Transforming vital university comms and marketing

Here’s how I helped the ODP team at Bournemouth University put the love back into their essential marketing and comms for students.

THE CLIENT: Bournemouth University

Operating Department Practice (ODP) is a BSc (Hons) course within the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences at Bournemouth University.

The specialist course – which is taught by actively practising lecturers in state-of-the-art facilities – qualifies successful students to deliver safe, high-quality patient care before, during and after anaesthesia.

THE NEED

The ODP academic team had seven documents that were failing to provide the vital support their students needed: from student guidelines to assignment briefings and assessment criteria.

These essential documents exist to provide structure, boundaries and guidance to students – yet each year they had been stuffed with more standard text and less love, consideration and thought for their readers.

Juggling university work with their own operating department practice means the team don’t have the time, skills or experience to focus on the marketing materials that attract students to their subject – or the essential communications that students and apprentices rely on day-to-day during their time at university.

The result? Wordy, dense documents, crammed with repetition, over-formal language and an over-complex structure: the last thing a struggling student would turn to for reassurance and help.

The copy lacked clarity, consistency and care, and improvements to the structure and flow were needed.

It was time for an update.

THE SOLUTION

Twenty-five years as a freelance copywriter tells me there’s often room for improvement in higher education (HE) and further education (FE) communications.

I’ve worked with many HE clients: from the University of Gloucestershire and Hartpury University to Gloucestershire College and Croydon College.

I managed a major website copywriting project that involved creating a new tone of voice new web copy for Filton College and Stroud College, when these two vastly different establishments merged to become SGS (South Gloucestershire and Stroud College).

University instils the need for a formal and complex style of writing that’s designed to satisfy assessment criteria, rather than the needs of the reader.

Copywriting requires a very different approach. As legendary ad woman Shirley Polykoff once said, “Copy is a direct conversation with the consumer.”

Having chosen not to go to university I’ve never had to unlearn that formal style. Instead, I’ve spent the past 25 years specialising in the direct, conversational style of writing advocated by Ms Polykoff – using real, human and accessible language to create a connection with the reader.

Bournemouth University’s ODP team needed a copywriter who could take an objective approach to their under-performing documents.

Designed to transform bland, complex documents from BLAH BLAH to TA-DA, my DocuMagic service was the perfect fit.

THE RESULTS

Breathing life into these stale yet vital documents was the perfect use of a chunk of external funding that had to be spent or returned by the end of July.

Thanks to my DocuMagic transformation, the documents are now clear, concise and reader focused.

They incorporate a compelling, human and reassuring tone of voice that acknowledges what students need to hear – not just what the university needs to tell them.

The academic team know today’s students need support as individuals, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.

They now have the confidence to encourage students to read their newly accessible and helpful documents – rather than putting the onus on the students, and knowing they won’t be read.

Be consistent

I also created a simple style guide to help the team introduce consistency and clarity across future marketing materials and communications.

All seven documents were completed in just ten days.

The project may be over, but the academic team know I’m on hand any time they need me to work my magic on their comms and marketing – and to take the headache and time-suck out of their dreary documents.

IN THE CLIENT’S WORDS

“Thanks Sarah for helping us out with our words. Simply brilliant.

“You said you would make our words work harder, be kinder, and be more human – and that is exactly what you did. We valued your dedication to perfectionism and enjoyed how you paid attention to so much detail.

“It’s not easy to unpick stodgy academic language that has been left neglected over the years but you did this for us. On a personal note, I also want to thank you for making the process so easy by understanding what we needed and helping us when we didn’t know what we wanted!”

John Tarrant
Senior Lecturer, Operating Department Practice
Faculty of Health and Social Science
Bournemouth University