In this case, however, I was brought in by an agency as a bolt-on resource for a particular e-book project. The client relationship hadn’t always run smoothly, so when a first draft of a technical e-book hadn’t quite hit the spot with the client, the decision was made to bring in an agency-experienced content marketing specialist to bolster the agency team.

Advising on content strategy
Initially, I was tasked with editing the existing copy, but after skimming through I could see that a complete re-cast would be more successful in supporting the brand’s marketing communications objectives. I proposed that it would be more successful to refine and clarify the purpose of the e-book – nothing in the content was particularly ‘wrong’ as such, it was more about making sure the target audience of B2B decision-makers would be immediately aware of how useful the content would be to them, to maximise its perceived value and engender trust in the client’s brand.

Positioning the client as a helpful expert in their field, to ensure the brand would be front of mind when the prospective customer needed them, was a particularly important aspect, since the topic of the e-book was a service that is a distress purchase.

My first step was to write a proposal for the newly structured e-book, which gave the reader a clear ‘why’ for its existence, and conveyed just enough technical information to assure them of the brand’s expertise on the subject. I re-jigged the order of the existing chapters, slanting them in a more reader-centric way, and added an introduction which explicitly set out why the information in book would be useful for business owners and decision-makers.

Content marketing project management
Once the client had approved the concept, I set about writing a quick and dirty first draft while the client-side marketing team gathered the additional information I had requested. This was a project with a tight turnaround, so we ran these two processes concurrently. I attended videoconference meetings at intervals throughout the e-book project, leading discussions about the written content wherever required, while agency employees took care of aspects relating to design, production and distribution.

Ultimately the e-book was turned around within the required tight timescale, and both the speed and quality satisfied the client – in fact barely any amends were made after the first full draft was completed. The agency were very happy with the outcome of my marketing content consultancy, and I received a lovely message of thanks and praise from the agency’s Head of Content.

The post Content marketing consultancy – technical B2B e-book appeared first on Rebecca Winward.

Aspiring Solicitors is a leading diversity platform supporting students from non-traditional backgrounds and under-represented groups into the legal profession. The organisation offers its members work experience placements, coaching opportunities, mentoring programmes, diversity events, access to professional ambassadors, and an annual commercial awareness competition, all designed to help them secure a trainee solicitor position.

Balancing the needs of two audiences
With over 70,000 student and graduate members and 70+ partners including leading law firms and high profile organisations, it was critical that the web copy would speak to both audiences. The key to balancing this was to create a voice that was unquestionably slick, professional and intelligent, without using heavily sector-specific terminology or long, complex sentence structures.

Working to a detailed brief which outlined all the useful background, included keywords (with the most important indicated clearly), and provided web page mock-ups and wordcounts, I wrote all the copy to fit the required formats and wordcounts, to ensure the most seamless upload process would be possible. In addition, I wrote meta-descriptions for each page, optimised with keywords.

Quick, clean SEO web copy
In all I wrote 22 pages of web copy, of varying lengths, with a total project wordcount of around 5,500, in just under three and a half days (including one round of changes, although there were relatively few). I was delighted to receive such positive feedback from the client, both on my speedy turnaround and the quality of the web copy I had provided.

Rebecca was wonderful to work alongside. She re-wrote the content for our new website working to the strict word count and legal and DE&I keywords provided. We were delighted with the copy she produced for us. What’s more, her communication throughout was seamless.

We thoroughly enjoyed working with Rebecca and valued her hard work, expertise and finesse on the project. We will definitely come to Rebecca for future projects and would highly recommend her to brands and agencies alike. 

Sarah Harden, Head of Brand and Marketing, Aspiring Solicitors

The post Web copy – SEO content with optimal UX appeared first on Rebecca Winward.

I first started working with We Are Aphra in 2020, during the first lockdown. This creative marketing agency required support because they were in demand and rapidly growing, with lots of new retained clients and various projects about to come online. Rather than rush recruiting for their permanent team members in order to upscale to meet demand, bringing me in enabled the agency to take their time and find new hires who would be the right fit.

I worked on a wide variety of B2B and B2C accounts, writing content from web pages to blogs, video scripts to socials, providing editorial services, and of course chipping in to team efforts such as tenders and pitches, and client strategy brainstorming:

• Groundworks contractor – SEO blogs and case studies
• Law firm – SEO web copy
• Insurance provider – video script
• Construction companies – bid writing
• Builders merchant – social media
• Big 3 management consultancy – copy editing
• Health supplements retail – social media
• HE community magazine – editorial services
• IT security specialist – SEO blogs and mailshots
• Kiosk manufacturer – emails, social media and web copy
• Communications strategy planning
• Tender and pitch contributions

Working as an integral part of the team, with my own Aphra email address and sign-in on the project management system, I acted as a true partner, supporting client relationships and a positive team dynamic, acting to all intents and purposes like an Aphra employee. In terms of location, I was mostly working remotely, but did pop in for in-person meetings when required.

I delivered marketing agency support for Aphra on a retained basis over a year and a half in the end, owing to continued growth, and have since also tackled a number of discrete copywriting projects for them.

“It’s always helpful for a marketing agency to have experienced freelance professionals on hand for support, and we found it particularly useful to be able to scale up or down with a senior-level resource, depending on client demands and team workloads. I found Rebecca to be a safe pair of hands whatever the brief, and her background in agency and in-house marcomms roles proved invaluable when it came to hitting the ground running with each new client or project she was involved in.”

Grace Carter, Founder & Director, We Are Aphra

The post Marketing agency support – copy, content and strategy appeared first on Rebecca Winward.