Claydon Leveret - The Countryside Copywriter

Something to remember: your content isn’t for you. 👀

It’s not for your peers either. And it certainly isn’t for your direct competitors!

It’s for your audience. Your content is for people who are your loyal customers now and love what you do. It’s for the people who’ve been quietly following you and are about to send a DM about working with you… It’s for someone who’s just found you and needs your exact set of skills and experience for their business.

So, when you’re next planning, writing and filming content for social media, emails or your website make sure you remember that. How do you help those people, what are the questions you answer time and time again and what makes you different from the rest?

That’s where the value is! Mix that content in with testimonials, snippets from behind the scenes, your backstory that shares your experience and the occasional sales post and you’ll have a winning recipe. 🥣 Yum. 😋

Worried that your blogs, social posts and emails are repeating the same messages over and over? Here’s why that’s NOT a bad thing… 👇🏻

We live in an era when masses of information is being thrown at us all day, every day. With information saturation reducing attention spans and the chances of your posts reaching people at all, repeating your key business messages is actually a great thing. It gives you a better chance of your followers and potential customers learning about you and your business.

So, go out, nail those key messages and then find all the different ways to shout them from the rooftops. Repurpose your content to make the most of it and don’t be afraid to repeat yourself. It’s more than likely that only you (OK, OK, and maybe your competitors too 👀) are reading every single thing that you share… 👩🏼‍💻

Have a great weekend! Vx 🥳🥂

Do you struggle to communicate the value of what you offer your customers? You know exactly what you do and why you’re amazing at it, but you just can’t quite get that across in words…

If you’re finding writing about your business tricky, perhaps on your website, in social media captions, on a sales page or in emails, that’s precisely where I can help you!

I offer monthly packages where you can pick and mix the services you need, and I work on one-off projects to get your brand voice on point. Drop me a DM to learn more or click the link below for more information about how to work with me.

https://tinyurl.com/ClaydonLeveret

I’m delighted to have had an article published in Your Horse Magazine all about whether track systems are suitable for competition horses.

A few months ago, my ears pricked up during a call when I heard about a professional sports horse yard using a track system and I set out to learn more. This one was fun to write, and it was so interesting learning about post-inhibitory behaviours (i.e., if you keep a horse stabled most of the time, don’t be surprised if it’s got rockets under its hooves when you turn out…). It was so refreshing to chat to Mark and Nick at Corvedale Equestrian who turn out all their horses in a track-based herd - bar their stallions! Youngsters, retired horses and competition horses being trained and competed up to PSG, all living together with the freedom to choose when they want to be in the barn or out grazing.

Huge thanks to the team at Corvedale Equestrian and to Lauren from Graveney Equine: Horse Track System and Rosa Verwijs, Senior Lecturer in Equine Behaviour and Nutrition at ARU Writtle for your help in writing this piece. Check out this month’s Your Horse magazine (issue number 517) and I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Want to be top of the pile when it comes to search results in your niche? You need to know about Google’s EEAT guidelines…

The EEAT guidelines stand for experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness. They are four checkpoints that help Google's algorithm understand what constitutes good and relevant content on a web page. Is the information on the page or in the blog post helpful and credible? Does it demonstrate expertise?

EEAT has been around in one form or another for years, but it’s become more influential than ever over the past 12 months. That’s because generative AI has enabled marketers and business owners to upload vast numbers of blogs and page updates quickly and cheaply.

But here’s the rub… Even if that content has all the right keywords and tags for SEO, if it’s not serving the reader and demonstrating EEAT, it won’t rank well.

It’s no surprise then that early adopters of mass AI content generation and upload have seen their sites punished in search rankings and even de-indexed!

So, what can you do? You can learn more about EEAT and how to ensure your content ticks all the boxes in my blog alllll about it! Here’s the link: https://www.claydonleveret.co.uk/index.php/2024/02/01/what-are-googles-eeat-guidelines-and-why-do-they-matter/

Happy Friday! 🥳 I wanted to end the week with a helpful post, so here are five ways to make sure your blog is working hard for your business:

1. Define your audience and segment it. Know who you’re writing for and what you want to teach them or share with them every time you start a new blog.
2. Focus on creating content that’s helpful and valuable. Google has integrated its helpful content system into its search algorithm and that means writing content that aligns with your audience’s needs is more important than ever. Keyword-stuffed nonsense = poor ranking.
3. Boost the readability. Make sure the blog is laid out so that it encourages someone to read it. That means subheadings, bullet points and clear, concise writing. This helps with SEO as well...
4. Make it visible! If thought leadership, brand trust and your latest news are collectively a big deal for your brand, put a carousel of your latest blog posts and how-to guides on your homepage. Fewer clicks to read your blogs = happy web visitors. This is at the top of my website to-do list!
5. Repurpose the content. You’ve spent time writing your or money having some else do it, so make the most of it. Use snippets of copy for social media captions, video scripts, infographics and email.

Enjoy the weekend, whatever you’re planning to do with it! Vx🌳✍🏻
🏃🏼‍♀️🥂🍿🛌🦥

When you write marketing emails, do you manage to transform your exciting news and interesting views into rather serious, boring sentences? If so, here’s a top tip for you! Instead of thinking about penning a business email, imagine you’re writing your update to send to someone you like and know very well. Maybe your mum, a sibling or your very best friend… That way you’ll avoid marketing speak, be conversational and let your passion for what you do flow through the copy!

I use this technique for virtually every consumer-facing marketing email I write, before editing it into the voice of the brand that it’s for. Some are more serious and others are lighthearted, but, thanks to this technique, they are all conversational and approachable. If you give it a go, let me know how you get on…

How do people work with me? Here’s the lowdown:

I have clients who ask me to write all their marketing content, including blogs, emails, social media captions, press releases, website updates and editorial. Others outsource just one or two things, such as writing a couple of SEO-optimised blogs a month, ghost writing their captions for LinkedIn or penning their advertorial and editorial content. I’m also commissioned by editors to write articles for magazines and news sites.

📰 I’ve been working in marketing and PR for 16 years and as a dedicated writer for the last seven years.
🌳 I mainly specialise in the equestrian, rural lifestyle and fieldsports sectors but I also turn my pen to travel, fashion, farming and canine subject matter too.
✍🏻 I know when you need words to convert visitors to customer, and when you need them to tell a story.
👩🏼‍💼 I’m versatile, professional and treat your business like my own.
👋🏻 I’m here when you need me whether that’s for just a one-off project or to throw everything written my way. It’s totally down to you…
🌎 I work with American and British businesses.
📱Drop me a DM if you’d like to learn more!

First up, I’m sorry. This post has some statistics in it and not everyone wants me to squawk numbers at them on a Friday afternoon. But there we go - you could save this to read on Monday, if you prefer 😉

Back to the numbers. This post is for anyone with an online shop, and it’s all about why you need to invest time or money in good (no, amazing!) product descriptions:

🛒 Well-written product descriptions can boost conversion rate by up to 78%. Massive, no?
🤓 Plus, 87% of customers surveyed reported that they read all the copy and review all the images before buying online.
So, think – are you telling people everything? When I shop online, I want to know what something is made from, care instructions, dimensions, how it works and its features and benefits!
🌟 So, be as descriptive as you can! Shopping online is hard, why wouldn’t you tell people as much as possible about your products!? Surely that reduces the likelihood of returns or unhappy customers who don’t get what they hoped for.
🧑‍💻 You can (or I can) optimise your product copy for SEO and make it sing in your brand voice. If you’ve just dropped in a few details, you’re leaving money on the table.
🤖 A word of warning for those planning to turn to ChatGPT or Gemini to write product descriptions for them. I totally get it - it’s free, it’s quick, blah, blah, it’s free, but wait a sec. You’ve just read that informative copy can help boost conversion and SEO so why use bland, sum-of-all-nonsense on the internet generative AI copy?! I’ve seen some and boy, it is bad. And YOU WILL NOT MAKE AS MUCH MONEY. Durrrr. 🤦🏼‍♀️

To mark a certain quadrennial event occurring today, here are five signs that your website copy needs to ‘leap’ ahead and work a lot harder for you! 👩🏼‍💻

1. The copy is all about you from the get-go and ignores the most important person - the website visitor. Great homepage copy speaks directly to visitors and tells them how you can help them!
2. It’s a mish-mash of different people’s input - yours, your marketing person’s, a VA - so there’s no clear brand voice or tone and it’s downright confusing.
3. It has huge blocks of text without headings and subheads. Only two in every 10 people will read beyond a header, so make those heroes and headers work hard.
4. Over time your products/services have changed- or your audience’s needs have - so the copy you wrote years ago just isn’t cutting it anymore.
5. The copy just doesn’t feel like you. Maybe your social media and chats with clients are on point, but your web copy is meh. It should be customer-centric but a reflection of you!

If any of these ring true with you, drop me a DM to chat about how we can get your website copy sorted! From a copy audit to a total rewrite, there are lots of ways I can help… 🌳✍🏻

I’m delighted to have an article published in the recent gunmaking special edition of Fieldsports Journal. In writing ‘Forging Ahead’, I was privileged to speak to Marc Newton and the team at John Rigby & Co. to learn more about this historic yet truly exciting brand, and see the groundbreaking, intricate work their engravers are carrying out. Rigby is the oldest gunmaker in continuous existence and makes incredible bespoke fi****ms for hunters all over the world, but their zest for adventure and declaration that their guns are ‘made to be used’ really sets them apart from the rest.

The magazine has been on sale for a couple of weeks, but when you live overseas magazines take a little longer to land in your mailbox, but this one was worth the wait! It’s a superb collection of stories and interviews with the usual stunning art and photography. If you love shooting, fishing and hunting and you haven’t read Fieldsports Journal yet… Well, you should!

Happy National Horse Day! 🐴🇺🇸

It’s National Horse Day here in the USA, a day when Americans reflect on the role these amazing animals have had in shaping the nation into what it is today. And what better day to reflect on how I became a copywriter with a heck of a lot of horsey knowledge?

I was a horse mad child and was thrilled to be able to study equine science at university (sorry mum and dad, yes anthropology would have been great too…!) before going on to complete a postgraduate course with what was then the Northern Racing College, now called the National Horseracing College. I then worked in bloodstock, racing and show jumping yards here in the UK and abroad, and adored every single horse I came across - especially the quirky ones! All those hours spent pouring over my favourite horse and pony magazines as well as all the equestrian books I could get my hands on really paid off. I was (and am) obsessed!

After stepping away and working in PR and marketing, and then more latterly specialising in copywriting, I eventually specialised in the equestrian, countryside and fieldsports sectors. I count myself so SO lucky to be able to write about horses virtually every single day. I write articles for leading equestrian magazines in the UK and the USA, I write blogs, web copy, advertorials and press releases for horsey businesses and I even get to write for an incredible global show jumping tour. Horses will always have such a special place in my heart - arguably, I enjoy their company more than I do lots of humans I meet - so getting to think and write about them is a dream come true! 🐎🐴🤩

There’s no place like home…

It was absolute heaven to head over the pond and spend two weeks celebrating James’ 40th birthday and enjoying an early Christmas with our families and friends. The Cotswolds, London, Wiltshire, the New Forest; it’s been busy, and it’s been wonderful.

We’re back in America now and more acutely aware of how very ‘British country bumpkin’ we both are, and how much we adore the United Kingdom. It’s such a privilege to be able to travel the world together - with that adventure possibly taking us to the state of Georgia next - but there’s no place like home!

It’s certainly going to be an exciting day when we finally pack up our belongings, pop them on a cargo ship and head back to Europe. But, for now, I’m throwing myself back into work, hugging the spaniels (who I missed like mad) and looking forward to another American Christmas. And daydreaming about where we might move back to when we come home…with regular Rightmove surfing too!

Ready, aim, feathers! 🪶

(But wait ‘till you can see clear sky all around!)

To all my clients whose game shooting season kicks off this week - good luck! To those who wait a few more weeks for the pheasants to get a little bigger, I hope the preparations are going well…

Why I love copywriting just as much as I love seeing the stunning native birds here in the USA:

1️⃣ It’s because words have so much power, and that power to influence people is amplified when you blend marketing strategy, a dash of storytelling and some scroll-stopping creativity.
2️⃣ It’s rewarding, not least when I see my copy in action! This week my words have appeared the website of an international brand, on a social media post with thousands of likes and on posts helping a wonderful new brand take its first steps in the digital world.
3️⃣ It’s varied! No two clients, even those in the same sector, are ever the same, and I adore digging into their brand guidelines, learning what makes them unique and teasing out the messages that will elevate their brand.
4️⃣ It’s challenging. It’s tough when clients deal with complex concepts, but so incredibly satisfying when I master a complicated subject for a piece of writing and know that my copy will help a reader understand it too. Plus, there’s nothing quite like the feeling when you get over a spot of writer's block and the fear of the blank page…
5️⃣ It’s fun - hard work, but fun, nonetheless. No two days are ever the same, I get to speak to amazing people to learn about their businesses and then spend my days sharing them with the world. Now that really is a wonderful job.

And with that, I’m opening the laptop ready to write lots of words on a very sunny Friday morning in Indiana – complete with bright and beautiful northern cardinals, like this happy chap, hopping around the garden. 🍁😊 Have a great weekend! Vx 🌳✍🏻

Autumn lives in my head rent-free…

…and I don’t mind one bit! In fact, I’m actively counting down to the leaves changing, the temperatures cooling off and pulling on a cosy sweater and jeans for the first time in months. 🍂🕯️🤗

It was close to unbearable in Indiana last week, with stifling humidity all day and all night and the hottest temperatures of the summer so far! 🥵

That scorching weather coincided with PSL day, the day when pumpkin spice lattes go back on sale in Starbucks ready for fall. It’s a big deal here and not just in coffee shops. I’ve even seen pumpkin spice dog treats, alcohol-free pumpkin dog beer (uh-huh), pumpkin latte body wash and pumpkin spice-scented bin bags. 🎃 The shops are stuffed to the rafters with Halloween goodies and food, fall decor and thanksgiving tableware and it does feel a little bit strange when it’s so very hot outside! But being a little bit autumn-mad, I can’t say I mind… 🍂

This week the weather has cooled off and it’s downright gorgeous. Misty mornings, glorious blue sky days and a huge supermoon hanging in the sky in the evening... It looks like we’re set for another heatwave next week, and perhaps after that I’ll finally get my wish and autumn will arrive! If you really stare at it, the very top of the huge maple tree in my front garden has a slight pink-red blush to it. Probably. 🍁

What makes me kick up my heels with delight on a Friday morning? Firing up my emails and opening one that reads: “waking up to your news, blogs, and content is honestly the best start to my day!” I might print that email out and stick it on the wall… 👌🏻

It’s been a busy but rewarding week working both on the routine copywriting tasks - social captions, blogs, press releases, articles and emails - and some of the not-so-routine tasks that come my way. They included writing a tone of voice document so that a brand can standardise the way they sound across all their marketing channels, creating scripts for video and audio recordings and writing a pitching sheet for podcasts. Phew. Roll on the weekend. 🤠

P.s. if you’re at the Defender Blair Castle Horse Trials then have the most amazing time and know that I’ll be living vicariously through your social media updates… Over and out and off in search of chillier air con or an ice cold swimming pool - more on that next week. 🥵🙈

Rumours of my demise have been greatly exaggerated!

It’s been many months since I last posted on social media but having attended my third online networking event this morning, where I had to admit I rarely post, it was time to pop back up.

The original quote is from US author Mark Twain and was actually “reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated”, as there were rumours swirling that he had died, when, in fact, he was just abroad. 😁An apt quote for me to steal and tweak as I’ve missed all my favourite British summer events - Badminton Horse Trials, Royal Ascot and Henley Royal Regatta, to name just a few…

So, I’m not dead or gone, I’m just rather busy writing oodles of words for my wonderful clients and enjoying life over here in the USA! 🇺🇸I will be back in the UK for The Game Fair in a couple of weeks, and it’s safe to say I can’t wait for my dose of English summer. Pimm’s, anyone?🍓

As most of you know, I’m currently based abroad and spend my weekends and holidays exploring as much of North America as possible - and that means no Cheltenham festival for me this year! I’ve been closely following the racing online which is entertaining, although no substitute whatsoever for being at the course and feeling the hairs on the back of my neck stand up as the crowd roars their favourite up the hill. 🏇🏼

There’s nothing quite like watching these phenomenal equine athletes in action, and that’s why I wanted to highlight the talented Emily Johnson Fine Art 🎨Emily paints bespoke equine portraits, she’s the artist-in-residence at Cheltenham Racecourse and has spent the week painting live in the Hall of Fame.

Her artwork is simply sublime and I’m over the moon to have played a tiny part in getting her an interview in Horse & Hound that was published this week. If you take a look at her work and love it as much as me, you’ll be pleased to hear one of her oil paintings (that I would adore to have on my wall) is being auctioned this week in aid of WellChild - the national charity for sick children. I’ll pop the link to the auction in my stories and if you have some money to spare after a lucky punt this St. Patrick’s Day ☘️ why not put a bid in? And if you’re at the course, make sure you stop by to say hello to Emily and see her in action. 👋🏻

It’s World Book Day and this year I wanted to mention a truly extraordinary book that I’m reading. In January, I went on a slightly bonkers road trip with my husband that saw us drive 4,500 miles in eight days through 11 states (and one Canadian province).

The landscapes were incredible, the states so varied and the roadside billboards somewhat potty (see image two), but it was the Native American history that was omnipresent throughout our drive that captured my imagination the most. That’s why I’m reading the book Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, by Dee Brown.

This non-fiction book tells the story of American expansionism during the late 19th century through the eyes of the Native Americans, and it is meticulous and tragic in its detail. I’m learning so very much about ignorance, injustice and cruelty, but I definitely recommend reading it if you are interested in American history!

Meta has announced Facebook and Instagram users will soon be able to pay for blue tick verification on a monthly subscription basis, and it’s being rolled out in Australia and New Zealand from this week.

Set to cost around £10 a month, the verification service will give paying users a blue badge, protection from impersonators, easier access to customer service and… increased visibility of their posts. Interesting eh?

I think this is such an interesting move and this comes not long after Instagram chief Adam Mosseri announcing that the platform put too much focus on pushing videos, and is making changes to balance photo and video content in 2023! 📸 Times are a-changing.

Hands up who else is getting the popcorn out to see how this one plays out over the coming weeks?! It’s not a no from me… 🍿

What scares me more often than I’d like to admit? 😱👻😱

Sloppy copy. ✍🏻😈

Marketing messaging littered with bad spelling, poor punctuation and ghoulish grammar. 🤦🏼‍♀️ But does it really matter if your Instagram and Facebook posts have a blooper here and there, or your email marketing isn’t exactly on point?

I’m taking a closer look at the potential impact of sloppy copy in your marketing in my latest blog, and the results might surprise you. And, in true Halloween style, I’m having a moan about the quality of writing from people popping up on social media offering marketing, social media management and content writing services in there too. Read the blog here: https://bit.ly/SloppyCopy

Beware the sloppy copy - and have a very Happy Halloween! 🎃🦇🧛🏼‍♀️👻

How can updating your blog regularly get your website ranking higher in search engine results so that more people see it? Here are three reasons why strategic blogging is key to search engine optimisation (SEO):

1. It means your website content is updated regularly with fresh content - this is a key element of good SEO practice.

2. More content (in the form of those shiny new blogs) means more opportunities to include your keywords AND more meta tags and SEO descriptions. Again, all key for a successful SEO strategy.

3. Blogs give you the chance to increase the number of internal links on your website and those will boost your SEO efforts. For example, if your call to action at the end of a blog is to check out one of your products so make sure you include a hyperlink to that product page.

Just remember, your blog strategy should always be underpinned by keyword research and a content strategy. I’ll be posting about both of those little nuggets next week, so stay tuned for that!

Aim for a keyword density between one and two percent, so the word or phrase appears once or twice every 100 words. Include your keywords in titles and subheadings and don’t forget to write metatags and an SEO description for every blog post.

Happy blogging! Of course, if you need a hand with keyword research, content strategy and blog writing, you can always drop me a line for some advice.

Vx 🌳✍🏻

I posted recently about a huge life change for me, and that I’m now based in the USA! Which is all very exciting, of course, but most of the time you’ll find me doing exactly what I was doing before. Writing copy for my wonderful clients! ✍🏻😊 But what exactly does that mean?

I write:

☕️ Blogs
👩🏼‍💻 Website content - homepage copy, bio pages, sales pages, downloads and ebooks.
💡Editorial features and interviews
💵 Advertorials
📧 Email copy
📰 Press releases
📱 Social media captions
🌃 Content for brochures, posters and leaflets
📹 Scripts for video voiceovers and webinars

Who do I do it for?
�I work with all sorts of organisations in multiple sectors, including interior design, rural lifestyle, fieldsports, equestrian, wellness, technology and, more recently, high performance coaching. My clients are:

🙋🏼‍♀️Sole traders
🏢Businesses of all sizes
🔮Marketing and PR agencies
🎗Charities and social enterprises
🗞Media and publishing companies

How do I do it?

It completely depends the client. Sometimes I write the same content - social captions, blogs and website updates - every month. For others, I work on one-off projects such as sales page copy or a feature for a magazine and, for a handful of clients I work on an ad-hoc basis depending on what their marketing aims are that month. Sometimes they want a series of emails, other months it’s an advertorial or a refresh of their bio page. Some clients are billed by the hour, by the blog or article, some I charge per-word and others pay my day rate.

If you would love to outsource some writing and free up some time to focus on delighting your clients, drop me a DM! ✍🏻💚

🐾 Did I find my springer spaniel having a frank discussion with a possum in the garden one evening this week? Yes.

🐺 Was my early morning dog walk interrupted by a pack of coyotes howling their heads off in the forest right next to the trail because a fire engine went past with its siren on? Also, yes. Ah-wooo!

☕️ Am I sitting in a coffee shop tucked in a cute midwestern town in Indiana, surrounded by American accents? Yup.

🇺🇸 That’s right, earlier this year I moved to Indianapolis, USA!

🌎 Not just to a new house, but to an entirely new continent…

✍🏻 Does it change what I do for a living? Not one bit!

🕰 Does it change how I do it? For the most part, no, although it does mean that I’m now working 5 hours behind the UK, so my mornings are often busy with replying to emails and having Zoom meetings while my working hours overlap with clients and journalists.

💫 Can I still help you share all the amazing things about your business with the world? Absolutely.

If you would like me to write engaging and beautiful copy for your brand then drop me a line. I’ll also popping up more often on social media again with all sorts of copywriting and content marketing tips for you all. It’s good to be back! 👋🏻

I’ve been quiet on social media. 😴

Actually, that’s a ludicrous understatement - I’ve only posted twice in four months! However, my eagle-eyed followers may have noticed the occasional story from me recently and, heck, now I’m even posting.

I do have a very good reason not to have been showing up online which will become much clearer later this week, but I decided it was high time to break my social media silence. I’m delighted to say copywriting work has been flowing in abundance and my inbox has been nice and full, so I’m aiming to just come on here to post information my network will find helpful. 🤓

So, keep your eyes peeled for a little slice of ‘what’s been going on behind the scenes at Claydon Leveret’, coming your way later this week. Big changes have happened, and I’m going to tell you all about them! 🤠

Do you to help more people find your website? Even small businesses need to know some of the basics of SEO to make the most of their investment in a website.

If you’re keen for your website to appear as high up as possible in Google’s results page, make sure you keep your blog updated. Here are 3 reasons why it helps:

✍🏻 Uploading a blog once a week or so will ensure fresh content in the form of new copy and images and Google loves that.

✍🏻 Having a blog means more content and that means more chances to include keywords… which help you get found by people searching on Google.

✍🏻 Using internal links in blogs is another way to please Google’s ‘crawlers’ (software which checks out all publicly available websites) when they visit. You could write a case study blog on a customer and link to the product or service they bought.

So there you go - 3 simple reasons why keeping your blog up to date can help you get more website visitors, and hopefully more sales!

Vix🌳✍🏻

I can talk until the 🐄🐄 come home about how my ✍🏻 services will help your brand grow, but you need to hear it from fellow business owners. So here it is, from the 🐎 mouth:

“Victoria is like having someone who reads your mind but remotely. Working with Victoria is effortless, she takes all your content and copy struggles and just presents the most perfect work. I very often have all the ideas and titles but no clue how to grow things from there – well Victoria takes care of everything! I send her an idea and she just runs with it – saving me huge amounts of time and effort. I would recommend working with Victoria to anyone that needs help with blogs, web copy or anything that requires actual words. I can’t recommend her enough.”

Danielle, Black Nova Designs