Content Writer vs. Copywriter: What Does Your Business Need?
Looking for new ways to attract your target audience and improve your marketing efforts? Finding a skilled and knowledgeable writer is an excellent first step. But it’s important to know which type of writer your company needs and the services each one provides. Specifically, when looking at the differences between a content writer vs. a copywriter, it’s important to know how each one can benefit your business. In this article, we discuss:
- What Is a Copywriter?
- What Is a Content Writer?
- Differences Between Content Writer vs. Copywriter
- Which Writer Is Better For Your Marketing?
- Does My Business Need Content Writing and Copywriting
- How To Find a Writer For Your Business
What Is a Copywriter?
Image via Unsplash by @christianhumephoto
A copywriter is a writing professional who uses their skills to advertise a company and the products or services it offers. This type of writing is commonly known as “copy,” hence the name “copywriter,” and it can come in many different forms, including:
- Print advertisements
- Social media ads
- Scripts for radio, podcasts, and television
- Website copy
- Billboards and signs
- In-store promotional materials
Really, whenever a marketing department needs new material or resources, they almost always ask for a copywriter’s help. These writing professionals can work full-time for business within their marketing departments. They can also work on a freelance, contractual basis, for as long as a company needs them. Whatever the case, copywriters are useful to businesses because they can help brainstorm concepts for advertising and research, understand a company’s target audience, and write powerful, engaging copy that attracts consumers.
What Is a Content Writer?
A content writer is a professional who focuses on entertaining and informing their target audience. That most often involves written content, such as blog posts, social media posts, email newsletters, and eBooks. This type of content helps to build a community around a business’s target audience by bringing them industry news and information. When content creates a brand community, it allows you as the business to develop powerful relationships with your audience, encouraging them to interact with your company in other ways, like making a purchase. This type of marketing strategy is most common in content marketing or inbound marketing campaigns.
To create a successful content marketing campaign, content writers often require skills in search engine optimization (SEO). SEO is a technique that helps people find a business’s content on search engines more easily. This helps those businesses generate more organic traffic to their site and potentially increase their conversion rate at the same time. SEO involves different strategies, such as targeting specific keywords and filling out metadata to better inform search engines about your content’s topic.
Differences Between Content Writer vs. Copywriter
Here is a list of some of the major differences between a content writer and a copywriter:
Purpose of Writing
Though both writers focus on developing content for a business or brand, they each serve a different purpose. Copywriters create content first and foremost to advertise and sell products. They work as a type of salesman for the company and attempt to get an immediate reaction out of their readers. Generally, the desired reaction is the purchasing of a company’s products or services.
Content writers, on the other hand, don’t just focus on making sales. Their writing can sometimes include calls-to-action, which encourage readers to interact with the brand in a specific way. But the purpose is more focused on developing relationships with the audience and building loyalty. They want to, first and foremost, deliver their audience with entertaining or useful information. Selling a product or service is a secondary goal. Content writers lay the groundwork for future sales, but don’t necessarily try to make a sale right away, like copywriters.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
As stated earlier, content writers often use SEO to increase their content’s organic traffic. They tend to focus more on SEO techniques compared to copywriters, so search engines can understand what their content is about. But that doesn’t mean copywriters ignore SEO completely. Optimizing written content for search engines is something that every marketing writer practices on some level. Though content writers might use more in-depth strategies, copywriters still need SEO to improve their website copy, product descriptions, and other content. This helps search engines know what the website and company offer and understand the hierarchy of its webpages.
Some important SEO techniques that all writers might practice include:
- Generating backlinks
- Targeting specific keywords
- Filling out metadata, like photo alt text and meta descriptions
- Improving content readability
Read more: A Beginner’s Guide to SEO
Length of Content
The length of a writer’s content can vary depending on the project or assignment they’re working on. But most often, copywriters write short-form content while content writers focus on longer pieces. That’s because copywriters do their best to highlight a product or service as quickly as possible. Very rarely does someone want to read 4000 words on the benefits of a new watch or a landscaping service. Instead, copywriters simply give readers the most important details about a product or service and try to convince them to make a purchase.
Content writers create longer pieces because they develop content their audience generally wants to spend more time with. If the writer is talking about a specific topic, such as a tutorial, their audience probably wants as much information as possible. In fact, the ideal blog post length is anywhere between 2100 and 2400 words. For example, if someone is reading an article on “how to jumpstart a car” it’s helpful to have as much detail as possible so the reader performs the task accurately and safely.
Emotional Response
Copywriters often try to elicit an emotional response from their audience. As they write about a business’s products and services they do their best to make the audience feel something. That includes fear of missing out on the product, excitement for the benefits it provides, or curiosity about what else the company offers. For example, let’s say a copywriter is mentioning a company’s current promotion. They might write about the promotion’s benefits inviting the reader to “buy now to save 20%.” This can create an emotional response in the reader to purchase more quickly so they don’t miss the opportunity.
Content writers don’t focus as much on an immediate emotional response, but emotions can still play a role in their content. That’s because content writers often use their skills to tell stories, which entice people to keep reading. For instance, some content writers might use a narrative throughout their blog or article to encourage their audience to read it from beginning to end.
The audience then reads the entire piece of content and possibly turns into a customer or loyal audience member for future blogs and articles. This can help build audience loyalty and encourage the readers to interact with the company in other ways, like signing up for a newsletter or downloading an eBook.
Strategies
The strategies each writer uses to promote a business and perform effective marketing can differ. Content writers often contribute to more of a long-term strategy that companies might not see the results of for quite some time. That’s because it can take time for a content marketing campaign to develop a relationship with its target audience. Copywriters, on the other hand, focus on getting readers to quickly make a decision.
When a copywriter creates website copy and product descriptions, they generally see the fruits of their labor shortly after. At the very least, they understand if their strategy is working or needs to be tweaked faster than a content writer.
Which Writer Is Better For a Marketing Campaign?
Deciding which writer is better for a marketing campaign definitely depends on the type of campaign you’re running and its primary goals and objectives. For any type of content or inbound marketing, it’s most helpful to have a content writer. Though copywriters know how to write effective sales copy, content writers know how to develop branded content that attracts your target audience and builds a relationship with them. However, if your main focus is sales, especially with a quick turnaround, a copywriter can help you draft sales copy that quickly entices your target consumers.
Does My Business Need Content Writing and Copywriting?
It depends on what your business is trying to accomplish. Most brands can use a copywriter in different areas of their business. That includes things like advertisements, product descriptions, and website copy. Content writers are really only necessary if your company is performing content marketing. That includes things like blog articles, newsletters, and other entertaining or informative pieces you use to attract your target audience. Also, if you have a copywriter who doesn’t have experience in SEO, it might be beneficial to hire an SEO expert or content writer to ensure your webpages are optimized for search engines.
It’s also possible that some professionals can fulfill both roles. In fact, some content writers use copywriting skills to talk about a company’s products and services within blogs, articles, and other written content. Depending on the type of marketing you’re trying to accomplish, it’s possible that you could find a writer who’s skilled in both areas to assist with your campaign.
How To Find a Writer for Your Business
Here is a list of steps to help you find a copywriter or content writer for your business and its needs:
1. Understand Your Goals
Understanding your goals can help you know exactly what you need from a writer. For instance, if you’re hoping to improve your brand awareness, it might be helpful to have a content writer who can craft blogs that attract an audience. If you’re wanting to improve your website’s bounce rate or organic traffic, it might be better to hire a copywriter who can help redo your website’s copy. To start, look at your marketing campaign, its major goals, and the resources you’ll need to accomplish them.
2. Contact Writers Directly
If you’re looking for a content writer, some websites have author bios at the end of their blogs and articles. These bios sometimes include contact information. If you like the writer’s style and tone, you can contact them directly using the bio’s information. It’s possible these writers might work as freelancers and can help with your content marketing needs. If you can’t find their contact information, consider searching for the writer online or contacting the company they wrote for to see if the writer is available for work.
3. Look at Job Boards
Job boards are websites where you can post job offers for content writers and copywriters. These job boards often accept job postings for freelance and full-time positions. You can even look through profiles of different writers and see samples of their work. This can help you find writers who best fit your business and brand. These profiles can also help you see what kind of experience the writer has and how they might benefit your marketing campaign. Some common job boards people use to find writers include:
4. Talk With a Content Marketing Company
Content marketing companies, like CopyPress, often have the knowledge and expertise to know what type of content and writers a business needs. Some even have a team of writers and editors ready and able to help with your campaign. Whether you’re just starting a content marketing campaign, or you’re looking to boost your current content strategies, CopyPress can help. We have the content writers and copywriting professionals to help with any part of your digital marketing. From well-researched articles and eBooks to attractive product descriptions, we can provide you with any service you need.
Knowing the difference between content writers and copywriters is important because each provides a different set of services and knowledge to businesses. If you’re looking for new ways to improve your marketing and outreach, finding a skilled writer to help you is an excellent first step. Schedule a free call with CopyPress today to see how our team of creatives and writing experts can attract your target audience and increase your conversion rate.
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