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You’ve got a blog, but are you writing the right kind of posts? According to HubSpot, 53 percent of marketers say that blogging is their top content marketing priority, and sites with blogs see a 434 percent better chance of being well ranked on search engines. But how do you know the type of wordsmithing you need for the greatest impact?
Once upon a time, a copywriter was the go-to when it came to any and all marketing copy. Today, however, a quality content writer can be worth their weight in gold. How are copywriting and content writing different? Which is best for your blog? Those answers and more await you below!
Copywriting
Some of the most well-known marketing campaigns in the world came out of the talented minds of creative copywriters. Copywriting is focused primarily on a direct, short-term goal with big returns: generating sales. So copywriting is usually the focus of ads, sales letters, sales emails, PPC landing pages, and more. A copywriter is the type of wordsmith who can craft compelling headlines and CTAs to prompt consumers to purchase a product, subscribe to a service, schedule a tour, or submit vital information for follow-up, such as an email address.
David Oglivy, the famous advertising tycoon, said it best—before he could have even predicted the rise of blogs and the digital space: “When I write an advertisement, 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.”
Copywriting is more straightforward than content writing and uses persuasive, emotional language to appeal to the consumer so they take immediate action. It may be a tall order, but copywriting can make or break a business. As famed direct-mail copywriter Eugene Schwartz said when describing the task of copywriting, “Tap a single overwhelming desire existing in the hearts of thousands of people who are actively seeking to satisfy it at this very moment.”
Content Writing
Content writing, on the other hand, is focused on creating productive engagement with your audience so—over time—they’ll come to trust your brand and be interested in your product or service. Content writing includes blog posts, social media posts, emails, white papers, e-books, and other savvy materials that educate, entertain, and inform your audience about a given topic. The best content writers are so stealth at storytelling that they can write dozens of posts for your blog without even mentioning your brand and still manage to attract and convert prospects.
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The power of this type of prose is that it has the power to eventually turn leads into prospects, prospects into customers, and customers into repeat buyers. In fact, according to HubSpot, B2B marketers have actually found blogging to be more time- and cost-effective than traditional lead generation methods. Additionally, content writing has the chops to position your brand as an authority on a topic and grant your company credibility as the foremost leader on a subject.
The best part about this type of content? It’s free for your readers, so your content writer needs to have a firm handle on SEO to make sure people are actually finding and reading your content.
Which to Use
So, if you’re following, copywriting is content, but content is not necessarily copywriting. Where content writing is informative and creative and meant to be shared, copywriting is direct and focused on a sales-generating end-game.
Your blog should strive to have the best of both worlds: valuable, informative, and authoritative content wrapped up with a clear CTA. As the pros behind Copyblogger have famously said, “Copywriting without content is a waste of good copy,” and “content without copywriting is a waste of good content.”