Since the turn of the century I’ve been exclusively involved in sales, marketing, and direct response copywriting.
My clients come predominately from the fundraising market (i.e., writing direct-mail and web copy for nonprofits). They include a variety of charitable organizations as well as professional membership associations.
How can I help your nonprofit be even more successful? What do I bring to the table?
- I’m a problem solver.
- I have direct sales experience (synonymous with persuasion).
- I have extensive marketing experience and I thrive on learning all I can about marketing (online and offline).
- I continue to study and hone my craft. I don’t stop learning.
- I’m a business owner.
- I have a knack for simplifying the complex . . . for explaining the very technical in ways that donors and customers can easily understand, and more importantly, respond to.
- I have decades of leadership and managerial experience.
- I believe in “old fashioned” courtesy. I value my clients like precious metal (and I’m a former geological engineer, so I know what I’m talking about!).
In addition I have life experiences that many fellow Americans don’t share. And I believe these experiences add dimension and perspective to my writing.
Many of my overseas experiences, for example, have given me unique insights into some of the challenges nonprofit organizations strive to overcome. So these prove especially helpful to these clients. The direct results are larger donations from more donors plus increased awareness for your mission.
I’ve lived in the Philippines; traveled to
twenty-two countries in Europe, the Caribbean, North America, the
south Pacific and the
Far East. I even visited
behind the Iron Curtain several years before it fell. Plus I’ve
lived in nine states and traveled to all but Alaska.
For the curious,
I began as an engineer with a public utility; next an oil and gas company; and
then I had a career as a Navy Civil Engineer Corps
officer.
I’ve been
exploring in one way or another since I was a youth. And I’ve
also enjoyed writing about it along the way too.
All this adds
up to a greater ability to relate to nonprofit missions
and the people served by them. And this translates into
stronger copy.
I can supercharge your direct-mail and marketing
promotions with copy formulated to tap into core reader emotions;
formulated to reach readers
at a more
penetrating level than ever before. You’ll get more
mileage out of the same mailing or advertising budget.
Here
are my credentials:
- Recipient of the Clayton Makepeace & The
Total Package “2006 Copywriter’s Challenge” Award (3rd place category)
- Member
of:
- Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP)
- American Society of Association Executives (ASAE)
- Business Marketing Association (BMA)
- American Writers & Artists
Institute (AWAI)
- Secrets of Writing for the Fundraising Market (I'm an author of this course)
- Accelerated Program for Six-Figure Copywriting
- The Masters Program for Six-Figure Copywriting
- Secrets of Writing High-Performance Business-to-Business Copy
- Other courses and materials I have studied come from direct response copywriting legends such as Jerry Huntsinger, Clayton Makepeace, Herschell Gordon Lewis, Tom Ahern, Mal Warwick, Bob Bly, and John Carlton, to name a few. There are more but I hope I’ve shown that I look far and wide to learn all I can.
- Licensed Professional Engineer
Colorado, Civil Engineering
- MSE – field of Environmental Engineering
Purdue University
- BS, Geological Engineering
South Dakota School of Mines & Technology
Hobbies & Interests: hiking; nature and the environment;
private pilot; piano; classical music; photography; solving mysteries; travel;
energy conservation; home improvement projects ("Karen The
Handyman"); and discovering how things are made (e.g., just
about any type of construction falls here); to name a few.
Karen Zapp
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