Content Creation // Interviews // Careers
The problem
Your website is a bit like a hammerhead shark.
What we mean by that is, it needs to keep moving, or die. Because, in the same way hammerheads must keep a steady flow of water over their gills to breathe, updating your website with content helps keep it alive.
Okay, we’re stretching that simile a bit. Maybe. Point is, we’re big believers in keeping content fresh, especially the content aimed at attracting new talent. As such, we create all manner of written words for various multinational powerhouses.
So, when the head of marketing for a global tech company came to us to see if we fancied creating some 50 articles for them, we were all ears. Could we showcase their innovative work in order to propel candidates to their careers pages?
A resounding yes, from our end.
Even better, could we get into the nuts and bolts of all-things-technology? Dig deep into their tech and shine a spotlight on what they do? You know, the big stuff. Green energy. Software that breathes new life into old infrastructure. Extraterrestrial endeavours. That kind of thing. Oh, and social copy too: were we able to create attention grabbing posts to drive candidates to the site?
Lots more yeses from us.
The brief
Could we speak to their in-house experts across the world and – through articles showcasing the company’s innovation and work culture – attract the engineers of the future?
Creating careers content for a global tech giant
Content Creation // Interviews // Careers
The problem
Your website is a bit like a hammerhead shark.
What we mean by that is, it needs to keep moving, or die. Because, in the same way hammerheads must keep a steady flow of water over their gills to breathe, updating your website with content helps keep it alive.
Okay, we’re stretching that simile a bit. Maybe. Point is, we’re big believers in keeping content fresh, especially the content aimed at attracting new talent. As such, we create all manner of written words for various multinational powerhouses.
So, when the head of marketing for a global tech company came to us to see if we fancied creating some 50 articles for them, we were all ears. Could we showcase their innovative work in order to propel candidates to their careers pages?
A resounding yes, from our end.
Even better, could we get into the nuts and bolts of all-things-technology? Dig deep into their tech and shine a spotlight on what they do? You know, the big stuff. Green energy. Software that breathes new life into old infrastructure. Extraterrestrial endeavours. That kind of thing. Oh, and social copy too: were we able to create attention grabbing posts to drive candidates to the site?
Lots more yeses from us.
The brief
Could we speak to their in-house experts across the world and – through articles showcasing the company’s innovation and work culture – attract the engineers of the future?
What we did
We’d worked with the client before, but it didn’t hurt to re-familiarise ourselves with their brand: getting to grips with guidelines, tone of voice, and the written work they put out into the world. Next, we took crash-courses in various areas of engineering. In no time, we’d developed a whole new vocabulary.
From there, we began to set up the interviews.
Armed with our shiny new interview guides, we went out and, well, just spoke with people. One day, about building railway training simulators to help keep passengers safe in Toronto or Tokyo. The next, Pacman-type orbs monitoring electricity lines in Europe. Monday? Outer space. Tuesday? Telematics. Friday? Building software for wind farms. Rarely were two days – or two areas of work – the same.
We went from Japan, through India and up to Norway. Then we took a tour of Bulgaria, France and Spain. We finished in Canada via the US. All remotely, of course. But still. We got to travel the world from our desks.
As we went along, we wrote the articles. They had to be in-depth and technical enough for those in the field, yet graspable for the layperson. We found writers in Japan and France to write articles in their native language for domestic audiences, which were translated into English and edited by us.
Our Account Managers made sure the whole process ran smoothly. They set up interviews. Proofed the copy. Dealt with stakeholders. Made sure our CTAs worked: after all, being in the behavioural comms business, we needed readers to actually do something. In short, they gave our writing team the freedom to focus on what they do best: the words.
Why it worked
The Behavioural Science
Fluency Effects
Fluency effects are the ease by which information is processed by the brain. Easily absorbed words keep readers reading. If it’s a cognitive slog, they’re more likely to give up.
So, whatever we’re writing, our first step is to make it simple to read. When you’re dealing with technologically dense material, this isn’t alway easy. But it is always possible. We do this by checking each other’s work. Running passages through readability calculators. Strengthening through subtraction. We do lots of things to make what we write easy to understand and act upon.
Storyteller Effects
We’ve written elsewhere about the impact of stories. How they’re embedded in your DNA. How stories are sticky and memorable: that they trump facts and figures and increase recall by up to seven times. How they stir your emotions and get you more invested in whatever it is you’re reading. How they give your brain a workout.
So, to make sure our words have impact, when we’re writing we’ll bring in micro-narratives, emotion, elements of surprise, the odd cliffhanger and neat beginnings, middles and ends.
Various Effects
We also pepper whatever we write with all kinds of other effects. Curiosity effects, for example, help keep readers hooked. Concrete language means that messages are more easily visualised – and so more likely to be remembered and acted upon. And the bizarreness effect states that unusual things stand out and are better remembered than homogenous stimuli. When we get the chance to be distinctive, we’ll leap on it.
(That’s why, say, we’ll start a piece on writing effective comms by talking about hammerhead sharks.)
Why it worked
The Behavioural Science
Fluency Effects
Fluency effects are the ease by which information is processed by the brain. Easily absorbed words keep readers reading. If it’s a cognitive slog, they’re more likely to give up.
So, whatever we’re writing, our first step is to make it simple to read. When you’re dealing with technologically dense material, this isn’t alway easy. But it is always possible. We do this by checking each other’s work. Running passages through readability calculators. Strengthening through subtraction. We do lots of things to make what we write easy to understand and act upon.
Storyteller Effects
We’ve written elsewhere about the impact of stories. How they’re embedded in your DNA. How stories are sticky and memorable: that they trump facts and figures and increase recall by up to seven times. How they stir your emotions and get you more invested in whatever it is you’re reading. How they give your brain a workout.
So, to make sure our words have impact, when we’re writing we’ll bring in micro-narratives, emotion, elements of surprise, the odd cliffhanger and neat beginnings, middles and ends.
Various Effects
We also pepper whatever we write with all kinds of other effects. Curiosity effects, for example, help keep readers hooked. Concrete language means that messages are more easily visualised – and so more likely to be remembered and acted upon. And the bizarreness effect states that unusual things stand out and are better remembered than homogenous stimuli. When we get the chance to be distinctive, we’ll leap on it.
(That’s why, say, we’ll start a piece on writing effective comms by talking about hammerhead sharks.)
The results
Gold medal standard – at least, that’s how the client was kind enough to describe the work!
As for the wider impact, we’re writing this just as the campaign’s going live. Feel free to check back in once it’s properly underway. Better yet, in a few years take a look at the engineering marvels around you. By attracting the tech whizzes of the future, we’ll have hopefully played some small role in that.
Is your content alive – or more of a relic? We can help.
We’ve got decades of experience writing across the board and can craft all manner of comms campaigns – from planning and production, to going live (and beyond).
Contact us for a friendly chat.
Get in touch
The Outcome
Gold medal standard – at least, that’s how the client was kind enough to describe the work!
As for the wider impact, we’re writing this just as the campaign’s going live. Feel free to check back in once it’s properly underway. Better yet, in a few years take a look at the engineering marvels around you. By attracting the tech whizzes of the future, we’ll have hopefully played some small role in that.
Is your content alive – or more of a relic? We can help.
We’ve got decades of experience writing across the board and can craft all manner of comms campaigns – from planning and production, to going live (and beyond).
Contact us for a friendly chat.
Get in touch