Choosing a Voice for Your Website & Blog: Should You Write from "Me" or "We"?

One of the things I often help my web design clients with is choosing the right voice for their business website.

Sometimes, a website is very clearly written from one specific person (the business owner). Other times, it’s written from “we,” the company or team of people.

Though this may seem like a small, not-too-important detail, it’s actually an essential part of creating an effective website.

There can be quite a lot of thought that goes into which of these voices to use on your website and business materials, especially for small business owners who are currently #solopreneurs, but perhaps looking to grow into a larger company and team down the road.

Choosing the appropriate “voice” for your business

Choosing the appropriate voice for your business (“me” or “we”) is important because that simple detail contributes to:

defining who you are as a business (are you a one woman show or a large team?)
establishing your brand identity + business personality
setting expectations for how your content is created, whose opinions are shared, and what the content creator’s qualifications are
setting a precedent for how you’ll engage with your customers/clients

Though the difference between “we” and “me” may seem like a fine, easy-to-blur line (and many new business owners tend to think of them as being interchangeable), they actually communicate something very different to your audience.

So, it’s important to choose and consistently use the voice that best represents your particular business and brand!

What happens if you choose the “wrong” voice for your business

Now… what happens if you accidentally choose the wrong voice for your business?

I’ll share a personal example. 😅

When I first started Five Design Co., it was structured as a web design agency that would involve multiple Squarespace designers.

For various reasons, this has not been ideal to set up and manage. (Not that it’s impossible, but it just hasn’t been a good fit for me with other obligations—if you’re not familiar, I’m a former wellness blogger and healthcare marketing manager who started a wellness company first, and then accidentally fell into designing websites for other entrepreneurs.)

So, what started as a vision of connecting other web design freelancers with the regular web design requests I was getting ended up remaining a personal business after all.

But back when I started Five Design Co. and began blogging to grow its audience (blogging is one of the very best ways to do that!), I chose to write as “we” to be inclusive of other web designers joining the agency and build a sense of community around that.

Now, down the road a couple years, and that voice doesn’t make sense anymore.

Though I’m thankful to have a small team helping with business tasks behind the scenes, I still oversee all custom web design. I personally write the vast majority of these blog posts. The opinions and experience they’re based on is mine. I’m the sole business owner. There’s not really much “we” to speak of, so that’s not the most appropriate voice to use.

Recently, I decided to update this and write directly from me to you. So my business voice will be less “speaking for the business” and more “speaking as Mel, the web designer and business owner”—which is also more natural for me.

So, the entire website is in the process of being updated to reflect this change (there are a lot of pages and posts to update!), and it brings up this age-old question that I chat with my web design clients about:

Should I write my website & blog posts from “me” or from “we?”

Let’s walk through how to choose the best voice for your business website:

How to choose the voice for your business website + blog

Here are some tips for determining which voice (“me” or “we”) is best to use for your business materials and website:

How many people are on your team?

One of the easiest rules here is to simply select your voice based on how many people are running your business.

If you’re a solopreneur business owner, and you’re writing all of your own blog posts and providing all of your business services, you can write with singular “I” and “me” statements. That’s totally fine!

Some people feel that they need to adopt the collective “we” to give the impression of being a larger, more established brand.

Some clients have asked me: But isn’t “we” more professional?

And the answer is: Not at all!

“We” is just a collective term for a group of people. And “I” is what would be more appropriate to use if you’re the sole business owner, and you’re the one providing all the services (or making all the products) you’re referring to on your website.

How many people are providing direct services?

If there are multiple people providing services in your business (for example, if you own a hair salon at which multiple hair stylists provide services), you’d generally go with “we.”

But if you have a team helping you with certain business operations behind the scenes, while you remain the sole direct service provider, your best voice would most likely be “me.”

How do you anticipate your business growing?

Now, the in-between place some people fall into (me included, when I started Five Design Co.!) is if you’ve started your business alone, but you’re intending to grow it into a collective that ultimately includes more people. What now?

Here’s where to do as I say, not as I do! 😉

If you are absolutely, definitely going to grow into a collective, or a team in which you’ll collectively provide services, etc… then it makes sense to start off with the “we” voice, as that’s what you’ll ultimately be needing to use on your website.

It’s a pain in the you-know-what to change all of your website copywriting (and dozens of blog posts) between voices, so you really want to start with what you’ll most likely be using for the foreseeable future.

So, if you’re not 100% sure you’re going to actually be a collective down the road, it’s best to stick with the “me” voice for now. Later, if you do bring on additional service providers, you can factor that into your branding.

What’s the industry standard?

It’s also helpful to look around your industry at what the standard is.

For example, if you’re a health coach, the industry standard is definitely “me”—health coaches are individuals, and it makes sense to refer to yourself as such.

But if you’re a restaurant owner, the industry standard is “we”—there are many people working at your restaurant, and your language would naturally acknowledge that you’re not single-handedly preparing every meal, washing dishes, waiting tables, etc.

What does your audience expect?

Sometimes, depending on your industry or business type, there’s also an implicit expectation from your audience regarding how they’ll relate to your business—whether they’re relating to you the individual, or the company as a business entity.

Again, with the health coach example, your audience would expect to hear from the specific individual health coach providing services. They would be wanting to get to know you and your personality and expertise before signing up for personal coaching sessions with you.

But if you run a business that doesn’t really entail a personal relationship between you and your customers, but rather relies on a particular brand identity separate from your person, your customers may anticipate referring to you or interacting with your company (“we” language) rather than referring to you specifically as an individual (“me” language).

What would feel most natural to you?

And, finally, it’s also important to note which of these voices feels most natural to you as you’re writing and speaking.

It will be most authentic (and easiest!) to write regular blog posts or email newsletters from the voice that feels more natural and representative of your business and how you actually interact with your customers or clients.