In-house writing training: PR, marketing, communications

Improve your team’s writing skills with an Ann Wylie writing course

• Build better writers, approvers
• Data-driven writing training
• In-house training topics

Which of these situations sounds like yours?

1. Your fresh communicators need more depth. These folks can crank out communication plans in their sleep, and you never have to worry about keeping social streams filled. But they can’t write sophisticated messages that engage readers’ hearts and minds and that move people to act.



2. Your seasoned communicators struggle to keep up. These folks can craft a compelling argument, tell a story that could bring you to tears and hit aggressive readability targets with ease. But they haven’t kept up with the latest best practices in blog-post writing, email marketing, writing for the mobile web or digital PR writing.
3. You cringe when you think about what’s going out of your shop. Inaccuracies. Typos. AP style errors. It’s sloppy! You might even have had some embarrassing conversations with the boss about the state of your group’s written communications.
4. Your writers are great. It’s the approvers who are the problem. Your writing team is mature, professional and up-to-date. But your approvers wouldn’t know good writing if it bit their ankles, and your team is starting to write for reviewers, not for results.

You’ve tried.

You’ve mentored and coached. But that’s time-consuming, and you have your own objectives to meet. Besides, if you’d wanted to get into the business of writing coaching, you’d be doing that full-time.

You’ve negotiated with reviewers. But these conversations don’t seem to go anywhere. Sometimes it seems as if your team’s work is never going to get any better than the lawyers and executives allow it to be.

Build better writers and approvers.

Hi! I’m Ann Wylie, and I feel your pain.

For 20 years, I’ve traveled from Hollywood to Helsinki, presenting in-house writing workshops to clients ranging from Coca-Cola to Carnegie Mellon, from NASA to Nike, and from Toshiba to Toyota. I’ve trained thousands of PR, marketing and communications professionals. And I’ve talked to hundreds of vice presidents, directors, managers and other communication team leaders.

They all tell me the same thing: Excellent writing is the No. 1 skill they need in order to deliver bottom-line business results to their organization. And communicators with excellent writing skills are getting harder and harder to find.

The good news is, there is a solution: Build better writers with in-house training, coaching and writing tools. And build better approvers by nurturing a culture that supports concise and effective writing in your organization.

Even better news: I can help you do both.

Data-driven writing training

Let’s hold an in-house writing workshop to equip your all of your team members with:

1. Proven-in-the-lab best practices. I’m a nerd. While you’re out and about on a Friday night, I’m likely to be cuddled up with a warm study. The result: I’ve developed a system of data-driven techniques that get readers to 1) pay attention to your message; 2) understand it; 3) remember it; and 4) act on it.

   How do I know my system works? It’s the same approach I’ve used to earn more than 60 communication awards, including two IABC Gold Quills — the Pulitzer Prizes of business communications.

“Ann is one of the few people who can actually teach something substantial about writing.”

— George Stenitzer, vice president of corporate communications, Tellabs
Read more rave reviews.

2. Tips and tricks they can use tomorrow. Your team will learn tricks for finding the story angle their readers want to read. (Most communicators use the story angle their organizations wish readers wanted to read!) … Tricks for organizing messages to increase readers by 300% and reading by 520%. … Tricks for writing paragraphs that don’t get skipped on smartphones … Tricks for getting the word out in the 11 seconds people typically spend on brand emails.
3. Results you can see on the page. When you make your training a Master Class, your team will get extra time for feedback and coaching. They’ll write, edit, rewrite — and leave with a totally rewritten piece. You’ll be amazed with results like this release, this email invitation and this content-marketing piece.
4. Tools for ongoing learning, culture shift. Roll out your team’s new writing system throughout the organization with writing guidelines that get everyone on the same page, mini-sessions to let approvers know what to look for in good writing, one-on-one writing coaching and more.

In-house writing training topics

Improve your team’s core writing skills: Get them up-to-speed on the latest best practices with these in-house writing courses:

	Catch Your Readers Persuasive-writing class Learn to draw people in and move them to act in our flagship writing workshop. Master a writing structure that’s been proven in the lab to reach more readers. Measurably improve readability. And learn how to write effective headlines and display copy that get the word out even to nonreaders.
	Master the Art of Storytelling Creative-writing class Learn how to write an effective narrative in our corporate storytelling workshop, Master the Art of Storytelling. You’ll also master the art of descriptive writing, writing with color and other creative techniques for engaging your audiences.
	Write for Readability Clear-and-concise writing class Measurably boost readability scores with our concise-writing class. You’ll use a cool (free!) tool to get 27 readability metrics. Then you’ll learn targets, tips and techniques for improving each one. The result: more readable writing.
	Reach Readers Online Online-writing class You’ve read the numbers. You know that more than half of your audience members now receive your emails, visit your webpages and engage with your blog posts via their mobile devices, not their laptops. Learn current best practices for blog writing, email writing and website writing that reach readers on the go.
	NOT Your Father’s News Release Public relations-writing classes Develop stories that media outlets want to run. Tap current best practices, from lead to boilerplate. And turn lame-ass quotes into snappy sound bites in our PR-writing workshop.
	Write Better, Easier & Faster Writing-process class Want to come up with fresher, faster, more inspired story ideas and writing insights? Master a 5-step writing process that works with — not against — your brain in our writing-process workshop.

Questions? Contact me directly.

Ready to improve your team’s writing skills?