Udemy

Rebrands

Role: Co-author

I co-authored the Udemy brand books that launched in 2017 and 2021. This included guidance for the entire company on brand core (mission, vision, promise), customer journey, personality, voice and tone, photography, editorial style, brand launch campaigns, and much more. I continue to work with product marketers and designers to improve guidelines and establish consistency.

Udemy went IPO in October 2021, soon after our July rebrand. It was an interesting experience to support that event and work with our legal department on language and guidelines for a public company.

Video and tv

Role: Scripts, story assembly, on-set production

I wrote and produced a variety of videos including broadcast tv, pre-roll ads, success stories, and YouTube channel content. I also worked on set with directors, actors, sound and lighting technicians, and our production team. Our “How do YOU say Udemy?” spot was the best-performing Udemy ad ever, beating out expensive agency creative.

Our founder and success stories were incredibly gratifying to work on. Our founder’s wife cried when she saw this video. John the Singer inspired us to never stop learning, even in advanced age. This is what it’s all about.

UX, content design, and research

Role: UX writer, content designer

I love working with designers and researchers to solve pain points for our learners and instructors. When possible, I like to use research to understand the audience better and guide my decisions. Here are a few recent projects:

Content design framework

I’m currently working on building a stronger framework for Content Design at Udemy. This includes an overview of the function, guiding principles, best practices, and identifying opportunities for improvement.

Learning streaks

I paired with a designer and product manager to create and test learning streaks in our product. With user research, we developed upbeat and motivating copy for the different states a learner could be in.

Subscriptions

This team effort used consumer video interviews to develop a better onboarding experience. The end goal was converting more learners to subscriptions to boost a reliable stream of consumer revenue. It will also raise the long-term value (LTV) of our customers.

Integrated marketing

Role: Copywriter

I’ve concepted, crafted, and written hundreds of integrated marketing campaigns including quarterly centerpieces, live events, and much more. Campaigns at Udemy typically include assets for onsite, email, mobile app, tv, video, advertising, social, paid search, affiliates, and more in 11 languages. Here are a few examples. If you’d like to have a deeper conversation, I’ll show you even more examples, explain how I collaborate with designers, handle localization, and what other considerations I make to deliver the best work possible.

We can’t always sacrifice clarity, but sometimes there are opportunities to pair copy in a clever way with the topic or visuals.

We can also pair inspiring, yet practical communications with relatable models that grab the learner’s attention through eye contact and tone of voice.

Representation matters. You may not be able to represent everyone in one communication, but our strategy is to balance it overall with adaptations by region. We got really positive feedback in focus groups that people saw themselves in our marketing and appreciated the effort. It’s just what you do when your mission is improving lives through learning.

Email is still an important part of any marketing plan. Although marketers can often look at it as a numbers game, it's our job as creatives to think about how we can capture attention in a crowded inbox, offer value in the content, and motivate the audience to take action.

Organic social is an effective way to express your brand without limitations from product or ad budgets. I regularly meet with our social team to understand past performance, learn about trends, and brainstorm new ideas.

Personalized marketing

Role: Copywriter + content designer

One of our larger company initiatives was to build personalized marketing messaging into the product since it’s all about delivering the right message to the right person at the the right time. I worked with a designer and marketing manager to create targeted messaging for 25+ moments like wishlists, learning reminders, and course completion.

Many of the moments were around engagement. I focused on light-hearted messaging that inspired people to take action. We also set up a design system that paired copy with spot illustrations for these action-oriented moments that would be difficult to communicate through photography. We reserved photography visuals for more aspirational communications.

Creative leadership

I frequently pair with new designers and copywriters to guide them through initial projects and how we build better collaboration between copy and design. I also enjoy leading creative exercises, brainstorming sessions, and sharing what I learn from courses I take on IDEOU, CreativeLIVE, and of course — Udemy.

I was also part of the winning annual hackathon team – a collection of writers, content strategists, and product designers that reimagined how we could motivate our learners to learn more often.