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Blair · Bluestem Brands
Writing a catalog company onto the internet
No store, no salesperson. If the copy did not work, nothing happened. It is the best training a direct-response writer can get.
The assignment
Blair is a multimedia apparel retailer with a long catalog history and a customer base that had bought on paper for decades. The company needed to become digital-first without losing the people who liked the catalog.
I joined a 50-person creative department — writers, designers, producers and in-house studio photographers — and started in menswear. Shaping that brand voice is what earned me the move to womenswear.
Approach
Write for the shelf you do not have. In direct response the copy is the entire sales floor. It has to do the work a salesperson would: answer the question, handle the objection, and make the fabric feel like something.
Make product pages earn their keep. 300+ e-commerce pages a year, built on keyword research and natural search behavior, with benefit-led narratives rather than spec lists.
Build voice at the brand level, then let it scale. Lifestyle-led narrative systems developed with creative and merchandising leaders — including the Scandia Woods brand boards, which set the outdoor voice for years of catalogs and advertising.
What I delivered
- Digital and print catalog copy across multiple apparel divisions
- 300+ SEO-optimized e-commerce pages annually
- Email programs, landing pages, social, and blog content
- Product naming, including trademark clearance through TESS/USPTO
- Neat-Fit® Jeans — a name I wrote and then carried through to registration with the legal team
- Brand narrative systems and seasonal cover wraps
- Mentoring on brand voice, copyediting, and proofreading standards
Selected samples
Results
- 20→50%Digital share of sales between 2013 and 2015, as the company moved off catalog.
- +8%Email click-through rate.
- +17%Average order value.
- 300+E-commerce pages written and optimized each year.
- ®One product name carried from concept through USPTO registration.