Digital Discovery · Field guide
Vol. I / No. 06

The voice.

CopyTone · Word list · Ladder
April 2026
01

Four pillars — how we sound.

Confident · specific · plain · never breathless
01

Confident, not loud.

We've done this before. We don't need to prove it in every sentence. State the thing, land the number, move on.

Assured · quiet
02

Specific, not vague.

$4M to $150M. 45-minute call. Twelve weeks. Names, numbers, dates. If we can't be specific, we don't say it.

Numbered · named
03

Plain, not clever.

We write like a founder explaining something to another founder. No jargon. No LinkedIn poetry. No adjective pile-ups.

Straight talk
04

Honest about limits.

We name what we don't do. We say no to bad fit. We tell founders when a platform is the right answer — even if that means we don't get the job.

Straight answers
02

Do & don't — same message, different mouth.

The difference between trust and pitch
Do · How we open
A 45-minute call. You describe the situation. We name the three things we'd tackle first.
Concrete promise. No fluff. The founder knows exactly what they're signing up for.
Don't · Generic agency-speak
Let's connect to unlock your growth potential and explore how we might partner strategically.
Every agency says this. It promises nothing and asks for everything. Delete.
Do · How we describe the work
We build the systems that platforms can't — and keep the code yours.
Names the gap. Names the differentiator. Twelve words. Puts ownership front and centre.
Don't · Feature soup
Full-service digital transformation agency offering cutting-edge web, e-commerce and platform integration solutions.
Says everything, means nothing. Five buzzwords before the reader even arrives.
Do · How we prove it
Bing Lee. $4M to $150M. Same codebase, seven years.
Numbers, names, duration. Done. The reader can picture it and verify it.
Don't · Vague credentials
We've helped leading Australian retailers achieve exceptional growth outcomes.
"Leading", "exceptional", "outcomes" — three words doing no work. Say who, how much, how long.
03

Word list — in & out.

The vocabulary that keeps the voice consistent
Use — our words
  • Ship verb · craft
  • Keep the code ownership
  • Discovery the first step
  • The second call credibility
  • Impossible headline
  • Systems, not templates category
  • Founders audience
  • Leverage outcome
  • Specialty, trade, retail segment
  • Plain English value
Avoid — ban list
  • Leverage (as verb) jargon
  • Solutions buzzword
  • Synergy / synergise cliché
  • Cutting-edge / bleeding-edge cliché
  • Best-in-class empty
  • Transform / transformation overused
  • Unlock / unleash breathless
  • Journey (as metaphor) tired
  • Crafted with care cliché
  • Next-level / game-changing hype
04

Headline ladder — four rungs.

Poster to inline · Italiana caps + Instrument italic accent · one italic fragment only
Poster56px+
We make the impossible.
4 words · 1 italic
Hero40–56px
Strategy, systems & software.
5 words · 1 italic
Section28–40px
Seven years of shipping the impossible.
6 words · 1 italic fragment
Inline20–28px
The Sydney studio for founders.
6 words · 1 italic
05

Microcopy — the small moments.

Buttons · empty states · error · confirmation
Primary CTA
Start a project
Not "Get started" · not "Book a demo"
Form submit
Send
One word. No urgency theatre.
After submit
Got it. We reply within 24 hours — usually faster.
Promise + under-promise. Specific.
Empty state
No projects yet. Start one →
State the truth. Offer the next step.
Error
That didn't send. Try once more — if it sticks, email nigel@ddg.co.
Acknowledge. Fallback. Human contact.
404
This page didn't survive a deploy. Back to work →
Honest about the mistake. Redirect kindly.
06

Manifesto — the long form.

One page · one voice · the tone ceiling
Field guide · No. 06

We make the impossible.

Most agencies hand you a website. We hand you a system — one your business can grow into, one your team can edit, one you actually own. Because the difference between a site that runs and a system that lifts a business is usually the person who's done it before, and the code they leave behind.

Platforms are brilliant for most people. They're not brilliant for the twenty percent who grew past the template — the retailers doing $4M who want to do $150M, the specialty brands with catalogues that choke every SaaS, the founders who've realised that owning the code is the difference between leverage and lock-in. That's who we work with.

We say what we mean. We prove it with numbers, not adjectives. We earn trust by being the second call, not the first pitch. And when a platform is the right answer, we say so — even when that means we don't get the job.

Nigel Price · Founder · Digital Discovery Group Sydney · April 2026