As I complete 7 months working at Urban Company, I've become more than just a catalog content writer. I think it's not the amount of time you spend working in a role; it is what you become in the process of doing your job. All of us try to constantly find something in the role which helps us in our career development. During these 7 months, I came to realise that content writing can be a challenging but rewarding path.
A brief history of my overall writing career
Honestly, I never thought I'd become a content writer. I'd done my graduation in Computer Science and wanted to become a developer. As luck would have it, my college didn't have enough campus drives for engineering recruitment, so I decided to start with a small company as a content writer. Without any interest or writing experience, I had to break my head learning the basics.
As I moved clueless in my career, a lot of e-commerce companies started up, and the term "catalog" started becoming more and more important at most of them. As I worked with them, my role became catalog content writer. Through my tenure I worked with e-commerce, food, online gifting and travel companies.
A new beginning
After joining Urban Company as a lead catalog content writer, I had to unlearn a lot. First, the content team here is a part of the design team. In my whole career, content had always been an independent function. It took a while to adjust.
Second, the number of services here is small compared to the companies I'd worked with before. E-commerce and food companies often have many thousands of SKUs. At Urban Company the focus is on roughly 50 categories with sharp menus. I had to slow down mentally and think about catalog content writing from a different point of view. With a limited service portfolio, quality plays an outsized role over quantity. The benefit of being part of the design team: you're involved in crafting the user experience from the very beginning.
Writing is more about ideating
A great copy is always backed by hours of brainstorming and research. The process of arriving at the copy is more important than the copy itself. One of my mentors at UC said that the most important activity in content writing is brainstorming and ideation. Formulate your thoughts before you start writing.
How we do it at UC:
- Schedule regular brainstorming sessions with the team
- Collaborate with others — two heads are better than one
- Mind mapping
- User research on different public forums
- Create vision boards and prototypes
Building taste in catalog content writing
Our writing is a reflection of what we consume on a daily basis. Our taste in content defines the kind of content we produce. We at UC believe writers need to constantly invest in building taste. Taste is the ability to visualise better than what you're creating today. It's not a sudden event; it's a daily practice.
How we build taste at UC:
- Create boards on Pinterest and save content ideas (weekly)
- Read books on copywriting
- Increase your surface area for inspiration — TED talks, speeches, stand-up, documentaries, films
- ABC: Always Be Capturing — photos, screenshots, IG, Pinterest, Dribbble
Eat up your catalog
You can't write about something you haven't experienced yourself. The core of copywriting is understanding our audience and offerings. One of the practices I'm proud of at UC is that the company encourages people to take all its services. Other ways to consume the catalog:
- Dogfood everything the company offers
- Speak to your service professionals
- Participate in every new service or product launch
To wrap up
As a content writer, you always have an opportunity to be bigger and bolder. Over the last few months, I've realised that being a writer makes you the voice of the company. The major part of the app is owned by me — whatever I write goes live. Adding value to a customer's buying experience is the best feeling you can have.
So, if you're a catalog content writer and thinking that you don't play a significant role in your company — ask me.