What’s the difference between copywriting and content writing?
This topic is frequently discussed in conceptual terms, but I rarely hear the practical differences spelled out, so in this episode, I’m going to break down the more practical things you should know about how to approach copywriting vs content writing in your work for clients or your own business.
Audio Recording: Copywriting vs. Content Writing
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Written Transcript: Copywriting vs. Content Writing
Hey guys, welcome to Write Bites, an audio series where we discuss writing, marketing and freelancing during one of my daily walks around the neighborhood.
So today, I want to talk about the difference between content writing and copywriting, and the reason I actually want to discuss it isn’t really to talk about the philosophical differences between them. I wanna talk about the practical stuff, because I see very commonly in new freelancers work – especially freelancers who are doing both copywriting and content writing – they’ll make some pretty critical mistakes in writing stuff like blog post, where they include stuff that is really more suited for copywriting, or they’ll do something within a piece of website or email copy that is really more suited for content writing.
So I just wanted to cover some of the differences through a more practical lens as opposed to just talking about the conceptual differences between the two.
So to kind of just do a quick overview of the two, copywriting is writing that we do when we want to drive immediate action. We want to get the reader to take some sort of real action. I don’t need to go through a whole lot of examples for you guys ’cause you kind of already get the context, but if I write an email where I want a click, that’s copywriting. If I write a landing page where I want someone to fill out a contact form, that’s copywriting. With copywriting, I need to be provoking action. I need to be priming the reader to for that action at all times.
When we’re talking about content, we don’t have that same goal. With content, we’re pretty much always looking to educate, entertain or answer a question. We’re really just looking to provide value. Granted, there is going to be some sort of supplemental goal related to how that piece of content fits within the content marketing campaign it’s part of.
For example, any time you’re reading a blog post on my website, I want you to subscribe. If you’re not subscribed already, my number one goal for my content is to get you to subscribe, but unlike with copywriting, I’m not designing my blog content around priming you to subscribe. My content is designed to give you the maximum amount of value, which I then hope will motivate you to subscribe, and there is a key difference there, because if you were to read one of my blog posts or any blog post for that matter, and the author is just constantly advertising to you how great it would be if you were on their email list, it’s gonna feel very forced. You’re not gonna want to take that action, because that’s not why you’re there.
You’re not reading the blog post to sign up for a new email list. You’re reading the blog posts to have a question answered or to learn something.
And so when you’re on a landing page, when you’re reading a sales email, it’s a bit different. You are engaging with that page for the purpose of the action. If at any point you decide the action is not for you, you simply click away, there’s not some sort of misleading promise keeping you there. You’re not being tricked into being on that page. If you’re continuing to read it, you clearly understand why you’re reading it, and to some extent what it’s leading you towards. Sure, maybe they’re using some sort of storytelling or something to kind of pull you in, but if you’re reading a sales page, you’re not under some false impression that you’re actually in an educational lecture or something like that.
When you’re on a blog post or when you’re engaging with some form of content, you’re there for some specific educational, entertainment or other consumer purpose, and delivering that value should be the primary goal of the content.
Okay, let’s talk specifics.
One thing I see all the time when new freelancers are doing blog content is they’ll try to force a product pitch into the blog post. This even happens with the freelancers I work with personally. It won’t be in the instructions I give them or the outline we put together collaboratively. I don’t know where the fuck they’re getting this from, but I’ll be reading through the post they did, and there will just be this random product pitch pigeon-holed into the content.
If left unedited, this would completely ruin the piece of content. If I’m reading a blog post on how to flip a house, I don’t wanna be randomly pitched some unrelated real estate software that has nothing to do with actually flipping the house. If there’s a piece of software mentioned in there that facilitates the house purchasing process or the house flipping process, that’s a whole different story, and that’s where we talk about a content technique that you can do when you’re looking to do more bottom of the funnel content stuff – where you’re really wanting to promote something but through educational content.
But I don’t wanna be pitched in something completely supplemental that’s not a direct part of the training that I’m going through. It’s a pretty big deal. You don’t wanna be looking to prime people within your content for the purpose of the sale or for the purpose of a sales-related action. The focus has to always be on delivering exactly what they came there for, and if you can’t align some sort of supplemental action with what they came for, don’t try to force it in.
So with the example I just used… say I was looking at how to flip a house, and we get to the part where it’s talking about calculating the after-sale value of the home when you’re deciding how much to offer. If it’s like, “Hey, you can use this software suite to immediately figure out what all these costs are, ’cause otherwise that’s a ton of leg work and a pain in the ass,” then that’s extra value in the direction I’m looking for, and if it just so happens that the company that owns that software is putting together that guide, obviously that’s a super good fit. I’m not gonna mind because they are not distracting me away from the value I came to them for. It’s not forced advertising. It’s part of the value that’s being provided.
So that’s kind of the practical end of not pigeon-holding a copywriting strategy into your content, and then on the flip side, we need to talk about when you are writing copy. What I see people do here is they will spend a bunch of time explaining stuff that didn’t really matter to the reader, and you see this all the time, particularly when business owners try to write their own copy, but you also see it come from newer freelancers as well, who are kind of going off of the emphasis that they get from the client, where there’s just all this extra time spent explaining some random story about the company or what they do, or this and that… stuff that really has nothing to do with priming the reader to take the action. If anything, it sort of distracts the reader from taking the action.
One thing that I think a lot of people don’t realize is that most people charge a lot more money, especially per word, for copywriting than they do for content writing, and the reason for this is copywriting needs to be a lot tighter. It needs to be a lot more intentional. If I have a landing page, every single word, every single line on that landing page is really important. I can’t afford to take tangents. I can’t afford to say more than I need to say. I can’t afford to say less than I need to say.
When writing content and seeking to providing value, you can take tangents. You can go off in different directions. You can have additional information that’s just interesting – anything that you think might enhance the value or the instruction to the reader is usually great. People are happy to have that included in some ways. In some cases, it adds value.
But with copywriting, every piece needs to be super intentional and working towards priming them to take that action, and so you can’t get into that content writing mode of just expounding on things or including a lot of un-strategic repetition where you’re kinda just waxing long-winded as I tend to do in all of my content (but it’s not as big of a problem since it’s in my content, not my copy).
So essentially, when you’re writing copy, everything needs to be focused on priming the reader to take action.
When you’re writing content, everything needs to be focused on delivering the value that the reader was looking for when they navigated to your content.
So anyway, again, I hope that answered more questions than it created. I probably took a little longer to say that than was needed, but hey, that’s what I do.
Share Your Thoughts
I hope this was helpful, and I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic in the comments below.
Plus, if you have a question you want answered on a future Write Bites episode, ask in the comments, and I’ll add it to the schedule.
