Copy, messaging & brand voice studio for ecomm + FMCG brands
Two brothers helping ambitious challenger brands do words gooder
We're Jack and Joe, two brothers who believe your brand deserves copy that puts what makes you awesome into words. Whether you need us to write for you, train your AI to sound like you, or help you figure out what to say, we're here to help you do words gooder.
How we’ve helped brands do their words gooder
We know copy isn't the only thing that helps brands grow. But it does help. Here's what happened to some of the brands we worked with once their words were doing their brand justice.
Client revenue increase after a 4-week messaging, voice and copy sprint.
Brands worked with since 2012 on copy, messaging & brand voice.
In a year after a messaging & copy overhaul, one client went from £5.6M to £25.2M.
DTC client's revenue grew 3.7x in a year after a copy & messaging sprint.
Three ways to
make your words
work harder
Some clients need a hand writing their copy and figuring out their message. Others want us to help their AI copy stay on voice (and sidestep the slop). Others want to make us a de facto part of their in-house team.
However you need a hand doing your words gooder, we've got you.
Most popular
Copywriting &
messaging sprints
If you find yourself looking at your copy and thinking "this just isn't doing our brand justice", this is where to start.
We've been doing this for over a decade, so we're used to briefs that start with "it just doesn't feel like us and we have no idea why". In fact, the messier the brief, the better.
We dig into your brand, your customers and your category until we know them as well as you do.
Then we nail your messaging and write copy that finally sounds like the brand you know you are — website, PDPs, emails, retail decks, wherever your words show up.
Done and ready to publish in 4 weeks, tops.
Brand voice A training
If your AI copy always needs a full rewrite before it feels like you, we can fix that.
We document your brand voice properly, from the big picture stuff down to the granular nuances that make your brand's voice unmistakably yours. Then we train AI to act like your junior copywriter, not just a copy vending machine.
Your team leaves with an brand voice bible and AI copy that finally sounds like you.
Done in a day for £725.
Learn moreFractional support
Think of us as your on-call copy and messaging team. We’re in your Slack, we know your brand, and we move fast.
Plus, we see what’s working, adapt, and own the copy side of things so you don’t have to.
And we’re always around for “hey, does this sound OK?” Slack messages. Of course.
Starting at £2500 per month
Learn moreSales calls suck, don't they?
We hate them. You hate them. Plus, anyone can talk a good game over Zoom. So we do things a bit differently.
Bring us a headline, a product description, or a bit of copy that's always felt slightly off. We'll spend the first half of the call digging into why it's not working, suggest some fixes and then rewrite it together on the call.
Then, if it feels like a good fit, we'll talk about what it looks like to team up and discuss next steps.
Prefer to email us? Hit us up on hello@dowordsgood.com
Trusted by brands like...
“An absolute game-changer…
transformational for us as a brand.”
Right then. Who are we
outside of the words?
Truth be told, we’ve wanted to work together since we were kids... but there wasn’t a huge market for a pre-teen Blues Brothers tribute act where we grew up.
These days we spend our time helping ecomm and FMCG brands do words gooder. But we know that choosing the right partner isn’t just about skills or track record. It’s a fit thing too. Are they easy to work with? Do they get our brand without 3-hour meetings? Do they say “synergies”?
So for what it’s worth: we’re easy to work with, we get under the skin of brands fast, and we shape our process around yours (not the other way round). And, whether we’re doing a one-day Punch Up or ongoing fractional support, we try to feel in-house from day one.
Oh, and we’ll never, ever, ever say synergies.
JACK
BARCLAY
Older brother. Obsessed with brand voice. Has genuinely rewritten a headline 103 times before we sent it over.
When I’m not at my desk pretending I’m Carmy from The Bear, hunting for wild mushrooms with the kids, or working on the home renovation with an AF brewski in hand.
JOE
KARAALI-BARCLAY
Younger brother. Former solo marketer for an ecomm brand. Feels like the walls are closing in if he doesn’t have a process and a system.
When I’m not at my desk: updating my Strava, puppy training, trekking out to craft breweries, or rewatching Mad Men under the banner of “professional development”.
FAQs
What kind of brands do you work with?
We work with ecommerce and FMCG brands of all sizes, but we especially love teaming up with lean teams who have built a good amount of traction and are now thinking of starting to scale spending, launch new ranges, go after new retail listings.
So if you’re gearing up to hit some big, hairy, audacious goals and feel like the messaging that got you here isn’t really fit for the next stage of growth, we’d love to chat.
Will we work with you directly?
Oh yeah, 100%. One of the reasons we started Do Words Good was to make sure that we could work as closely as possible with clients.
Something goes missing in that agency-with-middle-managers model, in our opinion. (And don’t get us wrong, it definitely works for lots of briefs. But for brands that want to really nail their messaging, a lot gets lost in translation in our experience.)
Where are you based?
We’re a 100% remote agency, but Jack is based in Poole in Dorset. And Joe is based in Bishop’s Stortford (soon to be Norwich, however.)
Can you help with emails and flows?
Yeah, 100%. We’re not CRM pros in terms of segmentation, etc… but editing the copy/messaging in welcome flows, abandoned cart flows, post-purchase emails, launch emails, win back emails… that’s all something we help clients with all the time.
Plus, if you’re on Klaviyo, we can work directly in your flows so you can approve and push live lickety-split.
What is your process like?
Our process shifts slightly depending on whether we’re doing a Punch Up or a full project, but it’s always rooted in research first.
Before we write a word, we’ll always review your customer reviews, your competitors, get clear on your brand’s USPs and story and make sure we’re using consumer psychology to work with the way your customers’ brains work, not against them.
Then, once we’ve got that in place and we’re 100% aligned on the job the page/email needs to do, then we write the copy in context (if possible).
That means no Google Docs 99% of the time, but copy delivered in Klaviyo or Figma or in mockups so it’s easy for design & dev to get it live.
(Also, because Google Docs are where good copy goes to die.)
Do you have a minimum project size?
Yes, we’re all about taking on projects where we can contribute meaningful chunks of work, not quick blog posts.
However, if you want to start small, the best entry point is a one-day Punch Up or a 1-week Sprint.
Can we pay by card? Or split the invoices?
Yes, 100%. We know that cashflow is a tricksy beast.
So we accept corporate cards (including Amex), and if you need to split billing out over up to 4 months, it’s no biggy. (No fees or anything like that. Just let us know and we’ll divvy it up.)
What if we don’t have a designer or dev ready?
No problem. We’ll still deliver everything cleanly with clear guidance, and we’re happy to sync with your designer/dev (or recommend trusted people) when you bring them onboard to get them up to speed.
We also have a black book of contacts and a large network of people in the ecomm/FMCG world, so we can always send out the Bat signal on your behalf, too.
Can you guarantee results?
We can’t promise a specific uplift, because there’s way too many variables (traffic quality, offer, pricing, creative, site speed, etc.).
What we can promise is that we’ll give you sharper positioning, clearer decision journeys, stronger objection handling, a clearer, more ownable brand voice and copy written to convert more customers.
And because of that, every client we’ve worked with has seen a meaningful uplift after working with us. But, as with anything, we can’t guarantee results. (Wouldn’t it be nice if we could, though?)
Do you just write copy, or do you help with the strategy too?
Oh, definitely strategy too. We see copy as your brand strategy in words, and we try not to write a word until we’ve done the deeper, more strategic thinking.
(Because that’s how you end up with copy that sounds nice but doesn’t really reflect your brand or grow with you as you grow.)
TLDR: we’ll help you figure out what to say, who you’re saying it to, and what needs to be true for someone to buy… then we’ll write the copy.
Do you use AI at all?
Ah, this is the big question, isn’t it? Yes, we do use AI but almost entirely only for the boring bits.
(We use it to organise our research, run sentiment analysis on customer reviews, double-check trends and studies, etc…)
Occasionally, we’ll use it to explore new angles or to speed up our own process for writing low-impact batch work (like product descriptions).
But all of the thinking, positioning, drafting and final writing is done by us, the old fashioned way.
So you can rest easy that we’ll never send you anything with an em dash or a “this is not X, it’s Y” structure.
Oh! And if you’re a team that uses AI, we build every team that does a longer engagement with us with their own customGPT that writes email captions, social captions and other day-to-day copy in their voice.
Which one is the better copywriter?
Our lawyers have advised us to say “no comment”. And considering games of FIFA used to end in thrown controllers and getting separated, that’s probably for the best.
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