Jack Barclay

About

Hey, I’m Jack. I’m a copywriter and brand language strategist, and co-founder of Do Words Good, the verbal identity and brand language studio I run with my brother. I’m based in Poole, Dorset, and work with brands across the UK and beyond, mostly remotely.

TLDR: I help brands figure out what to say and how to say it, then make sure everyone writing for them (robots included) can properly use their voice.

Getting AI to write in your brand voice

A lot of my work now starts with something that sounds like: “We’ve got a brand voice, but ChatGPT and Claude just can’t use it.” Turns out, most brand voice guidelines were written for people to use, not AI. That’s how you end up with copy that’s technically fine but sounds like a karaoke cover of your voice, not something you’d actually publish.

(Or worse, it sounds like every other brand using AI to write copy.)

I’ve spent the last three years working out how to fix that. I turn a brand’s voice and messaging into a complete language system that AI can actually follow, then set them up in the tools your team already uses, like Claude Projects or custom GPTs. You end up with an AI copywriting assistant that writes like a junior copywriter on call 24/7, no “this isn’t just X, it’s Y” anywhere to be seen.

If you’ve already got brand voice guidelines, I can make them AI-ready. If you don’t, we start by building them together.

Brand voice and verbal identity

For the last 10 years I’ve mostly worked on verbal identity and brand language. That means working out what your brand stands for, how it sounds and what it says in every situation, then documenting it so your team (and robots) can use it.

You get a brand voice, messaging, full brand language guidelines and the AI setup to go with them. It suits brands that are launching, rebranding, or just have a nagging feeling they’ve outgrown their old copy.

Website and brand copywriting

If you like to kick it old school and have somebody with flesh and blood write your copy, I’ve written more bits of website copy, landing page copy, product page copy, pitch deck copy and copy rebrands than I’ve had hot dinners.

(One year, this was technically true. We did 400-and-something pages that year.)

Plus, you get two senior copywriters obsessing over every word, and we write in Figma, so you get wireframes ready to hand to design and dev rather than a 30-page Google Doc.

Workshops and training

We run half-day, hands-on workshops on brand voice, brand narrative and getting AI to write like your brand. I’ve run training sessions on brand voice, verbal identity and AI for teams at Pip & Nut, Octopus EV, CruKafe, Arnott’s, KatKin, Hidden 20%, Brewser, Granola AI,, Lee Stafford and more.

A bit about me

I started 15 years ago writing job ads for the back pages of The Guardian and Metro. A few years later I went freelance, with a stint as Head of Copy for a US startup that grew from zero to $300M in three years, before launching Do Words Good with my brother.

I’ve worked on copy, verbal identity and brand voice projects for brands like Merck, Discord, Vodafone, RNLI, OVO Energy, Animal, Toast Brewing, Beachbum, Nursem, Treecard, Drinkwell, World Mobile, KOMOJU, HelloGov and Dr Dent. I’ve lost count, but it’s well over 300+ brands by this stage.

And while I’ve never won a fancy award, I have written a billboard that went around Craven Cottage just after Harry Kane levelled Jimmy Greaves’ Spurs goalscoring record so that’s preeeetty special for me. (A long-suffering Spurs fan.)

I’ve got an MA in English Literature from King’s College London and I write a newsletter on brand voice that’s read by people at brands like LEGO, Bloom & Wild, Gousto and more.

I work with brands at any stage, from just starting out to scaling into the big dawg in their space.

Always happy to chat about brand voice, verbal identity, copy in the age of AI, or how your brand can do its words gooder.

Hit me up: jack@dowordsgood.com