Northumbria University: copywriting training
Clear and concise writing is key to communicating effectively with your audiences.
We helped staff across Northumbria University to improve their copywriting skills.
We were commissioned to develop and deliver two bespoke writing training packages for both communications specialists and as part of the university’s wider professional development offering.
Copywriting for marketing purposes
The University commissioned Pickle Jar to deliver copywriting training for its Global Marketing and Business department, the teams responsible for the majority of their externally-facing copy. With a range of skills and experience across the teams, they wanted to offer guidance and structure for less-experienced copywriters to follow, while also developing the abilities of the more skilled copywriters.
To meet this challenge, Pickle Jar Communications worked with Northumbria to understand their needs and designed a bespoke essential copywriting course.
Our training covered:
Understanding your audience’s language and needs
Distilling your message
Structuring your content
Readability and accessibility
Aligning with the University’s tone of voice
Creating calls to action
Editing
We delivered the training in five one-day workshops to 70 people across the department.
Our training was rated 4.9 out of 5 by attendees (outstanding).
University-wide clear and concise writing
This training was designed to help staff across the university to write clearly and concisely in their everyday writing, such as drafting emails.
Combining theory with practice, each half-day session covered guidances and exercises on:
Understanding your audience: who are they? What do they need?
Crafting your message: what do you need to say? what do you want people to do?
Writing clearly: how can you make it easy to understand?
After a successful pilot session, the training was rolled with multiple training courses provided across the academic year to enable colleagues to upskill.
The training was also delivered as a video with additional materials for colleagues to complete in their own time.
Testimonial
“Pickle Jar Communications has been a pleasure to work with. From our first interaction, I was impressed by their professionalism, expertise and customer focus. Dana listened carefully to what we needed and then designed a training session that was exactly what we were looking for. They also created an online resource to help colleagues to embed the learning from the sessions. The word-of-mouth referrals and recommendations among colleagues are a testament to the great quality of the training sessions.”
~ Sarka Hildon, Northumbria University
Feedback from attendees
“The best thing about the training was the combination of theory and practical training, it allowed us to use what we had just learnt and apply it.”
“The training was incredibly helpful in making me think about the needs of the reader and reflecting these in written copy.”
“Really enjoyed the training, found it very useful and great to spend time actually focusing on real life examples. Excellent knowledgeable trainer.”
“Brilliantly engaging session, perfect for all skill levels, really interactive and, honestly, far better than I was expecting. Thanks!”
“The session was engaging and easy to follow throughout the day. Introduced several new concepts and helped me to take a step back and put myself into the reader's shoes to gauge what may be the most relevant to them.”
Bespoke copywriting and content training
Looking to develop your team? We offer customisable training in copywriting, content creation, email strategy and more.
Get in touch to discuss your needs.