Great copywriting starts with an understanding of your audience, your aims and your preferred media – but how do you begin unpacking those necessities while remaining faithful to your goals?

In this impactful one-day bootcamp with professional copywriter Barnaby Benson, you will discover the thinking process behind persuasive copy and focus on how to create and adhere to a brief.

Encouraging you to think about your copy strategically, Barnaby will show you the difference in tone and content for various media, including websites, emails, blogs and newsletters.

Mixing theory and practice, you will work on your own copywriting project you have brought along to the class, with opportunities for feedback and advice from Barnaby and your fellow attendees.

Course Content

Why having a brief matters
How to write for different media, including emails, newsletters, websites, advertisements and marketing materials
How to profile your audience
Establishing your goals
Refining the message
Tone of voice and your brand
Ten persuasive writing techniques
Top five copywriting mistakes and how to avoid them
How to brief copywriters and review their work
How to make a living as a copywriter
Practical exercise: attendees work on a copywriting project they plan to write or commission, with opportunities to share their work with the group and receive feedback
Q&A and group discussion

This course is for ...

You’re a journalist or creative writer who wants to learn how to apply your skills to copywriting
You’re a marketing professional who wants to improve the quality of your written communication materials
You work in business and want to learn how to commission copywriters and review their work
You work for a charity or non-profit organisation and want to learn how to write or commission written materials

Course preparation

Ahead of the course, attendees should have in mind a piece of copy they want to write or commission from a copywriter, e.g. a sales email, a blog post or a job application. They should also have an understanding of the audience they want to engage with through their copy.

You will be sent a link to the webinar 2hrs before the start time of 10am (GMT).

Tutor Profile

Barnaby Benson has been a professional copywriter for over 20 years. He owns and manages one of London’s leading copywriting agencies whose clients include Next, Novartis, HSBC, O2 and many others. Barnaby is trusted by many global brand consultancies to write copy for their clients including Superunion and Landor (both WPP Group) and Imagination. Before writing, he was an account director in advertising. Barnaby and his colleagues run a blog on copywriting. You can find out more at www.barnabybenson.co.uk/blog.

You will be sent a link to the webinar 2hrs before the start time of 10am (GMT).

Course Details

Date: Monday 8 November 2021
Time: 10am-4pm (GMT)

10am BST | 11am CEST | 2am PDT | 5am EDT

This masterclass is available globally. If you are joining us from outside the United Kingdom, please use this time zone converter to check your local live streaming time.

You will be sent a link to the webinar two hrs before the start time. Please email masterclasses@theguardian.com if you have not received the access link within one hour of the scheduled start time.

All Guardian Masterclasses are fully accessible but please contact us at masterclasses@theguardian.com if you have any queries or concerns.

Full course and returns information on the Masterclasses website

Writing persuasive copy: A one-day bootcamp