Welcome to Write Bites, an audio series where we discuss writing, marketing, and freelancing during one of my daily walks around the neighborhood.

Audio Recording

In Episode #2, I answer the question, “What is the difference between copywriting and content writing?”

 

 

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,