Please tell us about your class in Marketing Writing Bootcamp.

My class is How to Create Case Studies and Sell Sheets that Lead to Customers. These are two basic, yet critical, writing tools that all B2B marketers need. This class will focus on giving your sales team the content they need to sell, while giving future customers what they need to make the decision to do business with you.

Two stats that support this and that I often share with clients are:

• 71% of B2B buyers in the awareness stage and 77% of buyers in the evaluation stage cited testimonials and case studies as the most influential types of content. (hawkeye B2B Buyer Journey Research)
• B2B technology buyers consume more data sheets and brochures than they do any other type of content. (B2B Technology Collateral Survey Report)

So you can see how important a role sell sheets and case studies play in the buying decision. Marketers need to learn to create these tools and can see a huge pay off when they're done well.

What key takeaways can students expect from your MarketingProfs University class?

I'm going to take the attendees through the same process that I go through when writing case studies and sell sheets. I've been doing this for many years and have best practices to share and solid processes in place that will show students how to turn learning into action.

I'm excited about this class because students will walk away with concrete tools that they can implement immediately. I'm going to share robust creative briefs that work and a case study questionnaire that, once implemented, will make the case study practically write itself!

Students will benefit from my years of refining and tweaking these helpful tools and questionnaires. I've already done the legwork for them, so they can take these documents and run with them!

Where do you think writing ranks in priorities for good marketers? And, why do you think courses like this are important to marketers?

I think writing should be a marketer's highest priority. There is such a focus on high-quality content today and we are all publishers, in some regard. So, not only do you need someone who writes well, but you need to translate all of that good writing into solid marketing benefits. It's a combination of integrating good marketing principles and techniques with their content marketing efforts.

A course like this is fabulous for today's marketers. There's a huge demand out there for good writers; it's one of the biggest challenges I hear from marketing management. It's tough to find a high-quality writer—someone who understands a client's industry, writes well, and gets the marketing side of it. And comprehensive classes like this help to teach those things (and more)!

Finally, who's your writing and/or marketing inspiration?

Steve Slaunwhite was my first inspiration in the world of marketing and copywriting. He held a workshop in Toronto when I was first starting out. I was at an awful job and I took a sick day to go see him and it was well worth it! His insights into copywriting changed the course of my career.

How to Create Case Studies and Sell Sheets that Lead to Customers is only one of the 16 heart-pumping, idea-generating classes in this year's Marketing Writing Bootcamp. See all of the classes here and get ready to learn from experts like Rachel.