“Really I cannot say how helpful this all is. We’ve been churning over the same words for so long trying to get our wording right for Together We Learn but so easily get caught up in little detail – what you’ve written crystallises our message in a straightforward way and the whole team is really happy with it.”
Caroline Walker, Chief Executive, Together We Learn
Background:
Together We Learn is a merger of two charities, Link Ethiopia and The Kindu Trust. Both work to brighten the prospects of children in Ethiopia, Link Ethiopia through the provision of quality education, The Kindu Trust through residential support. In 2010 the two charities moved in to shared offices in London and formed a close alliance, sharing expertise and support. Ten years on, the two were merging officially to form Together We Learn and were developing a new website to reflect this.
Pearl of Wisdom
Website Copywriting - provision of copy for a basic five-page website.
Brief:
After speaking to Chief Executive Caroline Walker and looking at the content of the existing Link Ethiopia and The Kindu Trust websites, it became clear that the most useful service was not to write a basic five-page website from scratch but to edit and rewrite existing copy to form the content for a more extensive new website. Therefore, the offer was adapted to providing copy for eight new pages, which would form the top level content of the site, linking to an extensive body of further content taken from the existing sites.
Process:
Tim began by reading through the Link Ethiopia website and then speaking to Caroline Walker, establishing the needs and wants of the charity with regard to the new website, as well as their own resources for developing the site.
Having established the background to the brief, he then read through The Kindu Trust website, gaining a good understanding of the activities of both charities and the story behind their merger.
Caroline and her team had begun to put together copy for some of the pages with a basic layout structure. Taking this into account, Tim rewrote the copy for the eight top level pages, establishing the tone of voice, key messages and calls to action and paring down the overall volume of copy for a more immediate, accessible user experience.
Outcome:
Tim supplied the new copy within about six weeks of the initial contact, giving TWL’s web designer plenty of time to build the pages with live copy and for Tim to review the finished pages ready for the scheduled merger announcement and website launch in September 2020.
Consultant’s insight:
When it comes to creating a website, many organisations treat the copy as an afterthought. It’s much more efficient if you address the copy first, as this ensures that the messaging, calls to action, user journey and other practical considerations are ironed out before the designers and developers go to work, making their job easier and quicker, and thus saving money.
Caroline came to me before any designs had been established and she had a clear plan as to what she wanted the website to achieve. She also recognised that she and her team were too ‘close’ to it to be able to make the cuts that the existing copy needed, and that an objective eye might be better placed to articulate the key messages.
The charity has a fantastic story and a compelling proposition, which made writing the copy very enjoyable and fulfilling. Caroline was a pleasure to work with and her approach and organisation made it easier for me to write copy that fulfilled the messaging needs of Together We Learn and set a logical path for the user journey.