Web copywriting and case study creation
catherinesandland.com
Catherine Sandland
“What Lucy does looks like magic, but it isn’t. It’s takes skill and dedication and that’s what she brings in spades.”
About Catherine Sandland
Catherine is as known as the Presenting Queen. She’s a speaker coach, master of presenting skills, and a TEDx speaker. Catherine supports her clients to Stand Up, Speak Up and Speak Out to share their message and achieve their personal and professional goals.
The brief
Catherine approached me as she was embarking on a full redesign and refresh of her website, which included a brand new section for client case studies. She had four very different clients in mind. The brief was to have a conversation with each one and write a case study that would demonstrate the experience, impact and outputs that people get from working with her.
Though Catherine is an excellent communicator, she recognised that she was too close to the subject matter to write about it objectively. She had never used case studies on her website before and recognised the potential value and powerful impact of highlighting her clients’ experiences. She also wanted to focus on optimising the copy for search engines, accepting that SEO was not her bag and would have taken her forever to do!
The process
Catherine selected her four clients and introduced me to them by email. I followed up with each one, arranging a convenient time for a short phone or video call.
I prepared a list of open questions for each person, based on the outline information Catherine gave me in our brief. The conversations were very relaxed and free-flowing, and, at times, I was compelled to probe deeper to obtain some wonderful, emotive sound-bites to showcase her talents. I drafted each case study straight after the call whilst the information was fresh in my mind.
After drafting the copy, I sent it to each client for review and feedback, obtaining their written sign-off before forwarding the final versions to Catherine to pass to her web developer.
Outcomes
Catherine confessed some of her clients’ words had brought a tear to her eye. She appreciated my objectivity and ability to dig under the surface and get people to open up to me.
The case studies led to further SEO website copywriting for seven other pages, including Home, About and core services: one-to-one coaching, workshops and programmes. I wrote concisely and with clarity (two of Catherine’s core messages) and optimised each page by researching key search terms and phrases that would resonate with Catherine’s target audience. The content is helping to increase organic traffic and generate new business enquiries through her site.
I’ve known Lucy a long time. She understands me, my values and my business. She’s an incredibly hard worker who’s very detail oriented and knows her subject. Lucy is also a lovely, open and friendly person who is easy to talk to. What you see is what you get.
My clients really enjoyed their conversations with Lucy. She has a lovely manner and is polite and efficient. I love the content. The case studies have added a layer of credibility to my website and are encouraging visitors to spend more time on there, discovering more about what I do. I’ve used them on my social media and in response to client enquiries.
As for the web copy, Lucy’s in-depth questions really made me think, stumping me a little at times! She knew exactly what she needed to get to complete the puzzle. It was an interesting experience to see how an outsider approaches it and I enjoyed our conversation.
Lucy is a credible choice. She understands the invisible impact of how the words you choose affect the person reading them and can guide them to take action. She writes with purpose and gets the task done, better and more quickly than you would ever be able to do it yourself.