Copywriting Essentials – Training Course Outline

Copywriting is easy isn’t it? Just put together a few words, send out your document, sit back and wait for the phone to ring. Well, if you want to throw away money that's exactly what you do – or you could learn how to plan and use the right techniques to make your copywriting more effective and get some real results.

This course is for anybody who needs to produce corporate promotional material—direct mail, case studies, newsletters, brochures or press releases. We also cover the more recent development on social media and email marketing.

What you will learn on this course

By the end of the course, you will know how to:

• Write adverts, brochures, flyers and direct mail
• Check that your sales copy is working – and know what to do if it isn’t
• Write articles and newsletters
• Edit and proof your copy
• Feel confident about writing for social media and email marketing

What our customers say

“I thoroughly enjoyed this course, I found it interesting and informative, particularly useful in many aspects that I can use within work.”

MZ, Symbian

“Thank you Alison, a very enjoyable personal course. I am now excited instead of worried about writing my first case study.”

RH, London and Quadrant Housing Trust

Course duration

This course comprises four core modules and an additional eight supplementary modules. It can be run as a one-day intensive course or two-day workshop.

As a two-day workshop, we cover all the modules and you will have time to work on documents that you bring with you.

For private one-day courses, we deliver the core modules and four modules from the supplementary ones, which you choose in advance. We do not offer a public one-day course.

On both the one-day and two-day courses you will practise the skills you need to write successful copy, learning the techniques through group discussion and exercises based on real examples of adverts, brochures, flyers, direct mail, articles and newsletters.

The course materials include all the modules so delegates on one-day courses may study the supplementary modules in their own time if they wish.

Follow up session

Get the most from a staff training day and make sure valuable ideas aren't forgotten by booking a follow-up session. Our trainer will visit you again a month to six weeks after your course to give delegates the chance to:

• discuss how they implemented what they learnt
• go over points from the course
• practise their skills by working on their own writing with the trainer’s help

Course Contents: core modules

Both the one-day and two-day versions of this course cover these modules.

1. The basics

• What a good brief should tell you, and how to make sure you get one
• Breaking the rules – how copywriting differs from other business writing
• Identifying your target audience and focussing on their needs
• Plain Words’ rules for good writing
• Using figurative language to bring your copy to life
• Common grammar and spelling mistakes that people make all the time

2. Writing copy that gets attention

• Three rules of copywriting – knowing why people buy
• Questions to make your copy immediate, relevant and targeted
• The five things that get attention
• Ten tips for strong headlines
• Keeping them once you’ve got them – getting your body copy right

3. Tools for editing and proofing

• Polishing your writing the way a reader reads – from the top down
• Good linking sentences to keep the flow
• How to achieve maximum impact
• How to get the most from Word™ tools
• Hiding metadata
• How to proof your own work

4. How to check if it’s working … and what to do if it isn’t

• Measuring the success of your campaign
• Cost per enquiry and cost per sale
• Evaluation between media and between adverts – what to test
• When things go wrong – getting your eye back on the ball

Course Contents: supplementary modules

Choose four modules from this list if you have opted for the one-day course. If you have chosen the two-day option all the modules below will be covered.

5. Using the right techniques

• Advertisements – backing up your promise, telling a story
• Product or service brochures and flyers need attention-grabbing bonuses
• Corporate brochures – who are you and who are you talking to?
• Direct mail – compelling headlines and benefits
• Generate leads by considering your prospects’ needs

6. Creating good articles

• Why should an editor take your article?
• What to write – why should a reader read your article?
• An example article and by-line

7. Interviewing techniques

• How to find experts
• Making the most of your interview time – knowing how to prepare
• Rapport, interaction and follow-up with your interviewee
• Things to remember when writing it up
• Advantages of PR articles

8. How to design and lay out hard copy newsletters

• The purpose of different sorts of newsletter
• Six questions to help you get the focus right
• Content – balancing news, features, editorials, advertising
• Production issues that will keep your costs down
• How style issues can affect clarity
• Illustrations
• Ten tips to get your newsletter read

9. Email marketing – electronic newsletters

• Making sure you have the right audience
• So, you have email marketing – what are you trying to achieve?
• How to get your email opened
• Holding their attention
• What is the right frequency?
• Look and feel – polished vs simple approaches

10. Copywriting for the web

• What works and what doesn’t
• Understand how people read online
• Tips to attract people to your webpage
• Planning your story
• Encouraging readers to buy online

11. Social media

• Eight general guidelines for communicating in the brave new social media world
• Write compelling social news headlines
• Write a blog you would like to read
• Twitter using the ‘tweet’ method
• Ten essential twitter writing tips
• Three tips for writing an effective linked-in profile

12. How to win with press releases

• What are the business benefits?
• Seven deadly sins
• Setting objectives and finding content to meet them
• Ten top tips
• Getting your press release into publication

Book Now!

For details of timetabled courses, see the schedule.

To reserve your places you can book on-line, book a private course or call us on +44 (0)844 445 7743.