Copywriting vs Content Writing: How to Win with Both

If you had to decide where to invest your time or money, copywriting vs content writing, which do you think would help your business most?

Copywriting vs. content writing aren't at odds but are instead a team working together to grow your business. Copywriting is persuasion and conversion focused. Its typical goal is to make a sale. Content writing is content marketing. It attracts and engages potential customers through useful and informative content. Its typical goal is lead generation.

These are very much different skills that deliver different but important value to your business.

In this article, we'll look at their differences and similarities. As well as which of the two is most profitable, how to use both, and how to get started. 

What's the difference between copywriting and content writing?

Let's start out by stating that they represent different types of writing.

They both depend on presenting factual information. But the differences between copywriting and content writing lie in their goals and how they go about accomplishing them.

Copywriting

Copywriting is the content you produce intended to persuade your audience to take an action.

When discussing a product or service, the focus of the content may be on the benefits, speaking to the emotional buying part of the brain.

Think of it as the content at the bottom of the sales funnel intended to convince an already warm prospect to take a desired action.

It is results-oriented, seen in content like:

• Site homepage

• sales emails

• landing pages

• brochures

• website pop-ups

• re-targeting ads

Content Writing

Content writing, however, is not so much focused on persuasion or the conversion rate. A content writer wants to resonate with an audience and offer them value.

The goal of content writing is to produce valuable content that answers questions and builds an audience (ideally through organic traffic).

While a copywriter may choose to focus on the benefits of a product or service, a content writer can deep dive into the features. Satisfying the logical part of the prospect's brain.

This is typically the top of the funnel content marketing that attracts and informs to build awareness and customer engagement.

You'll see this with:

• search engine optimization focused blog posts

• news articles

• white papers

• email newsletters

• social media posts

What are the similarities between copywriting and content writing?

Copywriting and content writing do have some similarities.

They both need a writing style that attracts and engages readers and they both need to be informative, grounded in facts.

Many times, content will benefit from including both forms of writing.

Informational blog articles, email campaigns, and video scripts should include copywriting techniques.

Titles

One of the most important parts of the content creation process is crafting the title.

Whether it's an article, YouTube video, or email, you'll want the highest number of people to click on it.

With so many options for people to choose from, this is where copywriting skills come into play.

Crafting an engaging title and attracting a click is the first conversion and 'gets you in the door'.

Introductions

In the introduction section, it's important to hook the audience ASAP.

One simple way to do this is to use the pain-agitate-solve (PAS) copywriting technique.

This is where you draw your audience in by identifying a problem they're familiar with, that your content will tackle. Next, you'll agitate the problem by presenting a worst-case scenario the audience wants to avoid. Then you can summarize the solution, which is the focus of your content.

Conclusions

All content, including informational content, should include some kind of call-to-action (CTA).

Your CTAs are usually in the conclusion. But it can also be good to include something in the middle or even in an exit pop-up to reach the most people.

This can be something like inviting the audience to check out another piece of your related long-form content - ideally further down the sales funnel.

Or to invite them to subscribe or provide their email for your newsletter, relevant deal, or lead generating piece of content.

Which is more profitable copywriting or content writing?

On face-value copywriting is more profitable than content writing. Copywriters can create content for any company or product. They can also write promotional materials for marketing campaigns in any format.

Content writers focus on long-form web copy, blog posts, social media updates, and other similar types of content for their top of funnel needs.

The ROI of content writing is more difficult to track. Your audience will probably consume many pieces of content before they convert. This content is very important as it increases your brand visibility on social media and search engines.

In Marketing Made Simple, Donald Miller says that for most products, customers need to experience around 8 touch points with a brand before they buy.

That's where the informational content plays a key role. It plants a seed in your potential customer's mind that you're an expert and can help.

Your content continues to nurture that idea until your copywriting focused content helps the seed blossom into revenue for your business.

Another important thing to keep in mind about informational content is that it helps generate links.

If you create a helpful and informative piece of content that other sites in your industry want to reference and link to, then the power of your site will increase with each link.

This can be very difficult to do with a site primarily made up of sales-focused pages. It's unlikely other sites will derive enough value to send you many links.

With informational content generating links, you can then use internal linking to spread value to your sales pages.

In short, on face-value, your sales pages may show a greater ROI than your typical blog post, but they're best used in unison.

How can a beginner start copywriting?

In this article, we've mostly covered copywriting vs. content writing for all intents and purposes of a business owner. But say you're interested in tackling the issue yourself.

There are many ways to start copywriting. One of the easiest ways to get started is to practice as an SEO content writer.

This will help you workout your writing muscles while also letting you track what content performs well and what doesn't.

This process will help you understand your audience better, through real-world insights. And the practice of content writing will familiarize you with marketing strategy.

The skills you develop during this process will pay off. Effective copywriting requires you to know what messages your target audience will respond well to.

There are also great books out there to help along the way on your journey. Some of the best I've come across are:

• The Art of Plain Talk - Rudolf Flesch
• Influence - Robert Cialdini
• Web Copy that Sells - Maria Veloso
• Confessions of an Advertising Man - David Ogilvy
• Advertising Secrets of the Written Word (also called The Adweek Copywriting Handbook) - Joseph Sugarman
• The Boron Letters - Gary Halbert

What are the key skills effective copywriters share?

• Strong writing skills: This is a given. It is vital for a copywriter to have strong writing skills.
• Your copy needs to be written in a way that is easily digestible for people who may not have much time on their hands. This requires short, punchy sentences that show clarity of thought.
• Strong writing skills will also shine through in a writer's ability to present ideas in a palatable way.

• Research skills: To make the desired conversion, a copywriter must have a deep understanding of the product or service.
• The same goes for their prospective customers. You need to make sure you are writing to the needs of your target customer or audience.
• If you understand who your target customers are, it will be easier for you to make them feel something, by using their language and style.

• Communication skills: Your copy must communicate an offer using the same language and style your prospects are used to.
• This way, you avoid any potential misunderstandings or confusion.
• Your content needs to have a clear idea about what it wants the reader's emotion to be.
• Whether it is excitement, anger or any other emotion - your content has to give them a feeling in order for people to engage with it.

Can a copywriter become a content writer?

Absolutely. The more difficult question to answer is whether a content writer can become a copywriter.

For content writing, an adequate writing ability is essential. Effective copywriting, though, requires additional skills in persuasion and sales.

These are much more difficult to come by and not always compatible with personality or writing styles.

To reiterate my two cents above, you can upgrade your skills slowly but surely through effective content writing until you level up the ranks to become an effective copywriter.

Conclusion

The beautiful thing about combining content writing and copywriting is that it can turn traffic into sales.

Your content draws your audience in and woos them over until your copy goes in for the kiss. 

Neglect either and you may find yourself alone on Valentine's day.

Or you can let 8-Bit Content take care of your needs and help you reach your business goals with relative ease.

And check out our head-to-head of marketing vs business development!