Revolutionising web copy: my work for glØd candles
The Client
GLØD is an independent London-based brand creating hand-poured soy candles in a range of signature scents. It’s owned by Joanna and Charlotte, two friends who became business partners in 2018 after discovering their shared frustration with the poor eco credentials of mass-produced candles. They decided to create their own candles using clean-burning soy wax, pure essential oils and recycled or reusable packaging.
Initially, GLØD candles were sold at maker’s markets in and around London. But when the Covid-19 pandemic hit the UK in 2020, Jo and Charlotte were forced to pivot their business model and venture online much sooner than they’d planned to.
And so it was that they suddenly found themselves in need of website copy and product descriptions!
The Project
I met Jo and Charlotte through the wonderful Doing It For The Kids community on Facebook, where they posted that they were looking for a copywriter to rewrite their web content and help bring their brand and products to life online. I love working with indie businesses and I’ve been a self-confessed candle addict for years, so I couldn’t get my hat in the ring fast enough!
The more I learned about GLØD, the more excited I became. Jo and Charlotte’s energy is infectious and their journey from friends to entrepreneurs is a story in itself. But I also instantly loved the whole ethos of their brand. Both Jo and Charlotte feel strongly about celebrating, supporting and empowering women, and this mission has been at the heart of GLØD from day one. Each of the signature scents is inspired by and named after an incredible woman, and for every candle sold GLØD donates £1 to Women for Women UK – a charity that empowers female survivors of war to rebuild their lives.
From the moment we spoke I was itching to get writing for them. I pitched a sample product description and was delighted when they chose me to develop their brand voice and write their website copy.
Shaping the Brand Voice
The first part of the process was to define the brand voice. This would not only shape the content I created for the website but all of GLØD’s marketing copy, such as their social media activity and the care card that goes out with every order.
I grilled Jo and Charlotte on all things GLØD to find out where they were, where they wanted to go, brands they admire and who they consider their ideal customer to be. I learned that there were already a lot of compelling stories that would set GLØD apart and inspire a connection with customers:
· Jo and Charlotte’s journey
· Celebrating inspirational women
· Product features and benefits
· Eco-conscious packaging
Next, we needed to hone in on the characteristics that would define the brand voice and bring these stories to life. We built a picture of the brand personality by considering the mission, the audience personas, and Jo and Charlotte’s personalities. We all agreed that the GLØD voice should reflect their own positivity, warmth and relatability.
The end result was a detailed Voice Guide that defines the primary brand characteristics – real, natural, uplifting and conscious – and includes sample copy (with both good and bad examples!). It’s a document that can evolve as the brand grows and will be used by anyone who writes anything for GLØD, to ensure a consistent tone. Check out my previous blog for more detailed tips and techniques for defining your brand voice.
Writing the Strapline
Before getting into the detail of the website copy, we wanted to develop a strapline to anchor the brand name.
GLØD is a Danish word meaning ‘glow’. Jo and Charlotte chose this name to complement the look and feel of their branding and photography styling, which has a Scandi-inspired vibe. While the name is certainly a talking point, as a stand-alone word it doesn’t communicate what the brand does or what’s unique about GLØD.
I pitched a few strapline options and the favourite was ‘Scented Soy Wax Candles that Celebrate Incredible Women’. Not only does this describe the physical product (which also adds SEO value), it differentiates GLØD from other soy-candle businesses by creating intrigue about how they celebrate women, inspiring the audience to find out more.
Writing the Website Copy
Once the strapline was signed off, I began working my way though the site map, crafting copy that communicates the brand’s key stories in a voice that sounds real, authentic and uplifting.
When it came to the product descriptions for the candles, I really wanted to add depth by bringing out the story behind each scent. Jo and Charlotte are doing much more than simply creating a fragrance and putting a woman’s name on the label. Whenever they create a new scent, the woman and her achievements are always the starting point and they work to develop a blend that feels like a fitting tribute.
The GLØD Florence candle, for example, is inspired by Florence Nightingale:
This extract from the product description tells the story of how the scent was created, as well as communicating all the things you’d expect to be told about a luxury candle fragrance, such as which oils are used and what kind of ambience the aroma creates.
Within each product description, I included a separate section that provides readers with all the other essential information about the candles themselves. All of the USPs are covered in this copy, but it reads as if you’re hearing Jo or Charlotte tell you about the candles and the focus is very much on benefits, not just features:
SEO-Friendly Copy
Throughout the writing process, I ensured – as always – that I paid attention to the techniques and tactics that would optimise the GLØD copy for search engines.
Every scent description is unique and long-tail keywords are woven into the copy where they flow in naturally. I also strategically positioned keywords in the URLs for the product pages and recommended an optimised title tag and meta description for each page, to boost the chances of GLØD being returned organically in search results.
What the Clients Say
Jo and Charlotte had this to say about working with me:
“Working with Kelly on our website copy was an absolute dream. Her approach was the perfect blend of pointing us in the right direction and giving us space to define our own vision.
We had lots of messages we wanted to get across, but writing isn’t our forte. We really valued Kelly’s expertise in refining our key stories and finding a way of telling them that feels right for our brand.
Kelly took the time to get to know us, and once she had all the info she needed she worked with very little input from us. This is super important for a small business, because we’re always spinning so many plates!
The biggest positive is that we feel like Kelly really gets us. She believes in our brand and she’s rooting for us. Her passion comes through in the copy and it has genuinely revolutionised our website. We’ll definitely be working with Kelly again – in fact, we’ve just briefed her on our next product launch. Watch this space for some brilliant copy about our new bath salts!”
If your website copy or product descriptions are in need of transformation, please get in touch – I’d love to chat about your business.
And if you’re a fan of beautifully scented, clean-burning candles and celebrating incredible women, you’ll love GLØD. Visit glod.store to shop the collection (and read more of my copy!).