This qualification is made up of 15 modules. You will also be required to complete one assessment.
Module 1: Introduction to Copywriting for Digital Channels
Learning objective: Understand how your audience read and interact with digital content.
- How do readers ‘see’ digital content?
- The ‘skim’ factor – skimmers and scanners vs. longer readers
- Web usability research and what it means for effective writing
- Mobile – where your customers and audience are today most likely read your copy
Module 2: Breaking Down the Brief
Learning objective: How marketing messages can be more effective with the right digital copy.
- Getting into a digital mind-frame
- Understanding the importance of keywords and phrases used in copy
- How to sell digital copy
- How to make the most of each medium – websites, emails, ads
- Reviewing what will work and where
- Creating a checklist for effective web copywriting
Module 3: Expanding the Content for Web Pages
Learning objective: Writing effectively for both your audience and search engines.
- How SEO copywriting affects digital content - where else will your headlines appear?
- Which words are the most important on a web page? And why?
- Understanding ‘call to actions’ the digital way
Module 4: Writing for Emails
Learning objective: Making emails and email marketing campaigns work harder.
- Identifying why your audience would read – or ignore – your email
- Getting the subject line right
- How to avoid getting sent straight to spam
- What are the golden rules and cardinal sins?
- What to test and why
Module 5: Editing and Repurposing Content for Digital Channels
Learning objective: How to effectively edit existing content to make it work across all digital channels.
- Key points to consider when repurposing or editing content
- Identifying when digital content should be considered
- Quick wins available with little effort: digital copywriting tricks
- When copy alone is not enough... Making sure enhanced content is working just as hard for you
- Identifying key editing do’s and don’ts
- How to start incorporating the day’s principles within other digital copy opportunities
Module 6: Copywriting for social media
Learning objective: An overview of social media and blogs, their importance and the impact they have.
- Identifying where blogging and social media sit in the marketer’s arsenal
- Discovering how they affect SEO
- Exploring why they need to be written in a different way to websites and print copy
Module 7: Blogging: What Makes a Great Blog?
Learning objective: How to create a blog and take the conversation further.
- Understand what a blog is - dialogue, not a conversation
- Identifying the top 5 content rules for a great blog as well as the top 5 cardinal sins for a great blog
- Where to find and promote blogs, and reviewing existing blog examples
Module 8: Taking the Blog Further
Learning objective: To delve deeper into social opportunities using blogs.
- Identifying opportunities through links/blog-rolls/tag clouds etc.
- How to stimulate and deal with comments
Module 9: Social Media – think Strategically, not Tactically
Learning objective: Considerations when writing copy for key platforms and how to think strategically.
- Reviewing what you want to achieve
- Recapping the potential benefits
- Identifying where your audience are, what they are doing and what they expect
- Ways to measure success
Module 10: The Key Players: Facebook, Twitter and more
Learning objective: Identifying where they fit in with your social media strategy and how they can help boost your digital success.
- How they can work for you and what they each offer
- Recognising what their users expect
- Identifying the key competitors
- Understanding what you need to think of from a writing point of view
Module 11: Using Social Media for Search
Learning objective: Understanding the importance of your words and what people search for.
- Knowing how copy really works
- The importance of your words and phrases when other people are searching
- How to make the most of the #tag/RT/lists
Module 12: Getting the Tone Right
Learning objective: Understanding the key points to consider when writing copy for social media.
- Identifying the top 5 things to consider
Module 13: Dealing with Comments and Feedback
Learning objective: Deploy the necessary skills to stimulate and deal with comments and feedback across all digital channels.
- Commenting and dealing with comments
- How to adopt the right tone, phrasing and reaction
Module 14: Digital Copy Techniques Refresher
Learning objective: Recap of the techniques covered so far.
- Overview of top 10 things to remember when writing and editing digital content for web, email, blogs and social media including keywords, SEO, captions, subject lines, eye-catching copy, user journeys, strategic techniques, engaging copy, stronger calls to action and using enhanced media to support your copy.
Module 15: Building Successful Personas (including exercise)
Learning objective: Understanding your audience to adapt your copy.
- Using personas to better target your digital copy
- How to create personas, why they are so important, using personas to adapt your copy for different mediums and devices
During this time when it’s essential to keep our physical distance, it’s just as important to maintain connections, education and ambition.
The IDM Virtual Classroom is face-to-face, peer-to-peer learning – in the digital world. It lets you keep learning, wherever you are, and to connect with others, no matter the distance.
The IDM’s Virtual Classroom offers:
- An interactive classroom environment
- Peer-to-peer collaboration
- An engaging platform experience
- Practical learning through hands-on exercises
- Online access anywhere you can get an internet connection
Courses are structured in a time friendly format consisting of three to four sessions per day, broken up into 60 to 90 minutes of learning, instead of the conventional approach of listening to lectures and notetaking.
Before starting your course, you’ll receive joining instructions outlining any technical requirements, plus a unique login link via Zoom.
