Gabriela Alicia Leal

I've successfully driven key initiatives and achieved impactful results over the last few years.

Some of my accomplishments as Managing Bilingual Editor and Writer for the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) include:

• Spearheading HSLDA’s first bilingual journalism initiative by writing stories in English and Spanish, expanding our reach to global Spanish-speaking audiences. 
• Launching the organization's inaugural monthly Spanish newsletter, which garnered a 52% open rate in its first year.
• Enhancing digital content quality by editing and proofreading +130 stories in English and +200 content pieces in Spanish in two years.
• Leading and mentoring a dedicated team of three bilingual editors.
• Streamlining the English-Spanish translation workflow by reducing turnaround time by 66%  and implementing software project management.

As a copywriting consultant for the Hallow app, I have achieved the following: 

• Produced +200 content pieces for lifecycle marketing campaigns, impacting millions of Spanish-speaking users across the US, Latin America, and Spain.
• Increased subscription trials by 19.05% in nine months, by leveraging culturally adapted copy, informed by A/B testing and data-driven insights.

With a strong track record of driving content strategy, streamlining workflows, launching new initiatives, and creating high-quality marketing content that resonates with global audiences, I’m confident in my ability to meet your company’s needs.

You can find samples of my writing, editing, and copywriting work below. 

As a writer for HSLDA, I've written digital stories that are accessible, linguistically accurate, and aligned with brand guidelines. Throughout the past two years and a half, I have honed my ability to create attention-grabbing headlines, edit strategically, and deliver messaging that corresponds with HSLDA's core values. 

These are some of my favorite pieces. (To access each article's Spanish version, click 'Español' in the top-right corner.)

I increased HSLDA's Spanish newsletter subscriptions by 79% this year by collaborating with the Spanish and email team at HSLDA, leveraging A/B testing insights, and curating content tailored to the needs of our Spanish-speaking audience.

Launching and managing this newsletter has equipped me with critical thinking, creativity, and audience awareness—essential components for producing effective content for a specific audience.

Hallow is a prayer app that encourages users worldwide to find peace through prayer. It's the #1 Catholic app in the United States. As a copywriting consultant for Hallow's Latin American market, I create warm, accessible, exciting, and inviting copy for their push notifications and email campaigns, encouraging users to engage with the app's prayer content.

In the past nine months, I've boosted user engagement by 19.5% by spearheading A/B testing for subject lines and preheaders, and utilizing data insights to develop creative copy.

Below, I've included examples of my work in Spanish with their English translations and the strategies I use based on our brand tone and data insights.

English translation: 

The Pope is counting on your prayers

Let’s pray for the monthly intention of the Pope: that each of us might listen with our hearts to the cry of the earth. 🌳🍃

Copy strategy: 

- Instead of using “Pray for the Pope’s monthly intention now!”, I use “the Pope is counting on your prayer” to avoid a transactional tone.
- I add what the Pope’s monthly intention is, so users feel moved to pray for that specific intention.
- I add emojis that are related to the prayer intention, to make the text colorful and appealing.
- I link to the specific prayer session in the app so users can access it as soon as they click on the push notification, per Hallow’s guidelines. 

English translation: 

Sleep in the presence of God 😴

Let God guide you to a deep sleep through the Scriptures. Listen to our Lectio for Sleep collection now at Hallow.

Copy strategy: 

- I indirectly address the pain point of not being able to fall asleep by inviting users to “sleep in the presence of God” in the title. (A lot of users struggle to fall asleep and they download the app for its sleep content.)
- I provide a solution to the pain point by inviting users to let themselves be guided by God to a good night's sleep through the Scriptures.
- I add the specific name of the collection and link to it, so users access it.
- We schedule the push to be sent around 8 pm, so users are reminded of this collection before they go to bed and pray it. This results in a higher conversion rate. 

English translation:

Day 1 with Mother Teresa 💙

Join Fr. Ignacio Amorós on this beautiful journey. “Mother Teresa's life is one of those captivating lives that marks a before and after in history."

Copy strategy: 

- Per Hallow’s messaging guidelines, I write a simple and short subject line to remind users that today starts the prayer challenge about the life of Mother Teresa. (We’ve already sent a previous email with more context inviting them to join the waitlist for this challenge).
- I use a blue heart emoji, because the color blue is associated with Mother Teresa’s image, and Hallow’s design for the challenge. 
- I mention the popular influencer who’s guiding users in this challenge: Fr. Ignacio Amorós.
- I add a captivating quote from Fr. Ignacio Amorós about Mother Teresa so users are inspired to join the challenge and learn more about her life.

I've edited and proofread +130 stories and articles in English and +200 content pieces in Spanish (the latter includes stories, blog posts, legal articles, video scripts, webinar copy, and more). I focus on enhancing quality, consistency, grammar, and punctuation while ensuring the appropriate tone and voice according to brand guidelines. 

Below is a selection of the editing and proofreading work in English I've done in collaboration with senior editors at HSLDA:

I've lived most of my life in Monterrey, Mexico, where I grew up, went to college, and fell in love with writing and editing. I'm a taco enthusiast and a proud auntie who loves soaking up sunny days with a volleyball game. I am a firm believer that an album should be listened to in its entirety. 

In my free time, you’ll find me reading music reviews, and coming up with new creations in the kitchen as I experiment with baking.