Work I’ve done

The existing course pages were dry, academic and impersonal. We had to bring them to life and ‘sell’ them to prospective students. Writing about everything from photography to aerospace engineering to social care, I had to absorb a hell of a lot of info. Then I had to distil it into a rigid format with word counts tighter than a duck’s butt, maintaining a vibrant tone throughout. With so many pages to write, getting them done to a high quality within the deadlines was a test of stamina and organisation.

I also had to interview the course leader for every page I wrote, which was a great opportunity to develop my interviewing skills. The supporting materials provided by course leaders varied wildly in its quality and depth, so I also had to learn to quickly analyse which information I could use and what I had to do from scratch. 

Time will tell if the updated copy leads to more applications for the uni. For now, I’m happy to report that both the uni and the agency that hired Wordsmiths Unlimited for the copy were very pleased with what we provided.

Edits were minimal, several of my pages were approved with none required, and I was happy to play my part in this massive project.

Working with one of my partner agencies, I had to create ad and email funnels for eight different types of customer (families, people with pets, couples, new mums etc). Writing ad and email variations for each of the different customer profiles was the easy part, as I then had to design and set up automated email workflows, something I’d never really done before.

Setting up the automations was a complex job as the studio were also using telesales. So there were a lot of conditions to insert into the journey (those are the ‘if-then’ statements that determine what actions happen next).

It was a big learning curve for me, a challenge that I enjoyed. It’s the sort of thing a lot of businesses would struggle with and it gave me confidence that I could now provide that as part of my service.

In terms of the copy, it was crucial to make the ads and email emotionally driven, highlighting the specific moments and feelings the clients would want to preserve in a photoshoot with their pet/family/other half. 

The studio has been using my ads and email funnels for several months. Their converted customers coming through the Meta ads have almost doubled since my automations went live, making a positive impact on their total sales from all channels.

In terms of the metrics from my email sequences, the open rates were averaging around 50%, with a click-to-open rate of around 10%. 

The existing copy was a bit of a DIY job and didn’t quite reflect the elegant yet relaxed and friendly feel the owners wanted. My job was to create this feeling in the copy and bring the uniqueness of the properties to the surface.

I visited all the properties to get a feel for them. I also spent hours trawling online reviews and articles to really understand what got people’s juices flowing when they visited.

Rather than just simply describing the properties, I wanted the reader to feel like they were there, so I made the copy sensory and experiential, as if taking the reader on a guided tour.

My copy has helped to drive growth for the owners. For example, my rewriting of the weddings section on The Timble Inn’s website contributed to an increase in bookings from around five per year to over twenty.

Following the website project, the client signed me up to support with their email marketing for the Inn and the York rentals.

This was quite a complex product –  a device that helps people maintain eye contact on video calls and webcasts.

At quite a high price point, I needed to makes sure I made the benefits clear, differentiated the product from inferior alternatives and overcame objections.

This involved a LOT of research around competitor products and their limitations. I also needed to maintain a tone that resonates with the high-end professionals who are the target audience. Since this would be a pretty new concept to most people, I began by building awareness of the problem, relating with their frustrations and building trust. 

The product is selling well to a global audience, and the owner at Primelight Design asked me to provide similar sales pages for some of their other lines.

The client wanted to appeal to a new generation of fun-loving golf fanatics, as far away from the stereotype of old, crusty, pompous men as possible. The client gave me license to use golf references and wordplay to really connect with that audience.

Can’t lie, I had a lot of fun with this one. I made it clear that these products gave golfers a chance to express themselves and stand out on the course and in the clubhouse. And I went to town on the golf puns and added plenty of humour that golfers could relate to, like hitting the ball into the trees. 

The products are selling well both on the website and on Amazon where my copy was also used.

The client, a dynamic and disruptive acting coach, had an email list of 4,000+. He was getting good open rates but click-throughs were low and he wanted to get more people onto his premium mentoring programme and special workshops.

This project required me to immerse myself in the acting industry. I had to know exactly what it was like to be a frustrated actor facing rejection. And I included lots of relevant industry news and trends to keep the copy fresh and avoid repetition. These included stories about Pedro Pascal, who’d just starred in The Last of Us, and Ruth Wilson, an A-list actor who the coach had previously worked with.

My copy contributed to an increase in regular class attendance and sign-ups to the mentoring programme. He was also able to establish a class in London as well as increase the frequency of his special workshops as we were getting more sign-ups.