Elevating copywriting skills at Northumbria University
The challenge:
Northumbria University recognised that they needed to further enhance the effectiveness of their communications by elevating the copywriting capabilities across their internal teams and approached the Pickle Jar team to help.
This included optimising the proficiency of their Global Marketing and Business department, which is essential in managing the university's external communications.
Additionally, there was an opportunity to bolster everyday communication skills across the university to ensure clarity and precision in tasks such as drafting emails.
What we delivered:
The comprehensive training programme that we designed for Northumbria University included a series of in-person workshops and sessions that addressed key aspects of effective copywriting.
The curriculum that we developed focused on:
understanding the audience’s language and needs,
distilling messages,
structuring content for better readability and accessibility,
aligning with the university’s tone of voice,
creating compelling calls to action,
and refining editing skills.
This approach ensured that both experienced and less experienced staff members could enhance their proficiency and produce more impactful communications themselves, moving forward.
The programme was rolled out through five one-day intensive workshops for the marketing department and multiple half-day sessions for broader staff participation.
The sessions were also supplemented by an online video and additional materials to allow for self-paced learning, ensuring that the training was accessible and could be integrated into the daily workflow of all participants.
Feedback from the participants was overwhelmingly positive, with the training receiving an outstanding rating of 4.9 out of 5. This enthusiastic reception underscored the training's effectiveness in meeting the needs of Northumbria University's staff and enhancing their communication skills across various contexts.
“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
Through this training initiative, Northumbria University were able to not only advanced the copywriting and communication skills of its staff but also strengthened its overall ability to engage effectively with its diverse audiences.
Is inconsistent copywriting diluting your message?
If you’d like to find out more about how we can help you improve your own internal copywriting skills, drop us a line, we’d love to hear from you.