Workshop Workbook Template

Participant Workbook

2-Day
Copy
Intensive

Write copy that makes people stop, feel something, and act. A hands-on workshop for marketers who want to get serious about words.

Facilitator Cleo Park

Dates May 9–10, 2026

Participants 12 Marketers

Format Intensive Workshop

2D

Before You Begin

How to Use This Workbook

This workbook is your companion for the 2-Day Copywriting Intensive. Every exercise in the workshop has a corresponding page here. Use the lined spaces to capture your work during facilitated exercises — and bring this back to your desk when the workshop ends.

Ground Rules

Write fast, edit never (during exercises). The goal of in-session writing is to access ideas before your internal editor shuts them down. Bad first drafts are the only path to good final copy. You will have time to refine after each exercise is discussed as a group.

Use your own brand. Every exercise asks you to work on real copy for your real product or service. Generic practice leads to generic copy. The point is to leave with actual work you can use.

Steal frameworks, not words. When you see something in another participant's work that works, note the structure — not the words. You are not copying their copy; you are cataloguing a technique.

Workshop Structure

Day 1

Voice & Positioning

May 9, 2026 · 9am–5pm
3 exercises · Facilitated discussion

Day 2

Writing Practice

May 10, 2026 · 9am–4pm
3 exercises · Peer review

About Your Facilitator

Cleo Park spent 9 years as a Senior Copywriter at Wieden+Kennedy, the agency behind some of Nike's most iconic campaigns. After leaving W+K, she built a freelance practice focused on brand voice and positioning for DTC brands. She has taught copywriting workshops at General Assembly, SXSW, and in-house at 20+ companies. Her belief: good copy is not a talent — it is a repeatable skill, and this workshop exists to prove it.

01

Day One: Voice & Positioning

3 exercises · 9am – 5pm · May 9, 2026

May 9

Day One is about understanding your brand's voice and your customer's world before you write a single word of copy. Most copywriting problems are actually positioning problems. If you are not clear on who you are writing for and what makes you different, no amount of clever phrasing will save you.

Day 1 Outcomes: By end of day, you will have (1) a defined brand voice on 4 dimensions, (2) a competitive tone map, and (3) a one-page ICP description detailed enough to write from.

1.1

Brand Voice Sliders

30 minutes · Individual exercise

Rate your brand on each scale from 1 (fully left) to 10 (fully right). First, mark where your brand's voice currently sits. Then mark where you want it to be. The gap between current and ideal is your opportunity area. We will discuss as a group.

Legend: ● = current voice ● = ideal voice

Playful

Serious

Casual

Professional

Authoritative

Conversational

Bold

Subtle

Notes on your biggest gap (current vs. ideal):

Day 1 — Voice & Positioning

Exercise 1.2 & 1.3

1.2

Competitor Tone Audit

45 minutes · Individual then pair share

Choose 3 direct competitors. For each: write one sentence capturing their tone, one word you would NEVER use to describe them, and one thing they do well with voice. Be specific — "they sound confident" is not specific. "They write short, punchy sentences with no adjectives" is.

Competitor	One-Sentence Tone	Word They'd Hate	Voice Strength
Competitor 1
Competitor 2
Competitor 3

Based on your audit: what tone territory is UNCLAIMED in your category? Where is the white space?

1.3

ICP One-Pager

1 hour · Individual deep work

Write as specifically as possible. The more specific your answers, the more specific your copy will be. Resist the urge to describe everyone — describe the one person you are writing for.

Who are they exactly? (title, company size, context)

What problem keeps them up at night?

What do they Google when desperate?

What do they brag about when they succeed?

What do they secretly believe that most people wouldn't say?

02

Day Two: Writing Practice

3 exercises · 9am – 4pm · May 10, 2026

May 10

Day Two is where the theory from Day One becomes actual copy. You will write headlines, landing page sections, and email subject lines — all for your real product or service. Bring the ICP one-pager from Exercise 1.3. You will refer to it constantly.

2.1

Headline Variations

45 minutes · Individual then group critique

Start with this weak headline: "We help businesses grow with better marketing."

Write 10 variations using a different technique for each. Speed matters — aim for one per 3 minutes. You are not trying to write the perfect headline; you are building range. We will vote on the group's best at the end.

Specificity

Contrast

Question

Urgency

Negative

Social Proof

How-To

Bold Claim

Unexpected

Personal

Circle your top 3. Then write the one you would actually use and why:

Day 2 — Writing Practice

Exercise 2.2 & 2.3

2.2

Landing Page Above-the-Fold

1 hour · Individual work + peer review

Write all four elements of your above-the-fold for your own product or service. The constraints are real — stay within them. Most copywriters use too many words. The constraint is the exercise.

Headline

Max 10 words. The single most important sentence on your page. Must communicate who you help and what changes for them.

Subheading

Max 25 words. Expands the headline. Adds context or proof. Can be a complete sentence or two short ones.

3 Bullet Benefits

Outcomes, not features. Each bullet: what changes in the customer's life. Start each with a verb.

Primary CTA Button Text

Max 5 words. Not "Submit" or "Learn More." What does the customer get when they click?

After peer review — what did you change and why?

2.3

Email Subject Line Lab

30 minutes · Individual + group vote

Write 7 subject lines for the same email — each using a different angle. The email content is: you are announcing a new feature, product, or service. Pick something real from your work.

Free Gift

Question

Specificity

Controversy

Social Proof

Fear

Curiosity

Which would you A/B test and why? (Pick 2 and explain):

Notes

Workshop Closing

Key Takeaways

These are the principles that will still hold true in ten years. Everything else in copywriting is tactics — useful, learnable, but secondary. These are the fundamentals.

1

Specificity is always more powerful than generality

"We help 15-person marketing teams ship 3x more campaigns" is always more compelling than "We help teams be more productive." Name the customer. Name the number. Name the outcome.

2

Voice is not decoration — it is positioning

If you sound exactly like your competitors, you have given buyers no reason to choose you beyond price. Voice is a competitive advantage. Use it deliberately.

3

The best copy comes from customer language, not clever wordsmithing

Read your reviews. Read your support tickets. Read what your customers write unprompted. The phrases they use to describe their problem are almost always better than what you'd come up with in a brainstorm.

4

Headlines are not written — they are selected

The exercise today was intentional: write 10 before choosing 1. Professional copywriters know that the best headline usually appears around variation 7 or 8 — after the obvious ones are exhausted. Volume is the process.

5

The job of copy is not to impress — it is to convert

Resist the urge to be clever at the expense of clarity. When your customer reads your copy, they should immediately know what you do, who it is for, and what they should do next. Everything else is decoration.

Recommended Next Steps

1. Rewrite one real piece of copy using the techniques from Day 2 within 48 hours — before the muscle memory fades.
2. Share your Exercise 2.2 above-the-fold with a non-marketing colleague. Ask them: "What does this company do? Would you click?" Their confusion is your to-do list.
3. Set up a swipe file. Bookmark every piece of copy that makes you stop. Review it monthly.