Content Marketing vs Copywriting

Content Marketing vs Copywriting: What Are the Major distinctions?

With so many terms thrown around in the world of SEO, the two used the most to refer to the same thing is copywriting and content marketing. And yet, when compared, these are two completely different fields and while they do have a lot in common, they are separate entities.

Copywriting and content marketing both form a part of content creation, which is a vital component of all types of advertising. In fact, you can’t do advertising unless you have content, both the visual kind and those swanking, converting written words.

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What is the Difference Between Content Marketing and Copywriting?

Copywriting is something that has evolved over the years. It rose to prominence during the 50s when advertising as we know it really took off, and it consists of the creation of content, normally written content, with the primary goal being customer conversions. Conversions would traditionally be sales, but these days they can also be encouraging someone to subscribe to an email list or motivating the reader to give the company a call. An example of copywriting is the web content you see on any website or that wording used on a direct advert.

Content Marketing involves the creation and the circulation of material, but instead of the goal being to convert, the aim is to generate interest in the brand and to basically promote the brand through the content. Generally, the content that is distributed is done so freely, and it is often a technique that involves far more than just the written word. An example of content marketing is just about any form of social media advertising or blog.

As you can probably tell, there is an extremely fine line between copywriting and content marketing. So fine a line that you have probably already guessed that these two techniques work well together and can actually hugely benefit one another when combined.

All Content Needs Copywriting

Copywriting, although you might think otherwise, is a precise and creative craft. The writer not only needs to have a finesse with the way they use their wording, but they also need to understand the tone and personality of the client while also having some knowledge about the kinds of people they want to target with the ad and ultimately convert.
Naturally, you can convert those viewing the ad and also promote the company at the same time, but only if you know what you are doing.

With so many millions, if not billions of words hitting the internet every day, there has never been a more competitive time in advertising. While some will feel that just churning out the same old content, in the same old style, is the way forward, since both the reader and the industry is constantly on the move, how both copywriting and content marketing are approached needs to keep up with the times. It also needs to change and evolve.

Dull content goes nowhere. People have seen just about every trick in the advertising book, so you need to bring your A game and unleash your creative juices, your passion for what you do, and your expert knowledge, something that will give you the edge, if you want to have a winning strategy.

Beefing Up Copy

If you are creating stacks of content each day and you are not thinking about the copy involved, you are sorely missing out. The same can be said if you are creating copy but you have no idea why it isn’t doing what every expert on the web says it should do,. There are some things that you can change to salvage your content and ensure that the next pieces you write work as they are intended to.

When you are looking to improve your content, here are some tips:

• The headline shouldn’t be too clever, too funny or too dull. It’s a balancing act.
• The content should provide an actual benefit to the reader. Like with this blog, we hope you are benefitting by learning something about creating content that you might not have known before.
• The content should be able to build some sort of trust.
• The content lacks a call to action. Sometimes readers need a little encouragement to make the next move.

Leveraging your Content

Copywriting very rarely works without the assistance of good content marketing. That’s because content marketing is the packaging in which copy is delivered. Words alone might sound fancy, but they are not really giving the content much visual aid, and often it is the full content marketing package that will create the conversion and successfully promote the brand.

To give your copywriting a good kick off, make sure that it is purposeful and worth the read, ensure that it is actually a pleasure to read, and also put in the effort to write for those who you want to reach as opposed to writing just for a search engine.

You can also try to add something interesting, such as images (but avoid stock photos, who wants to see the same images they see on every other website? Make your website unique and take your own photos), and use an easy to read, eye catching font. The use of video is also something very popular these days.

It pays to put in a lot of extra effort to spruce up whatever you decide to put online.

Copywriting and Content Marketing are separate entities that will work best when you put them together. When used as a combination, the effect will be powerful and it will help whatever marketing you are working with.

You can’t do any type of online advertising without your content marketing techniques or your copy. By making sure that both are unique, creative and interesting enough to draw the attention of the clients you are hoping to reach, you can expect that within time, and with a very good outreach strategy, the content will promote your business and lead to conversions.

When it comes to the creation of content, you can hire a copywriter to do the work for you or you can immerse yourself into the world of words and visuals, and take the reins of the voice of your brand.

If you found this article interesting, you might also like, how to streamline your SEO process,  as well as, reasons to outsource your SEO in 2022.