Case study: content writing for the CIPD’s E-Shop website relaunch
The CIPD (Chartered Institute for Professional Development) is a professional body for HR and people development. They provide training, resources and certifications to those working as HR professionals or in leadership roles.
As part of a broader website project, their content team was updating their E-Shop to improve its SEO performance and fit an updated structure. This meant they needed to rewrite all the listings for their training catalogue. One of their team members had worked with me in the past while at a previous employer and recommended my services.
Website relaunch content writing for the CIPD
This was a highly involved website relaunch content writing project with several factors at play. Here’s a rundown of what that looked like:
A high volume of work
This was a BIG project. There were over 80 course descriptions to rewrite. Some of these were on the shorter side (around 400 words), while others were more involved and over 1000 words long.
Compact timeframe
There was very little flexibility in this project’s timeframe. The content marketing team were very organised and had a strict project plan. They shared this with me at the outset so I had full visibility of their needs. They briefed me in good time, which meant I could organise my working plan and retainer clients around this project. As if to make things more challenging, the Christmas and New Year break fell partway through the project, reducing the available time.
To deal with this, I created my own timing plan. I also gave the content team visibility into when they could expect work from me. I then worked through the files in an organised manner and kept the team regularly updated.
Multiple stakeholders
The CIPD is a large organisation, and several people were involved in my work’s sign-off. In addition to the digital marketing manager, I dealt with the SEO manager, the in-house head of copy, L&D experts, and the marketing lead. We held weekly status calls to share feedback, review progress and agree on the next steps.
Website relaunch content writing requirements
With all these project management aspects, it’s easy to forget the work itself! My brief involved:
- Providing content on a set template
- Writing content in line with the refreshed house tone of voice
- Incorporating pre-agreed keyword phrases for SEO purposes
- Reworking existing course descriptions to make them clearer
- Providing teaser copy to use on the E-Shop course listings
I carried out all work on the CIPD’s Teams platform and had full access to their project timeline with full visibility of key milestones.
Results
I delivered all work ahead of time and helped out when additional course descriptions were needed at the last minute. The relaunched E-shop is now available online, providing leaders and HR professionals with a selection of bitesize courses, training and more involved qualifications.
You can see the E-shop here.
Here’s what my key contact at the CIPD, Hannah Barragry, had to say about working together:
“From the offset, Laura was friendly, proactive and flexible. Despite the project having many time constraints and often involving shifting priorities (and last minute additions) Laura was professional, agile and organised at all times. Laura also worked very closely with other members of my team such as the Copywriting and TOV Lead and Marketing Manager. She was brilliant at both demonstrating her expertise whilst also ensuring the team felt heard and that their comments were incorporated into any changes.
Since the website has relaunched with the new copy we have seen in reduction in abandon basket rates and an increase in direct sales.
On a personal note, Laura was a lovely and fun person to work with. Thank you for all your support, time and expertise working on this project with us. Looking forward to working together again in the future.”
Need help with website relaunch content writing? I could be exactly who you’re looking for. Book a call to find out more about me and how I work.
