What we do

Writing training

Practical, interactive workshops, tailored to your teams.  

Tone of voice

The right words for your brand, created in partnership with your people. 

Copywriting

Brilliant copy that’s bang on brief, crafted by our wordsmiths. 

Writing training

Whether it’s in person, live online or digital learning, our writing training is ‘discuss and do’, not ‘listen and learn’. 

  • We tailor all our training to your teams’ needs, using real-life examples and scenarios. This brings the theory to life and means your teams can take what they learn straight from the training room into their role. 

    Our workshops are based on best practice and the latest research. This includes many years of communications testing carried out with our clients and research partners.  

  • Our trainers create a safe and supportive environment where your teams have ‘permission’ to ditch corporate speak and express their personality. Our interactive workshops are 'discuss and do', not 'listen and learn'. We tailor everything using real-life scenarios and examples, and your teams work on a piece of their own writing.

    People come out of our workshops feeling inspired and confident that they really can write (even if they didn’t feel that way before). They leave with the practical, lifelong skills that will supercharge their communications inside and outside work.

  • Writing is an unconscious habit for most of us. And, like any habit, it takes time to change. So we never just run one-off training courses (they just don’t work). 

    We use our tried-and-tested process to give your teams all the skills and tools to embed what they’ve learned. From guidelines and templates, to quality assessment, coaching and champions support.

  • "I have to say, this is the best session I have 'had to do' for work and you delivered that AMAZINGLY, I really enjoyed it, thankyou."

    Vicky, Customer Service Lead, HMRC

  • "Pragmatic, practical tips which I'll be able to use immediately.”

    Linda, Head of HR, Allianz Trade, UK & Ireland

  • “Probably the most interesting, useful and engaging training session I've had in my time at the company. Thanks so much - keep up the great work!”

    Alex, Patent Examiner, Intellectual Property Office

Tone of voice

We’ll help you find the right words for your brand. And we’ll give your teams all the skills, tools and confidence they need to use them in their day-to-day comms.

  • Everyone in your business should be able to use your tone of voice, not just marketing and comms. So we work closely with your teams to create a tone of voice that works for everyone, from your customer experience and social teams to legal and HR. 

    By involving your teams, we’ll create a tone of voice that actually gets used. And because they’ve been listened to, your teams will be receptive to the new tone of voice.

  • Tone of voice projects sometimes fail because they fail to inspire people. Or they’re a list of 58 writing rules. 

    We’ll create a big idea for your tone of voice – a simple phrase or line that captures your tone of voice and brings it to life. We’ll give you concepts to choose from, so you can see the different directions words can take you.

    The big idea runs through everything, from your guidelines to training to internal tone of voice campaigns. It brings consistency, inspires your teams and helps them remember the tone of voice easily.

  • We’ll work with your in-house teams or our research partners to test the new tone of voice in real-life scenarios with your customers and colleagues. 

    Like all testing, tone of voice testing needs to be taken with a pinch of salt. But it avoids the trap of creating tone of voice in a brand bubble. Testing is particularly helpful if you’re writing about sensitive topics or you want to gauge people’s comprehension or understand how they’ll behave. 

  • "The First Word has been instrumental in helping our organisation successfully improve and implement our tone of voice. Everything is exceptional."

    Diane Kelly, Marketing Manager,
    The British LIbrary

  • “This initiative started as a tone of voice project. But it's evolved to become much more than that. By changing our words, we’ve given our customers a more human experience. We’ve helped our teams feel more confident and empowered. And we’ve created a culture where people come before process.”

    Liz Olney, Deputy Director, Customer Change and Innovation,
    His Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS)

  • “The sessions were extremely engaging and informative, and freed our teams from the constraints of formal writing so we can make sure we’re letting our customers know they’re firmly number one.”

    James King, Head of Complaints, BUPA

Copywriting

Our wordsmiths will create brilliant copy that’s bang on brief and just right for your brand. 

  • We have a core team of expert writers and a network of specialists, who we’ve worked with over many years. So whether you need us to write customer communications, marketing emails, social posts, packaging copy or internal comms, we’ll match your project with the perfect wordsmith. 

  • Writing isn’t just about being good with words. It’s about being a good thinker. Our writers ask all the right questions at the start of the project. We interrogate the brief and think of creative ways to meet it. And if we have an idea for doing things better, we’ll share it with you at the outset.

  • For every project, you’ll get a dedicated writer (or team of writers) who’ll feel like part of your team from day one. You’ll also get a dedicated project manager who’s on call to answer your questions, liaise with your teams and make sure the whole thing runs on time and on budget. And if your project needs a concept or visuals, our in-house designers will work on it from the first ideas to the final look.

    Having a dedicated team not only brings consistency, it helps our writers and project managers get into the detail. It gives them a deep understanding of your business and your customers, so they can hit the ground running on any copywriting project.  

  • “Everyone at The First Word is friendly, which made it very easy to build a relationship with them, and they take a professional, conscientious approach to their work. The team understood our needs from the start.”

    Manpreet Chana, Communications Manager,
    Barclays

  • "Thank you to you and your team for everything you have written, presented and delivered over the last few months. The project has been on point and you have matched it into our new branding really well."

    Andrew Harris, Head of Customer Sales and Service, Laithwaites

  • “I wanted to let you know of some brilliant news. The Customer Satisfaction results had a significant increase for ‘clarity of guidance documents’. The result leapt from just over 60% in Q3 saying that they were helpful to just under 80% in Q4. It is a brilliant result so thank you very much.”

    Amanda Stiggants, Director of Operations, The Property Ombudsman

Ready to turn blah into brilliant?

We’d love to talk words.