Beetroot Academy (BA) is a Swedish-Ukrainian IT school that helps people break into tech. Their goal is to build a world-class digital education company that offers life-changing opportunities for people around the globe.

The academy is accountable for a significant percentage of tech professionals entering the field in Ukraine and has so far outbranched into other countries such as Sweden, Kosovo, and others. 

In late 2021, Beetroot Academy kicked off a redesign of its website and Tone of Voice guidelines to create a coherent and cohesive experience throughout all channels and across all geographies.

My involvement in this project was twofold—I assisted them in developing a Tone of Voice (ToV) guideline and then leveraged our findings to write the copy for their new website.

We kicked things off with a two-hour workshop with the academy's Marketing Coordinator and Lead Writer, where we went through a series of exercises that would help us calibrate the brand's ToV.

These exercises included discussing the academy's brand archetype, exploring the company's most distinctive personality traits, and working with various practical activities that would allow us to test variations of copy and CTAs.

One workshop and two follow-up calls later, Beetroot Academy's new Tone of Voice guideline came into being—a seven-page document that will allow the brand to ensure recognizable communication with their audience, ranging from emails and site copy to sales calls and customer service.

On to the website!

An important part of my work with Beetroot Academy's new website copy revolved around the hero banner.

You've only got this much visual real estate to deliver an accurate representation of a brand's positioning, identity, and goals.

Drum roll, please.

Yes, the text isn't flashy—but it never intended to. A central tenet of Beetroot Academy's identity is never overpromising and staying humble at all times.

As you scroll down, you'll find a list of reasons why BA is the perfect place to start a confident career transition into tech.

Beetroot Academy's voice skews heavily into "casual" territory, so I suggested we opt for sentence case across all brand collateral (capitalizing the first letter of a heading) to make the copy look less formal and more legible.

As I worked on the academy's site copy, I focused a lot on creating a sense of safety.

BA's students are predominantly people attempting a scary and demanding professional transition. My goal was to make sure that the copy emanates support and reassurance, thus letting them know that they're in good hands. 

To achieve this, I chose to word certain sections in a more lighthearted and comforting manner.

Another critical aspect that I needed to consider throughout the process is that the academy is about to enter new markets that do not speak English as a first language. Therefore, the website's copy should hit a good balance between playful and accessible for those who acquired English as a second or even third language.

This is why I chose to word CTAs in a simple and approachable manner such as: 

• Start learning
• Take the test
• Subscribe

I urge you to check out Beetroot Academy's new website, as well as keep track of the relief programs and fundraising campaigns they initiated to help the Ukrainian people continue making career transitions while their country is in the middle of a barbaric invasion.

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