Content is what drives a digital marketing campaign.
We know that the roles of copywriters and content writers are important for crafting impactful content that resonates with your audiences.
But what exactly is the difference between copywriting and content writing?
We’ll explain.
In this article, we’ll discuss the difference between the two roles so you can decide which one do you need for your content writing.
What Is Copywriting?
Copywriting, sometimes referred to as marketing writing, is copy written to market a product or service.
The primary goal of copywriting is to raise awareness of a brand and inspire or persuade the audience to take an action. This action can be to purchase your product, hire your services or call your business to set up a consultation.
Basically, copywriting aims to drive conversion rates. After reading a piece of copy, the reader should feel compelled to take an action towards conversion.
Copywriters write copy for:
- Product pages
- Email campaigns
- Landing pages
- Advertisements (including pay-per-click ads and social media ads)
- Sales emails
- Press releases
- Social media posts
- Taglines
- Brochures
Copy is typically short-form compared to content writing. When creating copy, a copywriter must adhere to the brand tone and voice as well as style.
What is Content Writing?
Content writing refers to the production of written content that aims to inform, educate or instruct audiences.
Content writers create content according to the specific goals of a content marketing campaign and their objective is to attract more website traffic by applying search engine optimization (SEO) best practices.
Content writing is typically long-form. Content writers conduct in-depth research on a topic in order to provide information that helps audiences understand a problem, help solve their problems, and build trust.
Content writers write content for:
- Blog posts
- How-to guides
- E-books
- Email newsletters
- Newspaper articles
- Webpages
- White papers
Copywriting vs. Content Writing: Key Differences
While copywriting aims to advertise a product, brand or service, and drive conversion rates, content writing helps build trust with your target audiences, helps establish a connection with readers, and increase domain authority.
The key differences between copywriting and content writing are:
- Purpose
The main difference between copywriting and content writing is purpose. As mentioned earlier, copywriting is crafted to persuade the reader to do something while content writing is created to inform, educate, and engage readers.
However, this is not to say that content writing is not concerned with selling. On the contrary, it lays the foundation for future sales by building trust with audiences, which is impacts consumers’ buying decisions.
- Length
Copywriting and content writing differ when it comes to length as well. While copy is typically shorter, especially for online and offline ads, content writing is usually long-form, such as blog posts, white papers, and how-to guides.
- Emotional Response
Copywriting and content writing are designed to invoke different emotional responses. The main goal of copywriting is to invoke a certain emotion that compels the user to complete an action.
One of the frequently used techniques is to invoke the fear of missing out (FOMO). For example, when a limited series product is launched or a a brand announces a sale, consumers often feel compelled to buy a product so they don’t miss out on the opportunity.
Content writing is more focused on forming relationships with readers, building trust, increasing brand authority, and driving more traffic to the website.
So to sum up, copywriting or marketing writing is writing in order to promote or sell a product. Content writing, on the other hand, is writing that aims to inform and engage readers as well as bring in more traffic and eventually increase rankings in search engine results.
Need Help Marketing Your Product or Building Trust with Your Audiences?
If you run a business selling a product or service, you need to promote that product and attract potential buyers.
To achieve that, you need a solid content marketing strategy to attract and engage audiences as well as to promote the benefits of your products and inspire them to make a purchase.
You can use either the services of a copywriter or content writer to get you closer to your goal, but ideally, you should use both.
If you are new to the world of copywriting and content writing and don’t have the time to invest in learning how to do it, contact us to help you make the right decision for your business.
LeadIn Media is a digital marketing agency in helping you drive more sales and increase revenue, and everything starts with high-quality content.
