction."
See the problem? Bye bye bye personality, bye bye bye dream client.
2. You are caught in the ‘perfectionism spiral’
You block out an entire weekend to finally sort your website copy, but you end up completely trapped in your own head.
Your homepage suddenly feels like The Hunger Games and every sentence becomes life or death. So you start editing the edit, deleting every single ounce of personality because you are terrified someone will think you sound unprofessional.
Look at how this plays out in real time:
Your first instinct: “I am completely obsessed with the exact moment a client opens their final gallery and immediately texts their mate going ‘look at these, oh my god.’ That reaction is everything to me and it is the exact reason why I do what I do.”
After five rounds of editing: “I am passionate about creating a positive experience for my clients from start to finish.”
And there it is. RIP personality.
Brand voice examples: the real-life glow up
So, how do we stop you from turning into a total snooze-fest the second you try to sell your services? And how do we save your copy from that brutal overthinking trap that deletes all the fun stuff before anyone else can read it?
You can absolutely charge top dollar and show everyone you know your sh*t without flattening your personality into a pancake. Your website copy should hit with the exact same punch as your daily stories.
To show you what happens when you finally break out of that editing spiral, let’s look at a real-life transformation. These are some brand voice examples that took a client website from mega-bland to completely, unmistakably her.
Case Study: Elisabeth (Elisa) Barnes, Squarespace Website Designer + Copywriter
Behold the amazing Elisabeth Barnes (Elisa).
When she reached out, her website was technically doing the job on paper. It ticked the standard boxes of website copy 101, but she felt like she was totally hiding behind the screen.
Remember those two massive traps we just talked about? Elisa was stuck right in the thick of them.
She had completely locked down her natural spark because she thought she had to look “professional” for the outside world. And because she cared so much about getting it right, she ended up sanding down all the things that made people connect with her in the first place.
Take a look at her old homepage call to action:
The old call to action: “Your website should be your brand's best asset, turning casual browsers into buyers. Let's make it happen.”
It was functional, but it was not Elisa. It had absolutely none of the high-energy fun that her real-world community loved. If you hung out with her on Instagram and then scrolled through the homepage, you might think you had clicked the wrong link.
Which meant her website wasn’t introducing people to the version of Elisa they were already obsessed with elsewhere. Instead, she felt like she had to make up for it later. Explaining herself on discovery calls, dialling her personality up in one-on-one conversations, working overtime to show people who she really was.
When your website copy and your socials feel like two completely different people, your website stops carrying its share of the conversation. And that’s exactly what we wanted to fix.
How we got creative and captured her true brand voice
To get her out of that safe zone, we skipped the dry corporate worksheets and got straight to the good stuff. I peppered Elisa with a few of my favourite deep-dive discovery questions to dig into her real business personality:
If your brand were a person, character or celebrity who would they be?
If your brand were an ice cream flavour, what would it be?
Are there any particular slogans, words, phrases or subjects your brand uses regularly that you like and want to associate with your brand? For example, would you prefer to say “brew”, or “espresso” rather than “coffee”, when talking about coffee? Or “laptop” rather than “computer” etc.
When Elisa came back to me, she said: confident, bold, fun, honest, compassionate. Not afraid to speak up. Not afraid to show up. She walks with her head held high because she knows exactly what she brings to the table. She referenced Olivia Pope from Scandal and Xena the Warrior Princess.
That is a brand voice! It is vivid, specific and completely unmistakable. But when you compare that powerhouse persona to her old website call to action, the problem is clear: the confidence and boldness Elisa was known and celebrated for had been completely ironed out.
Finding the true flavour of your brand voice words
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Finding the true flavour of your brand voice words 〰️
When people try to define how they want to sound, they almost always use the exact same terms: “I want to sound friendly, warm and professional.”
But those words mean completely different things to different people. To one person, friendly looks like high-energy typing with a million exclamation marks. To someone else, it looks like a cosy chat. If you stop at those generic labels, your copy stays totally vanilla.
This is why I always dig into the specific flavour of those words for my clients. For example, with Elisa, her version of warm was bold, sassy and playful, but also deeply encouraging. Crucially, “bold” didn't mean firing off f-bombs or getting aggressive. It meant being totally confident and backing her own skills.
On top of that, community, woman-pride and cultural pride are massive parts of who she is. She wanted her space to be a celebration of female ambition, deliberately attracting ambitious women who are ready to claim their space in the market. That level of intention is the exact detail you need to nail if you want website copy that actually feels like you.
The real before-and-after transformations
Here is exactly how Elisa’s words went from play-it-safe template language to copy that sounds like her.
Example 1: Homepage call-to-action
Before:
Your website should be your brand's best asset, turning casual browsers into buyers. Let's make it happen.
Before example: Elisa’s old homepage call-to-action with generic copy
After:
You're done treating your website as a piece of pretty décor collecting dust. Let's turn it into THE work of art that commands attention, full Mona Lisa vibes and everything!
After example: Elisa’s new homepage call-to-action packs a punch with her bold brand voice, commanding attention.
The strategy breakdown:
Elisa wanted that unapologetic Olivia Pope energy. So we binned the business-speak and went big, calling her websites a work of art, instantly setting the tone that she doesn't do basic design.
Example 2: Services page headline
Before:
Premium Squarespace Web Design Services
Elevate your brand with a website that speaks to your audience and accelerates growth
Before example: Elisa’s old services page headline with generic copy that speaks to any audience.
After:
Squarespace Web Design for Women Entrepreneurs Ready to Scale
My superpower is helping you make your statement with a professional website that gets you found, proves your worth and gets you paid!
After example: Elisa’s new services page headline is specific about who she works with, what stage of business they are in, and what she helps them achieve.
The strategy breakdown:
Elisa wanted her copy to instantly speak to her core community. By swapping the generic industry terms for her exact niche, we made her value clear from line one, while focusing on the big, confident rewards her dream clients actually care about, like getting paid.
Example 3: Lead magnet sign-up
Before:
Get 10% off your first website template
Get a beautifully designed website up and running in days, without the stress of DIYing from scratch.
Count me in!
Before example: Elisa’s old lead magnet sign-up call-to-action. The copy is ‘fine’ and still does its job, but we wanted to push it further with more personality.
After:
Don’t let DIY dramas rain on your parade
No more flying blind, you’ve got a launch to get to girl! You’ll get the support you need to tailor your own website, and you’ll be totally proud of the end result.
Grab 10% off your first template
After example: Elisa’s new lead magnet sign-up call-to-action has a captivating heading and leads with a desired outcome.
The strategy breakdown:
The before copy was safe and functional, but Elisa is high-energy and fun! So we went for action words that sound like a win for her dream client, while still keeping it simple enough to understand the next step.
Example 4: About section intro
Before:
Your new creative partner
Before example: Elisa’s old About page intro labels her as “a creative partner”. This language can be quite flat and “corporate” and is often used by many other service providers.
After:
Meet Your Designer: I'm the Christian girlie, obsessed mood board maker, Disney movie-loving Pinterest fanatic, ready to get you seen
After example: Elisa’s new About page intro shows a more personal side, leaning on her interests and personality traits, helping her stand out and making her likable.
The strategy breakdown:
“Creative partner” is what people write when they are scared of sounding unprofessional. But Elisa wanted her brand to feel like a real person. So we ditched the fancy corporate title and gave her dream clients an immediate reason to connect with her.
The new copy sounds exactly like the person Elisa described: confident, warm and bold. We basically took Elisa out of that stuffy, boring corporate corner and gave her the green light to just be herself.
No more hiding behind generic labels and no more stressing that her website was killing the vibe she worked so hard to build on socials.
And if you reckon people don't notice when you finally let your real personality loose on the page? I'll just leave this here:
Brand voice and website copy: frequently asked questions
Elisa’s success is exactly why I love ripping up the corporate rulebook: because injecting your actual, unfiltered personality onto the page is what gets results.
Here is the quick-fire lowdown on the exact things creatives ask me when they are ready to fix their website copy:
Why is brand voice important when writing website copy?
Because standing out beats blending in every single time!
Nobody ever fell head-over-heels for a business that sounds like a generic corporate robot (unless you are literally looking for a robot). A distinct brand voice is what makes your dream clients stop scrolling, click through to your services and instantly vibe with you.
It’s the difference between a client clicking away after three seconds and them obsessively binge-reading every single page of your site, then sliding into your inbox to book their spot.
How do you find your brand voice?
Look, it is definitely not about pulling some fake, sparkly persona out of thin air or staring at a blank Google Doc until your brain turns to mush. It is about bottling up your best business energy and pouring it straight onto the page.
When we work together on your website copy, we skip the boring, soul-crushing corporate worksheets entirely and focus on three things:
Your real-life vocab: The exact words you drop when voice-noting your business besties or venting in your Instagram DMs. If you say “reckon”, “mate” or “bloody epic” in real life, those words belong in your copy.
Your dream client's brain: Tuning into what makes your people tick (their lifestyle, their late-night worries and the things that make them laugh), plus what phrases they use to describe the things they want, so they read your site and think, omg, they get me.
Your brand vibe mood board: We snoop on the brands you already love, lock in your signature style and build out a visual voice board (and nope, we aren’t talking fonts and colours here!) to capture how you want people to feel when they read your words. It means you can literally see your personality coming to life on screen.
When you mix your real-life talk with deep client insights and a clear visual plan, you can finally stop overthinking every single sentence and start writing words that confidently sell out your services.
Ready to bring your brand voice to life on your website?
You’ve seen how we took Elisa from play-it-safe template language to copy that actually sounds like her, and you know you’re ready to do the same. Stop spiralling over your own words and let’s get your real-life personality into your copy for good.
My done-for-you website copywriting service takes the whole thing off your hands. We bottle up your exact energy, build it into a website that sounds unmistakably, unmissably like you and send your dream clients straight to that “let’s work together” button.
