Copywriting Portfolio
Portfolio Contents: video | print ads #1 | print ads #2 | taglines and branding | site content | blog posts | band marketing | social media | UI and instructional copy | landing pages | home page branding | driving registration conversions.
Video Lead Outs
Online food and wine show Gastrotommy wanted to use their videos to drive site membership. Each of their episodes introduces a new chef, winemaker or artisan producer and gastrotommy members get a discount on their products. I wrote and developed several short sequences that run at the end of each video. They summarize what viewers have just watched and offer a quick pitch on becoming a member of the site.
Sample Clips:
Print Ads - GraduatingEngineer.com
CASS Communications, Inc., former publisher of Graduating Engineer & Computer Careers magazine, wanted to create a series of print ads that would introduce it’s readers to the new online counterpart, GraduatingEngineer.com. The target audience was senior-level, engineering and computer science majors. At the time, high-tech jobs were in high demand. My strategy was to connect with kids who had immense technical ability but were new to the prospect of starting their career and joining the ‘real world’.
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Print Ads - Placement Manual Network
CASS Communications, Inc., the publisher of the official career services handbook for most U.S. colleges and universities, had just finished expanding each printed manual into a Web site for each school. Every college’s branded site was a sub-domain off of PlacementManual.com and contained entry-level career help, resume tips and interview advice for recent college grads. I was tasked with designing a print ad that would run in each school’s offline manual and announce the arrival of the it’s digital counterpart.
My initial strategy—as seen in the first two specs—was to connect with the mind set of the target audience: college-level seniors who are about to graduate. Eventually deemed too risky, I transitioned into the ‘graceful entrance’ concept which ran in career manuals throughout the country.
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Tag Lines & Branding
I spearheaded the creation of two hyper-niche career sites, GraduatingEngineer.com and MinorityNurse.com. For each site I wrote a concise tag line that communicated their unique value proposition to their target audience.
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Web Site Content
Clients are always eager to launch a site but often don’t have the resources or skills to write their own site content. What I consider to be one of the most important components of a successful site can actually be an afterthought to a lot of new businesses venturing online. Quite often this puts me in the challenging (and often entertaining) position of writing marketing copy for businesses about which I know very little.
My process is always the same: extract as much information as possible from the client, research their industry thoroughly, and look at how their direct and non-direct competition is presenting itself. The most important items to identify are:
What make them truly unique and allows them to stand out from the competition?
Who is their target market? Who would they like to reach but have not yet been able to?
What does a day-in-the-life of their company look like?
What is the story behind the company? People hate histories, but they love a good story.
When all is said and done, how do they want to be remembered by their customers? What is the emotion behind their brand?
Armed with these details it becomes easier to interject creativity and narrative into a companies story. I used this method recently to write site copy for Emerald Fire Protection, LLC, a fire sprinkler installation firm.
Sample:
Band Marketing
Promoting a new independent band is all about maximizing their small accomplishments and highlighting the endorsements of any industry heavyweights. In this case, Moxie Motive had received a big nod from KEXP.com, one of the biggest independent Internet and FM stations in the U.S., as well as an invitation to record with the engineer who had just finished Arcade Fire’s latest album. I used these and prominent live shows to craft the image of a band on the rise. I also created the design based off of their branded Web site.
The target audience for this one-sheet was booking personnel at prominent music venues across the country.
Sample:
Blog Posts & Branding
This is another example of a Web client who needed additional writing on their site. As phase one development of their site was finalized, I wrote the first blog post on their site and introduced visitors to their upcoming Web-only, food & wine TV show. After brainstorming with the client about their unique value proposition and content offering, I incorporated their ideas into a post that describes exactly what viewers can expect from the upcoming show.
Sample 1:
Sample 2:
When the first three episodes premiered, I wrote a post announcing the show’s arrival and intentions.
Social Media
I have established a branded social media marketing strategy for several businesses, many of which have grown into communities in the thousands.
Twitter:
Facebook:
UI and Instructional Copy
The sales manager at MN was concerned about feedback from clients who claimed the site’s job posting / ecommerce process was too confusing. Out of frustration, people were occasionally abandoning the process and emailing their postings directly to sales associates. I looked over the job posting interface, streamlined the pages and then wrote instructional copy for each page. I then wrote the following ‘Frequently Asked Questions” and prominently linked to it throughout the process. As a result job purchase conversion rates greatly increased and customer issues dropped significantly.
Sample:
Landing Pages
In early 2010 FindTuition.com was implementing an aggressive affiliate marketing strategy. I was tasked with writing copy and developing A/B landing pages for various campaigns. I worked with the marketing department and a designer to increase conversion rates based upon copy, images and design. The following turned out to be one of the most successful combinations of words and layout. The target audience was college students and recent graduates.
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Home Page Branding & Call to Action
Pet Patio Pickup, Inc. is a Chicago start-up with an innovative pet waste removal service and a target audience of higher income, downtown high-rise dwellers. The challenge was to create home page copy that could both communicate their overall business offering and also drive visitors to sign up for a free trial. Several hundred people have now completed the free trial and 30% go on to become full-time customers—a successful outcome considering their niche product offering.
Sample:
Driving Registration Conversions
These days having a registration process is an important part of most Web-based business models, but without a solid value proposition, no visitor will ever be compelled to join your site. While at Alloy, I worked with sales, marketing, and the senior editor to define the exact details of what we could offer registered users of MN. I then wrote copy to explain the benefits to site visitors and drive conversions. One example of how this was implemented on the site is the ‘Benefits of Registration’ page seen below. From the outset of implementation, MN has seen about 1,000 new registrants per month, greatly adding to both user experience and division revenue.
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Web Portfolio
View my Web Portfolio or contact me for a free copywriting evaluation of your next project.
