Zalando
Client
Industry
Fashion
Services
Content Copywriting Tone of voice UX
partnerportal.zalando.com/s/
Zalando is a marketplace for shoes, fashion and beauty. They’ve absolutely cracked the way they speak to customers (their success speaks for itself). But when it came to the Zalando Partner Portal they decided they might need a little expert help. The portal is the part of Zalando that speaks to merchants. It exists to help every single vendor that sells through Zalando to have the same great experience and support. Which is why Zalando turned to Craft Words to help them in supporting every partner with style.
Craft Words are experts in crafting B2B copy, having helped brands like Fast Track and Pycom. We also understand the language of fashion, thanks to our work with Lookiero and Nike Sportswear. While our experience in verbal identity for Apple, among others and UX sealed the deal.
Craft worked closely with internal business partners to help them communicate their messages, in an engaging and straightforward way. We spent time carefully filtering their information to ensure it was always relevant to the community of vendors served by Partner Portal. Then we wrote tone of voice guidelines to keep all the comms consistent in the future and make it easy for anyone starting to write for the portal to know where to start and what style to follow. We were careful here to make sure we considered vendors of all sizes, as well as those with differing levels of English, or marketing maturity.
Supporting every partner with style, meant developing an appropriate and inspiring tone of voice and maintaining it throughout the user journey. This entailed us demonstrating our expertise in UX and really getting under the skin of the business over the course of a five-month project. We put effort into helping internal business partners and stakeholders understand what they really needed to say and then helping them say it in a way that was clear and straightforward. We were also confident enough to sometimes advise them that they didn’t need to communicate (or at least that they should communicate a lot less often).
The result was a sister tone of voice to Zalando’s direct-to-customer brand. One that extended the brand voice into a new audience segment. Suddenly Zalando was offering the same great experience and service to every level of vendor as they do customers. The client was very pleased with the finished product and most importantly, businesses began to engage with the portal very enthusiastically.
“Craft Words reliably supported our product teams with great copy, and were also essential in setting up foundations for voice & tone and other content guidelines.”
Hertje Brodersen
Head of Design • Experience Strategist, Zalando
Craft Words patiently worked with us to have a deep understanding of our history, our purpose, our values, our successes and failures. They then translated that work into authentic stories and positioning which truly reflect who we are. We are very grateful to work with them. Alex Olmedo Co-Founder, Fast-Track
Alex Olmedo
Co-Founder, Fast-Track
Reliably supported our product teams with great copy, but also essential in setting up foundations for voice & tone and other content guidelines. Hertje Brodersen Head of Design ∙ Experience Strategist, Zalando
Head of Design ∙ Experience Strategist, Zalando
Really friendly, talented and experienced copywriters. We’ve worked together on several projects for Nike EMEA and Global - extremely easy to collaborate with. Jorge Cumbre Unseen
Jorge Cumbre
Unseen
Paul is one of the most insightful writers I’ve worked with. He’s a strong and proactive creative whose infectious enthusiasm and forethought have driven many global campaigns to success. I couldn’t recommend Paul more highly. David Clarke Executive Creative Director, Huge
David Clarke
Executive Creative Director, Huge
Very professional and knowledgeable. I had a great experience working with Craft Words organizing communications training for the Digital Impact Alliance. They customized each workshop to our specific needs and industry, and were adaptable as new things came up. Our team had a lot of fun during the sessions and learned new strategies and techniques for writing and presenting. Arielle Diamond Senior Communications Manager, Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL)
Arielle Diamond
Senior Communications Manager, Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL)
We recommend Craft Words to anyone who wants to find their voice and put personality to a brand. Simon Croft Founder and CD, Orangery
Simon Croft
Founder and CD, Orangery
Paul just gets it. He elevates content to the next level. He’s a talented writer, creative and a very clever communicator. And he’s great to work with – hard working, passionate and extremely humble. Anna Murphy Content Manager, PepsiCo
Anna Murphy
Content Manager, PepsiCo
Tone of voice and brand challenges resolved via well-crafted words across all channels, to get you and your brand, business or organisation wherever you wish to go. Liam Morgan Cogs
Liam Morgan
Cogs
Everything you could ask for. On brief, on time and always looking to improve the work. Highly recommended. Raul Balreira Digital Project Manager, Tribal Worldwide London
Raul Balreira
Digital Project Manager, Tribal Worldwide London
Straight away, we saw Craft’s work ethic and can-do attitude. There have been many big projects where we needed support and this took a lot of weight off our shoulders and meant we could concentrate on more strategic decisions driving the projects. Andrew Penfold Digital & Content Marketing Manager, Security & Safety Things
Andrew Penfold
Digital & Content Marketing Manager, Security & Safety Things
Paul knows his audience. One of his sayings has become a team mantra – ‘Your audience always has an opinion. Start there.’ Anita Stubenrauch Author of Apple's Credo
Anita Stubenrauch
Author of Apple's Credo
It was a pleasure to work with Paul. His great collaborative mindset and professionalism push the deliverable to the next level. He’s a great content strategist, writer and thinker who asks insightful questions to push the design. I’ve never worked with a writer who influences design so much. Seisho Manabe Director, Frog Design
Seisho Manabe
Director, Frog Design
Paul exemplifies the best elements in a writer: he’s constantly looking for inspiration, and maintains a childlike sense of wonder for new things. His appetite for all things literary is humbling and he’s the nicest guy you’ll ever meet. Ben Oliver Vice President, Creative and Original Content at RFRSH Entertainment / Blast Pro Series / Astralis / Origen
Ben Oliver
Vice President, Creative and Original Content at RFRSH Entertainment / Blast Pro Series / Astralis / Origen
Paul is a true wordsmith. He is never satisfied with ‘good enough.’ It was a pleasure to work with—and be inspired by—someone constantly seeking experts and experiences to hone his craft. Anita Stubenrauch Senior Content Manager, Apple
Senior Content Manager, Apple
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