Would your charity benefit from free copywriting training?

With our Professional Copywriting Techniques Masterclass being held next week on  the 26th May, we are giving away a free place to a charity.

This would be ideal for someone who works in a charity’s fundraising or marketing department.  Attendance at our half-day Masterclass will benefit someone who has to write appeal letters, website copy and other promotional material.

The half-day Masterclass will be held at Bloxham Mill Business Centre, Bloxham, near Banbury, on Thursday 26th May between 9.15am and 12.30pm.  Full details can be found on our website.

What’s the catch?  There isn’t one!  We have a couple of places spare and decided there are plenty of worthwhile causes which could benefit from coming along free of charge.  Apart from that … we need someone to help eat the Danish pastries mid-morning!

If your charity would benefit from some free copywriting training, please send us an email and give us a little information about the work you do.

Blog post by Joy McCarthy

Where do home workers hold meetings?

Listening to a podcast of Friday’s Banburyshire Info Business Show has prompted this blog. The conversation between Chris Hogan of OxCopy and Ray Avery of Bloxham Mill Business Centre suggested home workers often have a problem finding suitable venues for meetings.

We work from home and make no secret of the fact.  We have a well set-up office, which means lower overheads and we can keep our travelling time and costs to a minimum.

As copywriters, we work for companies literally all over the UK and overseas, and we are able to work remotely.  We have several long-standing clients who we have never met!  They’re like old friends, yet we wouldn’t recognise them in the street.  In this situation, the meeting problem never arises.

However, when we moved back to Chipping Norton and started to develop our local business, it was clear we were going to need a venue for meetings.  Like many other home workers, we held meetings in coffee shops, hotels and even the odd pub.  We also sometimes take advantage of the facilities at nearby Bloxham Mill Business Centre.

But a couple of years ago, we accidentally discovered the marketing benefits of holding client meetings in our home.  By inviting clients and prospective clients here, we give them a sense of security.  If they have a problem, they know exactly where we are and how to find us.

Some companies are reluctant to use outsource consultants who shroud themselves in anonymity.  Many home workers don’t reveal their address and only use a mobile phone.  How do you know if that person is in Wick or Wolverhampton?  If I was entrusting work to someone, I would want to know where to find them!

So holding client meetings at home works for us.  Our clients come along, sit at the table with a coffee (and the odd biscuit or cake) and it’s business all the way.  We are open and visible and our clients appreciate that approach. They are reassured to see we genuinely are a local business, living and working in the community.

There is a down-side of course.  An at-home client meeting usually means a frantic flurry with the duster and vacuum cleaner and the dog has to be on her best behaviour.  But it’s a small price to pay!

Blog post by Joy McCarthy

By popular demand – more Copywriting Masterclasses

Oxfordshire copywriting company WORD-right, has announced the launch of a series of Copywriting Masterclasses.

The first in the new series is ‘Professional Copywriting Techniques’ which will be held on Thursday 26th May.  The second: Website Copywriting, will be held on Tuesday 28th June.  The half-day classes will all be held at Bloxham Mill Business Centre, near Banbury, from 9.15am until 12.30pm.

WORD-right held a pilot Press Release Writing Masterclass in early April.  The class was fully booked and ten people attended.  The positive feedback has prompted the development of additional copywriting Masterclasses.

The Masterclasses take a hands-on approach, with students having the opportunity to put their buslearning into practice.  The classes are designed to help small business owners and marketing professionals improve their business writing skills.

The Copywriting Techniques Masterclass will cover such subjects as accessibility, writing styles, and what to write.  The Website Copywriting Masterclass will illustrate why writing for the web is different, and students will each write a web page for their own company.  Each attendee will receive a comprehensive take-home notes pack covering the content of the class.

While each Masterclass can be booked separately, prospective students wishing to attend the Website Copywriting Masterclass are being encouraged to also attend the Copywriting Techniques session.  This will ensure they have the appropriate writing skills needed to make the most of the website writing class.

Joy McCarthy, WORD-right’s principal copywriter comments, “We asked the students who attended the Press Release Writing Masterclass what other subjects they would like covered.  Their input has resulted in the creation of the new series of Masterclasses.  The popularity of the subjects meant several of the places were booked within hours of their launch.”

The cost of each Masterclass is £40 + VAT.  Places can be booked online at http://www.word-right.co.uk/copywriting-masterclass.html.  Anyone booking the Copywriting Techniques and the Website Writing Masterclasses together will receive a £10 discount, paying £70 for the two instead of £80.

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Notes to Editors

WORD-right is a copywriting and marketing consultancy based in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire.

The company, which is division of IDEAS-right Ltd, was founded in 2006.  It specialises in small business marketing, working for a range of companies in different industry sectors in the Oxfordshire area and further afield.

Joy McCarthy, WORD-right director is an experienced copywriting tutor and has worked with almost 100 student writers from all over the world.

For more information, please contact:

Joy McCarthy
Tel: 01608 642845
Mob: 07880 980095
Email
Website: www.word-right.co.uk   

10 / 10 for Press Release Writing Masterclass Student

At our PR Writing Masterclass in April, we held a ‘draw’, with one of the students winning a free press release review.  The lucky winner was Rosie Burchell of Brethertons Solicitors in Banbury.

Rosie’s press release was so good, it barely needed reviewing.  You can see the results below …

Black day for Banburyshire businesses

Brethertons solicitors, in association with Lloyds Bank, hosted the special Banbury Business Breakfast Club “Olympic Breakfast” on Thursday 31st March with Olympic silver-medal winning athlete Roger Black as the guest speaker. The event was held at Rye Hill Golf Club in Milcombe as part of Brethertons celebration of the countdown to the London Olympics.

Tom Lawrence, Brian Auld, Roger Black, David Hodge, Mike Dibben

Around 150 people attended the breakfast, where Roger Black’s speech focused on his own Olympic experiences and concluded with a screening of a video showing his gold-medal winning relay race at the 1991 World Championships. His talk featured anecdotes from his sporting career and inspirational words on overcoming personal set-backs, as well as an insight into his early athletic career. He then handed round his two silver medals, won during the 1996 games in Atlanta in the 400m and 4x400m relay, while he took questions from the room.

Mike Dibben reveals that there was another reason to celebrate Roger’s appearance “This is a timely occurrence as it has just been announced that Roger will form part of the British Olympic 2012 Ambassadors team and we are very pleased to offer him our congratulations”. Guests were treated to a full English breakfast and a chance to have their picture taken with Roger.  Roger stayed for autographs and one-to-one chats with the guests, before the event came to a close at 10:30am.

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Note to the editor

Brethertons is a successful local Law Firm employing 160 people across its 2 offices in Banbury and Rugby. The breakfast club was established by Shaun Jardine, Litigation Partner at the firm, around 19 years ago in response to a lack of suitable networking opportunities in the town. The breakfast club has approximately 1500 members and meets on the first Thursday of every month. It features a different guest speaker every month. Previous speakers include Michael Heseltine and Tony Baldry.

Rye Hill Golf club hosts Golf days and corporate events on a regular basis. It has an 18-hole Golf course and a comfortable club house.

Lloyds Bank is one of the official sponsors of the 2012 Olympic Games, and applications for tickets are now being taken through the Olympic website (http://www.london2012.com/visiting/tickets/)