Content writing and copywriting are essential parts of digital marketing. While being closely connected to text creation, they are keys to engaging blog posts, selling email campaigns, and catchy marketing slogans.
So, how exactly might content writing and copywriting be defined? What are the key similarities between them? And finally, how far does content writing differ from copywriting? Let’s figure it all out together!
On a side note: Digital marketing is a complex notion that includes PPC advertising, analytics, branding, SEO, copywriting, content writing, and a wide range of other elements. Only in combination do they create a unique formula to promote a business.
What Is Content Writing?
Content writing is an essential part of digital marketing. It might be defined as the process of writing content or, in other words, creating different types of materials for marketing purposes.
Among the main materials a content writer usually deals with are:
- Blog posts;
- Guest articles;
- Email newsletters;
- Social media posts;
- White paper pieces;
- And other marketing content.
Worth knowing: A vast majority of content writers understand all the nuances of a qualitative text. Only by means of taking them into account can they achieve necessary marketing goals.
The primary purpose of content creation is to either inform, educate, or entertain a reader.
Therefore, materials created by a content writer should be original, engaging, selling, catchy, and informative. In other words, they have to attract the attention of a reader and encourage them to boost your brand loyalty.
Worth knowing: Under normal circumstances, content creation is not carried out randomly. Otherwise, it tends to follow a clearly defined content marketing strategy that pursues specific goals of a business.
What Is Copywriting?
Copywriting, in its turn, is also an important element of digital marketing. Similar to content writing, it involves the process of writing content that pursues certain marketing purposes.
The primary content that is created in the process of copywriting includes:
- PPC advertisements and landing pages;
- Social media captions;
- Product pages;
- Sales letters;
- Promotional pop-ups;
- And so on.
Worth knowing: A professional copywriter will have to “pack” much sense in a very limited amount of words. In order to do so, it is important to be well aware of how powerful a text might be.
The main aim of copywriting is to create content that will encourage a reader to take certain actions in regard to your business, for instance, buying your product, visiting your website, reading your blog, or doing anything else.
Thus, one essential requirement for materials created by a copywriter is their persuasiveness (since they are primarily used to persuade people).
Worth knowing: Similar to content writing, copywriting involves the creation of valuable content with a specific goal. In other words, both content writing and copywriting follow a specific marketing strategy.
What Are the Main Similarities Between Content Writing and Copywriting?
Sometimes it might be difficult to distinguish content writing from copywriting, mainly because of a great number of similarities between both processes, for instance:
- A close relation to marketing. Above anything else, it is essential to mention that the driving force for both content writers and copywriters is the pursuit of marketing goals. Thus, content writing and copywriting are important elements of each and every marketing type (for instance, content marketing, social media marketing, or email marketing);
Worth knowing: Unique and original texts help businesses to reach their marketing goals at exceptionally high speed. Therefore, both copywriting and content writing belong to crucial elements of each marketing strategy.
- SEO. Both copywriting and content writing employ a wide range of techniques to optimize texts in accordance with algorithms of search engines, such as Google, Bing, or Yahoo. In other words, texts created by an SEO copywriter and an SEO content writer are usually full of little tricks that help them rank high in search engine results;
- Quality. All online content (no matter whether we are talking about social media articles, blog posts, or video scripts) needs to have the highest possible quality to achieve business goals. Therefore, neither copywriting nor content writing tolerates grammar errors, the usage of information from unreliable sources, or similar issues;
Worth knowing: Believe us or not, around 75% of internet users pay attention to the quality of the content they consume. Moreover, they usually make their assumption about a brand based on the quality of the texts on a brand’s website.
- Structure. Content writing and copywriting pieces usually have a well-defined structure with a clear call to action. Interestingly enough, a nice structure of practically any text profoundly increases its readability. While personalized calls to action, in their turn, are way more effective than cliche phrases;
- Easily readable mode of writing. Even if your text is connected to complex data science, it is essential to write it in an easily readable mode. According to recent statistics, texts that are written at a third-grade reading level receive way more responses than sophisticated ones;
- And so on.
Thus, content writing and copywriting are pretty similar concepts that are closely connected to content marketing. Moreover, they tend to work in a perfect combination in order to attract potential customers, increase the revenue of a company, raise brand awareness, and, therefore, let the business grow.
What Is the Difference Between Content Writing and Copywriting?
Despite the above-mentioned similarities, copywriting and content writing have a wide range of major differences. Namely, both processes primarily differ in regard to the following:
- Purpose. First and foremost, they have different purposes. While the primary aim of content writing is to inform, educate, and entertain a reader (and, thus, create an engaged audience), copywriting aims to persuade people (and, as a result, drive sales, increase a conversion rate, or attract new followers to a business website);
Worth knowing: While content writing offers a non-commercial value of a business to a reader, copywriting primarily pursues commercial purposes.
- Length. Due to the fact that the purpose of content writing is to either educate or entertain, the average length of texts written by a content writer is longer than the ones of a copywriter. For instance, a standard blog article usually reaches about 1.500 words, while a social media post might consist of only two sentences;
Worth knowing: According to recent statistics, 8 out of 10 internet users make their first impression on a text by simply looking at its headline. Therefore, it is of vital importance to create catchy, witty, and engaging titles.
- Style. The style of copywriting and content writing is quite different, too. In other words, a copywriter usually employs different sentence structure, grammar, and punctuation than a content writer does. On top of that, the style employed by copywriting is usually strongly persuasive;
- Emotional response. Unlike content writing, copywriting aims to evoke an emotional response from a reader. The main reason for it is that a vast majority of all sales are driven by emotions. Thus, it is incredibly important for any text written by a copywriter to evoke strong feelings within a reader;
- Traffic. Copywriting and content writing generate different types of traffic. While copywriting aims to affect a very specific audience (for instance, the one with high purchasing ability), content writing usually attracts a general audience (or, in other words, generates organic traffic);
- Result. While copywriting is expected to provide a business with a short-term result (for instance, it might increase the revenue by means of generating new sales), content writing usually contributes to a long-term result (for example, it might play an important role in business growth);
- Required skills. While content writers need to have strong research skills and SEO knowledge in order to create an engaging article, copywriters have to be exceptionally creative to generate extraordinary ideas for a selling text ad.
Worth knowing: A single person (for instance, a freelance writer) might work closely with texts from the field of content writing and copywriting at the same time. In other words, he or she might create blog articles, sales letters, press releases, video scripts, and other types of texts simultaneously. However, all content writers are copywriters and vice versa.
- And so on.
Therefore, both concepts that are mentioned above are quite different. They are the two essential parts of each and every marketing strategy. At the same time, however, content writing and copywriting contribute to the success of a business in diverse ways.
A Bottom Line
All in all, content writing and copywriting are inevitable parts of marketing. They both have a powerful influence on the audience of the business and, therefore, boost it to a new level. At the same time, however, these terms have an extensive number of features that help to differentiate them from one another.
So, pay enough attention to content writing and copywriting in order to let your business grow! Remember, qualitative texts are essential preconditions of success!
