I was doubly pleased when approached by international charity Freddy’s Cathouse Lanzarote to handle the copywriting for their new website.
First, because we have three cats at home and were aware of the good work the charity was doing on the island.
And second, because Freddy and his team had come to the copywriter first!
And what a story there was to tell!
15 years’ ago, Freddy began caring for the stray cats of Lanzarote, with nothing more than a back-pack of cat biscuits and bottles of water. With no car, no volunteers and no financial support, he would walk up to 30 miles a day to make sure the cats were fed and watered.
His dedication and energy were soon noticed, and he started to attract others who wanted to help.
Now a registered charity, Freddy and his team of volunteers feed and water over 300 cats at over 40 feeding stations every day – and there are fans and supporters all over the world.
One of those supporters has recently donated Dreamland – a beautiful 9,000 sq m walled property which now acts as Lanzarote’s first dedicated cat sanctuary.
Currently, Dreamland is home to around 80 abandoned or sick cats and their kittens.
Copywriting starts
So it was to Dreamland I went to meet Freddy and do my first copywriting interview.
Just before the meeting, I called Susan Anderson at Eikon Design in Ayrshire, and she agreed to handle all design and technical aspects of the project.
Susan immediately started work on redesigning the logo, so it could be used on the web, in print and on video. But we agreed that web design and build would start until I had agreed the main messages with Freddy and written the copy.
The Dreamland meeting went well and I soon got used to the cats strolling across the table and lying down on my notes.
I got all the information I needed along with contact details for the various services associated with the charity. These included veterinary care, the ‘Trap, Neuter Release’ scheme, and the charity’s fostering and international adoption services.
For the next two weeks, I contacted and interviewed these contacts by phone. The interviews were taped and transcribed and I wrote the copy from those transcriptions. Then there was another round of calls to check that the finished copy was factually correct and on message.
Once I had the OK, it was time to call Susan at Eikon Design.
Freddy had approved all Susan’s revamped logos and one of our first jobs was to insert them into the home page promotional video which had been shot and produced by a Freddy’s Cathouse supporter based in Germany.
We decided to feature this video at the top of the home page as it was beautifully shot and Freddy had obtained permission to use the song ‘The Perfect Life’ by Moby.
Susan did a great job designing the site. We wanted the layout to be clear, crisp and easy to read, with the minimum of distracting website effects. After all, the cats were the stars of the show!
The text was laid out in two columns using Google Lato with a range of photographs – some of which I took, some of which were from the charity archives, plus a few stock shots that Susan sourced and supplied
The text on every page is optimised for SEO and designed to guide visitors to the ‘Donate’ page and to encourage them to ‘Be Part of It’.
When Susan had finished the design, Freddy and his team were delighted with the result.
Then, as the copywriter, I could sit back as Susan built the site.
The new website is now up and running at https://www.freddys-cathouse.com
The response from supporters of the charity in Lanzarote and around the world has been fantastic.
Susan and I were really pleased with the result, as it showed how well a website can turn out, and how powerfully it can talk to the target market if the messages and copywriting are done and agreed before the work starts on the design.
You can read Susan’s side of the story by reading her blog here
You can check out other copywriting blogs on BlueSky Copywriting by clicking here