Uniting my two super-powers to bring a video interview to life on paper
How the two halves of my business brain – translator and copywriter – united to create great, green content.
The brief: Take a video-call interview and turn it into two unique articles for two different websites, each with their own style and tone of voice.
Client: The Green Technpreneur
On my most-recent commission for a new client, I found myself diving head-first into the word of green-tech investing. It is absolutely fascinating. The power of technology to achieve sustainability goals remains one of my favourite topics and there’s something new to learn every day.
For this particular job I was wearing my copywriter hat, writing two articles on the company’s founder. But… this founder happened to be German, working in the German market. I got to feel like I had a super power, pulling on tonnes of extra interviews with and articles by the founder in German and using the quotes and background information for my English article.
The challenge?
To create two unique articles from the same base material, each with its own angle and tone of voice. One was for a large, international publication (on their website) and the other was for The Green Techpreneur’s own website feature.
How did I make the copy sing?
With a view to a long-term collaboration with this client, I’ve started to create my own cheat-sheet style guide and word list for each end publication. This way, the articles won’t read too similarly, because I’ll be pulling different language (this is particularly noticeable in adjectives, for example), and one article will use full names while the other is written in a more conversational style (as if you’re on first-name terms with the subjects). It also helped to make sure the articles had a slightly different focus. The Green Techpreneur article is very focussed on the founders themselves and their ethos, rather than the industry, so I was able to pull and tweak different quotes.
The result? A happy client and a repeat booking.
📧 In need of a creative copywriter to bring your brand voice to life? Need video content re-purposing for written publication?🙋 get in touch! 📧
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