Copywriting Vs Content Writing- The Actual Difference

woman writing

I bet most of the people haven’t heard of copywriting. But if you have googled through my blog, then you surely are an exception to this. Most of the people often interchangeably use this term. But they are entirely different from each other in intent and writing techniques. While one of them is persuasive writing, the other is written for descriptive purposes. For example, copywriting is more like trying to sell a wallet, while content writing is describing the features of the wallet. We will have a look at both of them in detail below.

1. Introduction to copywriting and content writing

As I have mentioned above, copywriting is a form of persuasive writing. People say the best kind of marketing is to do no marketing at all. You cannot make people feel that you are selling products. Copywriting articulately persuades people to buy happiness and emotions. They do not talk about products. They focus on the pain point of people and precisely target them to explain why they should be buying their products. Copywriting is moreover, like understanding human psychology.

Content writing

Content writing, on the contrary, doesn’t have anything to do with pain points and human psychology. It focuses more on detailing the products and their features. Content writing doesn’t use any persuasive tones. It is more focused on providing information to the customer. The content is often lengthy and broad. Content writing is the art to represent a brand voice. Though not persuasive, content writing still focuses on attracting potential customers.

2. Which one should you use for your business?

Now it depends on the purpose. Go with copywriting if you are posting an advertisement for your products. The advertorial nature of copywriting can best fit in when you target to attract customers to take action immediately. Hire a copywriter if you have to publish marketing materials. The materials can include any kinds of online and offline ads. Not just ads, but copywriting can be beneficially used to write web page content. Also, copywriting done in the email is a potent combination to converge leads. Likewise, you can use the skills of copywriting if you are preparing promotional scripts for televisions and radios.
Copywriting is proven superheroes when it comes to writing slogans and taglines. You can even wisely use it to write video scripts and press releases. The manipulative strength of copywriting is very high. It makes a huge difference when you do Copywrite for catalogs and billboards. Similarly, you can bring the best leads in your business very effectively if you do proper content writing, focusing on SEO. You can write copies for brochures and postcards, sales letters, and social media. Writing texts is a very intellectual thing. The copywriter can precisely fit into the customer’s mind, find out what exactly he is looking for. It is a highly skill-oriented task, and no wonder why copywriters are in high demand these days.
Similarly, go with content writing if you are explaining your products in detail. Content writing has been a trendy job because of its high demand. Hire content writers for your business if you have a motive for writing articles and blogs. These tasks need particular writing jobs. Content writing can be done in newspaper pieces and magazine features as well. Copywriting is also used to write email newsletters. The skills of content writing are critical in writing E-books and print magazines. You can use copywriting skills if you need any of these above tasks done.
Although copywriting and content writing seem to have different purposes, both of them target lead attraction. Using the combination of both of them in the right places and the right time can be the most powerful technique. They are incomplete without each other.

3. What is the difference in writing style?

Copywriting and content writing differ not only in the purpose but also in writing techniques. Copywriters write copies while content writers write content. Though both of them are writing techniques, writing a copy and content vary in their style. Let’s look at both of them.

Writing a copy involves using compelling sentences and headlines. It includes CTA to prompt users to take the intended action. The action may consist of anything like sharing, commenting, providing reviews or buying products, and many more. The languages used are concise and to the point yet highly compelling. It targets the emotions of people, their pain points, and exact solutions. It’s more like hitting the center of the target. The sentence structures are readable in a single breath. Also, there is no restriction to use grammatically perfect language. Anything that triggers your customer to take action is acceptable while writing copies.

While writing copies, you are supposed to avoid walls of text. User readability and user experience are kept a high priority. Another thing copywriting includes is focus points. The top priority sentences are highlighted using an exclamation(!) mark, writing them in bold, or underline them. Using the perfect emoticons is also considered best practice in copywriting to convey proper emotions. The language should be straightforward, not beating around the bush. Writing copies is all about giving your customers emotional excitement with logical satisfaction.

Writing content differs with writing copies in almost all the above techniques. Content writing usually is not too straightforward. A topic is explained in as much detail as possible. Often copywriting has higher word counts than copywriting. The language should be grammatically correct. No persuasive nature is fed into writing. The content doesn’t focus on short term action and return values. It targets long term goals and a broader set of audiences. Writing tone is almost silent, unlike the surges of excitement provided by copywriting. It should be written in detail, answering all the curiosities a customer can have regarding a particular topic or product. The writing is focused on creating a productive engagement over time. It should focus on building trust in the long run. Content writing can start with an impressive background and can revolve around topics related to it as well. It has nothing to do with audience psychology. The sentences are written in formal or informal tones. Mostly the sentences focus on passing information to the audiences.

The following are the differences I have listed in detail.

4. Which one is paid higher?

It depends. Both copywriting and content writing are high demanding jobs. Since the digitization of every single business has started, the companies are tirelessly seeking skilled copywriters and content writers. Both of these jobs are paid high in their respective industries. But to get paid more, you need to find a company worth your skills. An advertisement company will pay a copywriter more than a content writer.

Similarly, a blogging agency will pay content writers more than a copywriter. It all depends on where you choose to show your skill sets. The earning structure also depends on how experienced you and the quality you can provide to the company.

According to the aggregated data from Payscale, the average salary of a copywriting job is $51,433. But it can range anywhere between $36k to $74k depending upon the location, experience, and quality of work you provide.

average copywriter salary

Accordingly, the average salary of a content writing job is $45,731. But this can vary anywhere between $32k to $71k depending upon various factors like location, experience, and work quality.

average content writing salary

Since content is the king, you should produce contentful videos. No one will return to your channel once they find out you post very generic and not the useful content they are looking for. So, I recommend you to follow these masterpieces to produce excellent quality content:

average content writer salary

5. Content writing jobs and copywriting jobs

If you are a copywriter or a content writer, you can have three career branches. First, you can work in an agency, the second in-house, and the third is working as a freelancer. You can look for jobs in Glassdoor. You can also make your profile in Upwork and Fiverr if you want to work as a freelancer. There you will be able to set your salary range according to your skill sets and experiences. Working as a freelancer has its benefits. You can be your boss.
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