v4.1 - Admin/onboarding

marketing-voice.md

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+# Goodwalk Marketing Voice
+
+A practical guide for writing site copy that sells without sounding like it's selling.
+
+## The voice in one line
+
+**A trusted neighbour who happens to be brilliant at this.** Calm, certain, warm, specific. Not corporate. Not chirpy. Not over-promising.
+
+## What we're borrowing from Apple
+
+Apple's marketing works because it does three things ruthlessly:
+
+1. **Leads with the outcome, not the process.** "A thousand songs in your pocket" — not "5GB of solid-state storage."
+2. **Makes the decision feel small.** Confident, declarative sentences. No hedging.
+3. **Cuts every word the meaning doesn't need.** Short. Then one longer line for texture. Then short again.
+
+For a service business, the equivalent is selling the **evening** (calm dog, settled house, no guilt), not the **walk** (60 minutes, pickup included, group size 4–8).
+
+## Voice attributes
+
+| Attribute | What it means | What it isn't |
+|---|---|---|
+| **Calm** | Even cadence. No exclamation marks. No "amazing!" or "incredible!" | Hyped, sales-y |
+| **Certain** | "We do X." Not "We try to X" or "We may be able to X." | Arrogant, brash |
+| **Warm** | Real feeling for dogs and owners. "Your dog comes home tired and happy." | Saccharine, cutesy ("fur babies", "pawsome") |
+| **Specific** | Names suburbs, parks, times. Numbers when they help. | Vague ("various", "a wide range", "we offer") |
+| **Honest** | If a service isn't right for a dog, we say so. | False scarcity, manipulative urgency |
+
+## Principles
+
+### 1. Lead with the customer's win, not your feature
+
+Open every section with what the **owner gets** or what the **dog feels**. The mechanism comes second.
+
+> ❌ "Tiny Gang Pack Walks are built for Auckland Central owners of small and medium dogs who want a reliable weekly routine."
+>
+> ✅ "Your dog comes home tired and happy. You stop worrying through the workday. That's the whole point."
+
+### 2. Cut every hedge
+
+Search-and-destroy these words: *can, may, might, try to, more, genuinely, properly, generally, often, typically, possibly.* Each one quietly weakens the sentence.
+
+> ❌ "Walks tailored to your dog's pace, confidence, and routine."
+>
+> ✅ "Built around your dog. Their pace. Their walk."
+
+### 3. Short. Then long. Then short.
+
+Vary the rhythm. A wall of medium-length sentences is the most boring possible cadence.
+
+> ❌ "Goodwalk Tiny Gang Pack Walks are built for Auckland Central owners of small and medium dogs who want a reliable weekly routine, a well-exercised dog, and more peace of mind during the workday."
+>
+> ✅ "A walk your dog looks forward to. A routine you don't have to manage. Pickup, walk, drop-off, photo update — every time, without you having to ask."
+
+### 4. Active voice, present tense
+
+Things happen. We do them. Your dog enjoys them. Avoid "are designed to" / "is intended for" / "can be tailored."
+
+> ❌ "Our visits are intended to provide enrichment and support during the day."
+>
+> ✅ "We visit. We play. We feed. You get a photo when we leave."
+
+### 5. Replace abstract nouns with concrete verbs
+
+"Provide structure" → "settles them." "Build confidence" → "they stop pulling on the lead." "Ensure consistency" → "same walker, every time."
+
+### 6. Specifics build trust faster than adjectives
+
+"A well-loved local park" tells me nothing. "Western Springs at 9:15, Cornwall Park on Wednesdays" tells me you're real.
+
+### 7. Sell the relief
+
+Owners aren't buying a walk. They're buying: a quieter evening, a guilt-free workday, one fewer thing to manage. Name those.
+
+### 8. One idea per sentence
+
+If you wrote a comma, ask whether it should be a full stop.
+
+## Patterns we use
+
+### Headlines
+
+Two flavours, used purposefully:
+
+- **Outcome line:** "Come home to a calm, happy dog."
+- **Definitional line:** "Pack walks for small dogs that actually suit small dogs."
+
+Avoid: "Welcome to Goodwalk." / "About Us." / "Our Services."
+
+### Subheads / leads
+
+One sentence. Says what the section delivers, not what it is.
+
+> ❌ "About our pack walks"
+>
+> ✅ "Four to eight dogs. Same walker every time. Home by mid-afternoon."
+
+### Body copy
+
+- 1–3 short paragraphs max per section
+- Lead sentence is the most important; treat it like a headline
+- One link or CTA per paragraph, max
+
+### CTAs
+
+Action + outcome, never just "Submit" or "Learn more."
+
+| ❌ | ✅ |
+|---|---|
+| Submit | Book a free Meet & Greet |
+| Learn more | See if Tiny Gang fits your dog |
+| Contact us | Talk to Aless |
+| Get started | Start with a Meet & Greet |
+
+### FAQ answers
+
+- First sentence answers the question completely
+- Second sentence (if any) adds the texture
+- No "Great question!" / "Glad you asked"
+
+> Q: How big are the pack walks?
+>
+> ✅ "4–8 dogs, carefully matched on size and energy. We never run oversized packs — the small group size is the whole point."
+
+## Words and phrases
+
+### Use
+
+- **You / your dog** — far more than "owners" or "clients"
+- **We** — direct, owned. Not "the team" or "our walkers"
+- **Walk, visit, pickup, drop-off** — the customer's words
+- **Tiny Gang** — our signature, use sparingly so it stays distinct
+- **Auckland Central** — anchors local intent
+- Concrete park names, suburb names, times
+
+### Avoid
+
+- "Solutions" — never. We're not enterprise software.
+- "Services" as a noun in body copy — too distant. Name the thing.
+- "Pet parents" / "fur babies" / "pup parents" — twee
+- "Pawsome" / "pawfect" / any pun — never
+- "We are passionate about" — show, don't tell
+- "Industry-leading" / "best in class" / "premium" — empty
+- "Reach out" — say "email" or "text" or "call"
+- Exclamation marks in headlines or body copy
+
+## Sentence length budget
+
+- **Headlines:** ≤ 8 words
+- **Subheads:** ≤ 14 words
+- **Body sentences:** average 12–16 words, max ~24
+- **First sentence of any section:** ≤ 12 words
+
+If you wrote a 30-word sentence, it's two sentences.
+
+## Before / after, from the live site
+
+### Hero subtitle (homepage)
+
+> ❌ "Reliable dog walking for busy Auckland owners who want happier dogs, calmer evenings, and a team they can trust."
+>
+> ✅ "Reliable dog walking across Auckland Central. Happier dogs. Quieter evenings."
+
+### Pack walks intro paragraph
+
+> ❌ "Goodwalk Tiny Gang Pack Walks are built for Auckland Central owners of small and medium dogs who want a reliable weekly routine, a well-exercised dog, and more peace of mind during the workday."
+>
+> ✅ "Tiny Gang is built for small and medium dogs who like the right kind of company. Small groups. Same walker. A real walk, every time."
+
+### Puppy visits subtitle
+
+> ❌ "Toilet breaks, play, feeding, and calm one-on-one attention — at home, while you're out."
+>
+> ✅ "While you're at work, your puppy is fed, played with, and looked after. At home."
+
+### Benefits-section intro
+
+> ❌ "Small, compatible groups give dogs the exercise, confidence, and routine they need without the chaos of oversized pack walks."
+>
+> ✅ "Small groups. Compatible dogs. No chaos. That's why it works."
+
+## A 60-second editing pass
+
+Before any new copy ships, run it through this:
+
+1. **Cut 20%.** If you can't, cut 10%.
+2. **First sentence test.** Could it be a headline? If not, rewrite.
+3. **Hedge sweep.** Delete every *can/may/might/try to/generally/typically* and re-read. Most are improvements.
+4. **Active voice check.** Search for "is/are [verb-ed] by" or "is intended to" and rewrite.
+5. **Specific vs vague.** Replace one vague phrase per paragraph with a real name, number, or detail.
+6. **Read it aloud.** If you take a breath mid-sentence, it's too long.
+
+## When to break these rules
+
+- **Legal pages, contracts, privacy.** Be precise and complete, not punchy.
+- **Onboarding instructions.** Clarity > rhythm.
+- **Genuine warmth moments.** A short, slightly longer line about a dog or a moment is allowed — it's the texture. Just don't make it the default.