Week Three: Copywriting

This is the third week of a month-long project for Praxis. For the whole month, I’m working with Raposa Technologies to prepare for their launch in June. There’s a lot to be done, so check out more here!

One of Raposa’s major goals for this month is to create a lot of copywriting content in preparation for the launch. We want to have as much information compiled as possible to be able to post consistently and keep up relevancy as we become more and more public.

This week was dedicated to learning Copy and how to improve my own style. I wrote a number of posts for Raposa focusing on logical fallacies and thinking biases to be used on their site.

What I did this week

1. Created basic copy templates based on my style here
2. “3 Reasons Your Friends Are Hindering Your Success”
3. “How To Avoid Losing in The Stock Market”
4. “Your Affections Are Hurting Your Portfolio”
5. “In Hindsight, You’re A Terrible Predictor”
6. Learned how to utilize Mailjet and their coding/API system
7. Transferred all my email templates from Mailchimp to Mailjet
8. Documented How To Write Copy People Want To Read

Struggles

This has been the hardest week for me so far. Thinking I was a good writer before, I’ve really enjoyed the process during my earlier projects with Praxis. This week has pushed me out of my comfort zone by having me produce high-level copy in bulk. I tend to put a lot of pressure on myself to produce high-quality work, so multiplying that to multiple pieces has been very difficult.

The only thing I would have changed this week is I wish I asked for help earlier on. I didn’t think it would be as challenging as it has been. Getting tips and advice for writing made me feel like I was admitting defeat for something that should be simple. In reality, talking it out and explaining my struggles has been very validating and given me a lot of motivation to improve my skill in copywriting.

I did not read the book that I had originally planned to read, but that is because I was doing so much research and reading on my writing instead.

What I learned

I am glad that I pushed myself to this level this week. When I had first planned it out, it seemed like it wouldn’t be anything out of the ordinary. It would be a breezy week and I wasn’t sure if I would really get much from it for myself. I ended up learning in-depth what copy really is and how to be successful when using it. Although I am not at the level I aspire to be at quite yet, I have definitely seen improvement in my writing after just this one week.

1. I learned a lot more about producing copy. I found myself doing a lot of independent research on how to improve my writing. I ended up even purchasing a couple of books (The Elements of Style and The Copywriter’s Handbook) to continue my improvement after my project is finished. I learned what made a good copy outshine the rest and was surprised to find how valuable a good copywriter can be for a company. I focused a lot on headlines, word usage, and audience engagement.
2. I learned how to edit. More importantly, I learned how to differentiate between the writing and editing process while working. This made my work quality greatly improve almost immediately and helped make the process less stressful. I also learned how to look at my work more critically and find a better flow.
3. I learned how to communicate my struggles with others. This has always been difficult for me. I either overshare or I undershare but primarily the latter! It is very important to communicate progress when working with others to keep them on the same page and catch problems so they don’t affect the final product. By talking about my struggles, I felt a lot more validated and motivated to do better. Communicating my concerns got me back on track by bringing new perspectives which helped me get into a better problem-solving mindset.
4. I learned how to create copy templates to streamline production. Efficiency is very important to me, so when my posts were taking more time than I was expecting, I felt very overwhelmed. Making a general template to place and plug all my information into was a big win. This makes my content consistent and easier to read.

Conclusion and Plans for next week

Last week I learned a lot of new skills and information which have expanded my possibilities for what I am able to produce! All the changes and new information was great, but only so much can be done in a week. Last week’s learning was productive, but very surface level. This week was another monster entirely. It was challenging and out of my comfort zone. It made me frustrated and stressed and caused a lot of canceled plans. But the quality of learning I experienced this week has been considerably deeper than before. I feel like I really understand copywriting and the value it creates. Continued practice and I truly believe I will be somewhere with it.

Next week I will mainly be using all of the information I have learned to refine the email templates so they can be sent out starting June 1st. I will also be writing four additional posts and I plan to make some video documentation for Raposa to use to help walk first-time users through the platform. As the final week of the project, I will be updating everything that has been produced so the launch goes smoothly.