Will Lake

Award-dodging copywriter

I’m a freelance copywriter based in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, working directly with clients as well as some of the UK’s best creative agencies. 

Since the year 2000 I’ve been bringing brands to life with words and ideas that people act on.  From attention grabbing adverts and sales blurb that sells, through to websites and brochures they actually read and respond to – that’s what I do. 

Many of my clients are loyal long-termers using me year after year: the kind of organisations that value a smooth working relationship almost as much as the work itself. 

See who I’ve helped and read what they say.  

Services

Company/product names and straplines

Brand narrative/development 

Brochure and website copy

Advertising concepts

Brand guidelines 

Editorial and PR

Internal comms

Scripts

“Will always manages to understand exactly what our clients are about and precisely where they’re trying to go with their brand. Then he produces the kind of original concepts and great copy that fit with the brand vision, communicate the brand personality and leave our clients smiling.”

Jill Peel

Creative Director

10 Associates

“Will has worked with us for ten years now, helping create bespoke, engaging copy for a myriad of purposes including marketing promotions, newsletters and website content for our multiple brands. Will is great to work with, always flexible and never fails to pull out the stops to hit often very tight deadlines.”

Lucy Green

Marketing Manager

cottages.com

“Will was extremely easy to work with; professional, responsive and completely flexible to fit our preferred way of working. He was also keen to learn the fundamentals of our business, and produced great copy within tight timeframes at short notice.”

Emma Billinge

European Brand Manager

Mars Foods, Care & Treats (Pedigree & Whiskers)

“Will is one of the most professional and committed freelance copywriters I have ever worked with. Hire him.”

Joseph Hughes

Joint Head of Creative

Propaganda

“Will worked on two WCTS projects and his skill in engaging our different audiences was exceptional. His work made a significant difference to the finished pieces and he’s a delight to work with - quick, professional, flexible. Most importantly, he 'gets' what we need.”

Tessa Denham

CEO

Leeds Women’s Counselling and Therapy Service

“In a word, amazing! When I read what Will did for my website I couldn’t stop smiling: somehow he managed to say all the right things in a way that’s original, relatable and totally on-brand. If you need an exceptional writer, don’t look anywhere else.”

Kate Topping

Owner

kate-over.com

“Will’s copy is creative, engaging, to the point and bang on brand. He very quickly gets to the bottom of what we want to achieve and is a pleasure to work with.”

Darren Evans

Creative Director

Engine Room Design

“I can always trust Will to quickly get a handle on the brief and develop the perfect tone of voice or concept for each individual project. He’s a creative thinker as well as a talented and original writer, with the ability to simplify sometimes complex content and bring it to life with clear, engaging and creative copy.”

Libby Connolly

Project Director

The Brand Nursery

“Will’s originality and creativity fit perfectly with Wood & Wire, and the work he does for us isn’t just great to read, it shows just how well he understands our brand.”

Jim Leach

Owner

Wood & Wire

“Will quickly produced fresh and engaging copy that clearly differentiated us from your average accounting firm - just what we asked for. It's obvious he understood our business and our audience, as well as exactly what we wanted from the new brand identity. The feedback we've had has been absolutely superb.”

Sharon Munt

Managing Director

Balance Accounting

“Will is fantastic to work with. His personal touch means he always fulfils the brief quickly, efficiently and accurately. We'll always be using Will's skills whenever we need our brand represented in copy.”

Geoff Kerouac

Co-owner

Friendly Soap

“Not all the briefs we have are straightforward but Will has a clear skill of adapting his approach and style dependent on the requirements. You know you are in safe hands with Will, and it has been a real pleasure working with him on our digital projects.”

Guy Utley

Creative Director

Tall Ltd

“Although we weren’t sure what tone to use or what the target market was for our rebrand, Will supported us with expertise and ideas. Ultimately, he enabled our website and marketing materials to properly reflect us and also feel perfectly unified. I can recommend him wholeheartedly.”

Felicity Johnson-Standley

Marketing Manager

Bedspace

“Hebdenbridge.org is a collective voice for local businesses, helping to improve our town and encourage greater trade and tourism. We needed an experienced copywriter to create the right 'tone of voice' and Will was the perfect man for the job! The site is original, engaging and popular, and Will has been a joy to work with on it.”

Alison Bartram

Chair

Hebden Bridge Business Forum

Why you need a copywriter

Many of my clients are start-ups who've struggled with copy, or SMEs who used Rob in marketing to mess theirs up for them.  I help undo the damage. 

The thing is, great copy isn’t about using corporate clichés or industry jargon.  It’s not about sweating over hyphens or swallowing a dictionary either.  And it’s definitely not about sticking to rules that say sentences can never start with and.

Instead, any copywriter worth their salt will start by getting to know your business and audience inside out.  Next, they’ll articulate your messaging in ways other writers can’t. Ultimately, they’ll help you sound like a human, so the people you want to reach will engage with the things you want to say. 

Big businesses know all this already.  That’s how they got big. 

Commercial clients

Mars Foods, cottages.com, Marks & Spencer, ao.com, Halfords, Arla Foods, Hallmark Cards, G4S, Graham & Brown, Pure Gym, Yorkshire Building Society, Xscape, Ramsay Health Care, William Jackson Food Group, Vanquis Bank, Company Shop Group, Liverpool University, Rullion Group, Leeds Building Society, Skipton Financial Services, Speedy Hire, Associated British Foods, Boost Drinks, English Country Cottages, Royal Worcester, IDNS, Armitage Opticians, Hesper, Green Building Store

Charities and public sector

City & Guilds, Calderdale Council, Careers Bradford, Halifax BID, Bedspace, Northpoint Wellbeing, Leeds Women’s Counselling and Therapy Service, West Yorkshire Fire & Rescue, National Heritage Training Group, National Speedway Stadium, Visible

Local clients 

Suma Foods, Piece Hall, Wood & Wire, Orange Bikes, Friendly Soap, Calderdale College, Hebdenbridge.org, Thornber Properties, Kate-over.com, Weighsted, Atiresh, Upper Calder Valley Renaissance

Brand, design and creative agencies 

Propaganda, 10 Associates, Brand Nursery, Fun Agency, Tall, Creative Concern, Engine Room Design, Northlight, Enjoy Digital, Fluid Creative Media, Fed Up Studio Lab, Dulay Seymour

Practicalities

Full rebrands

Sometimes a client wants everything: copy, web build, graphic design and photography. For certain jobs I can pull together and project manage a whole team of talented local creatives - people I've worked with before and trust 100%. The rebrand I delivered for bedspace.co.uk is a good example.  

Briefing

I take briefs in emails, over the phone or face-to-face, and I have clients I see regularly as well as ones I’ve never even met. I usually write from scratch, but I also edit or rewrite existing copy, which occasionally includes redoing work by other ‘copywriters’. 

Location

Usually I work from my own office in Hebden Bridge town centre, but I can work from yours if you’re happy to cover any significant travel time and costs.  I can also host meetings here at my workplace. 

Deadlines

Simple: I never miss them. I only accept projects I know I can deliver on time, but that doesn’t mean I won’t agree to those urgent who-the-heck-is-going-to-write-the-copy jobs. It depends on my workload.

Technical writing

I’ve written for clients in virtually every industry and I deliberately don’t specialise. That’s because I think the principles of great copywriting are the same for every sector.  Also, for me at least, specialisation flies in the face of creativity, and I’d quickly get bored writing about just one thing. Occasionally I get asked to work on something too technical for me to be confident of doing a good job. When this happens, I’ll do you a favour and turn the work down. 

Costs

Costs depend on the job and are influenced by a number of variables, but I’ll happily give you a quote in advance. Please email or call for more info.