Marketing Workshop | Leverage Copywriting to Maximize Your Impact
Event on 2015-03-13 09:00:00
Course Description. Good copy is essential to drive business growth. In a context of information overload for your audience, the quality of your content directly impacts the success of your marketing. This class will help you write the most impactful content from banners ads to white papers or blogs. Deconstruct copy, long and short form, into its component parts to gain a better understanding of how language motivates people to act. Better tailor your writing to exceed your own (and the client's) expectations. By the end of the class you will have a deeper understanding and appreciation of how to write impactful copy that drives consumers and supports brands, products and services. With this information you will be better able to deliver punchier copy that stands alone or pairs neatly with static of moving visuals. You will become your own grammar hammer and dispassionately critique your work, looking at it for clarity and quality rather than what you "feel" it ought to be. You will develop a new perspective on messaging; one that is more conscientious and aware of how everything we say and write is multilayered and often conveys more than we sometimes notice.
- 1 – The Copywriting Toolkit
- The 5 essential tools of the modern copywriter, and the process of copywriting.
- What is your brand voice? How do you identify it and how bendable is it?
- Rules and guidelines that every copywriter needs to know, then immediately forget.
- The “copywriters pain” (discussion).
- The creative brief process.
- Is there such a thing as the perfect creative brief?
- The audience mentality (discussion).
- Translation, or how to turn another persons half-baked notion into something understandable.
- Marrying copy to visuals, or how to get them to carry their fair share of the messaging load. (Case studies from campaigns launched by Safeway, Ford and others).
- Agitation nation: Web copy and other types of content are different animals.
- How to not be boring (Workshop).
- Good copy, how to know when you’ve written it (discussion).
- “Next time you eat a banana, remember this girl’s (amazing) experiment.”Headlines that click. Headlines that make you throw up in your mouth a little bit.
- Ways of seeing. A look at the evolution of copy and an exploration of the way language in advertising shapes reality.
- The social contract and the policy of truth (discussion).
- Where are we now? Where are we going?
- Closing arguments.
Prerequisites. This course is designed for professionals already writing in their daily job, in content marketing, or who are experienced copywriters already. While beginners are welcome, there will be very little explanation of the rudiments of copywriting. The emphasis will be on consumer products, brands and services, web/.com and B2B copy with the goal of building on the budding and established writers pre-existing skill set.
Well-suited for.
- Copywriters.
- Content Marketers.
- Content Strategists.
- Social Media Marketers.
- Content Marketing Consultants.
- Bloggers.
- Startup Marketers.
- Entrepreneurs.
About Kevin Lynch: Senior Copywriter at Microsoft / Swirl
Kevin is Senior Copywriter at Swirl in San Francisco, CA. He is an established, multi-topic writer with the adaptability and resilience needed to work in an array of industries and environments. In nearly two decades of professional writing experience, Kevin has produced numerous articles, media releases, video scripts, C-level executive speeches, white papers, and diverse marketing collaterals for Fortune 500 companies and individual clients. Prior to Swirl, he was a Consultant at Design Labs and contracted as a Creative Writer at Microsoft where he wrote content for the Microsoft online store. Alongside his professional pursuits, Kevin works as a Freelance Writer for publications in the US, Canada and India. He has been published in American Express Publications and has been a regular contributor to numerous national and international magazines and newspapers. Online, his work has appeared in many places, among them the MSNBC/iVillage website. Kevin is also the co-founder of the globally acclaimed website Native Food & Wine—a site that profiled food producers making a difference in their communities. His essay, "The Autograph Collector" was selected for inclusion in Holiday Traditions, a Christmas Anthology published in 2010 by F&W Publications.
at Swirl
101 Montgomery St
San Francisco, United States