Joe Sharratt

A small selection of my copywriting work, spanning in-house and freelance client projects.

Course Re-write project

Recognising the impact of the course pages on the Nottingham Trent University (NTU) website, our small in-house copywriting team began a project to improve the quality and performance of listings identified as needing improvement. By liaising with academics and school marketing teams, I’ve overhauled the copy on a variety of course pages, bringing them in line with the university’s most recent brand guidelines and tone of voice. The refreshed copy has a focus on user experience, building interest and intrigue in the course and driving applications and open day bookings through inspiring and engaging copy. The project also sees me improve the SEO performance of targeted course pages, in some instances improving visibility in SERPs by more than 5%, and increasing average position by an average of 42.

Below are a couple of examples of refreshed course page intros, highlighting the application of NTU’s brand and tonal guidelines in an engaging and dynamic way.

Black History Month

The objective of the campaign was to boost awareness of Black History Month among the student body, and to celebrate key figures who have a connection to Nottingham.

Student life video scripts

I wrote scripts for a selection of videos about student life in Nottingham, covering topics including shopping, arts and culture, and parks ad green spaces. The videos were written to appeal to potential and future students and to help build familiarity with Nottingham and excitement about starting university. They involved closed collaboration with videographers on storyboarding.

You can find the full shopping video from the series here.

Graduate Outcomes mailer campaign

The brief for this campaign was to create a quirky piece of direct mail to drive engagement with the annual Graduate Outcomes survey, a questionnaire sent to recent alumni to encourage them to keep in touch with NTU and to find out about their next steps after graduation.

Undergraduate prospectus

The undergraduate prospectus is the annual flagship publication in NTU’s marketing calendar. Each year this requires collaborating with designers, photographers, academics and marketers to produce an engaging and up-to-date showcase of the university, its courses, and Nottingham itself.

Here are some example pages showing engaging top line copy for two subject areas, from two different editions of the prospectus.

Nottingham School of Art & Design landing page

Tonally, the brief for this landing page sat slightly outside of NTU’s traditional brand guidelines. The Nottingham School of Art & Design wanted some engaging and lively copy that would distinguish them from their competitors, while encapsulating their passion and value proposition for potential students.