Happy New Year everyone. As the country settles into the post-festive comedown and back to a semblance of normality, I thought I’d share a little professional update as we’ve been quiet for a while.
On the final day of November 2022, I was approached by my friend and colleague Joe (the very same Joe whom set up this site actually) with a proposition.
Could I put together a 3,000 word blog post on the topic of lab created, synthetic diamonds? The client was Creatiste, a relatively new jewellery company specialising in a sustainable, eco-friendly and cost effective alternative to naturally mined diamonds. They wanted a copywriter to promote their business, their USP and their ethos. Joe had set up their website and entrusted me with this copywriting job.
As you can imagine for a happily single man in my early 30s, my knowledge of the nuances of jewellery were (and still are) non-existent. But I can turn my hand to anything when it comes to writing and I really enjoy embracing new challenges and stepping out my comfort zone. Here, I was as far outside of that as it is perhaps possible to be. Although there was no deadline per se, I aimed for a completion date of Christmas and to strike a balance between a great piece of blog writing which wasn’t too time consuming.
The first phase involved setting out the structure of the article. We had to decide what specific areas to cover and how many words should be given over to each bit of the blog post.
The five main sections were:
- What are Lab Grown Diamonds?
- How are Lab Grown Diamonds made?
- How are Lab Grown Diamonds Certified and Graded?
- Mining vs lab created gemstones
- Simulated vs lab grown diamonds?
Having looked at other competitor sites, we noticed many of these, such as Brilliant Earth and Anabela Chan, had a Q&A and a ‘Gemstones Glossary’ to explain some of the jargon and lesser known terms which you come across in the jewellery/gemstone industry. It would also allow for us to expand upon many of the themes mentioned in the main body of the blog post.
I didn’t need to be a jewellery expert or a gemstone guru to be able to write tight, engaging and professional copy for this project. Having found some other similar sites to use for inspiration, it was simply a case of researching the topic, collating everything I learned then making this information readable. The key is making it look and sound as though you know what you’re talking about even if you have no prior knowledge of the topic or subject matter. Although my background is in the world of sports reporting, it was an interesting challenge to be able to turn my hand to something I’ve never done before.
When I graduated back in 2019, I never thought I would be researching and writing about demi-fine jewellery as part of my day job, but there you go. It’s where my career has taken me and I wouldn’t change it for anything.
We decided to ask Mehreen, co-founder of Creatiste along with her sister Maha, to introduce the piece in the form of an interview. We felt this would add a sense of personality, bring a different voice to the article and hopefully take the reader on a journey. Mehreen was only too happy to oblige and gave a fascinating insight into how it all started, a great explanation on their ethos and what the future holds for the company. Her take on things really added a different perspective and provided a strong opening gambit for us to go into the more intricate and technical details.
Projects like this one are great strings to my bow, evidence I can turn my hand to anything as required and still produce excellent work even when it’s not a topic I’m familiar with.
One of the best things in freelance work is the variety involved – no day is the same, you never know what you will be working on and you’re broadening your horizons all the time.