Copywriting vs content writing – meaning, differences, 8 examples and uses

Copywriting vs content writing – meaning, differences, 8 examples and uses

As old as the ageing process itself, there has been a rather cancerous outgrowth of mind-disturbing questions concerning the difference between the terms “copywriting” and “content Writing” they basically sound the same and can easily be misinterpreted and misplaced from each other and as so there is an ever-existing possibility that they are the same thing just spelt differently, right?

Wrong! There is a significant difference between both which would require exclusively trained writers in that aspect to create either of them. See it as classifying a banana and a strawberry, both are berries but are they similar in texture, size, structure, and colour, do they produce similar outputs? of course, your response to the aforesaid questions would denote negativity this should be likened to the content vs. copywriting forensics.

As a young writer that is still prone to change and development, it would be incredibly beneficial to understand the differences between the two, independently they present peculiar series of challenges to help breed a world-class writer and imbibe the fundamentals of marketing that pushes sales.

So with that, it would only be in place if we begin with the definition,

What do you mean by content writing and copywriting?

Content writing involves the process of planning, writing and, editing web content, typically for digital marketing purposes. It includes writing blog posts, articles scripts for video making and podcasts, as well as content for specific platforms, the likes of tweetstorms found on micro-blogging networks like Twitter, Reddit, and Facebook, etc.,

While copywriting is the lettering down of texts for the purpose of advertising advanced marketing through the cyber link. To achieve such there must be a copy or a sales copy, this is the element that contains a persuader that is expected to enhance brand awareness and poke a consistent urge of a person or a group to take a particular action.

A copywriter should be some kind of a sly wordsmith who employs the use of persuasive content CTA’s to compel customers to purchase a product, subscribe to a service, and submit vital information for follow-ups such as an email address. While addressing the reasons for his finesse the titanic business advertising maestro David Ogilvy said “when I write an ad, I don’t want you to tell me that you find it ‘creative’. I want you to find it so interesting that you buy the product

Some examples of content writing

•   White papers
•   Term papers
• E-books
• Tutorials
•   News articles
•   Case studies
•   Research theories
• Social media blog posts
• Blog posts.

Examples of copywriting

•   PPC ads.
•   Products pages.
•   Sales email.
•   Short message service.
•   Website sale copy.
•   PPC landing pages
•   Cost per mille ads
•   Social media ads.

Are you clear on this?

Note: Contents are the physical details or information inscribed under a topic or a subject.

With that said the first and most notable distinction present between the former and the latter lies in their purpose, copywriting involves you selling your identity on your brand, and content writing is informing readers about it while giving appreciated content.

Using that as merely an amuse-bouche below are crucial differences existing between copywriting and content creation.

• Copywriting is designed to sell, content writing is programmed to inform.

Copy is created on the primary basis of selling an idea or brand, the best-written form of a sales copy is one that merges the product ad and the idea together and then sells it to the audience this way they ingrain the concept in the mind of their audience by pitching customers to use their brand. By doing so, their customers would ineluctably crawl back whenever they are in need of that specific product.

Content writing creates pieces with a scratching need to inform, educate, and entertain readers in its respective niche, e.g. “stroke: causes, types and risk factors-see ways to prevent it”, or Symptoms of Stroke -Types of stroke and 9 preventive measure and for that to happen the content must be created with a clear purpose with it; branding the voice of the product to be heard, it needs to have a good read. In essence, copywriting wants you to buy the product they are elaborating on, while content writing wants to inform you about their products, and for that, they can adopt the use of stories and references to pass a point.

• Length: Content vs. Copy

As a result of the purpose a content exist to serve, it resolves to go to extreme lengths to educate and entertain readers, an individual can be easily convinced with a single line, but it would take only a light header easily impressed person to source entertainment and knowledge from a one-liner without wanting to go deeper into the rabbit hole.

Given the topic provided to elaborate upon, content can stretch from 500 words to 3,500 and beyond, no doubt short content does exist and is indeed being utilized that’s if memes are being included. A rather brief content originally would be discounted upon sight basically because of the preconceived notion that it would hold little value and be plagued with little or no information to give out.

A sales copy, on the other hand, can’t necessarily exceed the borderline that summarizes the end of a spreadsheet and it most certainly doesn’t exceed a 500-word count due to its straightforward and somewhat creative nature.

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Irrespective of how it is created and which party does the creation, every write-up/piece wanting to gain visibility on whichever platform must have a broad knowledge of how to utilize SEO. In this aspect it is most needed for content writing than copywriting, a website earns higher search rankings and more traffic when the contents in it have hit major pressure points.

Content writing is of undeserving benefits for SEO than copywriting because of its fine-tuned nature that is seamed to provide entertainment and educative resources to its readers plus the structure is not centered on any other ulterior motives and zero commercial intent. Also, the length produced from content writing ranks for more keyboard words, this  attracts more views and occasionally results in more backlinks

• Heading

In content writing headings are presented as somewhat creative and enticing which stimulates a reader to engage the content e.g. “reasons why you might end up blind, number 4 would wow you, The Buhari administration initiates Twitter ban see a possible reason why. This case differs in copywriting; the headlines are always serious and straightforward.

There is an extremely vague line that differs content writing from copywriting, if the above hasn’t done as much as hinted on the possible difference then go home with this: content writing is done when you write articles for blogs and websites, copywriting is done when you create ads and pieces of sponsored text content.

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