How long does the Commercial and Creative Writing course take and what does it cost?

The Commercial and Creative Writing course lasts two days. You take the course in a classroom setting in a small group, guided by an experienced trainer. Course material and a certificate of attendance are included. You work directly with your own texts, products and commercial writing tasks. The current price can be found on the Learnit course page.

Who is the Commercial and Creative Writing course suitable for?

The course is suitable for anyone who writes persuasive commercial texts for their work, such as advertisements, job adverts, quotations, blogs and proposals. You need Dutch at upper secondary vocational level. The course focuses on the Dutch language area, but the tips are equally useful if you write in English, German or French. Enticing and surprising the reader are central themes.

What prior knowledge do you need for the Commercial and Creative Writing course?

You need Dutch at secondary vocational (mbo) level: you can read and write fluently. No specific prior education is required beyond that. Writing experience from your work is useful, as during the two-day course you will be working with your own texts, products and target audience. If you also write in English, German or French, you can apply most of the tips directly.

What is the difference between the Commercial and Creative Writing course and Writing Clear Texts?

Commercial and Creative Writing focuses on persuading and surprising: you learn to write texts that prompt readers to act, such as advertisements, job vacancies, quotations and blogs. Writing Clear Texts emphasises argumentation in longer, persuasive texts. Do you want to write short, informative texts such as letters and e-mails? Then Customer-Focused Writing suits your work better.

Is the Commercial and Creative Writing course also suitable for writing blogs and online copy?

Yes, the Commercial and Creative Writing course explicitly covers blogs, storytelling and digital texts. You learn how to attract attention online, how to structure your text and whether writing for digital media differs from writing for paper. In two classroom days you work on your own commercial texts, whether these are vacancies, advertisements, quotations, blog posts or proposals.

Do you receive course material and a certificate with the Commercial and Creative Writing course?

Yes, you receive course materials during the two-day Commercial and Creative Writing course and afterwards you will be given a certificate of attendance from Learnit. The course is taught in a classroom setting in small groups, so you receive plenty of personal attention from the trainer and have room to practise with your own texts.

How does a two-day classroom course in commercial writing differ from an online writing course or self-study through books and YouTube?

A two-day classroom course uses your own texts and business situation as practice material. Self-study or an online course cannot offer that. In Learnit's Commercial and Creative Writing course you receive direct feedback from the trainer and fellow participants on quotations, job adverts, advertisements or blogs you have written yourself. You apply techniques immediately to real writing tasks. A short intake beforehand ensures the programme matches your questions. With self-study you miss that mirror moment: you read about persuading and surprising, but you do not test your text on a reader. The course lasts two days and is taught in a classroom setting in a small group. Self-study is cheaper, but slower and without feedback on your own work.

Does this course also work if I have to write commercial copy in English, German or French?

The Commercial and Creative Writing course focuses primarily on the Dutch language. The principles you learn (target group analysis, structuring a persuasive text, capturing attention, storytelling and appealing phrasing) apply across languages. Many participants go on to apply the tips to English, German or French texts as well. What you will not get: feedback on the grammar or idiomatic subtleties of texts in other languages. The trainer reviews your work in Dutch. If you write mainly in a foreign language and want specific training in that language, a language-specific writing course is more suitable. For Dutch-speaking professionals who occasionally write commercial texts in other languages, this two-day classroom course provides useful frameworks that you can translate into your own language practice.

What does a typical day on the Commercial and Creative Writing course look like and what will you actually be doing?

The Commercial and Creative Writing course lasts two days and is classroom-based. A course day alternates between short explanations and practical assignments, peer feedback and reflection. You work with your own material throughout: quotations, job adverts, advertisements, blogs or proposals from your day-to-day work. In concrete terms, you carry out target group analyses, practise text structure (what comes first, how do you close), experiment with attention grabbers and rewrite existing texts to make them shorter, sharper or more surprising. Playful assignments force you to turn phrasings around, stretch them out or shorten them. The trainer holds a short intake by email or telephone beforehand, so that your own writing issues are addressed in the programme.

How do I know whether this course will actually help me get more response or conversion from my texts?

Whether you achieve noticeably better results depends above all on how sharply your target group and objective are defined. In the two-day Commercial and Creative Writing course you therefore first map out who you are writing for, with what aim and through which medium. Only then do you work on phrasing, structure and attracting attention. You work with your own texts: quotations, vacancies, advertisements, blogs or proposals. The trainer and fellow participants give feedback, which helps you discover blind spots that you would rarely notice through self-study. The course does not guarantee higher conversion rates; these also depend on your offer, timing and channel. You will, however, learn techniques to persuade readers to take action and gain a method for tackling any commercial text in a structured way.

After this course, can I also help my colleagues with their commercial copy, or is it purely for my own writing?

The Commercial and Creative Writing course focuses primarily on your own writing practice. For two days you work with your own products, target groups and writing tasks. That does not automatically make you an editor or writing coach for others, but you do learn principles you can apply more widely: audience analysis, text structure, attracting attention, generating ideas and writing in a readable style. Many participants later use this knowledge to give feedback on colleagues' texts. Would you like to get your whole team on the same page? In that case, a tailor-made in-company programme makes more sense than individual participation. Learnit then adapts the programme to your shared working practice. For pure text coaching or copy-editing skills there are separate programmes; this course remains focused on writing yourself.

How much can you really learn about commercial writing in two days, or is that too short to make a difference?

Two days is enough to change your approach to writing for good, provided you keep practising with your own texts afterwards. In Learnit's Commercial and Creative Writing course you work through the complete process in two days: audience analysis, defining your writing objective, generating ideas, structuring and formulating. You work directly with your own material, for example quotations, job adverts or blogs. What you will not get in two days: the years of routine a copywriter has. What you will take away: a way of working, concrete techniques for attracting attention and persuading, and feedback from the trainer and fellow participants on your own texts. For in-depth copywriting specialisation, a longer programme makes more sense. For a noticeable step up in the quality of your everyday commercial texts, these two days are enough.

Commercial and Creative Writing course

Name: Commercial and creative writing
Price: 1250.0 EUR
Availability: InStock
Rating: 8.2 (12 reviews)

Do you want to write texts that inform, entice and persuade? During the Commercial and Creative Writing course you learn how to play with language, connect with readers and prompt them to act. Practical, playful and directly applicable to your own work.

Description

In Learnit's Commercial and Creative Writing course you work on texts that go beyond simply informing. You work on texts that tempt your reader to keep reading and to take action: accepting a quotation, signing up or making a purchase.

You start with the basics: who are you writing for, with what aim and about what? A touch of marketing helps you to pin that down. You then work on strategies for coming up with ideas and learn how to phrase things in an appealing and persuasive way. After that you write, rewrite and polish until you are satisfied with the result.

The course has a practical set-up. You alternate between listening, trying things out, sharing and reflecting, and you work from your own job, products and commercial writing tasks. Through the input of the trainer and the other participants you learn to look at your texts with different eyes. Playful assignments challenge you to capture that new perspective in your own words, and to turn it around, stretch it out and shorten it.

Topics

During this course you work on topics that make your texts more convincing and more appealing. Subjects covered include:

Getting a clear picture of your target group: who are you writing for and what do you want them to do?
Persuading: what do you want to convince the reader of, and which means do you have at your disposal?
Choosing your channel: which media suit your message and your target group?
Structure: what do you open with, how do you build up and what do you close with?
Online versus print: what changes when you write for the screen or for paper?
Storytelling and blogging: does this suit you, your organisation and your readers?
Attracting attention: how do you make your text stand out among all the other stimuli?
Creative techniques for coming up with new ideas and angles
Writing that reads well: playful, clear and with rhythm

The programme is tailored to the points that emerge from the intake, so that your own writing tasks take centre stage.

Result

After this course you write commercial texts that inform, persuade and convince at the same time. You know who you are writing for and what you want to achieve, and you deliberately choose the right medium and the right tone.

You will have strategies at your disposal for coming up with new ideas, capturing your reader's attention and prompting them to act. Whether it is a quotation, job advertisement, blog, advert or proposal: you write in a way that is easy to read, appealing and bolder. And you have learned to look at your own texts critically and refine them until you are satisfied with them.

Target audience

This course is intended for anyone who writes commercial texts for their work that need to persuade. Think of advertisements, job adverts, quotations, landing pages, blogs, social media posts and proposals. Persuading and surprising play an important role in this.

The course focuses mainly on the Dutch language area. Even so, commercial writing is more international than you might think: if you also write in English, German or French for your work, you can apply most of the tips perfectly well.

Do you mainly write short, informative messages such as e-mails and letters? Then the Customer-focused Writing course may suit you better. For longer, persuasive texts in which argumentation matters more than seduction, the Writing Clear Texts course is a good choice. If your questions are mainly about error-free writing, we recommend the Dutch Spelling and Grammar course. Not sure? Feel free to contact Learnit for advice.

Teaching method

This course is highly practice-oriented. Listening, sharing, trying out and reflecting alternate continuously, including among the participants themselves. You take your own company, products and commercial writing tasks as your starting point. Thanks to the input of the trainer and the other participants, you will soon start looking at them with fresh eyes.

Playful assignments force you to put that new perspective into your own words. And then to turn it around, stretch it out or shorten it, until your text does exactly what you want. Between the sessions you apply what you have learned directly to texts from your daily work.

Prior knowledge

You read and write Dutch at MBO level. Beyond that, no specific prior knowledge is required. It does help if you write texts regularly at work, so that you can use your own practical examples during the course.

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In-company

Would you like to organise this training for a whole group or several groups? This can be cost-effective. For example, we can tailor the content entirely to your organisation, and training a whole group is also cheaper.

Are you looking at large numbers of participants or a complete academy? That involves a great deal. Consider planning and communication, for example, or identifying and agreeing the objectives and content of the training. Or differences in level, feedback mechanisms and safeguarding. Fortunately, Learnit has extensive experience in this field (more than 25 years) and we are happy to help you through this process.

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Language

The training is given in Dutch as standard. The trainer has a good command of English. English-language course material can be used. With a minimum enrolment of 3 participants, the training can also be given entirely in English.

Number of days:

2 days

Course times:

from 10 am to 5 pm

Study load:

14 hours

Education level:

This training is suitable for all levels.

Exemptions:

Exemptions do not apply to this course.

Preparation time:

No preparation time applies to this course.

Certificate:

At the end of the course, a certificate is issued as proof of participation.

The best training for you

At Learnit you will always find a course that takes you further. From (technical) IT skills to communication or personal leadership. You can also choose the training format that suits you best: a classroom course, a tailor-made course at your own office, an online course or an e-learning. We have the right course and the right format for everyone. Because learning in the way that suits you best delivers the best results.

Moving forward together

Taking a training course at Learnit means learning together. Together with your experienced trainer, together with your course group or together with your colleagues. And whether you take the training at home, at your office or at one of our training locations, we are always available to help you. To share our knowledge with you in a way that is genuinely useful to you. Getting further together through personal attention and understanding each other well; that is what we believe in.

Apply it directly in your work

Learning theory from a book that you can then hardly use in your work? Not at Learnit! Whichever training you take with us, you can put it to use at your workplace straight away. Because of the unique learning objectives you set together with the trainer at the start of the training. Because of the alternation between theory and (interactive) practical assignments. And by bringing the challenges you face in your daily work along to the training.