Welcome to Booking.writes
Stories about writing at Booking.com
How in the world do you write copy to be translated into 42 languages?
This is the question I began with when I started as a copywriter for Booking.com. I did the only thing I knew to do and researched for anything I could find. I dug for books on the subject. I looked for blogs from the giants in the e-commerce space. I tried to discover companies that were faced with the same challenges and looked to the writers there for answers.
What did I find? Very little to help. So, I looked for any resources we had available internally and got a copy of a document called “The Copywriter’s Guide to 42 Languages.” This was an impressive document of language application rules that might scare a PhD in Linguistics. But it was a first step to writing for customers across the globe to support teams of developers and designers.
Discovering how to contribute in a technical environment was the next step. Learning a bit of code, a bit of how the database worked, a bit of qualitative analysis to talk about A/B tests. Now math? What’s this got to do with writing? It too was important as each part helped me learn how to write better copy for our customers. That was the point, writing to help the customer without writing to get in the way.
We were a small group with a lot of work. We did our best to explore concepts of persuasion, learn what we could from wheels of emotion, and how to do A/B tests with our copy. We had developed a tool (with a lot of help from some technical wizards) that allowed us to test our words and speak directly with the customer. We needed much more help, so we grew our small team into a community of writers.
We recruited more wordsmiths on our trek, each exploring new directions. Today in the tech department there are nearly 60 UX Copywriters. Marly Pierre-Louis, one of the Seniors here, has shared her insight to what is UX Copywriting. Over time we added more writers tackling new directions such as Beulah Devaney in our growing marketing efforts. She gives us the 3 tips for writing data-driven travel articles. The Principal UX Copywriter at Booking.com, Kelly Chambers, will share our Copy Principles roadmap that guides us in the right direction.
So, this is where you join us on our journey. We’ll show what it’s like to offer experiences, destinations and memories to people eager to roam. We hope to share some of what we learn along the way.
Maybe, we can be a resource for that lone writer digging through the web for the answer to a question like I started with years ago.
How in the world do I write copy like that?
Welcome to Booking.writes
We’re always on the hunt for new writing talent. Wanna join us? Apply here.
