EXAMPLES
What follows are descriptions of (and links to) some of my copywriting projects, both past and present. They’re displayed here to give the people I work with some air time, to give readers a concrete idea of what I do, and to give potential clients an idea of what I can do for them. You can also see testimonials from some of my clients here.
—->Filtrbox is a Boulder company that provides relevant market intelligence and media monitoring to salespeople, VC’s, executives, and information junkies. I use their product to monitor not only my own personal brand, but to track keywords that interest me (like “copywriting”) around mainstream media, blogs, and twitter. A couple months back, I got an opportunity to help them with some of their messaging, and jumped at it.
We hit a couple bumps in the road with price and communication, but I think I was a good fit for the project, and I think I helped them communicate a little better who they are. Take a look at their website by clucking on the logo above, especially on the home page and the about page (where I did most of my work). My personal highlight, other than adding the office dog to the bios, was wording like this:
Filtrbox delivers the information you need, and helps you discover information you didn’t know existed
Filtrbox dials your noise level way down, giving you only the information you want, any way you want it
—->Room214 is a social media and word-of-mouth marketing company, based here in Boulder. They’re one of the few firms going out on a new marketing limb, who still have the creds and resources to do it in a traditionally-solid way. There are bound to be a couple bumps in the road, but overall, I think they’re doing great stuff. I also think they should hire me, and jumped at the chance to help them smooth out some wording for their new website.
The project was pretty quick, but I think I was able to help them out… helping them communicate often-complex new concepts in a concise (and fun) way. It can be seen all over what I think is a very well-designed website, as well as in paragraphs like these:
—->Pro Photo Rental is an online camera and lens rental company, owned by my buddy Jared Kohlmann. They supply top notch equipment to photographers, for a short amount of time, that those people can’t buy (or couldn’t ship themselves to location). It’s a cool idea, and I’m a big fan. Needless to say, I was psyched to get an opportunity to redo some of copy on the Pro Photo website.
The project is still in progress, but I’ve been enjoying it so far — not only for the chance to work with Jared (who gets the importance of copy, and of good communication in general), but for the chance to play around with some fun concepts. For example, the business is built on service. We wanted to emphasize it, but naturally, didn’t want to come off as bragging or grandstanding about it. The result, then, is copy that tries to instill the sense of calm and simplicity inherent in receiving good service, without saying those words. Classic show, but not tell. I think we’re doing it pretty well too, like in these paragraphs:
The Pro Photo Rental team is passionate about good photography, and passionate about making it accessible to as many people as possible. We started in 2007 with a goal to improve a camera and lens rental business we found sorely lacking. And in the time since, we’ve raised the bar on how people can get, try, and sample the best photo equipment on the planet.
Our approach is simple: We serve our customers by getting them the equipment that serves them best. We don’t try to “upsell” them, and we don’t push something on them if they don’t need it.
In other words, we offer a people-centered approach to renting top-quality equipment. Based on the feedback we’ve received, we’re confident it has been good for our customers, and good for photography. We’re glad to have made a contribution, and are excited to continue to do so.
—->Eventvue is another Boulder tech startup, working to help conference organizers facilitate the kind of connections that make their conferences memorable and productive. The Eventvue team usually lays pretty low on the scene here (at least apart from this great Ignite presentation from Founder Josh Fraser), so I wasn’t real familiar with them before coming on to help with a site redesign. Once I got going with them though, I was happy to learn that they’re a really good solid company doing some cool stuff.
I think I did some good stuff for them too, helping present their site features in a straight-forward, non-technical way that appeals to each visitor. You can see my work everywhere on the site (though the final product is a slight amalgamation of my writing and theirs), and it shows up in paragraphs like these:
Our chatter feature brings together blog posts, tweets, pictures, and videos from your attendees. Chatter let’s your attendees discover people they didn’t know about, or find common interests with people they’ve already met.
More than that even, our chatter feature encourages your attendees to talk about the conference (which is good), and continue talking about it afterward (which is better). It also allows you to keep tabs on what people are saying, giving you instant feedback about what’s going on, and what could be improved in the future.
Your attendees make new, and better connections. They talk more about your conference. And they talk about it in a way that informs you. It’s win-win-win.
—->OneRiot is a social search engine — they basically scrape data from a browser plugin to figure out what’s hot on the web at this very moment, and then make it searchable by keyword. It’s pretty cool stuff, and I’ve been around the company for awhile now, admiring from a distance. It was great, then, when Carmel Hagen agreed to let me putter around on their new blog, writing about “surging” topics.
It’s been a fun opportunity to write about stuff I never get to touch, and write in a style I rarely get to take on (and that I’m still learning to be good at). That’s produced posts like this one, and this one… and lines like this one:
This past year, Sarah Palin proved that a history of small-town politics can be detrimental in a national campaign. In the next few months, she may also prove the opposite. And to make matters even worse, it’s coming on winter in Alaska, where it gets darker and colder than any hell elsewhere in the US (nevermind most of Canada).
In such tough times, what would a maverick do?
I say she puts the state up on Ebay.