Insights
14/08/2024
Our job’s not just writing, but helping others write. We’ve never subscribed to that old saw that ‘those who can, do and those who can’t teach’. In reality, unless you can do something well, it’s very hard to teach it. And we do copywriting very well. (If we do say so ourselves.)
One cliché we do support is the ‘teach a man (or woman) to fish’ philosophy. It’s not much use, us coming into an organisation and writing tone of voice guidelines if internal writers aren’t confident about using them. Some agencies might like to pretend that only their writers have the secret sauce that makes your copy work. But that’s rather nakedly self-serving. We’d like to think that once we’ve uncovered your voice, or as we prefer to say, ‘un-buried your brilliance’, anyone with the right training can use it, day-to-day.
We’re always very keen to talk to employees, stakeholders and even customers. First, to understand their view of the brand, their challenges, if any, and how we can help them. For example, we helped Apple define its retail tone of voice, find new ways to engage its global retail employees and sharpen its internal communications. We did this by delivering a series of workshops in London, Cupertino and Shanghai to introduce the new tone of voice to the global communication and marketing teams. And to let everyone have a go at writing in it, in a safe space.
Another recent example is our work with The Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL) – part of the UN Foundation. We helped their experts make their written work (presentations, expert articles) even sharper. We also showed the team how to translate complex ideas into tight and easily-digestible messages when they’re presenting and speaking on panels.
Our founder Paul Anglin not only helps train client organisations, he also received Teaching Excellence Awards in 2020, 2021, 2022 and Best Professor 2023 for his leadership of the Copywriting module of the Masters in Creative Direction, Content & Branding at Madrid’s prestigious IE University (voted sixth best Business School in the world by Forbes, 2019). In addition, Paul delivers masterclasses via the online learning platform DOMESTIKA. His courses on Copywriting for Social Media (teaching students how to write effective copy to attract and engage a brand audience) and Tone of Voice in Copywriting for Brands (helping writers discover a unique brand voice by exploring copywriting principles and creating a style guide to keep tone consistent across all mediums) are both bestsellers having reached 58,000 students, and receiving 98% positive reviews.
The best training in copywriting, tone of voice and verbal branding feels natural. That’s why we try to deliver our workshops, guides and tips in the most accessible language. It’s no use providing guidance that’s too theoretical to be of practical use, so we offer simple ‘do and don’t’ advice, and practice exercises, so that people can get comfortable with the brand tone of voice. And the more comfortable they become, the more instinctive the brand voice becomes. It’s called a brand personality for a reason, and we want people to know their brand as if it were a person with a distinctive and consistent way of speaking.
Many companies skip this part of the process of rolling out a new brand voice. That’s fine, but we’ve found that those who invest in copywriting workshops reap the benefits not just in terms of employee motivation and enthusiasm, but in the quality of their communications going forward.
We get tremendous satisfaction from not just writing but helping others write, as well as seeing its effectiveness in embedding good principles and consistency across our client’s entire range of communications. From the website to social media, speeches to presentations, even in informal emails. It all adds up to a stronger, more engaging brand experience.
To find out how Craft can help you write even better, get in touch.
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